Current Status

This blog is not frequently updated because most case-by-case scam reports are now listed in subordinate blogs. At this point in time, most of my efforts are targeted at documenting employment scams in the Suckers Wanted blog.

2005-12-16

Job Scam: fastjobseek.org

Here's another job scam that's doing the rounds. I'm a tad late with this one, because it got trapped in a spam filtering system. Text of the spam follows.

 Greetings.

Are you really looking for a job? Maybe you looking for just additional
money you can earn? Or you are in need of money real bad? You're a
student and you need a good job ? You found it!

Our company welcomes people who wants to work, with enthusiasm, all
over the world. You will not have any problem with money ever if you will
workwith us. If you're ready then start right ahead and you will get paid
with a stable salary.

Employee requirements:

1. Age 18-45 y/o.
2. Enthusiastic/Workaholic.
3. Little computer kowledge.
4. NO school degree required.

If you're satisfied with requirements then you can start right ahead
and make a registration on our website, you will get your own working
account . http://www.fastjobseek.org click "Register" . After
registration we will contact you and our advisors will provide you with
information and your account information, login and password.

Few words about our company:

2TRADE FINANCE COMPANY Established in 1995 in Croatia Republic, during
all this time achieved big results in sales field and marketing. First we started working just
within our country. Later on we axpanded all over the world when we started working in
marketing field, and we are doing really good these days, almost at the top if it comes to financial
sales of worldwide market. And now we are glad for our achievements and we work
worldwide. We always hiring new and new good workers and financial assistants in countries
where we just started expanding.

Our vacancies:Now clients of our company conduct financial operations all over the world including
Austrlia and New Zeland, but due to sufficient perfection in Banking Service we have some difficulties in translation and reorganization of our business, therefore we are planning to open branches in which
we require Australians and New Zelands. Now we are looking for financial assistants who will be
responsible to accept payments from our clients. At this moment we provide and offer work at
home, after opening offices in Australia and New Zeland, you will have an opportunity for working in
our offices as well.

Today we are looking for financial assistants that will be responsible to accept payments from clients
through bank transfer, because of imperfection of bank system. Australia and New Zelands partners of our
clients have some difficulties with sending bank translations and cheques to East Europe. You can make 10 % commission from every transfer you will receive through relative to our business. The rest needs to be
transferred to our company's representative by Western Union; all Western Union fees are paid by us.
On average you will be making 2,000 NZD per week.

We believe that you can get good future and achievements in our business..If our offer is interesting to you,
please feel free in sending a mail to our HR office. For more information our crew of Human Resources is
ready to answer all your questions.

Best Regards
In Trade co.
contact@fastjobseek.org

2005-12-12

Advance Fee Fraud: Miss Odette Amon

This is a relatively new form of advance fee fraud that's starting to proiferate. Instead of the all-too-common story about millions of dollars that need discreet repatriation, we have a random young lady showing an interest in my profile. If I reply to this, I'll commence communication with a virtual nymph who wants to travel to my country, but needs financial assistance (and more financial assistance, and more financial assistance, and so on). She'll even send me a photo -- it will be a photo of a model lifted off the Internet somewhere, not a photo of "her".

This is noteworthy in that the address to which it was sent is the one I have on my personal home page, and that address is protected by Javascript. That is usually a very effective way of keeping unwanted harvesters from noticing the address, but in this case the address isn't a harvested one: the sender obtained it manually. The message was sent through Yahoo! mail on Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:24:19 +0000, and the sender was at 213.136.127.190 (Adsl-213-136-127-190.aviso.ci -- West Africa strikes again). According to my web server logs, I've had a visitor from that address. The visitor arrived through a totally unrelated web search, read my web page for a while, then clicked through to my personal home page. The 419 arrived some 25 minutes after that.

You have to hand it to these 419ers -- they can take a really personal interest in defrauding you.

            Dearest one,

  My name is Miss Odette Amon, I am 21 years old. I do went through your profile and I like it, I will be very happy, if you can contact me through my private mail box: odetteamon3(at)yahoo dot com, because I have something very important to share with you, if you don't mind. Or provide me your mail address to enable me pass the message to you and I also promised to send you my pictures immediately I confirm your mail.

  Thanks and remain blessed

  Miss Odette Amon.

Maybe I should reply to "Miss Odette Amon", even if he is a naughty scammer from the Ivory Coast.

Update 2005-12-13 09:56

This is starting to look like the more traditional 419 now. The reply I have received is as follows.

Dearest Beloved One,

Many thanks for your prompt response to my message; I appreciate your kind gesture to find time to give response to my message.

I am very sorry for coming to you in this way and inconvenience this mail may cause you but I believe firmly that through the basis of humanitarian assistance my plea will be threaten with favorable attention.

I am MISS ODETTE AMON the only daughter of late MR and MRS ABUDL AMON whom was killed by the rebels that attacked our country Cote d 'Ivoire (West Africa) and took over our town (BOUAKE).

I ran to Abidjan the economical capital of Cote d 'Ivoire from were I am contacting you. Before the death of my father he told me that he has a sum of US$4.5, 000,000 (Four million five hundred thousand united states dollars) kept in a Local Bank here in Cote d' Ivoire in my name as the next of kin.

Sir, in the capacity of the next of kin, I am contacting you with due sense of humanity and responsibility and with few awareness that you will give it a sympathetic and mutual consideration.

Now permit me to ask these few questions: -
(1) Can you honestly help me as a guardian?
(2) Can I completely trust you?
(3) What percentage of the total amount in question will be good for you after the money is in your account?
(4) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my educational career and to secure a residential permit for me in your country.

(5) To provide good investment plans for the fund and to manage the fund.

Furthermore, you can indicate your option towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within a stipulated period of time you signify your interest to assist me.

Anticipating hearing from you immediately.

Thanks and God bless.

Yours Sincerely

Miss Odette Amon

It hardly seems worth replying.

2005-12-02

Job Scam: 2Trade Finance Company

Just another money laundering job: you receive stolen money and forward it on to the theives, then the police trace the money to you. Simple, no? Lousy long-term prospects, though. This one was received from 213.4.19.84 on Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:43:36 -0000. I'd have reported it sooner, but there's an additional spam-catcher on that particular account, and it caught it, so it wasn't brought to my attention quickly.

 Greetings.

Are you really looking for a job? Maybe you looking for just additional
money you can earn? Or you are in need of money real bad? You're a
student and you need a good job ? You found it!

