Let's share scam emails we've received

[Haji 2003]

I thought it might be interesting and educational to share scam emails. Here's my submission to start off. Below the image is my explanation as to why this is a scam email.

This supposedly came from the United Kingdom's television licensing authority (which lets us have ad free tv on the BBC). This is strange because it's very unusual for them to be sending refunds. The short time limit is also very strange, I've not come across a United Kingdom government agency do that.

Scammers usually make mistakes with English language, grammar or punctuation. In this instance, "an online application relating to your information" makes no sense. The title, 'Ask a refund', is also incorrect.

Otherwise the design etc. is pretty well done. The email address it came from also made no sense.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Haji 2003

[aaaz1618]

Love it. That whole paragraph just sounds like someone stabbing in the dark, 'you are eligible for a refund if you have received a notification about it', well, lucky us we just received a notification about it! Then it goes on to say fill an online application relating your information... Well I hope they are more specific, I don't remember the first model of my parent's car or my grandmother's sister's auntie's maiden name.

The English is bad too, but they've done it in a way that only sounds stupid when you look closely, they are vouching on someone being so excited about a refund that they don't read the text properly.

Besides... Everyone in the United Kingdom knows one thing, the TV Licence service would never, ever give a refund. If anything they send their bullyboys around to make sure every last person has to buy their licence, they'll send threatening letters around in the meantime to scare people into buying something they don't necessarily need.

I don't get many spam emails anymore sadly, just used to get the ones from ladies from Novosibirsk who send novel long emails and seem to fall in love and want to move to be with you within minutes...

Oh and the Chinese/Hong Kongese/Ghanaian/Nigerian/Indonesianhigh profile figures who sadly die in helicopter/car accidents and leave some random solicitor with the job of tracking down some random white guy in England to tell them, congratulations, you are the sole heir of $450,000,000 and all this solicitor needs is your bank account details.

...If only that money did come through, I could afford to build a robot city like the Saudis... 

 

[notme]

I just keep getting phone calls with a mechanical sounding voice telling me my social security number has been "locked", whatever that means.

[Guest]

In stark contrast to the one above is the one I received 

[The Green Knight]

As for me, these hand wipes get the cake for trying to phish my login password since 12 years now.

Pathetic.

[aaaz1618]

5 hours ago, starlight said:

In stark contrast to the one above is the one I received 

If Maggie goes into business with you then that's just a conflict of interest. She knows full well that I already have a deal going with her consortium.

Her late father died in a helicopter crash and left me the sole heir of $645,000,000, did she tell you?

[Propaganda_of_the_Deed]

I always get emails from the late Ghaddafi's daughter Aisha, but the Brotherly Leader, King of Kings of Africa and Guide of the Revolution's hidden wealth is held at a bank in Burkina Faso.

 

Quote

Dearest One,

I am Miss.Aisha Gaddafi, I am writing this mail with tears and sorrow
from my heart asking for your help at this time, I got your contact
while searching for a trustworthy someone who will understand my
present condition and come to my rescue here in Algeria where I am
relocated now to Oman, I have passed through pains and sorrowful
moment since the death of my father and brothers, all our Foreign and
local accounts have been blocked and we are not allowed to make
transfer or receive money from any country or source.

I received an urgent email from Oman government who stated that the
new Libya government are tracing hidden deposit of my late father
which he was deposited will
the one of the bank in Burkina Faso, then I don't want them to be
aware of this particular funds ($10.5 Million dollars) deposited in
Bank of Africa Burkina Faso. If you can be of any assistant to me,
kindly get back to me so that I can furnish you with
the full details and the full contact address of the Bank in Burkina
Faso country to enabling you contact them for the final release of the
funds to your onward accredited account in your country.

I am willing to reward you bountiful will 50% while I myself will also
share 50% has equal between both of us, if you are sure that you are
interested to gain this opportunity with me kindly contact me
immediately for more details

Thanks and may Allah bless you
Miss.Aisha Gaddafi

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Propaganda_of_the_Deed

[Marbles]

Beat this...

Quote

The email came in like any other, from the company chief executive to his finance officer.

"Hey, the deal is done. Please wire $8m to this account to finalise the acquisition ASAP. Needs to be done before the end of the day. Thanks."

The employee thought nothing of it and sent the funds over, ticking it off his list of jobs before heading home.

But alarm bells started to ring when the company that was being acquired called to ask why it had not received the money.

An investigation began - $8m was most definitely sent, but where to?

We will never know.

Some of the money was clawed back by the banks, but most was lost to hackers who may have cashed out using an elaborate money-laundering network or simply moved on to the next victim.

