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eniwetok

(1,629 posts)
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 01:30 PM Jan 2017

I LOVE eMail Scams

I'm not talking about the phishing emails trying to get your Paypal password, but those attempts like the one below. I've been collecting them for nearly 20 years. It's so nice of the FBI to personally verify that I had won $1 in a contest I'd never entered. So if the FBI says I just need to pay $299, it all must be on the up and up!


FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Anti-Terrorist and International Fraud Division
601 4th Street NW, Washington, DC 20535

RE: VERIFIED LOTTERY WINNINGS




We are officially informing you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigation with the help of the our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won the sum of $1,000,000.00 US Dollars from the U.K. Mega Millions Lottery® draw held on Friday through an online balloting system. During our investigation it was discovered that tickets are assigned to email marketing lists donated from marketing companies here in the United States and around the world on behalf of all email account holders that are currently subscribed to newsletters and advertisements. Therefore your email address won you the Lottery from the online balloting system. The issue was brought before the board and we authorized this winning to be authentic and to be transferred to you electronically. Typically, it will take up to 20 business days for an international transfer to be processed in the United States, so we ordered the lottery board to have funds remitted directly to you from a bank registered to the lottery organization so as to enable you receive your lottery winnings within 24 hours by whatever means you choose. They complied with our instructions and the amount of $1,000,000.00 US Dollars was deposited with National State Bank®/ Zenith.



We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize immediately as we have verified the entire transaction to be Legitimate, Safe and 100% risk free. Due to the fact that the funds were transferred to the United States from an international location, it is 100% Tax-Free, which means the funds are bonded and nothing can be deducted from it before you make your transfer. According to our records and because of the tax-free-no-deduction policy, you are required to settle the following bills for authorization directly to your lottery claims agent in charge of this transaction before you can transfer the funds to yourself: Cost of EFT Transfer & Conversion Fee.



The total amount is $299.99 (Two Hundred, Ninety Nine United States Dollars and Ninety Nine cents). We have tried our possible best to have the lottery organization deduct the $299.99 from your lottery winning but the funds have already been deposited at the bank and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you (the winner), again due to the Tax-Free-No-Deduction policy. Therefore you have to pay the required fees to your lottery claims agent in charge of this transaction. You will be granted instant access to your account with National State Bank®/ Zenith. where your $1,000,000 was deposited and you can request a check, credit/debit card or make a transfer out to your nominated bank account.



In order to claim your $1,000,000.00, here are your Winning Numbers: 12-29-46-47-51-(24). Go to the UK Mega Millions Lottery website: http://www.megamillions.com/index/log/index.html to check your numbers then fill in and submit the "Claims Processing Form" As soon as your form is received a claims agent will be in contact with you, For your comfort you can click on Winners Gallery just to be clear and verify from other lottery winners.

This letter and the seal above will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $299.99 to the UK Mega Millions Lottery® by means they provide you with. Once again this lottery has been “VERIFIED” and is under our 24hr surveillance every step of the way.

To avoid multiple claims of your lottery winnings, please keep your Winning Numbers safe and away from 2nd or 3rd parties.


****** A copy of your winning ticket is below this e-mail as proof of authenticity ******


Mark W. Marek
Assistant Director in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation

12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
1. Don't forget to send your money on to that Nigerian prince.
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 01:35 PM
Jan 2017

You could be in for a very prosperous 2107!

eniwetok

(1,629 posts)
2. Ya, I've got letters from him too!
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 01:42 PM
Jan 2017

Or was it the lawyer of someone who died in the 2004 tsunami and wants me to have 13 million Euros?



Dear Friend,
My name is Barrister Mrs Rachel Lopez Esq of the MMS Law Firm in Madrid
. I actually got your contact information through the Internet public records while
searching for a foreign partner that will assist me with the transfer of
funds of a business magnate by name Smith Goshn who lived in Spain for
Thirteen years. He died along with his family during the Tsunami
catastrophe which occurred December 2004.