Our company welcomes people who wants to work, with enthusiasm, all
over the world. You will not have any problem with money ever if you will
workwith us. If you're ready then start right ahead and you will get paid
with a stable salary.

Employee requirements:

1. Age 18-45 y/o.
2. Enthusiastic/Workaholic.
3. Little computer kowledge.
4. NO school degree required.

If you're satisfied with requirements then you can start right ahead
and make a registration on our website, you will get your own working
account . http://www.2tradecompany.com click "Register" . After
registration we will contact you and our advisors will provide you with
information and your account information, login and password.

Few words about our company:

2TRADE FINANCE COMPANY Established in 1995 in Moldova Republic, during
all this time achieved big results in sales field and marketing. First we started working just
within our country. Later on we axpanded all over the world when we started working in
marketing field, and we are doing really good these days, almost at the top if it comes to financial
sales of worldwide market. And now we are glad for our achievements and we work
worldwide. We always hiring new and new good workers and financial assistants in countries
where we just started expanding.

Our vacancies:Now clients of our company conduct financial operations all over the world including
Austrlia and New Zeland, but due to sufficient perfection in Banking Service we have some difficulties in translation and reorganization of our business, therefore we are planning to open branches in which
we require Australians and New Zelands. Now we are looking for financial assistants who will be
responsible to accept payments from our clients. At this moment we provide and offer work at
home, after opening offices in Australia and New Zeland, you will have an opportunity for working in
our offices as well.

Today we are looking for financial assistants that will be responsible to accept payments from clients
through bank transfer, because of imperfection of bank system. Australia and New Zelands partners of our
clients have some difficulties with sending bank translations and cheques to East Europe. You can make 10 % commission from every transfer you will receive through relative to our business. The rest needs to be
transferred to our company's representative by Western Union; all Western Union fees are paid by us.
On average you will be making 2,000 NZD per week.

We believe that you can get good future and achievements in our business.If our offer is interesting to you,
please feel free in sending a mail to our HR office. For more information our crew of Human Resources is
ready to answer all your questions.

Best Regards
2Trade Company Inc.
contact@2tradecompany.com

2005-11-30

Meta: Current Interests no longer include Stock Spam

Stock spam quantities have reached unmanageably high levels this month. Consequently, I'm no longer interested in them. To give you some idea, in the last two weeks I've received stock spam covering the following stock symbols: ABZS, ADCS, AXCP, CDGT, CHMS, CYGT, GTEC, KLGE, PPTL, RMVN, SHCM, USTA, VNBL, and WWBP. If anyone wants me to forward all my stock spam to them for reporting purposes, I'd be happy to do so, but frankly this stuff is as common as muck at the moment.

Lottery scams and 419s are still being reported in their respective sub-blogs, and any job scams that come to my attention are reported here. Phishing scams I will report if they are interesting enough to warrant it, but eBay and PayPal phish attempts haven't been interesting in a long time now. I'm also not interested in fake watch spam, fake diploma spam, or any kind of pharmacy spam -- I'm sure everyone gets tons of it daily, as I do.

Anything new that comes along is almost sure to be interesting, and will be reported.

2005-11-27

Job Scam: Prompt-company.com

Just a typical money laundering job thinly veiled as a "finance manager". Don't get involved unless you like talking to police about possession of stolen money. Spam came from 221.141.195.49 on Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:48:17 -0000.

PROMPTCOMPANY

To Whom It May Concern:

We are currently searching for enthusiastic, energetic and flexible individuals to fill the positions of Finance Managers. This is a very flexible, part-time position. Finance Managers are required to work up to 2 hours per day. You will be required to have a bank account in a specific bank with Internet banking and Tax Number/Social Security number. Computer is a must.

Job ID: FM01974

Should you be interested, Please fill the form of registration on our site (http://www.prompt-company.com/career.php) or send email to job@prompt-company.com for more information. To Subject box, please enter first 2 letters of your country followed by job ID. Our manager will contact you via phone for granting fuller information.

Thank you,

General Manager: Wean Diesel
http://www.prompt-company.com

[ 2005 © All right reserved. Prompt-company.com

2005-11-26

Job Scam: RuAmerica

I'm a bit slow off the mark reporting this one because my inbox has been weighed down with so much stock spam to report that I've been putting it off a lot. I shouldn't have let this one slip though: job scams are urgent business, unlike stock spam. Anyhow, this is a little different from the usual money-handling job scam, but it's basically the same deal. Some crook somewhere buys expensive goods like laptop computers online using stolen credit card details, then gets it all shipped to your address. To reduce suspicion, the name of the credit card owner is given as the shipping address. The middle-man gets to forward all this stuff on to the crook for the paltry sum of US$35 per package up until the police arrive and start questioning him about dealing in fraudulently acquired goods. Not a job with good long-term prospects, is it?

This spam was received from [61.104.144.207] on Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:34:32 +0000.

Hello

My name is Mark Birman I'm job manager in RuAmerica corporation.
We're searching for new partnerships in continental USA.

Let me say few words about our company.
We're working for several years worldwide, providing the best
service in Shipping and Transporting. We work with European
countries for 4 years. Our partners are USPS, FedEx, DHL, Ebay, Amazon and many
other shipping companies and shops. We're providing financial services too.

Let me say about the position we offer.
It is called Correspondence Assistant/Representative. It is new
position for us, and it is very valuable now. In August 2003, many
European countries changes their rules for customs and taxes for
merchandise, sent from countries, that don't belong to EU. This
means, that package that is sent from a company - will be a subject
for VAT in Europe, but the package that is sent from a person -
doesn't have VAT. Because of that, prices for shipping services
grow, and we try to reduce them. And we need YOU.

Your task - to receive packages that will be delivered to you, and
redirect them, following our instructions.
Packages will be delivered by courriers to your location.
Then you will be given money for shipping fees.
Your fee is 35 USD per package you receive.
No start up fees! No out of pocket fees! Nothing to pay!


IMPORTANT. We put names of our customers on the packages, so names will be different from yours.

