Important Notification

This one came to me courtesy of CIBC, which, strangely enough uses accountservice@th.com.py as its email address. Maybe they outsource their customer service to Paraguay. Or... maybe... it's a scam! Nah, gotta be the first one. The link used to lead to a site in Turkey, which is good, because it means the CIBC is doing well internationally.

Dear valued client,
Due to some security issues and to prevent unauthorized usage,
we decided to temporarily suspend your online account.
Click on the link below and fill the information required to
activate your account:
Activate your account
Thank you,
Mr. William Rolls,
Security Executive.

The English in this one is pretty good, so it might actually catch a few people. I never did get around to activating my account. Mostly because I don't have one.

STOP CONTACTING THOSE PEOPLE

Today's spam message is a new take on the standard Nigerian email scam and comes to us courtesy of Mrs Connie Dutton at ConnieDutton@aol.com:

Attn: My Dear,

I am Mrs Connie Dutton, I am a US citizen, 51 years Old. I reside here in Silver Springs Florida. My residential address is as follows. 7008 E Hwy 326 Silver Springs FLorida 34488, United States, am thinking of relocating since I am now rich. I am one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over US$20,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, And I was directed to meet Barrister George Alex, who is the member of COMPENSATION AWARD COMMITTEE, and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails are fake.

He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment. Right now I am the most happiest woman on earth because I have received my compensation funds of $1,500,000.00 Moreover, Barrister George Alex, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your email address as one of the beneficiaries, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund, they are only making money out of you. I will advise you to contact Barrister George Alex.

You have to contact him directly on this information below.

COMPENSATION AWARD HOUSE
Name : Barrister George Alex(Esq)
Email: barristergeorgealex@yahoo.cn

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money I paid after I met Barrister George Alex was just US$270 for the paper works, take note of that.

As soon as you contact him he will send you the payment information which you are to use in sending the payment to him in order for him to obtain the document from the court of law there in Nigeria so that your fund can be transfer to you without any delay just the way mine was being transfer to me.

Send him the following details if you know you are ready to have your FUNDS so that as soon as he receive your information he will send to you the payment details for sending him the $270USD that is needed for him to get the document that is needed to make the transfer a successful one and that is that only payment i made to Barrister George Alex and he help me in the transfering of my FUNDS and i most say that you have to countact him so that he will help you the way he help me to Get my FUNDS without any further payment.

Fill Out the information to him if you are ready to get your FUNDS

Your Full Name:...............
Direct Phone:....................
Country.................
Occupation:.....................
Gender:.........
Age:..............


Once again stop contacting those people, I will advise you to contact Barrister George Alex so that he can help you to Deliver your fund instead of dealing with those liars that will be turning you around asking for different kind of money to complete your transaction.

Thank You and Be Blessed.

Mrs Connie Dutton.
7008 E Hwy 326 Silver Springs
FLorida 34488, United States

Geez, that's a long one. Now there are a couple of things I need to mention about it. First, the address does seem to exist. I do hope the occupants aren't negatively impacted in any way by this scam.

Second, I like this new take on the old scam. Rather than just saying you've won the Nigerian National Lottery or something like that, it tries to take advantage of the fact that many people have been fooled by those scams in the past by saying that this is the really real, actual, super not fake way to get compensation. And all for the low, low price of only $270USD. How can you beat that?

Third, and perhaps most importantly: What do you mean "those people"?

Finally, it was sweet of her to call me "My Dear".

Sexy woman

This message comes to me courtesy of Irina at noreply@ahzkajgkfhkcefcc.matchdating.tk:

Hello, my name is Irina. I have a great desire to find a mate and soul mate. I am 29 years old. I hope that age difference is not a problem for our communication. I am gentle and affectionate girl. I want to find a permanent mate. For this, I have all the features. I like to create comfort me nice when the house is beautiful and clean. I think that serious relationship is a responsibility. But just as they are full of romance and feelings. Our dreams are the same? Here is my email zemulyashka@yahoo.com , so I can send you my pictures. I hope. we bridge the friendship.

There's absolutely nothing about this message that would fool anyone. The grammar is poor, she gives out her email address so she can send out pictures, and the source of the message is a website registered in Tokelau. Beyond that, by coincidence, I'm also 29, so her worries about our age difference seem a bit strange. Or they would, if she were a real person.

Sad News.....................Roger Thompson.

This type of message has been going around for decades, long before boner pills were even invented. They serve two purposes. The first is evident: To scam money out of the people who receive it. In this case, it came from the fairly generic Roger Thompson who somehow managed to score the rogerthompson@rogers.com email address. I don't personally know anyone out there named Roger Thompson, but many people might.

The second purpose is slightly less well-known: It helps spammers find out which email addresses are still active. There are millions of addresses out there whose owners have stopped using them for whatever reason, and they are therefore of no use to spammers. Any response to this message, whether a quick 'Fuck you' or an 'Oh my, Roger, that's terrible. How can I help?' shows the spammers that the email address is still in use. So, regardless of your desire to tell these people where to stick it, you should really just ignore the message as you would one that's offering you 80% off Levitra.

This particular email is relatively well-crafted, however it's clear that it's both a scam and written by someone for whom English is a second language. The slight sense of urgency it engenders might cause some people to respond without thinking; mainly the elderly, unfortunately, but not exclusively.

Hello,

I am sorry for reaching you rather too late due to the situation of things right now.My family and I had a trip visiting Manila Philippines,everything was going on fine until last night when we got attacked by some unknown gunmen. All our money,phones and credit cards was stolen away including some valuable items, It was a terrible experience but the good thing is that they didn't hurt anyone or made away with our passports.

We have reported the incident to the local authorities and the consulate but their response was too casual, we were ask to come back in 2 weeks time for investigations to be made proper,But the truth is we can't wait till then as we have just got our return flight booked and is leaving in few hours from now but presently having problems sorting out our bills here and also getting a cab down to the airport,Right now we're financially strapped due to the unexpected robbery attack, Wondering if you can help us with a quick loan to sort out our bills and get back home.All we need is (3,100 USD), I promise to refund you in full as soon as I return hopefully tomorrow or next. write back now to let me know what you can do.

Thank You.
Roger.