We received an email from a Scam Detectives reader this morning warning mobile phone users to be on the lookout for text messages promising large cash prizes. The reader would like us to tell his story to help other readers avoid falling victim to the same scam.

The reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) said:

“I received an sms through this phone number (+447586519251) informing me I won a great prize and asking for my email address to start the claims process”

Understandably, the reader was keen to find out more and replied to the text message giving his email address.

“I was contacted by a person named Lloyd Alexander IVANOVICH (who designed himself as a prize administrator of Samsung Electronics UK). This person informed me that my Samsung mobile won £ 550000 (Five hundred and fifty thousand Britain Pounds). He sends to me a certificate of award signed by the CEO of Samsung Mr. Geesung CHOI and told me that the fund is detained in a temporary account at the NATwest Bank plc and urged me to take contact with it.”

After making contact with the bank as directed, the reader received an email requesting a copy of his passport and the claims certificate and a “Fund Release Order” from the Financial Services Authority. He was instructed to contact the FSA to obtain this document.

“So I took contact with the FSA and I received mails from Mr. SANTOS HECTOR PEDRO (Chief executive of the FSA) who send to me a copy of his international passport and an application form and asked me to transfer an amount of £ 950 Pounds by Western Union in his personal name. I did it. After obtaining a fund release Order, I sent it to the NATwest in order to receive the fund. I tried to contact Mr. IVANOVICH as he phoned me on Friday, 11 a.m. to enquire about the transfer of the amount of £ 950 Pounds, but curiously after he knew about the transfer of the £ 950 Pounds I have made, his phone fallen out of order and also his email. “

As you’ve probably guessed, there was no prize from Samsung, no fund at the Natwest and the Funds Release Order from the FSA was fake. The reader lost his £950 and has been unable to contact any of the scammers since he sent the money.

How does the scam work? Surely the reader would have found out he was being scammed when he called the bank?

As is common with this type of scam, each time the reader was directed to contact another party to further his prize claim, he was furnished with an email address to facilitate contact. As such, the scammers ensured that he would only contact other members of the gang, and not the actual organisation with whom he believed he was getting in touch.

How can I avoid being taken in?

We spoke to NatWest to let them know that their bank’s name is being used in the perpetration of this fraud and a spokesperson told us:

“NatWest would NEVER contact a customer by email or SMS asking them to contact us in this manner, regardless of the nature of their business with the bank. If you are asked to contact NatWest by any party, you should visit our website at Natwest.com and call us on the most appropriate telephone number for your enquiry.

Samsung told us:

“Samsung can confirm the email relating to a ‘Samsung Mobile International Promo’ offering a cash prize of £550,000 are not legitimate and have not been sent from Samsung. Samsung therefore advises individuals not to respond to these emails.”

As with most of the scams we report here on Scam Detectives, the message is a simple one:

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Same day courier firm Arrow Light Haulage contacted Scam Detectives yesterday to warn couriers and haulage firms about the scam emails and telephone calls they received recently.

Kevin Arrow told us “We’ve received several emails and a telephone call from a lady in Kenya who claims that her husband used our company to send her an urgent package from the UK.  We know that we haven’t sent anything to Kenya, but she’s claiming we’ve underpaid charges and she has to pay $280 to get the package delivered. It seems that she wants us to pay this additional charge on her behalf.”

Kevin’s wife Sarah forwarded the original email to Scam Detectives HQ for investigation. It reads as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you that there was a package which was sent to me on 6th August 2010 from my husband Benson Ferguson to me Ruth Walegwa Mwamboga. It was supposed to take only 3 days to reach Kenya, after 2 days I got a an email message plus a call from Malaysia stating that I have to pay for an overweight charge and local charge totalling to USD 280 for the package to reach me. I have attached a copy of the email from malaysia plus the copy of the bill for your reference. Please let me know whether I have to pay that extra charge because I know my husband had already paid for everything.

Waiting to hear from you soon.

Thanking you in advance

Ruth Walegwa Mwamboga.

