I love this scam email I got recently because the plea supposedly comes from Kofi Annan who is the former Secretary-General of the U.N. A typo in the email calls him the “formal secretary General”:
I am Mr. KOFI ANNAN formal United Nations secretary General;
I hope that you will handle this mails with utmost secret and confidentiality.
I have USD54M in a secured bank vault which I made from gratification during my period as the UN secretary general and now want to invest the money, because my position I do not want to invest this money directly.
I therefore request you to manage and administer this fund since I cannot invest it personally.
You shall get 20% of the total fund.
Please in the name of God if you are not interested please destroy this mail, I am now in my country Accra Ghana.
Upon the receipt of your mail, I shall give you more information.
Regards,
KOFI ANNAN
It came as an email (Subject: From KOFI ANNAN/0pen and read message) with a text file attached.
I guess the spammer thought his marks would feel more confident answering an email from an important and respected man like Kofi Annan and wouldn’t question why a guy with so many contacts around the world sent this to a total stranger. But I’m glad he trusts a stranger like me to “handle this mail with utmost secrecy and confidentiality”!
A very interesting and long documentary about Sawaka. In the West African country of Ghana, internet scamming is combined with black magic rituals. There’s some language in this video and a little bit of nudity so if you’re young, grab a parent to watch this with you.
Have you noticed the “See What You’ll Look Like in the Future” shares flooding your Facebook livefeed?
It looks something like this:
It’s a Facebook Scam – Beware!
Here’s what happens when you click the link:
You’ll be taken to the Facebook Fan Page and then asked to click a “Show Me” button. When you click this, you’ll be asked to click CTRL+C, ALT+D, CTRL+V and the Enter key. When you press CTRL+C, code is copied into your clipboard, ALT+D will highlight your address bar and CTRL+V will paste the code in your address bar. Pressing Enter makes it go-go-go…
… and the scam automatically shares itself with all your friends! And makes it so it looks like you said things you never said (rude!).
Phishing is the practice of trying to get information from people without them knowing it. There are lots of phishing scams out there. The email looks like it’s from your bank or a well-known site or a reputable business, but it’s not.
How can you tell whether it’s a phishing scam before you give out your info? This video explains it all:
The scammer gets into your friend’s Facebook account. Maybe your friend left his computer open or the scammer got hold of his password.
Using your friend’s account, the scammer opens a chat window with you. From where you’re sitting at your computer, it looks like it’s your friend chatting with you.
The scammer — pretending to be your friend — says he’s in trouble and needs money right away. Maybe he tells you he’s in another country and lost his wallet and passport and ticket home. Whatever the story is, it’s an emergency and he needs money right now!
The scammer tells you to send him money by Western Union or another money transfer service. Right away! Because he really needs it now.
Maybe you’re smart and think to check to see if this is really your friend. So you ask what school you went to or what colour a friend’s hair is or what your cat’s name is. The scammer answers correctly. Of course he does. He’s on your friend’s Facebook account where you can find all that information.
Moral of the story: Never send money when the request comes over the internet!
Read an article about the Facebook Advance Fee Scam here. It has a transcript of a whole chat between the writer and the scammer!
I Go Chop Your Dollar is a song about advance fee fraud. It’s performed by Nigerian actor and comedian Nkem Owoh and was featured in the movie, The Master, in which Owoh played a scammer.
These are the lyrics. They are written in pidgin so they may be a little bit hard to understand. But you can understand a few lines. The person singing it is calling the people he scams mugus and himself, the master. He says 419 — the scam — is a game. He’s the winner and you’re the loser.
I Go Chop Your Dollar
I don suffer no be small
Upon say I get sense
Poverty no good at all, no
Na im make I join this business
419 no be thief, its just a game
Everybody dey play am
if anybody fall mugu, ha! my brother I go chop am
Chorus
National Airport na me get am
National Stadium na me build am
President na my sister brother
You be the mugu, I be the master
Oyinbo I go chop your dollar, I go take your money dissapear 419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner
The refinery na me get am,
The contract, na you I go give am
But you go pay me small money make I bring am
you be the mugu, I be the master… na me be the master ooo!!!!
When Oyinbo play wayo, them go say na new style
When country man do im own, them go de shout bring am, kill am, die!
Oyinbo people greedy, I say them greedy
I don see them tire thats why when them fall enter my trap o!
I dey show them fire
