80 year old man loses over $700,000 to advance fee (419) scammers

With spam e-mails offering too good to be true come-ons filling up our mailboxes, we often forget that there are some very real people who get victimized after falling for one of them.

Of course with the availability of botnets -- which command legions of spam spewing zombies (compromised computers)-- even if only a few people fall for the scheme, the scammers still make a tidy sum off of other people's misfortunes.

An example of this can be found on the Newport Beach Police website, where an elderly gentlemen lost a lot of money (probably his life savings) to one of these schemes:

Recently, an 80 year old resident of the city learned he was a victim of an international lottery scam. He originally received an email claiming he had won an overseas lottery which required him to pay a processing fee to have the funds released. This scam continued for a two year period and ended with the victim losing over $700,000.00.

Scam operators (often based in Canada) are using email, telephone and direct mail to entice U.S. consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe. These lottery solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.

This type of scam is often referred to as an Advance Fee (419) scam.

Of course, the lottery scam isn't the only one out there. There are work-at-home (job) scams, secret shopper, romance, lottery and auction scams being sent out in millions (billions ?) of e-mails, also. And if you don't have your own financial resources, the scammers will gladly provide you with a wide array of counterfeit financial instruments to negotiate. They could care less if you get arrested and expect that you will wire them any proceeds if you successfully pass the bogus instrument.

Please note, that just because you initially are able to pass the instrument doesn't mean that someone won't come after you, later.

The news release from Newport Beach Police Department offers the following advice on how to report scams like this:

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

They also point to a page on the FTC website about cross border scams, which can be seen here.

If you are a more "visual type," I recommend going to fakechecks.org, which has a series of video presentations on this subject.

Google name used in Internet deployed Lottery Scam

If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't (especially on the Internet). A spam e-mail, I received today informed me that I've won Google's lottery and 500,000 euros.

Trusted names are used to provide a false sense of legitimacy. Since I myself am a Google fan (user), I decided to comment on this one.

When the (eventually unfortunate) winner answers one of these, they are asked to send (wire transfer is preferred) money to cover taxes and tariffs to get their prize released.

Frequently, the scammer will send a counterfeit check (normally official, or cashier type) for their intended victim (winner) to cash. Eventually, the counterfeit check is discovered and the lottery winner is left hold the bag. Besides, financial consequences, (if I am to believe people reading this blog), cashing these items can cause someone to get arrested, also.

Unfortunately, the crooks behind these scams are normally safe in another country and rarely (if ever) get caught.

For a more detailed explanation on how these scams work (the lottery variety is one mutation of them), I did a post:

Counterfeit Cashier's Checks Fuel Internet Crime

A lot of the spam deploying these scams is facilitated using botnets (groups of zombie computers) that were taken over after another unfortunate Internet user opened an attachment in a spam e-mail, they probably shouldn't have.

Here is a post, I did at the beginning of the year describing this problem (getting worse all the time):

2006 was the Year of Internet Crime - 2007 is predicted to be even worse

Here is the e-mail I received (complete with all the bad grammar and spelling mistakes). Bad grammar and spelling mistakes are common in these e-mail lures.

Another clue is always the instruction not to tell anyone they are a winner.

From:nelson@nelsonbeilean.orangehome.co.uk
Subject:ISP Nomination/Email Award.
Date:Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:53:07 +0200 (CEST)
To:FROM: LOTTERY COORDINATOR,INT. PROMOTIONS AND PRICE AWARD DEPARTMENTGOOGLE. Bolos Avenue 12900 kd .RESULTS FOR CATEGORY "A" DRAWS

Congratulations to you as we bring to your notice, the results of the First Category draws of E-MAIL LOTTERY organised by GOOGLE INT. We are happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the First Category, which is part of our promotional draws. The draws were held on 30th of March 2007 and results are being officially announced today 4th of April 2007. Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 5,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania as part of our International Promotions Program. Your e-mail address, attached to ticket number 675432890044/376, with serial number 2200-33 drew the lucky numbers 1-0-11-44-03-22 and consequently won in the First Category. You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of One million (1,000,000.00) euros, which is the winning payout for Category A winners. This is from the total prize money from 1,500,000 euros shared among the 2 winners in this category. Your fund is now deposited with the paying Bank. In your best interest to avoid mix up of numbers and names of any kind, we request that you keep the entire details of your award strictly from public notice until the process of transferring your claims has been completed, and your funds remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants / non participants of this program. Please contact your claims agent immediately for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice:To file for your claim, please contact the CLAIMS agent.

Mr.Windy Smith.Cable Trust AgencyEmail: *(e-mail
addresses and telephone numbers removed) Academias53,11269 Athens
Greece.

