The United Nations says what?

I received two copies of this bizarre email this week. One came from unitednationloan@freenet.de, as below, the other from unitednationloanfund@freenet.de. Clearly this is absolute nonsense. The United Nations said no such thing. Don't reply, don't be fooled, by scams like this.

From: unitednationloan@freenet.de
Date: February 24, 2010 3:11:48 AM PST
Subject: Loan Notification

I am Don Juan Carlos, a Private Loan Lender and a co operate finance for small and middle class businesses in Europe and across the Globe sponsor by United Nation Secretary-General: Ban Ki-Moon, as one of the issue implement from 2009 UN general assembly meeting with the aim to promote trade with 787 Billion Dollars stimulus package sign by United state administration as to easy the present global economical recovery through the means of providing long teams loan for individual, small and middle class businesses.

This is from united Nation resolution chapter 44.9, that all nations must benefit from this stimulus package of 787 Billion Dollars sign by the present united state administration. This loan must be given to any body above 18 years of age, with or without a good credit. And every interested applicant should reply to this Email: euroglobal2010@aim.com for more inquiry.

Qualifications:
(1)The Borrower must be over 18yrs of age.
(2)Even with Bad credit, we still Guarantee the loan
(3)The Loan Can Be Granted Even with low credit
(4)There is no prepayment penalty.
(5)You do not need a Co-Signer

Repayment:
Repayment is made Monthly or Yearly depending on the choice of the borrower and The Repayment schedule for a Loan is calculated and sent to the borrower.

Interest Rate:
The Interest rate applicable to all Loans is 1.5 %.

Loan Transfer:
The Loan is Transfer to the Borrower via
(1)Account Swift Transfer
(2)Courier Delivery Service/Cheque
(3)Money Gram
(4)Western Union

Don Juan Carlos,
Manager.

Are you a shady lawyer looking for a client?

This is an interesting scam, which I've been receiving often this month at various info@ addresses, none of which belongs to a law firm. I wonder what the angle is? Perhaps you'll be asked for an upfront fee to take on their collections business.

The scammer uses three different email addresses, all from public services. Don't respond to such messages, just delete them.

From: "Qin Lee Wang" qinwangie@gmail.com
Date: February 11, 2010 2:25:52 PM PST
To: qinwangie@hotmail.com
Subject: Legal Representation
Reply-To: qinleewang@yahoo.co.uk

The management of Dalian Leong Yang Trading Co. Ltd requires your legal representation for our North American delinquent Customers. We are of the opinion that a reputable attorney is required to represent us in North America in order for us to recover monies due to our organization by overseas customers, and as well follow up with these accounts. In order to achieve these objectives a good and reputable law firm like yours will be required to handle this service.

We understand that a proper Attorney Client agreement must be entered into by both parties.This will be done immediately we receive your letter of acceptance.Your questions regarding this proposal are welcome. Once more thank you for taking time from your busy Schedule to read this mail.

Sincerely

Qin Lee Wang
Dalian Leong Yang Trading Co. Ltd

Fascinating "Interview with a Nigerian Scammer"

I'm not sure I believe everything the scammer says in this three-part interview with Scam Detectives, but this is very interesting information nonetheless.

Read all three parts:

Part 1: January 22, 2010

Part 2: January 26, 2010

Part 3: February 2, 2010

Respond before the oligarch gets out of jail!

Oh, this is rich… rich, that is, for the scammers, and not for you, the intended victim. While there is really a Gary-Unit Investigators in Ashford, this isn't their email address. Nyet. It's a scammer. Don't be fooled, don't respond to messages like this.

From: Yukos Oil Company garylittle3@yahoo.com
Date: 2010/2/2
Subject: Request from Yukos
To: garylittle3@yahoo.com

Good Day,

I am Gary J. Little, a private investigator, my client Mr. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil magnate of Yukos Oil Company charged with tax evasion by the Russian Government for political reasons seek your partnership/proxy to invest some amount under your supervision to avoid seizure since his company's main assets, production units, refineries and petrol stations, have been sold in series of staged bankruptcy auctions.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky intend to liquidate a large investment in cash and structures offshore, and take the capital appr. derived to provide a new investment fund under your management. As you can see, his assets are frozen and auctioned, meanwwhile there is an excess of USD5b lying in offshore accounts, unable to be used as guarantee. The funds being liquidated arose from independent investments of the group, outside the russian soil, so we can legitimately do so, only if this is done quietly. If the Russian authorites hear about this, we shall have to tender it for bankruptcy auctions.