We will inform you about incoming packages. We pay you via PayPal,
wire transfer, Check, Money Order or Western Union. Your
commissions will be paid every two weeks.
We will make agreement which you will sign and return back to us.
In this document all responsibilities and duties will be conrirmed.
If you are interested in this offer, or have more questions
please fill application form.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards, Mark Birman
Tel/Fax : (910) 401-1021

2005-11-14

Job Scam: Yana from United Kingdom

This is a typical "money laundering thinly disguised as payment processing" job offer. Two copies of this spam were received: one from 24.172.52.166 on Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:41:03 +1100; the other from the same address on Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:44:19 +1100 (three minutes later). It may be that one of the copies was sent to a distribution list, or something like that. The contact address they offer for this spam is f925gh45ggnoq@altern.org, but they failed to include this in the text -- it only appeared in the hyperlink which I have removed, because they didn't close it.

Hello!

I'm Yana from United Kingdom. I'm personal manager of one very big online store. We have free vacancy of Main Funds Manager. And we need good reliable people to this position.
If you have 21+, have a banking account, speak on english and have 1-3 hours for this work per day we can discuss about your person.
Please, read SHORT JOB DESCRIPTION, befor contact us.
1. Our client send money into your banking account.
2. Immediately after money get rich your account you must withdraw this money minus your 5%.
3. You must immediately send to our other client Western Union. Western Union payment is our also.
Please, read this info carefully and only after that ask your question!
Our support temporary email is
Thank you!

2005-11-04

Stock Spam: CDGT

We've seen loads of "China Digital Media Corporation" stock spam in the past, but this is a slightly new twist. I'm reporting it here rather than in the Stock Spam Blog because the text of the spam is stored as an image (attached to this post). I've mostly seen this technique used in fake Rolex and fake diploma spam.

The spam itself was received from 210.211.179.207 on Fri, 4 Nov 2005 06:59:26 +0000.

2005-11-03

Job Scam: Nations

This is the usual "we need you to handle money for us" job scam, but it plays the sympathy card rather than (or as well as) the avarice card: the vacancy is supposed to be at a charitable organisation that funds operations for children with cancer. I'm not going to bother checking whether there is a real organisation fitting the description given in this message: it hardly matters one way or the other. They have a nicely-produced (but unconvincing if you've seen this scam played a hundred times already) web site which includes the job ad. Accepting the job simply means that stolen money is transferred into your account, and you send it overseas to the thieves via Western Union until the local authorities come knocking on your door and ask about all the stolen money in your account.

The spam was received from 166.61.207.245 on Wed, 2 Nov 2005 15:56:20 -0000.

Welfare foundation "Nations" is looking to hire a part-time(full-time)
employee to fill the position of financial operations manager
(500-2000AUD per week).

About Us:
Nations, was founded in March 2002 and headquartered in Kiev, is a non
profit Semi government organization, helping oncology diseased
children for all over the former USSR.

Our Tasks:
1. To pay the urgent and expressive operation for children.
2. To provide the children's oncological centers with modern equipment
and expenditure materials;
3. To establish hospitals of one-day-being and boarding houses for
children taking treatment as out-patients;
4. To arrange hospices for domestic care of hopelessly sick children;
5. To enable access toward necessary modern and special information in
Ukraine;
6. To improve the qualification upgrade of Ukraine children's
oncologists in advanced western clinics;
7. To integrate and develop existing Tele-medicine networks in the
Ukraine;
8. To creation of the national bank of donors material;
9. To perfect of insurance system;
10. To participate in relevant programs of insurance aimed at
increasing the social protection of children with oncological
diseases;
11. To promote the services of psychological support for children with
cancer and for their parents;
12. Arrangement of informational centers for parents of children,
suffering from cancer;
13. To develop the publication of scientific and popular literature on
early diagnostic and prophylaxis of children's cancer and about care
of diseased children, and its dissemination over children's and
educational institutions.

Job Description:
We are searching new staff to join our company as financial operations
manager. Obligation of the manager is processing payments from our
patrons with daily inspection. That means that you are an authorized
person to receive money transfers.

Requirements:
 Age 21-60 years, permanent Internet access, personal e-mail,
competence to use bank services.
 Autonomy, flexibility, initiative and creativity, good
organizational skills.


If you are interested in this vacancy, send your Resume by email to:
wlm-support@inet.ua

For more information please visit our website: http://www.wlm.at

2005-10-27

Job Scam: Mr.Wankeng Zhang

Mr. Wankeng Zhang? Quite a name. Anyhow this is a nondescript troll for money laundering mules. It was received from 65.54.249.100 (omc3-s26.bay6.hotmail.com) on Thu, 27 Oct 2005 03:11:06 -0000. The mail claims some sort of association with "cmiec.com", but there's no substantiating evidence for this claim, and good cause to disbelieve it -- after all, we already know that the sender is a blatant liar. Message text follows.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mr.Wankeng Zhang,we are a group of business men
who deal on
importand export raw materials  into the
canada,america AND europe.We
are searching for representatives who can  help us
establish a  medium
of getting to our costumers in the canada, america AND
europe as well as
making payments
through  you to us. Please if you are interested in
transacting
business with us we will be very glad. Please contact
me for more information via zhang_com@myway.com
Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the
opportunity  to
negotiateyour mode of which we will pay for your
services as our
representative in canada,america  and europe.
Regards.
Vice President
(CMIEC)
www.cmiec.com
Mr. Zhang.

2005-10-25

Job Scam: Italy Representative Group

This is a fairly straightforward "money laundering disguised as payment processing" job scam. It targets USA residents, whereas most of the spam I get targets Australians, but is unremarkable in all other aspects. The job offer presents itself as being from "Italy Representative Group", and they offer an address in Rome to back up this identity. There may be a business of that name at that address for all I know, but I'll wager pounds to pence that these spammers have nothing whatsoever to do with it. Don't touch unsolicited money-handling jobs with a barge-pole -- you'll wind up being the fall guy for a bunch of thieves.

The spam originated at 85.237.182.182 on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 23:58:33 -0000. Body text follows for reference.

Good day sir/madam,

We inform you about new vacancies in our company.

Do you want to start a successful carrier right now without any entrance fees, without buying goods or involving other people? Do you want to start a successful career in financial sphere without economical education or special experience? Do you want to work at home? If it is so, this suggestion is for you!
Our company is ready to offer you the chance. At this moment we are enlarging our staff and you have a chance to become a member of our team and get additional earnings spending 2 - 3 hours per week. But it isn.t all. We can send you a long term contract if you prove us your reliability.

Our company.s name is IRG "Italy Representative Group". Our company is new and fast developing in the USA commercial holding. We work with clients and companies from all over the world and now we are looking for talents in the USA. Our firm is founded in 1993 and our head office is located in Viale Praco de Medici 37 00148 Roma, Italy.

