Sophos Cloud Optix
One of the researchers in SophosLabs waltzed up to my desk the other day and said:
"Would you like to see the latest 419 scam?"
“Sure!” I replied, and out of his back pocket he plucked an envelope and a neatly printed letter.
Yep, it’s a 419 scam via snail mail – sent via the postal service to land on your doormat rather than emailed into your inbox.
The gentleman who contacted my colleague calls himself Tim Wu, and claims to be a private investment manager based in Hong Kong.
It seems that a former client of his (who had the first name “Anderson” and came to a sticky end in a hiking accident in mainland China) didn’t leave a will, and because there is no next of kin some of his $21 million fortune could be coming to my colleague here at Sophos instead!
Speaking as someone who is still waiting for the three million euros that Bill Gates awarded me earlier this year, I have to admit to some skepticism.
Tim Wu is offering to split the money 50:50 with my colleague – claiming “this practice is not unusual in the banking sector here in my Country China”.
He continues:
"The other option is that the funds will revert back to the state, where it may be shared by State officials for their personal use and enrichment, I worked for that money and telling you the fact Anderson still owes me my percentage for service and naturally I deserve to have that money but cannot do it alone so me need your help."
Scams being sent out via the regular post are nothing new, of course, but they have perhaps been overshadowed by the avalanche of nuisance emails many of us receive in our email inboxes each day.
Maybe we should be encouraged that scammers are using the postal service (and presumably costing themselves some cash in the process) rather than using the more cost-effective method of spamming out the scams?
Could it be that some scammers are turning to fraud via the postal service because users have learnt to treat unsolicited emails with greater suspicion?
How are the scammers asking people to reply to these letters?
There may not be a return postal address but even a telephone number would be much easier to trace than an email address, which is another reason (apart from cost) that email is normally used.
My grandad reicieved this letter this morning, this is what has caused me to google it. The inheritence was for $17.5million and all other details were the same apart from the names.
It also said to act quickly to secure the money and do not betray my trust.
It had some Chinese writing at the top of the letter and a yahoo email address to contact them.
Another scam awareness site I was on said lawyers will not have a yahoo or hotmail email address.
They will then ask you to make a down payment to get the ball rolling and ask you for your bank details and clear you out.
Then if this doesn't work, apparently you may get contacted by another scammer saying you have had a fraudster after you and then try to scam you that way.
A##eholes
I recieved several spam letters from a UK address but the Head office was in the USA.
I saved all the junk mail that came in the next few weeks, Put it all in a large envelope and addressed it to the US office with a letter stating: " Congratulations you have been chosen to recieve absolutly free the junk mail sent to me this month. If you wish to be included in next months draw please feel free to send more junk mail to this address".
I then posted it cash on delivery.
I was once working in a nursing home and a little old lady received a letter saying she had won a large sum of money on the european lottery and asking for her bank details to pay it in… she was really excited and would have done it had I not alerted her to the fact that it was a scam and told her not to give her bank details. The poor woman was in tears. These people are unscrupulous in their choice of targets…
Try doing a Bob Servant on them if you want a laugh.
http://www.bobservant.com/resources/Lions$2C+Gold…
Oh boy! That's good! I couldn't stop laughing! If only I'd thought of that angle before scolding my scammer!
Waw, that as just hilarious. This guy is just insane.
I’m inclined to think that the ‘scammers’ aren’t using their own money but perhaps some poor soul’s stolen credit card to pay the postage, particularly if they are sending out this letter in bulk?
How the tide turns. My father’s business received these by post from time to time back in the 1980s and 90s (and possibly earlier) – from what I remember these were the traditional Nigerian format, claiming to be able to release over-invoiced funds which somehow involved the NNPC.
Didn’t get it by mail but got two similar emails. One in french and one in english
saying your response is needed. Different names but similar story and money to divide.
Still don’t understand what they get out of sending this email. Here is the english example:
Please read this slowly and carefully, as it may be one of the most important emails you ever get. My name is Alhaja Aziza Nasira. I was married to Late Al Habash Nasira from Saudi Arabia, The Director of Oron Minners Cote d’ Ivoire, a seasoned contractor in West African Region. He died on Thursday, 31 July 2003 in Paris, France. We were married for seven years without a child. After his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home.