Email from “Malaysian Office”

*ATTENTION:** **RUTH WALEGWA MWAMBOGA*

*NOW YOUR **CONSIGNMENT** IS HERE WITH **ALLOW LIGHT HAULAGE COURIER COMPANY.*

*AND ITS HERE IN OUR ASIAN BRANCH OFFICE IN MALAYSIA.*

* *

*For us to deliver this **parcel** to you madam, you will have to pay for the overweight and local charges. After that the delivering will take place immediately. The amount for the local charge that you have to pay is 280 USD dollars (900MYR) for fast delivering madam, is good you transfer the money fast because your **PARCEL** is a special one and you will receive the **parcel** after few hours of your payment confirmation. Our delivering officer Mr. Yusuf Ibrahim will deliver it to you at hand. Please send us the payment slip that you transfer the money so that we will be able to confirm the payment.*

*You are advised to send by western union money transfer for fast confirmation and send to the delivering officer YUSUF IBRAHIM.*

*Address: 45 Jalan Minang Taman Sri Minang 43000 Kajang, Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia.*

So what’s the scam?

This is actually quite a clever bit of deception.  Accompanied by a forged “Shipment Airway Bill” bearing the name of Arrow Light Haulage, the scammer’s email doesn’t actually ask for any money upfront, subtly suggesting that she shouldn’t have to pay the extra charge because her husband has already “paid for everything”.

Had Arrow Light Haulage entered into further correspondence with the scammer however, there would certainly have been a demand for payment. 

How can you tell it’s a scam?

There are several indicators that show that this is a scam:

1) Arrow Light Haulage did not send any such package to Kenya

2) Arrow Light Haulage does not have an office in Malaysia

3) The attached Airway Bill contains a number of discrepancies which mark it out as a forged document

4) The email from the “Malaysian Office” requests payment by Western Union Transfer

To avoid being caught out:

1) Carefully check any claim for non-receipt of a package to ensure that you did in fact handle a delivery matching the details given

2) Even if you did handle such a parcel, check any documentation attached for grammatical and factual errors

3) NEVER respond to a request for payment by Western Union transfer

The fake airbill:

We’ve covered “advance fee fraud” several times on Scam Detectives, and have discussed how a phenomenon known as “escalation of commitment” can drive victims to beg, borrow or even steal money to provide scammers with the “last payment” to release a huge amount of money.

Accountant turned to fraud to fund scam payments

A frightening report from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) describes the case of an accountant who did just this, sending in excess of $900,000 (£510,000) to various recipients in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK over a 3 year period after falling for the scam. Much of the cash was later proven to be the proceeds of fraud.

Elderly couple refuse to believe authorities

In another of the 31 case studies listed on the AUSTRAC website we see another common problem.

An elderly couple sent over $512,000 (£290,000) to recipients in Ghana, the UK, The Ivory Coast and Hong Kong believing that they were helping friends who needed money to live and to eventually move to Australia.

The most disturbing thing about this case is that even after being warned by Australian authorities that they were being scammed, the couple sent a further $60,000 (£34,000) to scammers overseas.

This highlights a very common problem, which is the refusal of scam victims to believe that they have been taken in, even when shown compelling evidence by friends, family and law enforcement officials.

If you think someone you care about is being scammed, the OFT have published a useful leaflet giving advice which you can download here

It’s not often we receive a scam email at Scam Detectives HQ that really makes us laugh out loud but this one has to be the best yet!

Dear Friend,

How are you? I hope all is well with your family, friends and pets. I hope this urgent mail meets you in a perfect condition. We have no time to waste regarding the information I am about to tell you, it is an urgent and serious matter.

My name is Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, senior data analyst here at the CERN institute based here in Geneva (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/). CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. You may have seen on the news that, in recent days, our Large Hadron Collider machine has been colliding high-speed beams of energy in order to explore new physics and understand how the universe began. CERN have been adamant that this is safe, however I KNOW THE TRUTH.

The truth is that this experiment that CERN are conducting is extremely dangerous, and could cause global disaster. This experiment has a 95% of causing a black hole, thus swallowing a large area of the planet. The scientists do not want you to know this as they know it will cause panic. However, I can help you.

I am arranging for a number of selected people to be evacuated to a safe location on an island in the South Pacific via aeroplane. You have been selected from random to take part in this evacuation, thus continuing the survival of the human race.

Please, if you are interested, email me back immediately with the following information:

Full name:
Age:
Contact number:
Country:
Email address:

Please send all emails to my private box: From > ***Email removed***

Regards, and God bless.
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

Of course this is utter nonsense, but we simply HAD to reply to find out the full extent of the scam. (NOTE: We do not advocate replying to scam emails. We use disposable email addresses that hide our location for this purpose) We quickly received a badly worded email asking for £3,000 for each flight to the island, to be sent by Western Union wire transfer to an “evacuation coordinator” in Mumbai.

I sincerely doubt that anyone would actually fall for this scam, but we had to report it “just in case”.