You can earn up to 5000 USD per month, taking into the account the fact that you will work at home, have a flexible working schedule, simple and small amount of work.You will receive 7 % from the sum of payment for this service (you just take this sum out of the total amount of money you get).

To qualify, you MUST:

1. Be at least 21.
2. Check your email several times a day (each hour
if possible).
3. You need to respond immediately to emails.
4. Be responsible, hard working and communicable.
5. Be able to answer phone calls.

If you are interested in our suggestion please e-mail to our manager
Laurie Fantauzzi <alluringjob@mail.com>

Regards,
"Italy Representative Group"

2005-10-24

Phish of the Day: egold2gold.com

Most instances of phishing fraudulently represent themselves as some legitimate business or other. Here's a case where the phisher would have me believe that someone has sent me money out of the blue, and all I need to do in order to collect is sign up at a payment processing thing I've never heard of before called "egold2gold.com". But I'm a sceptical so-and-so, and I don't believe a word of it -- especially given the following evidence.

The original phish message directs me to a "sign up" page at egold2gold.com. There's nothing too sinister-looking here (although I admit not checking it for malicious payload -- I haven't been that diligent in a while). All I need to do is provide a username, a password, and an email address. I provide some fairly arbitrary data for all the above, including a "mailinator" email address, to see what turns up. What turns up is a confirmation request. "Click on the link to continue," it requests. Unless you're silly enough to use the same username and password that you use for something else, all the phisher has at this point in time is a known-good email address -- expect the spam rate on that address to go up.

Of course, if you actually want to claim any of this money that's allegedly been sent to you, you need to fill in a whole swag of stuff -- all the usual bank details, credit card details, drivers licence number -- all the stuff that a craftly little phisher wants so that he can impersonate you for financial gain.

One other thing to note -- the facade isn't terribly convincing. I also signed up with my "ideceive" gmail account because that's the one I have to use to claim my money, you see. But it wouldn't let me sign up, because it only allows one sign-up per source IP address. This is obviously to prevent disgruntled spam-recipients from flooding it with bogus data -- I've seen it happen. But I was able to sign up with the same "username" and a different password from a completely different source IP address! That's no way to handle your accounts!

My conclusion: egold2gold.com is a phishing operation, pure and simple. It's a facade of a respectable payment system with a bunch of nasty crooks lurking behind it. It will probably vanish in the near future and spring up elsewhere under a different name. If you want to risk poking around in this hive of scum and villainy, you can try logging in to http://egold2gold.com/ as "zig" with password "bomb". It may work if nobody else has signed up with that username since I did -- and if they haven't made a run for it yet.

The spam in question originated at 70.84.130.228 on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 02:52:29 -0000. The message was as follows.

Hello,

This is not SPAM, this is an e-mail from egold2gold.com containing a notification of money paid to you...

A egold2gold.com user has just successfully sent you money!  Please look at the below details for information on this transaction.

Sender: payments
Sender's E-Mail: payments@egold2gold.com
Amount Received: 200.00
Sender's Comments: Money Transfer To ideceive@gmail.com

In order to claim this money, you must signup for an account with egold2gold.com  To do so, navigate to the below URL.

http://egold2gold.com?a=signup&semail=ideceive@gmail.com

The e-mail address you signup with must be the one you are receiving this e-mail at.  You should claim this money quickly, if you don't, the sender may cancel the transaction.

Thank you for your time,

egold2gold.com Services Team
http://www.egold2gold.com/
"The New Online Universal Payment System!"

2005-10-23

Phish of the Day: St George Bank

This was received at the address which attracts the vast majority of my "scams targeted at Australians" junk, and it's fairly and squarely targeted at Australians. The body text is as follows.

Your Bill Payment from your Access Cheque Account to OPTUS LONG DISTANCE - 
OPTUS 1684 0032 dated 22/10/2005 for $953.44 was successfully processed. 

For more information regarding bill payments or transfers, 
please refer to your Past Internet Banking Payments/Transfers page, 
or contact the St.George Bank Internet Banking Help Desk. 


St.George Bank
http://www.stgeorgebank.org/traffic


Card/Access Number: 4239530000568075
Security Number: 1426
Internet Password: G5q71HRg

"St George Bank" and "Optus" are, as far as I'm aware, well-known entities in Australia. That's how phishing works, of course. I've never seen a genuine St George Bank payment processing notification, but I doubt that this one looks very authentic. I'm also pleased to report that the URL referenced in the spam is now 404, although it may have been active earlier.

The domain name "stgeorgebank.org" was registered on 20-Oct-2005 11:37:09 -0000. The spam itself originated at 83.176.34.230 (d83-176-34-230.cust.tele2.ch) on Sat, 22 Oct 2005 15:24:30 -0000.

2005-10-13

Meta: Stock Spam Gets Its Own Blog

My primary aim with 419s, lottery scams, and stock spam is just to make people aware it's happening -- that they aren't privileged recipients of fortuitous information, but rather just another recipient of scatter-shot scamming. To this end, my sub-blogs on 419s and lottery scams have been working well, saving me time while maximising search opportunities. I've now followed suit with Stock Spam, so I won't be reporting any more of that here.

Given that I'm pretty much tired of phishing scams, that leaves me to report Job Scams here, plus whatever else comes up that's new.

2005-10-05

Job Scam: dsoftsolutions.com

This is an ordinary "Work at Home (doing money laundering, but we won't tell you that part)" job scam. The target audience is Australians, and the initial spam was received from 203.45.69.9 (appears to be a compromised Australian broadband customer) on Wed, 5 Oct 2005 22:12:18 -0000. The contents of the spam was as follows.

GET A JOB!

For online work in largest Advertising group are require managers with minimal computer knowledge.
Work with e-mail, MS Office, Internet etc.
- Australia resident(prefer)
- Excellent ability to problem solve.
- Flexible hours
- No financial risk, you do not need pay money for start work!
Just honest hard working people that are willing to earn an extra income!
Best regards,
Bratello Mancini

Check up our site for the further information

The final link was to http://www.dsoftsolutions.com/. That page has a very generic "work from home" ad (using graphics I've seen associated with this scam time and time again), and a form in which to supply your name and email address. I filled this in with a "@yahoo.com.au" address, and received the following only-too-predictable response.

Dear friend, 

Nowadays vacancies: 
-Home manager; 

Description. 
We are looking for honest and smart people for this position. 