You will stand as the beneficiary of the fund to enable release the sum to you. It is my client's wish to invest this sum outside Russia and never to be connected with any of political opponents. The transaction has to be concluded before Mikhail Khodorkovsky is out from jail. As soon as I get your willingness to comply I will give you more details. Do not worry about payment of processing fees, i have arrangement to provide you money take care of all fees involved.

Yours in service,

Mr.Gary Little
Gary-Unit Investigators
4 Elwick Road,
Ashford , TN23 1PF
http://www.privateinvestigatordirectory.co.uk

Love me scammer, love me sweet...

One easy way to spot scams is that the scammer promises that the transaction "remarkably" will be risk-free. If it was truly legitimate, would they need to say this?

Another way to tell is when the domains and the countries don't match up. This is a Nigerian guy, sending email from a New Zealand domain (canterbury.ac.nz) with an address belonging to someone else (Michael Hartshorn). The recipient is instructed to reply to a different address — in this case, belonging to live.com, which is one of Microsoft's free email services hosted in the U.S.

Does this seem legitimate to you? Of course not. Don't respond, don't be fooled by these types of scams.

From: Gerald Ekeoma michael.hartshorn@canterbury.ac.nz
Date: February 1, 2010 7:04:26 PM EST
To: Recipients not specified: ;
Subject: I will await your earliest return mail
Reply-To: geraldekeoma@live.com

From Dr. Gerald Ekeoma
Chairman NNPC Contract Committee.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Address: 28, Ademola Street,
Ikoyi, Lagos

Attn: Please reply to: geraldekeoma@live.com

I am an Accountant and the Chairman of the Tender Board Committee which awards contract in the Department of the Petroleum Resources of Nigeria . I sent you email sometime ago informing you of our plan to transfer the sum of USD $8.6Million (Eight Million, Six Hundred Thousand US Dollars only) to your account. I have been waiting to hear from you, but up till now, nothing has been heard from you hence this particular message by way of reminder and reconfirmation of how serious we are on this project.

I want you to know that this funds originated from an Over-invoiced contract sum which was awarded to a foreign firm in 1999. I and my other colleagues in the Tender Board purposely inflated the actual cost of the contract to the tune of USD$8.6 Million. However, the original contractor has fully executed the contract, the project commissioned and the contractor paid his actual contract worth, leaving behind the over-invoiced sum. So, it is based on this that we now want you/your company to come forward to stand in and claim this sum on our behalf.

We are Civil Servants, and we are not allowed to operate foreign account while still in office, so you are to act as one who had executed a contract worth the sum of USD$8.6 Million for my Department and you now want your payment settled. Remarkably, this deal is 100% risk free. We are perfectly in charge and had worked out modalities that would guarantee a hitch free transfer of this fund to your account fully free of any liens or encumbrances and are clean, clear and non-criminal origin. We have also mapped out 35% of the total sum for you for your help and assistance while the remaining is for me and my colleagues.

If you are interested in the proposal, and you are a trustworthy person who would not sit on this money if it is transferred into your account, kindly indicate by contacting me through my E-mail and you can as well send your bank account details for this transfer. Please note that this deal must be kept absolutely confidential till we have concluded it.

NOTE : After a successful transfer, 35% for you, 65% for us. We will also visit you immediately we conclude this transaction to collect and invest our shares of the total sum into any viable business you may advise us in your country.

Please send your response through my private email address: geraldekeoma@live.com for my urgent attention. Nevertheless, I got your email contact information through the INTERNET. Thank you as we look forward to your anticipated co-operation.

Yours faithfully,
Gerald Ekeoma

The domain scam spammers are back

Yeah, yeah. It's a scam. Unlike some of these scammers, these jokers don't even try to personalize the message.

If you respond at all, scammers like these will try to get money out of you. Maybe they'll register your domain names themselves, and try to sell them to you. Or they'll offer to "buy" them from someone else who -- amazingly -- has just grabbed them. Or they'll try to sell you an expensive monitoring solution to prevent this from happening again. Or all of the above.

