How low can online scammers go?

I have become used to receiving urgent messages from people who have a sudden a desperate need for the use of my bank account.

There are tales of Nigerian wills and family disputes in Hong Kong. And I cannot even count the number of times I have won the UK Lottery.

I often wonder what sort of folks are behind these wizard wheezes, how long they take to concoct their bilge and whether they sit there hoping, like wizened insurance salesmen in sweaty nylon shirts, for that one big success that will make their year.

However, reader Julian Gomez has pointed me in the direction of what some might consider a new low in attempted online theft.

There are nasty, demented minds out there writing e-mails purporting to be from U.S. Marines stationed in Afghanistan.

Gomez received one that went like this: "When on a routine mission of search and destroy, we stumbled upon a concealed barrel with piles of weapon and ammunition, my men and I agreed that the money be shared, the sum of $900,000.00 (Nine hundred thousand dollars) now happens to be my share."

(Credit: CC Nina Hale)

If you are not already sucked in by this exciting tale, the writer brings in an international flavor: "I have the cooperation of a German diplomat working here for its evacuation to a safer country, though, I have not disclosed the true contents of the package to him. He believes it to be personal effects of an Asian American who died in an air raid."

So, perhaps carelessly, the writer is already admitting he is a liar. However, like the creme-de-la-creme of liars, he wants is to be able to trust you: "I need someone I can trust to receive this package as a relative to this dead Asian American, there is a secured way of getting the package out to a safer country for you to pick up."

All you have to do, therefore, is to pretend to be the relative of a dead Asian-American Marine. What could be simpler?

However, there is one crucial stricture: "One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with a third party, should you have reasons to reject this offer, please destroy this mail as any leakage of its content could spell doom for me. I do not know how long we will remain here but hopefully before the year runs out, we shall be out."

Yes, the liar, having secured your trust, ends with an appeal to your sympathy.

Of course scam artists have been around since lucre became lucrative. And most people will see this tale to have the height it actually does. However, it takes just one person to fall for it to make it worth the scammer's while--perhaps someone with a special affinity for the military, someone lonely, perhaps aging, perhaps as trusting as the director of the FBI, whose wife prevented him from falling for an online scam.

With the boundaries of reality shows being expanded like the gut of a hot-dog eating champion, mightn't this be the time to get the finest online minds to compete in a show perhaps called "Scammers in the Slammer."

The winner would be the one who, less brawny than the Bounty Hunter but more brainy than Larry Page, smoked out more of these insidious little people from whichever hole they happen to inhabit.

I, for one, would love to watch that show. Wouldn't you?

[GadgetDon]

This is new to you? Got a bunch of them from military in Iraq who located Saddam's millions.

[tacit]

I got my first 'I'm a Marine stationed in Afghanistan" email about three years ago, and several "Im a US soldier in Iraq" about a year before that. Some of them were Saddam's millions, some of them were Kuwaiti gold, some of them were Taliban millions...yep, this scam isn't new.

Right now, I'm averaging 6-8 of these emails a day.

[Pete Bardo]

I'd watch a reality show of "Scamming the Scammers", a competition to see who can come up with the most outrageous scam like this.

[moordrake]

Wasent this all a George Clooney movie already?

[Tyranter]

I got one very similair to that not so long ago. I offered them the use the shed at the bottom of the gardern (and not to worry about the small padlock on the door as it was stonger than it looked and the stash would be fine in the there). also asked for them to advsie a rough time so i could be back from sainsburys for them if it was a Monday. But alas they never responded. Someone else must have got lucky.

[jchanski21]

Sometimes I try to have fun with these guys too. I once got 12 replies in deep with someone who wanted me to pick up something he was shipping from the UK. He stopped responding after I mentioned that my sister was currently studying abroad within a train ride of him, and would be able to discretely bring it back to the states.

It is sad, however, that these scammers believe me falling so hook, line, and sinker for these ridiculous plots. But the sadder thing is that the reason they believe me... is because they probably get responses like mine often, but from people who aren't joking...

[myles taylor]

Laws are insufficient to stop these new breeds of criminals. We need to adapt and we haven't. The internet has been around for awhile now and we have no excuse for not having adequate responses to these types of crimes.

[unamike]

Sure we do. Have you paid any attention to the folks who actually make the laws recently? About the time our kids are running for office all of this will get cleaned up tight.

[LaTene_Man]

I personally would like to see these low-lifes do about 20 years hard labor.