Requirements: 
- computer with e-mail; 
- Australia resident; 
- Adult people only (we cannot hire people who don’t reach the adult 
edge); 
- 2-3 hours free during the week (mainly in the evening / non-business 
hours) 
  for communication; 
- bank account; 

Job description: 
Persons who will be accepted for this job will follow these simple 
instructions: 

1. Receive the money from our clients to your bank account; 
2. You take 8 % of the sum and the rest you should send to us via 
Western Union or Money Gramm  (the money is transferred at our expense) 
to our company (you'll be informed about  the account data after 
transmission) 

All transactions are completely legal.
We can supply detailed information about the owner of the account.
We guarantee you full security of your account information and 
non-disclosure
of it to any third parties. You can trust us completely.

3. Report to our manager the following details concerning the money 
transferring: 

1) Sender's Name 
2) Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN). 
3) Amount 
4) City of sending 


You will need no money to start, just fill the form with your personal 
information 
and send it to us by e-mail. Every completed form will be reviewed and 
our manager 
will contact you same day. 

PERSONAL INFORMATION: 
First name: 
Last name: 
Address: 
City: 
Phone:
Mobile Phone: 
E-mail: 
Bank Name:
BSB No:
Acc/No:
Acc/Name:

Thank you for reading this document. Good luck.
Advertising International Company 
http://www.aic-uk.org

"Advertising International Company" sounds familiar. In that particular instance, I was of the opinion that they'd compromised someone else's domain to host their web page. That may also be the case here, but there's little evidence that the web pages at dsoftsolutions.com have ever been developed much beyond the "template" stage, and the Google cache of the site shows that it recently held an ANZ Bank phishing page. Regardless of whether this is a spammer-registered domain, or a badly neglected and poorly protected set of web pages that's been hijacked (which is what I suspect), the game here is clear: the scammers behind this ad have been doing a spot of ANZ Bank phishing, and now they want assistance shifting money out of the compromised accounts and out of the country.

2005-10-02

Stock Spam: Roundup

September wasn't exactly a huge month for stock spam, but spams promoting the following stocks were seen: WWBP (x3 on 2005-09-01), APWL, UAIG, NNYG, VNBL, CDIT, and MBAP. These are mostly low-valued pinksheet stocks, from which I would surmise that the activity is predominantly "pump and dump".

2005-09-19

Job Scam: Advertising International Company

Like the FIAS job scam last month, these otherwise ordinary job scammers seem to have compromised someone else's domain and web-hosting facilities. Just like last time, the compromised site is a church/charity type operation. Is this a targeted attack, or do charitable operations just usually have bad passwords? Whatever the case, the spam arrived from 200.234.67.113 on Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:40:49 -0000, and the linked domain, "www.velocityouth.com" (link removed in text below), appears to be an innocent but compromised third party.


Advertising International Company
More than 7 years of successful working in the market of advertising services



Looking for a perspective and well-paid job
in the Australia?
1. If you are looking for a perspective and well-paid work in the Australia (of more than 1000$ in a week guaranteed).

2. If you are a resident of the Australia (Prefer).

3. If you are over 18 (Obligatory condition).

- Flexible hours

- No financial risk, you do not need pay money for start work!


Check up our site for the further information
Click here (once)


2005-09-13

Meta: 419s Taken Elsewhere

The recent export of Lottery Scams has worked well for me, so I'm doing the same with 419s. From now on, please refer to The 419 Files for reports on the latest 419 sightings.

Job Scam: au-fg.com

Not much to say about this one: some sort of generic "job scam" targeted at Australians. No doubt the details are as follows: our "customers" send you money, and you send it to us via Western Union, minus your commission. In reality: it's money laundering for online theives. The spam was sent from 201.35.78.42 on Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:08:50 -0000.

Need Extra Income? Lack money?

New opportunities for you - today!

Job REQUIREMENTS: 

1.Basic Internet knowledge and access to a computer with internet connection.(e-mail access).
2. Western Union/MoneyGram in your city.
3.Possibility to visit a bank or cashing location any day of the week if needed. It is better if there are cashing locations which work 7 days a week nearby.
4.Adults only.
5.Must be able to work without supervision.
6.10 to 15 hours per week for communication. 

For this work you don't need:

-a special education
-possessing some special skills or knowledge
-possessing storehouse, office, special equipment.

The job we offer is related to email. It is an easy job which doesn't require leaving your main occupation.

Contact us, your job is waiting for you!

If you are intrested in the job please fill in this form and send it to job@au-fg.com 

First name:
Last name:
Country:
City:
Email:
Current occupation: 
Some words about you:

Please send your application forms to job@au-fg.com only!

Peter Stevens,
personnel manager
Australian Finance Group

2005-09-01

Job Scam: Travel Tour Guide

This is the usual dodgy "money laundering thinly disguised as payment processing" job scam. There is no genuine connection to careerbuilder.com -- this is just name-dropping on the part of the scammer to lend the scam an air of legitimacy. The only domain really operated by the scam artist is "travel-tour-guide.com", registered on 2005-06-23 through YESNIC. The website at www.travel-tour-guide.com is staggeringly elaborate, and although much of it is plagiarised from Let's Go, it's obviously a large investment in time and effort. This is a highly organised and premeditated scam.

The spam was received from 213.213.214.7 on Wed, 31 Aug 2005 21:05:30 -0000.

The leading Internet job site www.CAREERBUILDER.com presents unique
part-time job proposal from International tour agency Travel Tour Guide.
That job position was called "Job of The Year-2004" and it is actual now
because of end of summer and best prices for Travel Tour Guide proposals in
Internet.

Do you want to start a successful carrier right now without any entrance
fees, without buying goods or involving other people? Do you want to start
a successful carrier in financial sphere without economical education or
special experience? . So this is a chance for you.

Travel Tour Guide is happy offering you to apply for one of the open
financial manager positions. This is a unique proposal because while
examining you as applicant only your criminal records and credit history
will be looked through. All they demand from you is to check your e-mail
several times a day and to have a valid bank account or to open a new one.

The main option of financial manager's job is to receive funds on personal
bank account with future remittance to Travel Tour Guide. Manager gets 5%
from every remittance. So every financial manager of Travel Tour Guide has
an opportunity of getting 800-900 USD per week.

Travel Tour Guide resumed that position because of regular bank wires last
for 3-5 days. Such long period prevents them from selling hot tours.
Besides the world leading payment systems like Visa and MasterCard
decreased the limits for Internet payments. The activity of financial
managers in various regions became a rescue for wide range of on-line
companies which sells good up to bank limits.