As with all advance fee fraud emails, the simplest advice is to Ignore and delete

Email scammers are very good at using current events and news events to weave convincing stories designed to part you from your cash. The recent earthquakes in Haiti gave rise to dozens of fake websites soliciting fraudulent donations and email spam asking you to send money to non-existent humanitarian efforts.

The latest target of online fraudsters are travellers who found themselves stranded by the volcanic ash cloud which caused travel chaos and the closure of much of Europe’s airspace.

My name is Mr.Frank Adam. I am the chief consumer protection officer at the CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY.

Your name has been passed to me identifying you as an air travel passenger who was stranded in mainland Europe because of the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland which caused flights to be cancelled.

European law says that every passenger who is unable to travel because of airport closure is entitled to compensation from the airline that they booked their flight with. Many airlines are saying that they will not pay because they did not ask to close the airspace and the ash cloud was an ACT OF GOD.

The CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY has decided that passengers should not be disadvantaged by this refusal and we have established a fund totalling £25,000,000 (TWENTY FIVE MILLION POUNDS) to compensate passengers for their costs. We will seek to be reimbursed for this by the airlines through the EUROPEAN COURTS after we have distributed the fund.

The total that will be paid to each passenger is £2,000 (TWO THOUSAND POUNDS)

To claim your compensation you need to contact me at (***EMAIL REMOVED***) and provide the following information:

Name:
Address:
Telephone Number:
Copy of your passport:

Your reply to us is very important and will help us to send your money as soon as possible.

Thank you

Frank Adam

There is no such fund, no compensation and no Frank Adam at the Civil Aviation Authority. This is simply advance fee fraud and anyone falling for this will find themselves out of pocket. You will either be asked for an “administration fee” to release your payment, or be sent a fake cheque and be asked to send the fee by wire transfer once you’ve paid the cheque into your account. Either way, you’ll be stitched up by scammers taking advantage of current affairs to get their hands on your cash!

A DEPRESSED man lay down in front of a Doncaster to Bridlington train to die after falling for an elaborate internet dating scam which left him £82,000 in debt, an inquest has heard.

Philip Hunt, 58, went online in search for a partner after he split with his long-term girlfriend but was taken in by promises of riches from a Nigerian girl calling herself ‘Rosie’.

In an elaborate plan, ‘Rosie’ sent the cargo officer messages asking for him to help her get a case containing 2.9 million dollars through customs.

He even met two shady ‘agents’ in a London hotel who pretended to spray a special chemical on ‘bank notes’ to release cash.

But he was left £82,000 in debt and despite desperate attempts to recover the cash, turned to drink.

Faced with the “insurmountable” debt, Philip, of Grimsby, Lincs., left a final message before lying down in front of a train in Hull, on August 13 last year.

At a jury inquest in the city today, Chief Insp Danny Snee, of the British Transport Police, said documents left by Mr Hunt at his home labelled “for the police” revealed he had fallen victim to the ‘Romance Scam’.

In the ruse, criminals pose as attractive women on dating and social networking websites with tales of needing large amounts of cash quickly.

He said: “Once contact is established with the victim and their trust is gained, they will ask for money. In this case, they claimed they needed to get money out of the country to be turned into English pounds.

“Mr Hunt was clearly hoping for a relationship with Rose and they could share the financial benefits together. But unfortunately there was never likely to be a relationship or any money.

“Mr Hunt went down to a Travelodge near City airport, London, and met up with two people he referred to as agents. A chest was produced and he was invited to pick out a piece of paper, under the pretext the US government had coated them with a chemical that needed cleansing.”

He said Mr Hunt was then asked for money to pay for the apparently highly expensive chemical that could turn more of the paper into cash. In reality, it was just one of a string of “expense claims” that the criminals were using as a ruse to dupe him out of yet more cash.

Mr Hunt, who had twice been married, was already on anti-depressants and had had counselling following the break-up of his two-year relationship with Lesley Smith.

They parted in July 2007 but kept in touch with texts, and after he had told her of the “amazing” situation he was in she had immediately warned him it sounded like a scam.

She told the hearing: “I told him he had to call the police but he said no, he would lose his job because all this had been done on his work computer.”

In the days leading up to his death, he sent her a message saying “one day we will soar away together, goodbye”. He then laid down in the path of the 8.44pm Doncaster to Bridlington train.

After he was found dead with multiple injuries near the train tracks, police found his mobile phone in a rucksack nearby. His final message was to ‘Rose’ and it read “I’m cold, lonely and depressed, I’m so lonely without you tonight. Going to meet my maker, mother I love you.” However it was never sent.

