Nigerian Bank Scams - Now They're Phoning.

[Morgan Ellis]

I can't believe this. The emails were bad enough, but now they've stepped their game up a notch, to actual phone calls.

Some moron just phoned me from (as he said) Nigeria, babbling about 'needing my help' and wanting to 'send me $5000' for an appointment. I cut him off with my usual line about payment in CASH only, ever, and he babbled some more about bank drafts and how I must help him. What the fuck ever.

I told him I was going to report his call to the FBI, and he got upset and told me 'no no no, I just need your help with this payment'. I just hung up. Poor Vida could hear me screaming at him all the way upstairs.

Anyways, here's the ph# that showed up:

234-804-504-4185

I have no idea why it's so long - international and country codes, perhaps?

At any rate, stay alert, ladies. By the way, here's an a website which details how this scam works.

https://www.hotline.ie/html02/warnbb.htm

Morgan

[zzap]

With Voice over IP becoming so wide spread and low cost... in some cases free like with Skype… you better get ready for all kinds of strange calls in the future from these people in the darkest corners of the Globe.
:eek:

http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html

[mass123]

These brits have a lot of time on their hands to bait the scammers, funny though,

http://www.419eater.com/html/baiting.htm

[MuffinMuncher]

The big scam in the States is Nigerians contacting would-be landlords under the guise of renting a house or a room. They send a "deposit" from their "employer" and ask to have some of that returned ASAP in the form of a bank check to pay for their alleged plane ticket.

The deposit is forged and fraudulent postal money orders that *most* banks do not have the technology to catch yet. Its only after they are deposited, are made available to the customer, then returned a month later that you realize its all a fake. By then the poor schmuck has send out the bank check and has no retribution.

If it seems to good to be true, it usually is. Cash is king. Period.

[stinkynuts]

I, for one, admire their cleverness, persistence, innovation, and unbridled audacity. I look forward to falling for one of their scams when I am senile.

[ThePunkPanther]

some enterprising heroic person will take a chainsaw to the cable bundles that link nigeria [and all there scams] to the internet and the rest of the world. [cutting off a large source of nuisance in the process]

from what i've seen over the years, pretty much all of the email out of nigeria seems to be a 419 scam... what a waste of bandwidth....

the silly thing is that this is not a new scam by any means. [previous generations of nigerian scammers used fax machines]

[kumamake]

hello,
just to make everyone aware, there are more emails out there from south africa, malaysia, indonesia, and most recently from a lady in france, who claims that she has moved to france for her safety and still has her fathers money in banks in africa. as for the asian countries, there emails are looking for help to get the money out of the country because their parents were killed during the tsunami and the govermentnt is holding the monies.

please beware and pass the info to all your friends and family specially the elders.

[leah_mpa]

It's really unfortunate that there are so many bad people out there, waiting for any opportunity to scam us out of our hard earned money. One of my friends lost somewhere between $90,000 - $100,000 in the Nigerian scam. And I knew she wasn't exaggerating because she was crying for weeks. She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep. I wanted to cry too just watching her. It was awful. She just sat there, frozen, staring into space, tears coming down her face... she couldn't even go to work. Always remember. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There's no such thing as free money in the world. Even those who win the lottery... don't forget, they had to buy a ticket first!!

[gww]

In god we trust, all others pay cash :rolleyes:

[Kwazy]

it was a couple of years back.....apparently the RCMP was making monthly trips to Nigeria back then bringing back Canadians who had taken out credit lines on their homes and brought the money over. Transactions were actually being completed inside Nigerian banks. Unlike here however, the Nigerian Banks often rent out offices by the hour to whomever pays the fee, so what looked all official, was always just a scam.

[SolomonKane]

I present the holy order of the painted breast. 419Eater is a website about turning the tables on these villians.....

The Holy order of the painted breast (http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm)

[thunder0702]

Dam .........and I thought I could make some money here:eek:

[WhaWhaWha]

One of my friends lost somewhere between $90,000 - $100,000... ...crying for weeks... couldn't eat,... ...sleep. ...just sat there, frozen, staring into space, tears coming down her face... she couldn't even go to work.
My first instinct was to keep my mouth shut. My second was to express my regrets for your friend's obvious remorse over her blunder.

But I'm past all that now and just want to say -- serves her right for being greedier than smart. How hard did she work for that money? What was she supposed to do with it besides gamble her future away? Do other people in this world depend on her? God help them!

We are living in the most developed corner of the world. How can our average/prosperous citizens be such easy pickings for third world con artists?