When my late husband was alive, he deposited the sum of $3.2Million United States Dollars in a Financial Institute, which is now wasting there. My Doctor told me that I would not last long due to cancer problem. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to better the lives of the less privileged. I need an honest and trust worthy individual that will utilize this money in accordance with my instruction. I want the funds to be used in funding orphanages, the less privileged children and propagating the word of God.
I took this decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are very unkind to me and I don’t want my husbands hard earned money to be misused. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be with God.
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Security firm for you to contact them for the retrieval of the Treasure box as my beneficiary. I want you to always pray for me. If you are not interested, kindly pardon me for contacting you through this medium. Thanks, Kindly reply me through my email box azizahnasira@hotmail.com
Yours sincerely,
Alhaja Aziza Nasira.
I’ve received a couple of similar things in the mail. Honestly it made me laugh more than anything else, out of pure disbelief that people still try that crap, and that people still apparently fall for it!
I’ve recieved a few of these types of letters here in Germany, via E-Mail, they were sent to me from African countries, the funny part was this, in one letter, the person did not have enough education to capitalize the i when refering to himself, and there were other things in the letters that indicated that the sender was not at all intelligent, although claiming to be a big executive at a bank, needless to say, I have enough sense to laugh these things off.
Personally, I think the Post Office is in on the scam. Otherwise the ROI would never work. 😀
This is the way the 419 scam began, decades ago. I recall getting one such letter in the 90s.
Now I don't know what to check first – the post or my email.
What's really stupid is
1. physical mail is easier to trace, and
2. penalties, if caught, are stiffer using the U.S. Mail instead of the internet.
It's as if they WANT to get caught. Sadly, most of these scams come from countries that are already in chaos meaning that INTERPOL can't just waltz in and arrest them. But they can bust their go-betweens – the people they entrust to walk into an international bank and claim the funds.
I can scarcely imagine the thoughts going on in these people's heads. They can't be ignorant of the fact that in order for them to profit, they have to destroy lives. They are worse than murderers and child molesters cause they intentionally seek to devastate the lives of good people. Like that woman in a nursing home – imagine what would have happened to her if she actually sent out money.. money that keeps her in the nursing him that she is in.
I have kept (as a trophy, mostly) a 419 letter from 1992 that my father-in-law's business received. It came Air Mail, complete with a Nigerian stamp and a Lagos postmark.
Nice to see that everything old is new again (including, it seems, 80's pop music … ack!).
Sounds like the Nigerian Scams.
I recently received a letter via snail mail from a supposedly Lottery in Spain with the good news that I was the lucky winner of UD$950,000.00. Oh, I wish. Barring the fact that I had never purchased a ticket in any European Lottery I sadly had to file this one in the scam basket.
i received exactly the same letter as the pic above only it was from mrs tima wu this time.the surname is my married surname and i was divorced 6years ago now and i know for a fact that was no other family in that name and anderson doesnt exist.my letter is dated 11th april 2011
what a shame that money would have come in so helpful!!!
should i take it to the police can they do anything at all?
How interesting. I've been in contact with one of these scammers trying to figure out what the aim of it all is. Does anyone know?
My father in law has just received a letter saying his uncle died in a hiking accident in China and left no will and he could be entitled to 17.5million USD (if we go 50:50)with MR Gilroy Yu !!!!!
And I got one from Jawaid Gua… in the post from China.. and a Hong Kong fax no.
My wife got a letter today in her maiden name, posted to her work address from some geeza called hubner vak in china on the usual 419 scam and looked very unprofessional. On crappy A4 paper which was not headed paper or nothing, a few punctuation errors. I laughed when I seen it, do people actually fall for this kinda stuff………
I received one in the post today from a Mr Lewith Wu. It's funny really because I was only reading Bob Servant's email chain at the weekend. Coincidence or what?
Needless to say 50% of £17.5m will come in really handy for Christmas 😉