A jury at the inquest returned a verdict of suicide.

After the hearing Chief Insp Snee said: “This case is made all the more tragic by the fact that insurmountable debts clearly cause the victim to commit suicide.

“People need to be very wary, if something looks too good to be true it usually is. They should be particularly wary about parting with money with someone they have never met, it just doesn’t ring true.

“The demands for money for supposed medical bills, hotel bills and travel expenses were endless.”

He added that a criminal investigation into the international fraudsters is ongoing, although no arrests have been made.

Original Story from The Yorkshire Post
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PLEASE help to stop this happening to anyone else. Use the social bookmarking buttons to spread the word about Scam Detectives and help your friends and relatives to avoid being taken in by similar scams.

Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.

We were contacted by reformed Nigerian advance fee fraud scammer “John”. He asked us to publish his story to help warn our readers about the dangers of entering into transactions with strangers via email. You can read the first part of our interview with “John” Here.

Scam Detective: Before we start, I’d like to apologise for losing my temper with you last time we spoke. I said some things that I should not have said and it was rude. I’m sorry.

John: It’s ok, I understand you getting angry. I know I have done some very bad things.

Scam Detective: I want to talk about the gang you worked with. Tell me about your relationship with the rest of the gang.

John: It was not good. The gang was full of bad people. There was always pressure to send more emails and get more victims. It was always “send more, send more”. When I was promoted and was asking victims for money, the boss always wanted to know when the money was coming. Whatever I was doing was not good enough and if he thought I was not working hard enough he would threaten me and my family. One time I tried to run my own scam on the side and cut the boss out. He found out and beat me badly. He watched me much closer after that and I didn’t dare to try it again.

Another time I got into big trouble because of a victim who kept saying he had sent money when he hadn’t. He sent me 4 fake wire transfer codes and each time the boss went to pick up the money they told him that the number was wrong. The last time the office staff called the police and the boss had to run away. I got beat really bad for that one. I think the guy was just playing with me for fun and never had any real money.

Scam Detective: Did you get a lot of replies like that?

John: I had a few but I learned how to tell if they were serious or not.

Scam Detective: How?

John: A serious victim would give me the information I asked for straight away so they could get the money. If they were playing a game then they would tell long stories about themselves and give lots of reasons why they could not send the money, or pretend that they had sent it like the guy I just told you about.

Scam Detective: What about relationships with other scammers? Was there co-operation between different gangs?

John: There are lots of gangs playing the game. We would sell lists of active email addresses who had not sent money to us to other gangs who would try different scams with them. There was a lot of competition too. One time my email was hacked by another gang who stole all of my contacts. I lost a lot of money that day.

Scam Detective: You mentioned your family earlier, did they know how you were making money?

John: Yes. Lots of young people in my country play the (scam) game. Many people think that white people deserve to have their money taken because of the way they have treated Africans in the past. My family knew what I was doing, but didn’t like it very much.

Scam Detective: If they didn’t like it, did they ever try and talk you into getting a “real” job?

John: They were realistic. They knew that I had no chance of getting a job that paid as well as the game, so we agreed not to talk about it.

Scam Detective: You were caught by the EFCC. Tell me how that happened?

John: They know that the internet cafes in Lagos are full of scammers and every now and then one will get raided. I was about to collect a big payout from a victim in the US, about $10,000 (£6,000) and the emails were open on my screen. They arrested me and took me away for questioning. They offered me a lighter sentence if I gave them the names of the boss and the other members of the gang, so I did. At my trial the judge said that if I had not helped them, he would have given me 5 years, but only gave me 2.

Scam-Detective: Can you give our readers any tips about how they can avoid getting scammed?

John: The biggest thing I can say is to delete the emails and never to reply. Once you reply your email address will be put on a list and sold to other gangs, even if you never reply again. It just tells them that the address is real and that somebody reads email going to that address. If they can’t get you with 419 (advance fee fraud) they will try phishing or viruses to get your banking details and take your money that way.

I used lots of different stories to get people to send money. I used the dying widow story a lot, saying that I was an old lady dying of cancer and had fallen out with my children. I wanted to give my money to charity and didn’t trust them to carry out my wishes, so was looking for someone outside of the country to make sure it went to the right place. So whatever the story is, make sure you delete the email, because you can be sure it is a scam.