[1user]

This kind of email is different it wants to find out who you are, I responded by asking them for their phone contact , still waiting


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[leah_mpa]

Hi fellow terbites!! Actually, a few of you PMed me and asked me how my friend came to lose such a large amount of money so I thought I'd just post it here. It was awhile ago so I cannot remember EXACTLY what happened, (and I don't want to ask my friend again; it would only upset her) but it was something like this: She met this guy who told her that he's suppose to inherit a couple billion dollars and somehow, the money is stuck in this bank because he doesn't have all the IDs and papers that they require. So he's thinking of bribing the bank official (cash) but he doesn't have enough money to bribe him. So that's why he needs my friend's help. He says he has $50,000 already but he needs $50,000 more. Once my friend gave him the money, he told her he "needed" more money for this, and more money for that... due to different complications that keep on coming up. Next thing she knew, she gave him close to $90,000-$100,000. How she finally found out it was a scam was from the internet. Someone told her that they remember reading somewhere about Nigerian scams and told her to maybe "google" it just to see if anything comes up. When she did, she was shocked by all the different testimonies. That's when she knew that she's been scammed as well. She told me she almost flew out to Nigeria too!! I don't even want to imagine what would've happened to her :eek: .

[the rusty tromb]

Leah, if this story is true your friend is a complete moron.

PS Can you ask her to lend me 1 million dollars?

[solitaria]

Hi fellow terbites!! Actually, a few of you PMed me and asked me how my friend came to lose such a large amount of money so I thought I'd just post it here. It was awhile ago so I cannot remember EXACTLY what happened, (and I don't want to ask my friend again; it would only upset her) but it was something like this: She met this guy who told her that he's suppose to inherit a couple billion dollars and somehow, the money is stuck in this bank because he doesn't have all the IDs and papers that they require. So he's thinking of bribing the bank official (cash) but he doesn't have enough money to bribe him. So that's why he needs my friend's help. He says he has $50,000 already but he needs $50,000 more. Once my friend gave him the money, he told her he "needed" more money for this, and more money for that... due to different complications that keep on coming up. Next thing she knew, she gave him close to $90,000-$100,000. How she finally found out it was a scam was from the internet. Someone told her that they remember reading somewhere about Nigerian scams and told her to maybe "google" it just to see if anything comes up. When she did, she was shocked by all the different testimonies. That's when she knew that she's been scammed as well. She told me she almost flew out to Nigeria too!! I don't even want to imagine what would've happened to her :eek: .

Sounds more like a MPA scam to me. I bet she could sucker a lot of guys for sympathy money with that story. MPA's are way more worldly wise than that especially if she has been around long enough to make that kind of dough. I either got to believe you are making it up or that she was trying to scam you too.

[Vancouver Femme Fatale]

I get these constantly. They all offer the lure of a multiple day booking, and all ask for pictures, which I assume they sell, or, maybe stick up on the walls of the break room like Snap-on girls at a garage.

Good day ,
i am ***** ***** ,i am an African tourism and research consultant ,presently handling some tourism and research project here in Africa for some of my colleagues which i need to proceed to the united states on conclusion based on some recent developments.Hello Sweet heart,i have viewed your profile online which i have found you to be beautiful and elegant .i have therefore decided to make a reservation with you on sat / sunday 11th and 12th June 2005.i know it will be much okay to make payment ahead of time in other to have my dates endorsed .i will like to have your price for these two days having good time with you ,also i will like you to forward some of your beautiful pictures for more headturning assesment .sweetheart will like to read your response immidiately .
Love and Hugs ,
*****.

This is the more sinister variation;

Hello > i am obie working for a unilever community > assitance in
nigeria which covers initiative in > the fields of hellth .education. water
.hygine.in > field of helth . donation sponsorship and brand > program
. our strategy is to work with reputable > NGOS which have the
technical expertise know how > and infrastructure, to ensure that all
stekeholder > derive maximum benefit and qurantee continuity and > sustainble. so
i will be in the states for a surmit > for 2days and i want you to be my escort for 2 days... so try to tell me your full name.....
Address......
phone no.....

so send me your detials so that i will processe the money to you ...the money wii be inform off money order and it will send to by my debtor . he will send you $2500 in your name and you take a non refundable fee of $500 and you send me the rest through western union money transfar so that i will be able to pay for my ticket to come overthere and meet physically .bye love .
CHEERS
OBIE

This guy is calling himself "Obie Trice"...like he'd be more up on his American pop culture than I am...

You know, you'd almost think that with all the dough they're scamming, SOMEBODY WOULD BUY A DICTIONARY!

[leah_mpa]

Sounds more like a MPA scam to me. I bet she could sucker a lot of guys for sympathy money with that story. MPA's are way more worldly wise than that especially if she has been around long enough to make that kind of dough. I either got to believe you are making it up or that she was trying to scam you too.