Meanwhile, the finance officer is left feeling terrible and the company is left scratching its head.

After all, the email had come ostensibly from the boss's address and his account had not been hacked.

It was left to cyber-security experts to break the bad news to the firm: emails are not to be trusted.

 

Quote

These scams are on the rise and according to the FBI in the US, they have resulted in worldwide losses of at least $26bn (£21bn) since 2016.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49857948

Edited September 28, 2019 by Marbles

[Haji 2003]

Here's another one and this is a good one. You can click the image to make the text more readable. AndI'll leave you lot to spot the clue(s). My answer later.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Haji 2003

[Sirius_Bright]

Yayyyy! 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Sirius_Bright

[aaaz1618]

23 hours ago, Propaganda_of_the_Deed said:

I always get emails from the late Ghaddafi's daughter Aisha, but the Brotherly Leader, King of Kings of Africa and Guide of the Revolution's hidden wealth is held at a bank in Burkina Faso.

Only $10.5m... tsch.

Wallahi, she's being stingey with you there brother, get her to cough up the rest, she offered me $35m last week. I said:

'No way habibi, I have already been taken by Maggie Wang.'

[aaaz1618]

35 minutes ago, Haji 2003 said:

Here's another one and this is a good one. You can click the image to make the text more readable. AndI'll leave you lot to spot the clue(s). My answer later.

I don't think a €10 gift card is all that useful to those United Kingdom only Über customers they are targeting.

Woops.

Still... The €10 gift card could come in use for some holiday gear that we could use to go on the Singapore holiday funded by Aisha Gaddafi and Maggie Wang... And because we don't need to pay that TV licence we wouldn't even feel like we wasted precious TV viewing time by jetting off to Singapore.

They really have our best interests at heart.

[Haji 2003]

7 minutes ago, aaaz1618 said:

I don't think a €10 gift card is all that useful to those United Kingdom only Über customers they are targeting.

Yes, well-spotted. The graphic says £10, but the text below is in Euros . It's very unusual for a large companies to make such a mistake.

[Sirius_Bright]

7 minutes ago, aaaz1618 said:

They really have our best interests at heart.

Scammers are very good people indeed. Another day, they offered me Amazon voucher, a 4 wheeler (didn't mention the brand, model. Could be a huge Tesla Truck, or a toy horse with 4 wheels?). 

I don't understand why would anyone not help distressed Aisha Gaddafi. I mean where is humanity? 

[aaaz1618]

58 minutes ago, Sirius_Bright said:

I mean where is humanity? 

They give without asking for anything in return, well other than bank account details... But what's bank account details to dear friends hey? 

[Marbles]

On 9/28/2019 at 10:58 PM, Haji 2003 said:

You can click the image to make the text more readable

This is a scam emails thread. I'm scared to click on links and images...

[Haji 2003]

This is a good one. It's supposed to come from the United Kingdom government who are offering refunds. The only problem is that apparently the United Kingdom government can't afford their own domain (if you look at where the email has come from). 

Credit where it is due, the amount being offered is not outrageously large, so seems more believable.

 

[Son of Placid]

https://www.scienceofscams.com/, previously scambaits.com.

They show you how the scams work, teach you how to read headers, and how to scambait. 

I had a model try to hook up with me in facebook. She lived in a nearby town, really wanted to go for coffee but had to fly to Russia to model lingerie first. Terrible thing happened, she lost her ID. She was somehow able to send me a pic of her passport. The photo matched the face in facebook, but for some reason she had a different birthday. Now she was stuck in Russia, needing a way to get home. She finally admitted she loved me, awwww, so sweet. Her only solution was a money transfer, but me being me had a better idea. I offered her air miles. I never did find out if she made it home.

[Vindemiatrix]

[Haji 2003]

So I got this from the head of a business that I work for:

Quote

 

Good morning,I am in a meeting right now and that's why I am contacting you through my personal email,I should have called but phone was not allowed during the conference,I don't know when the meeting is going to be rounding up and I want you to help me on something very important right away.
Thanks.

Best regards, 

 

Followed up by the following:

Quote

 

It my granddaughters birthday and I should have picked up some gifts and got it sent but due to the conference meeting this morning,I have not been able to do so and calls are not allowed during this meeting,I want you to help me picked up a gift at the nearest store and as soon as I get out of meeting I will reimburse you back.
Thanks

Best regards,

 

To be honest at this stage, I was still not sure about what was going on. But then I got this:

Quote

I want you to help me get an Amazon gift card at the nearest store either Tesco or local store nearby,you will be getting a value of £100.00 in 2pieces.make a total of £200.00,once you get the card just get it scratched and take the pictures of the card each and attached to this email with the receipt,I will give you a call immediately I am done with the meeting.
Thanks

 

Hmm the scam alert went past amber straight to red at this stage. So I decided to have some fun and sent back the following. The head of the business is an Indian guy:

Quote

Do you want me to get her some gulab jamun and laddoo also. I am near a shop that does those. 