Another thing is not to put email addresses anywhere on the internet. If it is on a guestbook or message board, or on a website anywhere then the foot soldiers will find it and put it on their list.

Scam Detective: What about our readers who have relatives or friends that are being scammed as we speak but are finding it difficult to persuade them that they really are being scammed?

John: I would often get messages from victims saying that their son or daughter had told them they were being scammed. I would try and convince them that I was real and if they had already sent money they would usually keep sending it because they had sent too much to back out and needed to get the big payout to replace their savings or whatever.

I would say that if you think your mom or dad is being scammed then show them everything you can about the 419 (advance fee fraud) scam and keep showing them different websites that warn people about it. They should stop replying and the scammer will give up in time because they want to spend time on people who are going to pay. If you have to, take away their computer so they can’t email any more. Keep telling them that the big payout is not real and never was real, and that any money they have sent is gone and they will never get it back.

Scam Detective: Thank you John.

John: You are welcome. Thank you for talking to me again.

At the conclusion of part 2 of this interview, I said that “John” should feel guilt for the rest of his life for what he has done to his victims. I recognise that this was anger talking and I should not have said it. “John” seems to be an intelligent, articulate young man who, with the right guidance and influences, could put his considerable talents to good use. If he continues his education and is able to put his past behind him and pursue a worthwhile and rewarding career then he could achieve this. He could, however, just as easily slip back into the high risk/reward lifestyle that experienced in his youth and spend the rest of his life in and out of prison. I hope that his choices lead him down the right path.

===============================================================================
The Office of Fair Trading has declared February “Scam Awareness Month” with the launch of a brand new television advertising campaign and the introduction of “Scamnesty” bins around the country, where you can bin your scam letters for good.

They also want you to report any scam emails you receive, or websites you suspect of being phony.

Visit the “Scamnesty” website

Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.

We were contacted by reformed Nigerian advance fee fraud scammer “John” last week. He asked us to publish his story to help warn our readers about the dangers of entering into transactions with strangers via email. You can read the first part of our interview with “John” Here.

I tried to get “John” to talk more about his work with the EFCC, and to tell me more about how he came to be in the UK despite his conviction, but he became guarded and told me he thought I was trying to trick him into identifying himself. I felt it was more important to talk about scams than corroborate his story, so let this go.

Scam-Detective: We spoke last week about your involvement with advance fee fraud scams and “phishing” emails. You told me that you were recruited into a gang at the age of 15 and were convicted of fraud a little over 2 years ago, serving 2 years in prison for your crimes. You also told me that you are now working with the Nigerian authorities to bring other scammers to justice, whilst trying to educate yourself by doing a business studies course at college.

John: That’s right. I’m trying to make things right with God and my family.

Scam-Detective: A reader has asked me to talk to you about face to face scams. Were you ever involved in meeting a victim, or was all of your contact by email?

John: I never met a victim, but I was involved in a couple of Wash-Wash scams.

Scam-Detective: Wash Wash scams? What does that involve?

John: We would tell the victim that we had a trunk full of money, millions of dollars. One victim met some of my associates in a hotel in Amsterdam, where he was shown a box full of black paper. He was told that the money had been dyed black to get through customs, and that it could be cleaned with a special chemical that was very expensive. My associates showed him how this worked with a couple of $100 bills from the top of the box, which they rinsed with some liquid to remove the black dye. Of course the rest of the bills were only black paper, but the victim saw real money. He handed over $27,000 (about £17,000) to buy the chemicals and was told to return to the hotel later that day to pick up the cash. Of course when he came back, there was nobody there. He couldn’t report it to anybody because if it had been real it would have been illegal, so he would have gotten himself into trouble.

Scam-Detective: Ok, I also want to talk more about how you managed to get your victims to trust you. I know it can be difficult for legitimate businesses to persuade customers to buy their products, yet you were able to convince people to part with their cash to get their hands on money that never existed in the first place, with at least one taking an international flight on top. That’s quite a skill, how did you learn to do it?

John: Once I had spent some time as a “foot soldier” (* sending out initial approaches and passing serious victims to other scammers) I was promoted to act as either a barrister, shipping agent or bank official. In the early days I had a supervisor who would read my emails and suggest responses, then I was left to do it myself. I had lots of different documents that I would use to convince the victim that I was genuine, including photographs of an official looking man in an office, fake ID and storage manifests, bank statements showing the money, whatever would best convince the victim that I, and the money, was real. I think the English term is to “worm my way” into their trust, taking it slowly and carefully so I didn’t scare them away by asking for too much money too soon.