Hi solitaria!! Actually, I've been in the business for a long time now and I can definitely tell you that although most girls in this business are VERY good at making money, they're not very good at keeping it. :( Honestly, if I saved up ALL the money I ever made in this business, I should probably have a million dollars by now!! Instead, I blew all my money on cab rides (can't afford a car), supporting my loser boyfriend, ordering out all the time (don't know how to cook), partying in the past (almost every weekend plus sometimes even AFTER work when I use to finish at one in the morning), etc...etc... Oh, and let's not forget all the thousands of dollars I spent on a whole bunch of garbage psychics (and they're expensive too!!) before I found the 2 good ones now... Trust me, I don't have much of anything left. I have my condo that's almost all paid off now (maybe one or two more years to go, if by bf would stop taking money from me), but that's about all I have. Am I good at making money? You betcha!! When I do show up for work, I usually average 9-14 clients per shift. You can do the math. But am I good at keeping that money?? I wish I was. Lost a ton of money on the stock market too. Over $17,000 just on Bre-X alone. And let's not forget my crazy shopping sprees in the past. I don't do it anymore, but I used to buy clothes that were over $700 at Holt Renfrew. I'd wear it a few times, get bored, and give it to Goodwill. I've changed a lot now. Now, I just go window shopping most of the time. If I could turn back time, I would. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a time machine. I would do so many things differently.

[goodtime]

Never too late for change.

Look at Trump, Mandela, Drew Barrymore, plenty of rock musicians who turned their life around. Einstein was high-school failure. Edison failed so many times with the light bulb...

Goals and determination. Break it into stages/sections. Consider small rewards for reaching your milestone.

When I brought my 1st place, I had $0 in my bank account as I underestimated the expenses. I set saving target for every 2 wks and did my best to match it, evertually build it back up day-by-day.


Your resistance to throw $ away is a good start. Cut the draining liability. Time for lech BF to earn his keep (besides you know what).

[leah_mpa]

Hi goodtime!! Thank you for your advice. You always have something wise to say which is really good. I definitely don't waste money the way I used to. Now, I'm starting to put some money into low risk mutual funds so hopefully, I'll have a bit of money when I retire. You know, a lot of people envy us for the amount of money we're making but most people don't realize that as a whacker, we get no benefits, no retirement package, no nothing!! So what we save is all we're gonna have in the future. Lately, I've been getting smarter too. I'm hiding money away from my bf. Ever since I started having feelings for the LE guy and realize that it is possible for me to fall in love with someone else and that I might not necessarily spend the rest of my life with him, I don't show him all the money I make anymore. I used to be really honest and show him everything.


Leah, if this story is true your friend is a complete moron.

PS Can you ask her to lend me 1 million dollars?

Hi rusty!! If you think this friend is a complete moron, listen to this... I had another friend who went to this one psychic who convinced her that her love life is horrible because of some horrible stuff she did in her "past life". So now, her love life is sh*t because of this bad karma. So in order to get rid of this bad karma, she had to go to this psychic's house under the new moon and bury $5000 cash under the psychic's tree and light 100 candles. And you know what. My idiot friend did it!! When I found out about it, I went out of my mind!! I told her she's friggin' nuts. She told my that all her other whacker friends went to her and they all said she's really good. I told her that if she goes back there and dig up that spot, her money's gonna be gone. She never did because she told me that the psychic told her that if she does, she'd have back luck in this life and next!! I guess some people believe anything!! :eek:

[the rusty tromb]

I guess some people believe anything!! :eek:

Especially terb guys.

This sounds like another bullshit story, but if it's actually true, this friend of yours should be wearing a helmet and only allowed to leave her house if she's surrounded by police to protect her from doing anything completely moronic.

[Ref]

I'd like to get drunk with leah_mpa one night...

[childwild]

I present the holy order of the painted breast. 419Eater is a website about turning the tables on these villians.....

The Holy order of the painted breast (http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm)

Great read, fucking brilliant and hillarious

[Gord's Bro]

If anyone's interested -- and doesn't mind having a link to the RCMP -- here's another link regarding these scams . . .

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/index_e.htm

G's B.

[Meister]

Instead, I blew all my money on cab rides (can't afford a car), supporting my loser boyfriend, ordering out all the time (don't know how to cook), partying in the past (almost every weekend plus sometimes even AFTER work when I use to finish at one in the morning), etc...etc...

Leah, your honesty made you so much more appealing now. Can I be your boyfriend? :)
Dump your boyfriend and I'll promise:
- I'll cook, clean and drive you to work
- I'll pick flowers for you from the neighbour's garden
- I'll promise to protect you from loony psychics
- I'll bury $5000 under your tree

[leah_mpa]

Leah, your honesty made you so much more appealing now. Can I be your boyfriend?
Dump your boyfriend and I'll promise:
- I'll cook, clean and drive you to work
- I'll pick flowers for you from the neighbour's garden
- I'll promise to protect you from loony psychics
- I'll bury $5000 under your tree


Hi Meister!! You sound like my dream guy. You're EXACTLY what I need :)