Hi All, had an amazing piece of luck today when I received a letter informing me I'd won £24, 000. Best of it is, it's for a competition I've never even entered! All I have to do to claim is send my bank details to a PO box number in Holland and they'll credit my account with the winnings. How the hell do these clowns afford the postage to send this crap out or are people really that gullible? And is there some way of getting the promoters nicked? If they were UK based I'd imagine they'd be neck deep in trouble - are the laws in Holland so much slacker? [rant mode off] Richard
This morning I received a personal letter telling me I'd won some great prize or other, just ring this premium rate number. Oh and "some prizes require activation at 15 pounds per month".
Your local Trading Standards office is the place to start if you want to follow up your letter. They will take it further, if they are able.
Ditto, the more we looked into it (attempt to market timeshares), the more expensive the 'free' holiday became. And that was before we essayed airport transfers at the other end. We did not bother going to the presentation, even though ours was at the weekend and in an agreeable part of Perthshire.
But your bank's address and your account name, number and sort code appears on every cheque you write - it's hardly secret. Surely you need more than that to empty someone's account.
I think many people really are that gullible. The promise of large sums of money is irresistable. Why do you think that the Readers Digest Prize Draw (which is, of course, legit and above board) is still running after, what, 30 years? It must still increase the sale of RD's books (which, IMO, are good enough to sell on their own merit).
The worldwide Nigerian 419 e-mail scam still nets hundreds of millions of dollars each year in the US alone.
If you get a 419 then the fraud squad are always pleased to receive a copy, complete with all email headers. Their email address is:
snipped-for-privacy@met.police.uk
It is also worth reading their web site on the 419's, basically if you get involved it can result in you finding out how hard a baseball bat is as it dings off your head, and people have been murdered by trying to meet these people:
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You wouldn't normally have sent a cheque to these people, so they wouldn't have that information. The only other thing needed, besides your bank details, is a copy of your signature. The early Nigerian scams used to ask you to send a blank, signed, sheet of paper, but that did tend to make people suspicious. However, most people will obligingly sign the letter in which they send the details, so it only needs a modest skill in forgery to create a letter of authority to transfer funds out of your account.
Getting blood out of a stone and getting help from a Swiss bank are generally considered quite difficult. But they pale against Caribbian bank controls. They may have branches in Holland, or near by Switzerland but that is all you will ever know.
I rather believe these fools deserve gulling as they sound like the kind of morons that think a local beauty spot is the natural dumping ground for old fridges.
alot of these seem to be so called "advance fee" scams. Where you end up being asked to pay some fee for bank clearance / customs / bribes whatever to get at "your" money. Neeless to say its this advance fee that vanishes....
There was a nice case recently where a chap at a computer dealer actually managed to turn the tables, and scam the scammers out of some money by the same trick:
It would be much easier to set up a (semi!) legitimate Ebay business - DIY tools for example - taking cheques only. That would give you account name, number, sort code and a signature.
I got this one...I was so sad when reading it. :) The poor souls!!!! Anyone being ripped off by this is really naive. They must email millions of people. They only the odd one though...
To: Subject: PLEASE GET IN TOUCH From: "James Konan Bedie" j snipped-for-privacy@fastermail.com Date: + Thursday, 17 Jul 2003 4:49:49 PM0100
From : James Konan Bedie
Attn:
I got your contact through the International Brochure (I.B).I decided to contact you on a mutual business relationship. My name is Mr. James Konan Bedie the son of former president Henri Konan Bedie of cote D´Ivoire, who was unfortunately toppled in a military coup in Dec. 1999 by General Robert Guei.
As at when the military junta struck,and took over the elected government of my father,i was co-ordinating his special businesses, and was also in charge of all his deposit account with different financial instituions in Europe.
To this,Luxemburg Goverment have already responded by exposing many of my family´s bank account in their country. It is based on this development that i have the mandate of my father to contact you and request you specifically to assist my family, by helping us to secure this deposit we have with a Holding company in Europe, which amounts to US$15 million (fifteen million US dollars). This will make it impossible for the new Goverment in power in my country, to have acess to this fund.
It is base on the fact that i am requesting you to assist us in putting this sum of money in safe keeping by accepting to receive it from the Holding company on our behalf by changing the name and signatory of the account into yours so that it will not have any link to my family and for that reason, my country will not discover it.
I will furnish you with the details of this transaction if you accept to assist. For your efforts we will discuss what remuneration i will give you when you reply.
Because of the urgency this issue requires. you should reach me on the above e-mail addresses. Do not forget to include your telephone and fax numbers while replying to this message.
Don't think that retribution is nearly as common as the fear of retribution - for someone to fly in, hunt you down, bash you over the head, risk being caught, lengthy prison sentence, etc, you'd have to be a serious thorn in their side, or pretty unlucky.
The death mentioned was recorded as being the result of a meeting in South Africa. Wonder where that meeting was arranged - some dark corner of Johannesburg, perhaps? Immediately alarm bells start ringing with that one....
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