If you don't do anything, of course, nothing will happen at all. Don't reply, don't be fooled or pay any attention to these scammers.

From: "selina" selina_tondie@yeah.net
Date: January 31, 2010 2:54:34 AM EST
Subject: copyright notice

Dear CEO/Principal,

We are a domain name registration and dispute organization in Asia, which mainly deal with the global companies’ domain name registration and Network Intellectual property right protection in Asia. Currently, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.

On Jan 12, 2009, we received an application formally. One company named “Twotuen Oveo Grade Company Limited” wanted to applied for the Network's Trademark and some domain names like your company name through our body.

Now we are handling with the registration of these domain names and find that the Trademark of these domain names and Network's Trademark is identical with your company name. So we have to confirm with you at two points:

1. If your company consign Twotuen Oveo Grade Company Limited to register these domain names and Network's Trademark, we will send application form to them and help them finish the registration at once.

2. If your company have nothing to do with Twotuen Oveo Grade Company Limited, they maybe have other purposes to register these domain names and Network's Trademark.

In order to deal with this issue better, please contact us by email or telephone ASAP.

Best Regards,
Selina

Office Manager.
| Foreign Department |
Hk Net Ltd
Tel: 00852-3071 7712 | Fax: 00852 - 3072 3949 Selina@hknetos.com | Web: http://www.hknet.com

I've won the lottery! Uh, no, it's a scam

Email addresses don't win lotteries. While there's indeed a National Lottery in the UK -- which this email claims to come from -- this email is a fraud. That's why the return address is to a "me.com" account, not to a national-lottery.co.uk address.

This is a fake. Don't reply, don't respond, to messages like this.

From: "The National Lottery" prize-dept@national-lottery.co.uk
Date: January 30, 2010 8:54:55 AM EST
To: Undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Your e-mail address won!!!
Reply-To: cldpt01@me.com

The National Lottery
P O Box 1010
Liverpool L70 1NL

WINNING NOTIFICATION

We happily announce to you the draw number (308) of EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle draw held on 01 January 2010. Your e-mail address attached to your ticket number with winning number SDV403955 drew the lucky numbers: 09 22 24 27 36 05 07 which subsequently won you the Raffle draw. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of GBP1,000,000.00 (One Million British Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file reference number KLA7532/05.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from the World Wide Web through a computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.

Please note that your lucky winning number may fall within any of our representative offices either in Europe, Asia or Africa as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this your GBP1,000,000.00 (British Pounds Sterling) would be released to you by any of our payment officer in any of these continents.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Mr. Bennett
Email: cldpt1@me.com

Provide him with the information below:
Name:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
Winning e-mail:
Country of residence:

website: http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/results/unclaimedPrizes.do

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Williams
Online Coordinator

Registration details Camelot Group plc Registered office: Tolpits Lane, Watford, Herts WD18 9RN Registered in England and Wales No. 2822203

N.B: Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to disqualification. You must contact your claim agent not later than 2 weeks upon receipt of this information to file for your claims; this way your Winning Certificate and all other relevant documents/paperwork can be prepared for your prize release to you. After this date all funds will be returned as unclaimed.

Fraud happens all the time in banking circles

Here's a classic scam-spam letter, but sent via the postal service. In this case, it was a letter sent to a friend via first-class mail. There was no return address, and the letter was mailed from Canada. However, we are told to contact someone in Hong Kong.

Click the image to see the letter full-size; I scanned the actual letter, and blanked out my friend's personal details. Here are some items that stood out:

1. The line "I know this might be a little heavy for you but please trust me on this" is an odd one.

2. The pitch is, "For all your troubles I propose that we split the money in half. In the banking circle this happens all the time."

3. The scammer tries to gain trust with "Please, again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children."

It's quite noteworthy is that the scam was delivered by post — and therefore, this cost the scammer real money. Email is essentially free, which is why most scams are sent via email. Posted letters cost money and take effort for supplies (paper and envelopes), printing, stuffing and mailing. That's why we see so few scams coming by postal mail.

Don't reply, don't be fooled by such messages. They are scams whether they come via email or postal mail.