WCF

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spammer

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A pure genius twist on the old Nigerian e-mail scam

It seems like there are few original ideas in the scam emails that we receive these days.  So when I just saw a new email from one “Michelle Smith”, I had to stop and revel in the genius of the scam.

The scam starts out by introducing the email author, “Michelle”, before she begins describing her sob story.  But this isn’t just any sob story – it’s a sob story about how she was ripped off by Nigerian scammers and got her money back!

Unbelievable.  A scammer capitalizing on a widely-known, classic scam.  I hadn’t seen this one before, so please excuse me that I am still recovering from the bold and spicy move by someone in Scammerlandia.

So here’s the text (note: I have put Xs in strategic locations where contact info belongs):

Dear Beneficiary,

I am Michelle Smith; I am a US citizen, 61 years Old. I reside here in Greenwood, Indiana U.S.A. My residential address is as follows.718 S Grand Ave, Indianapolis Indiana, 4621x United States and my email address is (michelle.s48@yahoo.com) and my telephone number is (317) 548-236x

I am one of those that fall victim to scammers in Africa two years ago. I have lost over US$74,000 for the past years while in the US, I was trying to get my payment all to no avail and they always stopped my fund with one reason or the order. So I decided to travel with my Son to WASHINGTON D.C with all documents, there the (FBI) was amazed and contacted the Nigeria embassy in the US and after some hours in their office, I was asked by the FBI officer to come back the next week.

At this point, I’m not sure which sounds more ludicrous: the fact that Michelle was almost able to recover her funds after losing it to Nigerian scammers, or the fact that she “amazed” the boys in the Bureau simply by showing up to FBI headquarters with some documents.  Read on:

When I did the FBI officer gave me the contact of one Mrs. Graciela Robert who is a representative of the United States of America Public Affairs Section and a member of the compensation award committee currently in Nigeria to handle all unfinished transaction to their respective owners. When I contacted her, she explained everything and told me that who so ever is contacting us through emails are fake that I should fly down to Nigeria to see things for myself which I did and she took me to the paying bank for the claim of my compensation fund.

So now, after having been bilked out of 74 stacks by Nigerian scammers, Michelle just decides to “fly down to Nigeria to see things for myself”.  Because, I guess, who doesn’t like a nice vacation in Nigeria?  It’s such a short trip to make that pretty much anyone can fly “down” there by traveling in a fairly west-to-east direction from the U.S.

This was paid to me successfully. Right now I am the happiest woman on earth because I have finally received my compensation fund of US$6,300.000.00. Moreover, Graciela showed me the full Information of those that are yet to receive their compensation fund and this was how I came across your email address and your name.

Wow!  Who woulda thought that getting duped out of $74,000 could be such a blessing?  Or more like an investment?  Getting a return 85 times worth the original amount ain’t too shabby.  And anybody else find it curious that the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria evidently has ZERO privacy protocols?  Apparently Michelle can just waltz into the field office there and Graciela will spill the beans about the names and email addresses of other Americans who have also been duped.

The only Money I paid after I meet with Graciela Robert was just $839.00 for the ownership paper works. So I am advising you to contact Graciela through her office email address (mrs.gracielarobertX@gmail.com) for your own money including the money you lost to those scammers. You can as well call her on her office number (+234-902-971-218x) please take it very serious. Contact her right now and send your telephone number and your residential address to her for her to commence with the preparation of the ownership paper work with your information.

Thank you & God bless you.
Michelle Smith.
718 S Grand Ave Indianapolis Indiana 4621x
Call or Text me: (317) 548-236x

Not one, but TWO! Nigerian scams times TWO!

Ah, so the kicker: for a measly $839, millions can be yours.

So I have to admit that this scam intrigued me more than most.  It was a bit more detailed in its scheme, and its complexity forced me to think about it and re-read it to understand it correctly.  I found it interesting that they put the woman’s contact information up front and center, almost as a way of establishing immediate credentials before launching this ridiculous story.  Of course, the scam contains the usual telltale signs that something just isn’t quite right.  At the end, though, I suppose the biggest question is why the scam has “Michelle” contacting me rather than someone who would have actual authority in this matter, such as “Graciela”.

Entertained, entertained, we are entertained!