Scam-Detective: What would you do if a victim had sent money and couldn’t afford to send more, or got cold feet?

John: I would use whatever tactics were needed to get more money. I would send faked letters which stated that the money was about to be taken out of the account by the bank or seized by the government to make them think it was urgent, or tell them that this was definitely the last obstacle to the money being released. I would encourage them to take out loans or borrow money from friends to make the last payment, but tell them that it was important that they didn’t tell anyone what the money was for. I promised them that the expenses would be paid back on top of their share of the money.

Scam-Detective: So you basically didn’t care where the money came from, or what they had to do to get it, as long as they got it?

John: Some of the blame has to go to the victims. They wanted the money too because they were greedy. Lots of times I would get emails telling me that they wanted more money than I was offering because of the money they were having to send. They could afford to lose the money.

Scam-Detective: John, I think you have been basically honest with me so far. Please don’t stop that now. You know as well as I do that not all of your victims were motivated by greed. I have seen plenty of scam emails that talk about dying widows who want to give their money to charity, or young people who are in refugee camps and need help to get out. You targetted vulnerable, charitable people as well as greedy businessmen, didn’t you? You didn’t care whether they could afford it or not, did you?

John: Ok, you are right. I am not proud of it but I had to feed my family.

Scam-Detective: And fund your BMW, mobile phones and laptops, let’s not forget about that. When the victim had run out of money and couldn’t send any more, was that the end of it? Or did you go back later for more?

John: We had something called the recovery approach. A few months after the original scam, we would approach the victim again, this time pretending to be from the FBI, or the Nigerian Authorities. The email would tell the victim that we had caught a scammer and had found all of the details of the original scam, and that the money could be recovered. Of course there would be fees involved as well. Victims would often pay up again to try and get their money back.

Scam-Detective: So when the victim had had some time to get over the fact that you had wormed your way into their lives, gained their trust and ripped them off, you went back for another bite of the cherry? The more I speak to you John, the less I like you.

John: I know, I know. Don’t be angry with me. I’m not proud of what I have done and I am very sorry for everyone who sent money. If I could give it back I would.

Scam-Detectives: But only if they sent you $1000 by Wire Transfer first? Ignore that. Tell me more about corruption in Nigeria. Did you pay bribes to officials and wire transfer office staff to make things easier?

John: I can’t tell you about that, I have to be careful. I can tell you that lots of people make money from scams in Nigeria, and not all of them are scammers. Everyone has their cut.

I terminated the interview at this point as I was getting angry with “John” and felt it was better for me not to continue. “John” has asked if he can contact me again. I agreed but am not sure what more I can learn from him that would be useful to our readers. I think that any further conversations would only serve to make “John” feel better and act as some kind of counselling for him, which I have no interest in providing. I don’t want him to feel better about what he has done, or to assuage his conscience. He should feel guilt for the rest of his life.

“John” called me again on Monday February 1st – Read the third (and probably final) part of our interview here

Please help us to spread the word and stop people like “John” earning more money from vulnerable people. Use the social bookmarking buttons below to share this post with your online friends.

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Editor’s Disclaimer: Whilst I am reporting an actual conversation, I have no way of verifying the information or details contained within. The interviewee contacted me voluntarily and anonymously claiming to be an ex-scammer who is now studying in the UK. I have agreed to tell his story but this is told ‘as is’ without guarantee as to accuracy or truthfulness. To protect our users we have agreed that the interviewee, who will be known by the pseudonym “John”, will not directly take part in discussions or comments and will not join our community. I do not know how long “John” will maintain contact and in the event that contact is broken, this series of blogs will be discontinued.

Scam-Detective: Thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your experience ‘working’ as a scammer in Lagos, Nigeria. Tell us a little about yourself.

John: I’m 23 years old and was released from prison in Nigeria in October last year where I served two years for fraud. I am now doing a business studies course at college and am in the UK on a student exchange programme. As part of my rehabilitation I am also working with the EFCC in Nigeria to help them understand more about scams and how the gangs work. I don’t do scams any more.

Scam-Detective: How did you get involved in scamming people on the Internet?

John: I come from a poor family in Lagos, Nigeria. We did not have very much money and good jobs are hard to find. I was approached to work for a gang master when I was 15, because I had done well in school with my English, and was getting to be good with computers. The gang master was offering good money and I took the chance to help my family.

Scam-Detective: Do you think that your teachers at school had reported your talents to the gang master?