Travel Tour Guide has already got the network of financial managers working
worldwide. They have got a high demand at the beginning of the autumn in
Western Europe so the managers can not process all the transactions in
time. So company resumed that vacancy in Europe.
Please forward your letter to info@travel-tour-guide.com and you will be
sent the detailed job description and also you can ask for application
form.

If you are not interested in this job offer you can visit www.CAREERBUILDER.com.
A lot of vacancies from more than 75000 employers can be found there.

2005-08-31

Meta: Lottery Scams Taken Elsewhere

I get a lot of lottery scam spam and 419s, but I've been neglecting them lately due to the fact that they are so common, but require a fair bit of fiddling to document. I do want to make archived copies available to those who search for them, however, so I've come up with a more efficient approach. I've started a secondary blog called Lottery Scam Du Jour, and all my lottery scam spam just gets dumped there without further comment. If I really want to comment about a particular spam, I'll add a comment to the post, but in general I'll just provide the text without further comment. The only thing missing will be the source IP address: blog entry dates will reflect the time of arrival.

If this process works for me, I may do the same for 419s and Stock Spam.

2005-08-29

Stock Spam: Roundup

Stock spam has been arriving in dribs and drabs recently. Now is an opportune moment to clear out the backlog, so let's get to it.

StockIP AddressDate Received
EDEX 58.83.42.169 Mon, 1 Aug 2005 06:50:34 -0000
EDEX 220.163.70.67 Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:46:06 -0000
MWIS 221.192.8.166 Mon, 1 Aug 2005 23:08:22 -0000
MWIS 221.15.171.188 Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:01:25 -0000
CGKY 222.84.17.11 Wed, 3 Aug 2005 18:19:06 -0000
CGKY 219.145.154.140 Sun, 7 Aug 2005 11:19:10 -0000
CGKY 60.181.32.170 Sun, 7 Aug 2005 12:15:25 -0000
CGKY 195.210.229.1 Sun, 7 Aug 2005 13:01:38 -0000
CWTD 218.69.216.198 Tue, 9 Aug 2005 01:13:33 -0000
CWTD 221.127.83.213 Tue, 9 Aug 2005 02:16:27 -0000
CWTD 61.149.129.61 Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:51:19 -0000
CWTD 218.24.223.236 Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:46:08 -0000
CWTD 220.176.23.10 Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:09:39 -0000
CWTD 61.51.91.11 Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:08:22 -0000
CWTD 69.245.172.98 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 03:07:08 -0000
CWTD 216.63.226.65 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:21:51 -0000
CWTD 204.60.98.187 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 19:49:03 -0000
CWTD 210.124.113.10 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:39:52 -0000
CWTD 62.89.101.11 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:46:59 -0000
CWTD 219.94.82.212 Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:01:29 -0000
CWTD 200.74.165.63 Sat, 19 Aug 2005 21:09:23 -0000
CGKY 217.144.220.246 Sat, 20 Aug 2005 06:21:30 -0000
CGKY 220.71.190.51 Sun, 21 Aug 2005 07:32:26 -0000
CGKY 61.222.115.124 Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:53:05 -0000
WWBP 221.2.121.15 Wed, 24 Aug 2005 03:03:59 -0000
WWBP 222.235.187.235 Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:20:48 -0000
WWBP 219.251.101.9 Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:27:38 -0000
WWBP 219.251.86.46 Sun, 28 Aug 2005 03:21:53 -0000
CGKY 222.105.4.85 Mon, 29 Aug 2005 05:20:24 -0000
CGKY 211.189.91.53 Mon, 29 Aug 2005 15:21:28 -0000
CWTD 207.173.229.70 Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:14:03 -0000
CWTD 218.22.249.106 Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:56:10 -0000
CWTD 218.51.221.241 Tue, 30 Aug 2005 12:22:04 -0000
CWTD 64.167.100.102 Wed, 31 Aug 2005 07:19:55 -0000
CWTD 62.81.241.140 Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:55:46 -0000

Note that CGKY (Carnegie Cooke & Company, Inc.) is a "first sighting" so far as this blog is concerned, as is WWBP (Worldwide Biotech & Pharmaceutical Co). CGKY is a sub-dollar pinksheet-listed stock, probably being played for pump and dump purposes, whereas WWBP opened around the ten dollar mark on 23rd August, tanked and closed around six dollars on 24th August, and so on. A fairly volatile stock, that, so maybe it's another pump and dump. CWTD, on the other hand, is almost a permanent fixture so far as stock spam goes.

Some of the above spams post-date this blog entry. That's because this blog entry has been amended after posting to cover all stock spam to the end of August, UTC.

Meta: Pump and Dump becomes Stock Spam

I've been prefixing all my stock spam reports with "Pump and Dump", but it's become clear that not all instances of stock spam are pump and dump operations. The perennial CWTD spam is a prime example of this. So from now on, I'll use the more terse and generally applicable prefix "Stock Spam". Mind you, I'm losing interest in the whole stock spam thing, and will tend to let it accumulate a bit before reporting it, so don't count on me for real-time stock spam reports.

2005-08-28

Job Scam: FIAS

Another job scam, while I'm about it. This is a nasty little bugger, as we'll see. The spam targets Australians, and was sent to a ".au" address. It was received from 201.18.113.31 on Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:58:43 -0000.

Exciting offer,
Open jobs:
Manager working at home;
What we need:
Are you smart and honest? We are looking for people like you!
Our worker is:
Adults only;
Permanent resident of Australia;
Computer and e-mail owner;
Free time - 2-3 hours;
Details:
Being our company representative in your country before we open an office there.
Your line of work will be tied to banks and the banking system.
Opening a business account takes 2 weeks.
Therefore work will use your personal account.
If you dont have a personal account - thats not a problem.
An account can be opened in just one day in any bank.
10% is what you will make from every transaction for letting us use your account.
You will make from 250$ to 2500$, since every transaction is over 5000$.
Agree that this isn't bad, considering, that you will be using only 2-3 hours of your time daily!
Attention! 
Grab this job opportunity today, or else someone else will!
If you want to work for us and you meet our requirements - you need to fill out the following form.
http://charityrestministry.org/info.html

So what's with "charityrestministry.org"? If you go to the linked page, it actually claims to be something called "FIAS" and has another rendition of their job advertisement, plus a link to "f-i-a-s.com". The only link with "charityrestministry.org" is that their website has been compromised. So far as I can tell, "charityrestministry.org" is completely unconnected with this scam, and is guilty only of lax security and consequent use by evildoers. Most distressing for them, I'm sure. To clarify, note that the URL has "/info.html" tacked on the end of it. If you remove that part and go to their root page, the site is completely different. The spammers have simply added one page to the site, and linked to it.