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I got spam email from….Steve Mnuchin?

Well that didn’t take long.

Steve Mnuchin was confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury less than two weeks ago, and today I find in my inbox a classic piece of spam that play’s on Trump’s pick.  Not only did the email mention Steve Mnuchin’s name, but it claimed to be from Steve Mnuchin.  Here is the text:

Good day to you Sir / Madam

This email is to keep you informed that I Mr.Steven T. Mnuchin, nominated On February 13, 2017 the Secretary to the United States National Treasury wishes to inform you that there is an on-going reimbursement payment program, were with the help of the (OFAC) the United Nations, world bank and the United States Government is reimbursing scammed victims globally who may have one way or the other happen to lost outrageous amount of money to impostors claiming to be individuals, bank staffs nor organizations for the release of your numerous sums of fund via numerous ways which they do not have access to.

We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this has been agreed upon and has been signed. You are advised to contact Mr Collins Lucas who is in charge of your payment through our office as he is our representative. Contact him immediately for more information on how to get your compensation of U.S $500,000 USD payment from the VISA CARD Verification Department

Therefore We have received a mandate and instructions from the (OFAC) and authorities involved here at the U.S Treasury Department to commence the immediate release of

your reimbursement payment valued at just ($500,000) Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only which has been endorsed for remittance to you accordingly in a

legal moral and ethical way. Which is why I have contacted and to let you know that the United States Department for Justice, in The Person of the Attorney General

will get some documents for you so that this transaction can be completed without delay.

This program is to sanitize the image of Africa that has stained by the activities of scammers and fraud stars by paying up all beneficiaries pending funds

accordingly. All payment will be via Bank transfer certified bank from our foreign treasury account. Therefore,you should furnish him with the following pieces of

information:

1.Your full names
2.Direct telephone number/Fax Number
3.Mailing address
4.Age
5.Occupation

Person to Contact: Mr Collins Lucas
Visa Card Verification Department
Email: ——@gmail.com
For further inquiries : (646)-781—–

The Department Officer Collins Lucas will provide you with instructions on how you can receive your reimbursement payment accordingly through any of your preffered channel

of delivery depending on your choice. All documentation that will be backing up your payment claim shall be obtained and a scanned copy will be sent to your email nor

fax machine as proof for verification.

Yours faithfully,

Mr.Steven T. Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary Main Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20220

While the spammer was certainly very timely, I would only give it a rating of about 3 out of 10 on the believability scale.  Plenty of errors (grammar and spelling) abound, and it just fails as a work of original scamming.  The reply-to address was from a Philippines-based Yahoo address, and the email address for the contact at the “Visa Card Verification Department” is listed as some Gmail address.  Not very convincing.

Still, the fact that a spammer would try to capitalize upon one of Trump’s cabinet picks is interesting.  It makes me think that spammers keep up with politics after all, although the email oddly refers to “The Person of the Attorney General” rather than “Jeff Sessions”, even though Sessions was confirmed a few days before Mnuchin.

I wonder if more spam inspired by political news is on the way.  Although obnoxious, it could be more entertaining that ones sent by Nigerian princes.

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Sandra is the new face of the spammer community

If you don’t know who Sandra is, then I must admit that I don’t know who she is, either.  At least, I don’t know much about her apart from the fact that she has become the new “it” girl among spammers.  I can tell as much from the increase of spammers with the first name “Sandra” over the past few days.  There’s “Sandra Casandra”, “Sandra Olivia”, “Sandra costless”, “Sandra sandack”, and my favorite – “Sandra sandy”.

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What is going on with this?  Why the recent spurt of spam emails which use the same first name?  All of these spam messages were sexual in nature, and they presumably all wanted me to click on links within the messages.  They were sent to me at different email addresses linked to separate domains, which is a bit unusual.

Interestingly, while Sandra is the face of the spammer community over the past few days, the “it” girl last week was named Laura.

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Again, different domains received repeated spam from spammers named Laura throughout the last week of the month of May.  The content of those messages was less graphic, but the modus operandi seemed to be the same.

I did notice that the spammer sending me this junk is using PHPMailer, so just now I set up a filter to discard those messages at the server level.  I guess I’ll know in a few days if it worked.

 

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