John: Yes. There is a lot of corruption in Nigeria and the gangs pay well to find people with good English skills to work the scams.

Scam-Detective: What kind of scams were you involved with?

John: Mainly advance fee fraud where we would tell people that someone has died and left millions in a bank or safety deposit box and that we needed help to get it out of the country. That is the most successful type of scam, but I also did Phishing to try and get user names and passwords for peoples online bank accounts.

Scam-Detective: How did you find victims for your scams?

John: First you need to understand how the gangs work. At the bottom are the “foot soldiers”, kids who spend all of their time online to find email addresses and send out the first emails to get people interested. When they receive a reply, the victim is passed up the chain, to someone who has better English to get copies of ID from them like copies of their passport and driving licenses and build up trust. Then when they are ready to ask for money, they are passed further up again to someone who will pretend to be a barrister or shipping agent who will tell the victim that they need to pay charges or even a bribe to get the big cash amount out of the country. When they pay up, the gang master will collect the money from the Western Union office, using fake ID that they have taken from other scam victims.

Scam-Detective: But where do the “foot soldiers” find the email addresses?

John: Lots of people sign guestbooks online and leave their email addresses all over the internet on forums and websites. We would just visit the guestbooks, forums and websites and harvest the email addresses. Some gangs have software that collects these emails automatically, so it cuts down on the work.

Scam-Detective: What percentage of emails would get a response?

John: Maybe 9 or 10 out of every thousand emails. Then maybe 1 out of every 20 replies would lead to us getting money out of the victim in the end.

Scam-Detective: And how much money would you expect to get from a victim?

John: On average, about $7,500 (£4,600) but the most I know about was $25,000 (£15,400). This would be taken in smaller amounts, starting with a couple of hundred, then there would be more “problems” with the transaction, which would mean that we needed more money to release the big payout. People would keep paying more because they were very small amounts compared to the big payout that they believed they would get in the end.

Scam-Detective: How much money did you earn from scamming people?

John: In the year before I was arrested I earned about $75,000 (£46,000) for my family. I bought my family a better house and drove a BMW. I had mobile phones and laptops and everything that comes with having lots of money. I lost it all when I was arrested and my family had to move away from Lagos because I gave the names of my bosses to the police to get a lighter sentence. My family were in great danger because of me and I am very ashamed of that. I am very ashamed of the type of person I became, and I know now that I should have got a proper, honest job instead of stealing from good people.

At this point “John” became very upset and I stopped the interview. “John” has agreed to contact me again next week so he can tell me more about his time as a scammer. I don’t know if he will call, but I hope he does, because I feel that his story may help to warn people about the techniques scammers use to garner trust and eventually extract money from their victims. If there are any specific questions you would like me to ask “John” then please leave a comment. Stay Tuned!

***UPDATE***”John” did call again and you can read the continuation of our interview Here

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We received this email today, which purports to come from the Chief Executive of Chubb Insurance, Mr Andrew McElwee. This is a scam and Mr McElwee has no involvement with this email or any suggested illegal activity. His name is used purely to lend credence to the scam. We have alerted the Chubb Insurance Company of the existence of this scam email and the unauthorised use of Mr McElwee’s name.

The Scam Email in full:

CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A.
106 FENCHURCH STREET,
LONDON EC3M 5NB UK.

CHUBB PERSONAL INSURANCE CASH ACCUMULATION MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP.

DEAR FRIEND,

FORGIVE MY INDIGNATION IF THIS MESSAGE COMES TO YOU AS A SURPRISE AND MAY OFFEND YOUR PERSONALITY FOR CONTACTING YOU WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR CONSENT AND WRITING THROUGH THIS CHANNEL.I GOT YOUR CONTACT FROM A PROFESSIONAL DATABASE FOUND ON THE INTERNET WHILE SEARCHING FOR A RELIABLE AND HONEST PERSON THAT WILL ASSIST ME TO SAFE GUARDA0 UND INTO AN ACCOUNT OVERSEA. I WAS DIVINELY INSPIRED TO PICK YOUR NAME AMONG ALL OTHER NAMES FOUND IN THE DATABASE.

MY NAME IS ANDREW A. MCELWEE, JR. CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PERSONAL INSURANCE DEPARTMENT OF THE CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A. I AM WRITING IN RESPECT OF A FOREIGN CLIENT [MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER] OF THE ABOVE NAMED INSURANCE COMPANY [ENGR.WILLIAM F. ABRAHAMSON OF AMERICA] WHO PERISHED IN THE U.S 9/11/2001,TERRORIST ATTACK WITH OTHER PASSENGERS ABOARD AS YOU ARE AWARE OF THIS FACT OR CAN CONFIRM IT YOURSELF.