Meanwhile, the "f-i-a-s.com" domain name has been registered since 2005-05-11, and last modified on 2005-08-28 (today), so the evildoer behind it is going to some lengths to keep it operating -- and the registrar obviously doesn't see it as their duty to do anything about it. The real FIAS knows about the issue for long enough that they've published a warning on their front page.

Job Scam: Finance Mover

I've been slacking off a great deal lately: an endless stream of 419 sob-stories and lottery wins can get tedious after a while. This one is an employment scam, which is also nothing new, but I really hate them for their particular insidiousness, so I'll shirk off the laziness and report it. For those of you not familiar with the scam, the spammer intends to use the "employee" as a money launderer. Stolen money is sent to the "employee", and the "employee" sends it back via Western Union, thereby making it hard to trace. The "employee" is easy enough to trace, of course, and can expect a visit from the local authorities sooner or later.

This spam was received from 69.248.189.93 (pcp0011492806pcs.eatntn01.nj.comcast.net) on Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:33:59 +0000.

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:34:03 -0500
From: Finance Mover INC. <shorty@u2club.com>
Subject: Hiring Monster.com Job Offer.

Finance Mover INC.

Our vacancies 

We are a company that specializes in sales since
2001.We are looking for financial assistants that will
be responsible to accept payments from clients through
Paypal since it is one of the most popular methods of
payment, but is not available in several regions of
Europe. Paypal protects sensitive information using
state-of-the-art encryption, so your data is not
available to anyone Paypal's risk models help detect
and predict fraudulent transactions-before they affect
the business. PayPal also fights chargebacks. You can
make 10% commission from every transfer you will
receive through your Paypal account in relation to our
business. The rest needs to be transferred to our
company's representative by Western Union, all Western
Union fees are paid by us.On average you will be
making 1500USD a week. To begin working together we
will need your resume and contact information, sent to
financemover@msn.com

Finance Mover INC.

2005-08-15

Lottery Scam: Netherlands, Various

I've had a minor deluge of lottery wins -- the fake kind -- so I'll momentarily shrug off my laziness and report them. I'm not going to bother with nice formatting, sorry -- I'm just going to dump the text here for the benefit of those who search. If you're here because you got a message like this and you thought it sounded a little odd, so you did a little research, congratulations. Yes, it's a scam. Delete it. There's no money to be had, except maybe forged money in some cases, or rubber cheques in others. All of these were sent to the contact address for this blog, and all provide contact addresses in the Netherlands.

The first was sent through the webmail system at mail.go.com. Received from 199.181.134.42 on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 08:20:21 -0000. Please excuse the unformatted text.

Congratulation You Have Won... LUCKYDAY LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL Ref. Number: 132/756/4007 Batch Number: 538901527-BB67 Tel/fax:0031-611-146-930 Email: trustgroupagent@netscape.net Sir/Madam. We are pleased to inform you of the result of The Lottery Winners International programs held on the 6th of AUGUST 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 27511465896-6410 with serial number 3772-510 drew lucky numbers 7-14-88-23-31-45 which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of ERS 1,000,000.00 (One Million EUROS) CONGRATULATIONS!!! Due to mix up of some numbers andnames, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money Remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol To avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 company and 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world we hope with part of your winning you will take part in our next year EUS50 million international lottery. To file for your claim, please contact our fiducial agent(MR.PERRY VAN BROOK) please riply to this Email Address: trustgroupagent@netscape.net of the trust Group Agency TEL:0031-611-146-930 Email: trustgroupagent@netscape.net Please Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 31ST of AUGUST 2005. After this date,all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible. Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program. Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified. Sincerely yours, Mr.mike jose. Lottery Coordinator.

Next up, more of the same. Received from 199.181.134.40 (just two IP addresses down from the previous one) on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:24:20 -0000.

COMBIPLAY LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL COMBIPLAY LOTTERY-WHEEL E-GAME 2005 INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION PROGRAM ADMIRAALSTRAAT 104 1053 GW AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS FROM:THE DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONS INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION DEPT. REF: CMBNL/4240039609/RFE BATCH: CMP/12863/XZ ATTN:WINNER, AWARD PRIZE NOTIFICATION!! ---------------------------------------------------------- COMBIPLAY LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL Netherlands;international lotto e-game organizers and sponsors,officially notify you of the final draw result of the COMBIPLAY LOTTERY - Wheel E-game draw held on 10th August,2005. All draws where conducted at our international corporate office complex in The Netherlands.We wish to congratulate you on the selection of your email coupon number which was selected among the 10 lucky consolation prize winners.Your email ID identity was entered as dependent clients with:Reference Number:FYL/BG772045/SY02,and Batch Number CBP/204861/HLP and Security File Number CMBPL00018970/07.Your email address attached to the ticket number:00009/XXPL and was selected by Electronic Random Selection System (ERSS)with entries from the 50,000 different email addresses enrolled for the Combiplay Lottery-Wheel E-game. Your email ID included among the 50,000 different email addresses where submitted by our partner international email provider companies. You have won a consolation cash prize of €500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Euros Only).You have been approved for a payment of 500,000.00euros (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS.)in cash credited to file reference number:CMBNL/6411059620/BG2.This is from a total cash prize of (FIVE MILLION EUROS) Shared among the ten international winners in second categories.The payout of your consolation cash prize will be remunerated directly to you by the official Payment Agency Board upon your preferred option.Our DUE PROCESS UNIT (DPU) will render you complete assistance and provide additional informations and processes for the claims of your consultation prize. For more informations on how to claim your prize,please contact the DPU Information Officer: MR.ROLAND BOSMAN. COMBIPLAY LOTTERY SECURITY AGENCY, DUE PROCESS UNIT (DPU). Tel:+31-626-248-172. FAX:+31-847-306-332. Email: combiplayagent@netscape.net combiplayagent1@walla.com Note that winnings must be claimed not latter than 30th August 2005.Congratulations once again from all our staffs on your consolation prize winning,{COMBIPLAY LOTTERY}. Regards, Mrs.Veronica Van Basten, (Lottery Coordinator) ---------------------------------------------------------- NB: In accordance with the COMBIPLAY LOTTERY -WHEEL E-GAMES policy and regulations,this notification is dispatched directly to only the 10 lucky consolation prize Winners.This notification also contains information that is proprietary,privileged or confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure.If you are not the right recipient whose email address attached to the lucky numbers along with the winning information as you are not authorized to read, print,retain,copy or disseminate this notice or any part of it.