Before his death, he deposited the sum of (13,300,000.00euro ) Thirteen
Million ,Three Hundred Thousand Euros, with a Financial /Security
institutions here in Spain. The financial institution being aware of his
sudden death , have mandated me to present a member of his family
(heir/inheritor) or next of kin to make Claims of the fund, otherwise it
will be forfeited and reverts to the treasury of the Spanish Ministry of
finance & the Central Bank , as unclaimed. This is because in accordance
with the Spanish law, such fortune is automatically bequeathed to the
government if there is no heir or next of kin to the deceased that would
surface to claim the fortune. However, this law is unjust and inhuman as
it often creates an avenue for the top officials of some financial
institutions to divert such fortunes for their own selfish use. On that
ground, I decided to search for any of my late client's relative which has
been proved abortive as he did not declare any next of kin!
, partner or relatives in the official paper including the deposit
certificate and did not make any will (en-state) with us.
Against this backdrop, I decided to contact you to join me to put claims
on this deposit before it`s forfeited to the authorities, my suggestion to
you is that I will like to present you as the beneficiary to this deposit,
since both of you are both foreign nationals, I know you may not in a
anyway related to my late client, but By virtue of my position as his
personal Attorney, I will now place your name as the next of kin/ foreign
partner to my late client. I will prepare every relevant legal document
that will assist your claims and facilitate the release of the fund to you
without any breach of the law.
Note, this transaction is 100% risk free, there is no single risk
connected to this business as I have worked out all modalities to complete
the transaction successfully. Once the fund is released to you, we shall
share in the ratio of 50% for me, 45% for you while remaining 5% for any
expenses incurred during the cause of securing this deposit. If my
proposal is acceptable to you, reply via my private email address:
rachel_lopez16@aol.com for further discussion on how to proceed.


Best regards.
Barrister Rachel Lopez Esq
rachel_lopez16@aol.com

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
3. You too? It's hard to believe that there are so many generous people out there willing to
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 01:47 PM
Jan 2017

share their fortune with us. Aren't we lucky to be born in such a golden age?

 

Naamah

(8 posts)
4. Lol!! I haven't received any similar emails but I received my share of phone calls
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 01:47 PM
Jan 2017

Last edited Sun Jan 1, 2017, 02:18 PM - Edit history (1)

from some call center pretending that they are the IRS and that I allegedly owed them money. I entertained their scam for a while to see how far they would go lol. Eventually I told them that I knew they were impersonating the IRS simply because one: I don't owe the IRS any money, and secondly, they would contact me by mail first. Once I said that, they started cursing at me and hang up lol. It was fun.

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,746 posts)
6. I don't get the emails, but I've gotten
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 02:03 PM
Jan 2017

the phony IRS calls. Also the ones supposedly from Microsoft security. It's pretty lame how quickly they start cursing once you let then know you're on to them.

 

Naamah

(8 posts)
8. Exactly!
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 02:16 PM
Jan 2017

I didn't expect that, to be honest! They cursed worse than a truck driver! (No offense to truck drivers out there lol!)

0rganism

(23,855 posts)
9. i do have to wonder what happens to people who fall for it though
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 02:32 PM
Jan 2017

the "Nigerian Prince" scam was extremely lame, but hundreds of people bought into it, and ended up in a sticky mess. as i recall, the next stage after one made contact with the scammers was to get "invited" to Africa to assist with the claim process, where things could get really tough for the suckers (extortion, kidnapping/ransom situations, etc. - e.g. http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/01/16/nigerian-email-scam-ends-in-real-life-kidnapping.html )

what seems to most of us to be a farce so blatant that only the impossibly dense could be fooled by it is only perpetrated because it has the potential for success. apparently there are enough impossibly dense people with assets to keep the scam machine running.

Liberal In Texas

(13,453 posts)
10. You might be interested in the 409 Eater website.
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 02:56 PM
Jan 2017

Scamming the scammers. Many of the back and forth letters with the scammers are hilarious.

http://www.419eater.com/

Check out the letters page, the trophy room, and the hall of shame.



SwissTony

(2,560 posts)
11. I once got an email from the Director of the FBI.
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 05:09 PM
Jan 2017

Strangely, his email address was in Russia. And his English wasn't too good.

He said he was going to prosecute for some nefarious dealings but I could avoid all the complications by paying a fine upfront. I wanted to pay the fine but I lost the address.

Several years later, I'm still expecting the FBI to be banging on my door. Any minute now. Here in The Netherlands.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,085 posts)
12. One of the best phishing ones I recceived was supposedly from e-bay
Sun Jan 1, 2017, 05:16 PM
Jan 2017

It read: you've overpaid for a recent purchase. Please give us your bank account number so we can refund the difference.

I've never bought anything on e-bay.

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