SINCE THE DEMISE OF ENGR.WILLIAM F. ABRAHAMSON,I PERSONALLY HAVE WATCHED WITH KEEN INTEREST TO SEE THE BENEFICIARY TO HIS MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER, BUT ALL HAS PROVED ABORTIVE AS NO ONE HAS REPORTED TO CLAIM HIS BENEFIT OF TOTAL SUM AMOUNTING TO £15,860 000.00 [FIFTEEN MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED AND
SIXTY THOUSAND POUNDS STERLING] ONLY, EXITING WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANY WHEN ADDED UP THE FOLLOWING BONUS: BASIC ALLOWANCE, WAIVER PREMIUM AND ACCIDENTAL INDEMNITY, WHICH HAS BEEN WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANY FOR A VERY LONG TIME UNCLAIMED.

ON THIS VERY NOTE; AS NO ONE HAS COME TO PUT UP ANY CLAIM REPORT TO OUR OFFICE AS REGARDS TO THE BENEFICIARY TO THE MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP AND THE INSURANCE ETHIC HERE IN THE UK, REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY (FSA) RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF UK BUSINESS, INSURANCE CODE AND BUSINESS INSURANCE CODE STANDARDS OF WHICH CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY IS A MEMBER OF THE FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN SCHEME. DOES NOT ALLOW SUCH CLAIM TO STAY FOR OVER MORE THAN MANY YEARS, BECAUSE THE COMPANY SHALL HAVE POWER AFTER TEN GOOD YEARS TO DISCONTINUE THE POLICY AND TERMINATE THE INSURED MASTERPIECE POLICYHOLDER OWNERSHIP BENEFITS.

IN VIEW OF THE AFOREMENTIONED, AFTER I WAS CONVINCED IN MY MIND THAT YOUR NAME COULD BE USED AS THE BENEFICIARY TO THIS MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP CLAIM.THE NEED FOR A FOREIGNER AS THE BENEFICIARY TO CLAIM THE MASTER PIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP IS OCCASIONED BY THE FACT THAT THE MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP WAS A FOREIGNER AND AS A STAFF OF THE COMPANY I CANNOT STAND AS THE BENEFICIARY TO A FOREIGNER IN THIS CLAIM.

I THEREFORE PROPOSE THAT 40% OF THIS ABOVE FUND WILL BE FOR YOU AS A FOREIGN PARTICIPANT IN RESPECT OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT, COMPLIANCE AND FULL CO-OPERATION TOWARDS THE SUCCESSFUL CLAIMANT, WHILE 5% WILL BE FOR ANY EXPENSES THAT MIGHT BE INCURRED IN THE PROCESS OF PROCURING SATISFACTORY PROOF DOCUMENTS TO BE ISSUED ON YOUR NAME LEGALLY FOR BACK-UP TO ENABLE CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY OF EUROPE S.A. PAY THE LUMP SUMS AND ALLOWANCE BENEFITS AS SET OUT UNDER THE CHUBB PERSONAL INSURANCE CASH ACCUMULATION MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP SCALE OF COMPENSATION AND THE REST FUND WILL BE FOR ME. THEREAFTER, I WILL VISIT YOUR COUNTRY FOR DISBURSEMENT OF FUND AS I AM ALMOST DUE FOR RETIREMENT.UPON THE RECEIPT OF YOUR POSITIVE REPLY, I WILL THEN INFORM YOU THE NEXT STEP TO TAKE.

I WILL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR GOOD NOTICE THAT THIS DEAL IS 100% HITCH FREE, AS THE WHOLE REQUIRED ARRANGEMENT HAS BEEN SKILLFULLY PERFECTED FOR THE MASTERPIECE POLICY HOLDER OWNERSHIP CLAIM.

MY HIGHEST CONSIDERATIONS AND REGARDS AS I AWAIT YOUR URGENT RESPONSE.

THANK YOU.

ANDREW A. MCELWEE,JR.
DIRECT TEL: +44-701-xxx-xxx
EMAIL: andrewmcelweejr@xxx.xxx

Note: kindly reply to this email address for security reasons: andrewmcelweejr@xxx.com OR andrewmcelweejr@xxx.com

This email is a prime example of Advance Fee Fraud. Click Here to find out more about how this scam works and how you can avoid getting taken in.

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