It’s amazing that these scams still run around here is the most recent I got, I have so far received 5 copies at different email addresses so apparently they really want to get in touch with me. Hopefully by now everyone knows not to call these folks, but apparently people are still calling or they would stop. These scams are for one reason, they are to take money out of your checking account, and they will do that. Make sure you just delete these emails and ignore them. They will look like the one below:

NATIONALE POSTCODE LOTERIJ
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS.

Dear Winner,

Congratulations! You have just won one million, two hundred and fifty thousand euro (Ђ1,250,000) in
an internet lottery in which e-mail addresses were picked randomly by software powered by the Internet
through the worldwide website. Your email address was among those chosen in this first quarter of the
year. This promo is proudly sponsored by the Nationale Postcode Loterij, the Netherlands . You can log on
to our website for more information concerning our entire lottery promo at http://www.postcodeloterij.nl

Your email address, attached to JOKER NUMBER 123848, with EXTRA JOKER NUMBER 334726 drew the
WINNING NUMBER 19-21-23-33-35-37+30, and subsequently won the lottery in the “C” Category. You have
therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of Ђ1,250,000 million (one million, two hundred and fifty
thousand euro) Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European Booklet
representative office in Europe as indicated in the play coupon. Our European agent will immediately
commence the process of your winning to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him.

Note again that all participants were selected randomly from World Wide Website through computer draw
System which extracted emails addresses from over 300,000 companies and individuals. For security
reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your
money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem convenient to Claim your prize. This is part of our
precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some
unscrupulous elements. To begin your claim, please contact our accredited agent whose details you see
below:

Mr. Mass De Boer
Global Diplomatic Finance BV
Amsterdam , Netherlands .
Tel: +31-633-051-855
Email: agentmassdeboer@luckymail.com

NOTE: To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your joker number, extra joker
number and winning number alongside your phone numbers in any correspondence with your designated
claim agent.

Congratulations once again from all members and staff of this program.

Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery winner program.

Sincerely,
Mrs.C.Tensen
Coordinator
(Nationale Postcode Loterij)

The 2010 census will be kicking off soon (Census Day is April 1, 2010) , however one thing you will need to understand is that with this starting people will also be phishing for your social security number and other personal information. If you get an email claiming to be related to the Census it is a scam and just delete it. We have seen these types of scams run with almost every topic in the news that relates to personal information or money, such as the Government Grants that came with the Kevin Hoeffer scams, the mortgage scams that ran and more.

I expect to start seeing an influx in emails that tell you to go fill out the census online and will give you a website that will look official, do not trust these sites. It is recommended that if you are going to go to any site from an email that you type the site in by hand.

Email is very insecure as well, you should never send any important information over email as the protocols used to send and receive emails was never made to be secure. So I do not recommend sending any personal identifying information with email.

Scam artists are getting smarter and following trends in the news, so since this is starting to become a trending topic I expect to start seeing these floating around in force soon. Remember before entering any personal information anywhere make sure you know where your data is going, this could be influenced by the privacy policy or terms of service on a site.

CNN has more information on this at Will your privacy be compromised online?.

This really hits the “something for nothing crowd” hard, however I like many others are here to tell you that no one in Nigeria wants to give you money, there is one thing they do want however. They want your money, this 419 scam has gone on with dates as early as 1920s that was known as “The Spanish Prisoner” con. These cons are now pilfering all over the Internet and even on Facebook they are also known as “Advance Fee Fraud”

Once you agree to help you will notice something will always go wrong, and it will need money but they can not use the money they have because its tied up. So they will need a few dollars from you. Once you send that money you can wait for your transfer of funds, crap the phone just rang, we have to bribe an officials. Once you have no more money or start making threats they are gone and so is your money.

Why does this work?

The short and sweet of it is people want something for nothing and that’s what they thought they where going to get. So the victim is blinded by the amounts of money that should be coming our way. Everyone in their life has had something like this happen where they were promised something and that is all they saw till they got it. They will work you until they are happy that you are blinded then they need something from you. Since you are blinded and they have built a trust factor you will follow them down the slippery path.

Other known variants of the same scam

This one is targeted at church’s and religious organizations and they play off the bleeding hearts and claim that a wealthy benefactor wants to leave all the money they have to the church they lead with a back story that is also bullshit. The same things happen in this one as well, delays, problems, legal issues, bribes it all comes down to opening your check book.

Lottery scams are the same, except you never remember entering the lottery and that is because you did not. However the crooks are trying to enter into your check book.

And now Facebook, this one is so easy to avoid yet people never do, The crook will hijack one of your friends accounts and then contacts all the friends and claims that they are in trouble and need your help. This one is probably the most dangerous because you believe its your friend. However one question! If its your friend why did you not pick up the phone and call. I have one rule I will help any friend in need, provided I can talk to them on the phone, I can see them in person and I never send money I will hand money. Now I know your saying that this will not help if they are stuck in London, however I would know my friends are not in London because we stay in touch, anyone else is just an acquaintance and probably would not get my attention. This one has been labeled “The London Scam” because when it first came out that is what the scam was.

Here is a transcript of one of the scammers and well some people fall for it.

I can not do anything on any information from a 419 scam but the Secret Service can and they want anyone who has been victim of this or these scams to send appropriate written documentation (what ever they want basically) to them you can contact them at

Or you can contact them via phone at 202-406-5850. They do not want any faxed copies however so you must do one of the two. If you contact by phone they will probably want you to send the written documentation but that way you can find out what they are needing.

If you get an email from these types of scams

I ask that you forward the email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov in order to keep the headers intact

Resources

• The “Nigerian” Scam: Costly Compassion
• PUBLIC AWARENESS ADVISORY REGARDING “4-1-9″ OR “ADVANCE FEE FRAUD” SCHEMES
• snopes.com Nigerian Scam