ManTech Blog 6 - I.T. and Internet Fraud

Advancements of Technology is considered to be the "haven" for I.T. Professionals. These requires their specialty and the demand for them seemingly endless. Many work are becoming automated and more products are having their own websites. Some people are taking advantage though. This leads to "Internet Fraud". This was one of the discussions last meeting at ManTech. Up to now, I am still experiencing that 419 Scam. I am receiving hundreds of email telling me that:

1.) I've won the U.K or British Lottery.
>Heck, I dont participate in a lottery? How likely is it that my email address won a lottery? This scheme works mostly in the way that you would have to pay an agent or represantative some sort of fees until your prize could be released. It works like a classic advance fee fraud.

2.) Late dictator / Dead foreigner / Next of kin
>A large sum of money is held in a bank account or security company that is ready to be transfered out of the country. In most cases the victim only needs to provide a bank account where the money (that simply doesn't exist) could be transfered. For that the victim is normaly offered an amount around 10%-20% of the whole sum for his 'compensation

3.) Fake charities / Helping someone out with medicine
>Those impersonaters and might even present you a faked website where you can do donations. In example for the victims of the large tsunami in Indonesia, hurricane Kartina, children or another cause that most people would give their money for. The request to help for medical treatment of a (often rich) person has also been seen many times.

4.) Black money aka "Wash Wash"
>A victim can participate on the money if he helps purchasing a 'cleaning fluid' used to clean up the bills to their original state. There is of course no money at all, the victim might get a demonstration with some prepared bills (or while the demonstration the black paper is exchanged against real money). All you would get your hands on is a large bunch of black paper and some bottles of acetone for just some thousand bucks

5.) Company Representative/ Check fraud / Money laudring
>Scammers would want to use your bank account to transfer money and you'll get something like 5% of the money transfered as Checks. The problem with the checks is that they will first clear, so you would indeed get some money into your account that you can forward to the scammer. But after some weeks the check would bounce and most likely you can expect a visit from the police. Also you should be aware that even if you get real money into your hands, what you would do is simply laundring money, nothing else

So beware. If you happen to receive
emails like these. It's best you don't reply to these emails because we don't know what they will do. I started receiving this emails because I forgot to uncheck the "receive stuff" from http://www.mailfriends.com/

References: http://www.urgentmessage.org/