You are advised to contact the agents by Email address.

NOTE: For easy reference and identification, find below your reference and Batch numbers.

Remember to quote these numbers in every one of your
correspondence with your claims agent.
REFERENCE NO:GPINT/7980/4376/06 BATCH
NO: 33/904/G3K. Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for
being part of our promotions program.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr.
Nelson Beilean.

PROMOTIONS COORDINATOR.

Barret Service Solutions - A Cover for the Secret Shopper Scam?

There are a lot of people getting taken in secret shopper scams. The name Barret Service Solutions keeps popping up as a cover company for this brand of "misdeed" on the Internet.

Here is a recent comment about Barret Service Solutions:

I fell into the scam for a company called Barret Service Solutions. I am now $3600 in the hole and will soon lose everything, possibly my car!!! I am in tears writing this because I know there is almost no recovery for me. Stupid kid trying to make some extra money on the side of having a full time job and going to school full time too!! Hopefully I won't go to jail, but the chances are now very likely due to my lack of funds!!!

In case you don't know how the secret shopper scam works, here is a description from an earlier post:

In the secret shopper scam, people are solicited to become "secret shoppers" - sometimes known as "mystery shoppers" - and go into (normally) Walmart to negotiate a bogus check (Walmart recently got into the business of cashing checks). They are then asked to wire the money using Walmart's MoneyGram services to Canada and report on the "customer service" aspects of their visits.

The checks - in almost all these cases - are counterfeit and the person cashing them will be the one held responsible. This will mean a "financial hardship" and (possibly) criminal charges for the unfortunate "soul" tricked into doing this.

Once the money is wired - it's normally picked up immediately - and can't be recovered.

Full post (with comments and other links), here.

I've also been told that secret shopper scams are appearing in the classified sections of newspapers.

If you get an offer like this - take a deep breath - and do not respond.

In the United States - you can report these scams to:

Internet Crime Complaint Center (FBI)

In Canada - you can report them to:

Phonebusters

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has an informative page on mystery (secret) shopping, here.

Secret Shoppers Scammed

I'm sure we've all seen advertisements on how you can make a lot of money, get free merchandise and meals and even take cruises as a "Secret Shopper." We've also seen numerous services (questionable) that will sell you information on how to do it.

Although, there are numerous companies, who do this for legitimate businesses, very few people make much money by being a secret shopper. So far as the services selling you a package to do it, I would recommend that you stay away from them. Quite simply, they aren't necessary and you are probably paying for something that you could have got for free. All one needs to do is look up the companies, (Secret Shopper) online and apply directly to the company.

On a much scarier note, I read a report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that "Secret Shopping" is the latest ploy to attract victims into Advance fee fraud (419 scams).

Here is how this latest scam works as reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"John McCullough, business coordinator for the Financial Crimes Task Force, said the perpetrators ran an ad in the Star Tribune classified section last month luring readers with an offer to be "Secret Shoppers" for "$100/hr. guaranteed" and "no experience necessary."

People who responded to the ad were sent a letter congratulating them on being selected and instructing them to cash a $2,830 check at their bank or other institution, to keep $200 for themselves, and to send most of the rest to the Canadian address. The check-cashing task is described in the letter as an "assignment" to "evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a payment system called 'Moneygram' which is available at all Wal-Mart (sic)."

Moneygram and Western Union offer wire transfer services, which aren't insured by the FDIC. In many advance fee scams, the ploy is to get someone else to cash a fraudulent instrument and wire the money (normally overseas) before the instrument is discovered as a fraud.

"The letterhead is topped with the Web address (secretshopper.ca) of an apparently legitimate operation in Canada that employs people to shop and evaluate retail establishments. Other legitimate operations include secretshoppercompany.com in Gainesville, Ga., and secretshopper.com in Minneapolis."

As I am constantly saying, Advance Fee is a continuously mutating animal. The Secret Shopper twist is new and if history proves correct, we will see this version of the scam travel quickly in the borderless environment of the internet.

Some good advice from the article is, "beware of checks made out for more than the selling price of an advertised item, checks delivered via overnight delivery service, checks drawn on an account in a name that is different from the person buying the item, and instructions to wire money to a large U.S. city or to another country such as Canada, England or Nigeria.

Other things to watch for are payment of a "commission" for facilitating money transfers through personal accounts, and e-mails requesting the receiver to "confirm, update or provide" personal banking account information."

Note that people, who fall victims to these scams are normally held financially responsible. In some instances, some of them have even been arrested for attempting to pass fraudulent financial instruments.

Should you suspect you are being solicited on any internet scam, the best thing to do is to report it to the authorities. There are numerous links throughout this blog and in my "links" on how to do so!