 

So I get this back:

Quote

No thanks,just the Amazon gift card £100.00 of 2 and scratched the redeem code take the picture and attached it to this email with the receipt.

 

Hmm. So I decided to up the ante:

Quote

 

Let me at least get her a meaningful picture and send you a photo of it? You can then pass on the photo to her.

I do this with my relatives also. Recently the *** sent me to the *** symposium and I noticed that the duty free at Gare du Nord had the same name as my sister in law.

So I took a picture of it and sent it to her. Sometimes these gestures can be inexpensive but mean a lot to both people.

My sister in law (pedant that she is) complained that the spelling was not the same as hers.

Long story short if you tell me your grand-daughter's name perhaps there is something similar that we can take a picture of and send it to you?

I am attaching a picture of the duty free at GdN - so you can see I am not making this up.

Regards

 

Here's the picture that I sent to them:

 

But they don't really seem to be engaging:

Quote

Alright,I won't be able to text in here,but will definitely give you a call as soon as I am done here,help me get the Amazon gift card asap,Thanks.

And then getting a bit desperate:

Quote

Hello..,let me know if you won't be able to help me with what I ask you to get for me. Thanks

 

So I thought I'd end the little game.

 

Quote

 

Hi 

 

I have got what you wanted. Please see the attached picture. Have a good day, I enjoyed performing this task for you and perhaps you will take this into consideration the next time I ask for a pay rise.

 

Regards

 

They were not happy bunnies, obviously!

Quote

What's the meaning of all this,come in see me in my office first thing tomorrow morning.

 

So I sent this back:

Quote

 

I’ll come in if you can tell me which city I took you sightseeing at 8am.

But you won’t know that because you’re not ***.

 

 

[Sisterfatima1]

Was trying to sell something online then got this in my

Great! I live in Tasmania but I'm buying this from you as a birthday gift to my kid who study in monash university. Please consider it sold as I am willing to pay your full asking price because I need to buy it for my kid asap, I have read through the advert and I'm totally satisfied with it,sadly I would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and I'm just recovering from heart surgery so I'm home-bound. I would appreciate if you email me with more photos (if available) since I'm unable to see it in person. I promise you everything will go smoothly as I would like to have it before next week which comes up in a week time. Please I want you to ignore other offers and consider this sold to me as I'm really interested in buying this from you right now!  I can offer you $150 more, just for you to remove the for ad me. 

 

I am ready to make instant purchase and my mode of payment would be a PayPal pay link via Gumtree.

 

Cheers
 

[Guest noah]

On 10/24/2019 at 8:03 PM, Sisterfatima1 said:

Was trying to sell something online then got this in my

Great! I live in Tasmania but I'm buying this from you as a birthday gift to my kid who study in monash university. Please consider it sold as I am willing to pay your full asking price because I need to buy it for my kid asap, I have read through the advert and I'm totally satisfied with it,sadly I would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and I'm just recovering from heart surgery so I'm home-bound. I would appreciate if you email me with more photos (if available) since I'm unable to see it in person. I promise you everything will go smoothly as I would like to have it before next week which comes up in a week time. Please I want you to ignore other offers and consider this sold to me as I'm really interested in buying this from you right now!  I can offer you $150 more, just for you to remove the for ad me. 

 

I am ready to make instant purchase and my mode of payment would be a PayPal pay link via Gumtree.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

Did it end up being a scam?

[wolverine]

People who are looking for a job (or even if you are not looking for a job) might get this scam email, from The City Unemployment Guide. It's a scam. If you click on the link you will obviously receive a bazillion other emails because they will know your email address is legit. Never click on a link in a scam email. 

[Sirius_Bright]

 

[VoidVortex]

I am unfortunate, I never got an email from the nigerian prince 

[Son of Placid]

On 11/3/2022 at 12:20 PM, VoidVortex said:

I am unfortunate, I never got an email from the nigerian prince 

I have deleted so many I could have posted here.
Got a fb message other day.
"Tell me if you agree with this picture." The pic was shaded out.
Pretty sure the picture is a link. 
Wherever the link goes, it's going without me.

[Son of Placid]

Onca again, I'm gonna be rich!

[VoidVortex]

weird how someone from the US treasury department has worse grammar than a 7 year old.