Scam Alert, 419 type - United Nations, Gary Walker, Weathersby Private Bank

Apparently-From: UNITED NATIONS (united59@hotmail.com)
Subject: [Bulk] RE: PAYMENT UPDATE 2015
Reply-to: weathersbypbank@gmail.com
Addressed to: unknown, probably not just me.

( Scam body under fold )

As always, these things use your greed to try and hook you. After all, there's a fun of $8.3 million at stake here... or rather, there isn't. There is, however, a wonderful opportunity to clean out your own bank accounts attempting to get hold of it.

So, scam flags flying:

1) Appears out of the blue, and implies it's the final piece of a long chain of correspondence which has just mysteriously gone astray and landed in my inbox. No addressee details, no information about who the mail is addressed to. So there's the implication that if you accept their offer and reply to the mail, you're defrauding them. Remember the old grifter adage: "You can't bilk an honest man", and avoid anything which starts out by attempting to lure you into unethical behaviour.

2) Demanding details from me (details which can be used to steal my identity, or to add my name, address, email number, phone number, fax and mobile details to a sucker list and set me up for further scams).

3) Apparently large organisations (the United Nations, a private bank in the UK) using hotmail.com and gmail.com throw-away addresses as contacts rather than their own private domains.

4) This one is incredibly cagey about what the money is intended to be - is it a contract payment, an award for damages, a prize in a lottery, or what? (Well, it doesn't really matter, since the money doesn't exist in the first place).

As always, delete and don't reply. If you have replied... well, at the very least you're probably added to someone's "sucker list", and you're going to see a lot more of these. Have a word with your bank and get them to lock down your bank account for a bit, so no unauthorised transactions go through, and see about getting your phone and mobile numbers put on a do-not-call list.

Scam Alert - 419 type - International Monetary Fund, Hon John Obi

Apparently-from: Foreign Operations (operationsforeign044@gmail.com)
Subject: [Bulk] HELLO
Reply-to: operationsforeign001@gmail.com
To: (left blank)

( Read more... )

As always, they're trying to hook you through your greed, and your apparent willingness to do something unethical (claim unclaimed funds you probably don't have a right to). This last is actually a pretty clear marker for scams - if someone you've never come across before is trying to make you do something which isn't morally or ethically right, they probably don't have your best interests at heart.

(There's also the consideration that if you've never done anything criminal before, the people who are trying to lure you into trying to flim-flam them are almost certainly more experienced in the matter than you are, and better able to spot what you're doing. For them it's the equivalent of watching a toddler trying to catch a seagull).

Scam flags:

1) Why is the International Monetary Fund contacting a suburban housewife in Western Australia offering an unclaimed fund of $5 million US dollars?

2) Why is a big organisation like the International Monetary Fund sending out emails from a gmail.com throw-away address?

3) Why, if they're contacting me to give this money away, do they need me to supply all these identification details?

4) Why, if they have $5 million to give away, aren't they willing to spend a few hundred of it on a decent proof reader and secretarial services?

Don't reply, don't give your details, and don't believe in the money. It doesn't exist.