[sek-oz]

There is no limit to how low a slimy conning snake will go to make a buck. They have no ethics, or morals, and do not care who they dupe or what happens to them.

You shouldn't fain surprise over something like this just to post a headline. CNet sure has been going down hill.... or maybe it's just "Technically Incorrect", as most of this blog is tripe.

[johnisfun]

"Feign", not fain.

But yes, this guy sucks me in with good headlines, but the quality and style of his articles is more suited to his close friends and family than to an international audience. Please CNET, monitor the quality of the bloggers you allow into your network!

[karpenterskids]

Oh, I would SO watch a reality TV show like that.


During the four years that I've owned an email address, I've won countless drawings from UK lotteries. And Yahoo lotteries. And Microsoft lotteries.

Not to mention all the Nigerian wills from long-lost relatives.

I even got one from a "man of God", who had a vision where God revealed my name and email address to him. God told him that I wasn't living right, and that I was headed to hell...the only way I could be saved was if I made an anonymous contribution to a church building project in some foreign country. BUT if I told anyone about this, it wouldn't work. :)

The sad part is that I almost fell for that last one (seeing as it [sadly] described the place I was at in my life at the time), except that a quick Google search pulled up results showing that others had gotten the same email.

Whew.

[pd2care]

Someone with enough money to fund a "Search and Destroy" program should step-up and do some good. They should start offering money to people who go out and find these a-holes and bring them to their knees. The law isn't going to take care of it b/c they'll just bog it down with legal mumbo jumbo about trying to protect these tools' rights. We need to create a group of internet police who seek out these people and put an ends to their trickery.

[biffhenerson]

How low can they go? I think that they are already at the bottom reguardless of who they impersonate.

[Regulator7]

There are people out there who are Scamming the Scammers. Check out 419eater.com. A couple of guys from here were on the NPR radio show, "This American Life" a year or so ago. Absolutely hilarious to hear what they did to this one Nigerian scammer.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=363

[Jack K1]

My "favorite" (low) scam is the one from the "authorities" that promises to help get your money back once you've been scammed.

[keepntabs]

I have received similar emails like this one also. But my personal favorite scam attempt comes from replies to Craigslist postings. They usually go something like this, "I am so much interested in procuring your magnificent item that is for sale...I am currently on honeymoon in Hawaii, and am willing to pay you $XX above the asking price if you agree to sell it to me. I will have my secretary send you a certified check, and after it is received my mover will come pick up the item. Please revert if you have any questions." Whatever you do never fall for this. Only deal with people who will bring you cash in person to buy the item. If you take that "certified check" it is only certified to be bogus, and you will incur bank charges and have had your item stolen for none payment.

[Kalemanzi]

I have reported some of these guys to Interpol. Maybe somebody must make a movie about a special ops team that sniffs these guys out and actually assassinate them or something. (Starring Steven Segul?!)

[hmdz105]

Have you guys got those emails that pretend to collect money for a poor cancer patients( usually a little girl/boy) and beg you just to pass the mail to another friend for helping the victim?
Or the ones that say Microsoft will pay you money just by forwarding this mail?!

They all remind me of Criss Angel and I don't know why!

[silkibivi]

I got an email from the FBI the other day signed by director Mueller. It was quite long and detailed. So I went on the FBI site and they have a slew of all kinds of fake emails posted. The audacity of people is just amazing.

[delabec]

Like most of you, for years I have received email asking for help in recovering fortunes in Africa and request for my personal information so I could collect the millions won in the UK Lottery. I have never purchased a UK Lottery ticket it is curious that I have won so many times.
The other day however I received an email from a single mom in Russia asking me if I had or could find a wood burning stove for her and her family. Since I don't have a spare stove and have no idea where one could be procured I left this request unanswered. I did wonder however where this was leading. If anyone knows what the scam is here, I would like to know.

[Yrag54]

They probably figure a stove would be too hard to ship to Russia but some cash$ in an envelope would be more convenient for you.

[aesculus09]

I can't fund a "search and destroy" program for these guys, but I did set up a website were we can report these guys to suspectedscammers.com. if the authorities can't do enough to stop it, we can self-police the internet and inform each other who these guys are.

visitors to suspected scammers.com can anonymously (and for free) submit email addresses of nigerian scammers as well as search through our database of previously reported scammers. no subscription or registration is required. please pardon the self-promotion, but we built this website as a public service for (hopefully) the benefit of the internet community.