I love those disclaimer blocks. Anyway, there's more to come. The next one wasn't sent via go.com, but from 200.148.228.170 (in Brazil) on Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:01:46 -0000. This one has an Australian theme, which is new to me. In a slight stretch of credulity, the winnings are in the Netherlands -- a location which comes as no surprise to scamwatchers.

South Australia Lotteries, 23 Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia. (South Australia Lottories is an affiliate of Overseas Subscriber Agents). Arena Complex 14 Donegall Square West, United Kingdom. From: Ariel Bertis e-mail : arielsbertis@yahoo.com.au (Lottery Coordinator) Sir/adam, CONGRATULATIONS!!! We are pleased to inform you of the result of the South Australia Lotteries Winners International programs held on the 12th, August, 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket #: 00903228100 with prize # 778009/2 drew €1,000,000.00 which was first in the 2nd class of the draws. you are to receive €1,000,000.00 (One Million Euros). Because of mix up in cash pay-outs, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your money (€1,000,000.00) has been fully remitted to you by our accredited pay-point bank. This measure must be adhere to avoid loss of your cash prize - winners of our cash prizes are advised to adhere to these instructions to forestall the abuse of this program by other participants. It's important to note that this draws were conducted formally, and winners are selected through an internet ballot system from 60,000 individual and companies e-mail addresses - the draws are conducted around the world through our internet based ballot system. The promotion is sponsored and promoted by South Australia lotteries. We congratulate you once again. We hope you will use part of it in our next draws; the jackpot winning is €85million. Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 20 days. After this date all unclaimed cash prize will be forfeited and included in the next sweepstake. Please, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications remember to quote personal and winning numbers in all correspondence with us. Congratulations once again from all members of South Australia Lotteries. Thank you for being part of our promotional program. For immediate release of your cash prize to you, please kindly contact our Paying Bank ( Deutsche Bank, Amsterdam.) Send them the following: (i). Your names, (ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers (iii) Contact Address (iv) your winning numbers (v) Quote amount won. Contact the paying bank with the following: Contact person: Mr. Water Williams, Deutsche Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands. E-mail:custservicess@netscape.net Tel: 31 647-210-426 Fax: 31-847-504-566 Congratulations once again. Yours in service, Ariel Bertis (Lottery director)

But we're not done yet. One more lottery win to go -- for now. This one arrived from 193.43.17.8 on Mon, 15 Aug 2005 11:20:47 -0000. The IP address is Italy, but the contact address is in the Netherlands again.

Plus Netherlands Lottery. Max Euweplein 62 - 1017 MB Amsterdam- The Netherlands TEL+31647152377. FAX+31847174439 FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTION MANAGER INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRICE AWARD DEPARTMENT. REFERENCE Nº: PLC/ 74741250/ 05. BATCH Nº: ES 13059 . RE: AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION/ FINAL NOTICE Plus Lottery Netherlands wishes to inform you the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery international program by Plus Netherlands Lottery held on 3rd March, 2004. Your email address was attached to ticket number 564 75600545-188, with serial number 5388/02 drew with lucky numbers 43-11-44-37-10-43, and consequently you Won the lottery in the (A) category.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from company and individual email addresses. You have therefore been approved a lump sum of $706,250.00 ( SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIX THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS ) Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program, To begin your claim, please contact your claim agent, RAMON FELIX the Foreign Service Manager of FACIL CREDIT COMMISSION BV, Amsterdam-Netherlands on Mr. RAMON FELIX, Tel: +31 647 152 377. Fax: +31 847 174 439. Email: ramon_felix77@yahoo.com Our agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the Release of your funds as soon as you contact him and you are to quote your lucky number for confirmation on your winning in every correspondences with claims agent. All winning must be claimed not later than 30th August, 2005. After this date all unclaimed funds will be retured to European Union Treasury as unclaimed. Furthermore, should there be any Change of your address; do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.Congratulations once again !! from all our staffs and thanks for being part of our promotional lottery program. Yours faithfully, Mrs. Carol Anderson (Zonal Co-ordinator)

2005-08-08

Lottery Scam: National Lottery International

From the "fake lotteries with stupid names" department, this spam was sent directly to the contact address for this blog, from 82.159.2.235 on Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:22:56 -0000.

DATE: 6th August, 2005.
FROM: MRS ANGELA MANNI THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE
AWARD.

REF Nº:EGS/3662367114/13: BATCH : 15/0018/IPD


RE: AWARD NOTIFICATION.

This is to inform you of the release of THE NATIONAL LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS PRIZE DRAW, held on the 2nd of August 2005, but owing to some mix up of numbers and addresses and the holidays, the results were released on the 6th August, 2005.Your name was attached to ticket number 085-12876077-09 with serial number 51390-0 that drew the lucky numbers of 03-05-12-14-28-38, which consequently won the lottery in the 5th category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of £500,000.00. (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS ONLY), in cash credited to file with REF: Nº.EGS/3662367114/13. This is from a total cash prize of £70,020.225.00, shared among the (25) twenty-five international winners in this category.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Your fund is now deposited with our Security Company and insured in your name. Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this
award from public notice until your claim has been processed, and the money remitted to your account, as this is part of our security protocol, to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking of advantage of this program by participants, as has happened in the past.

All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names, email addresses & official addresses, from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our International Promotions Program.

We hope your lucky name will draw a bigger cash prize in the subsequent programs. To begin your lotteryclaims, please contact your Claims Agent below with the following information for prompt processing of your claims

FULL NAME
ADDRESS
COUNTRY
AGE
PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
TELEPHONE
FAX

DR LUIS FERNANDEZ, FOREIGN OPERATION MANAGER,
GLOBAL SECURITY & FINANCE COMPANY SPAIN, EMAIL:(drluisfernandez@fsmail.net )TELEPHONE: 0034 67 7256839
Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than 25th of August, 2005. Any claim not made by this date will be returned to the DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please
remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in all correspondences
with us; or your Claim Agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of
address, please do inform your Claim Agent as soon as possible. An
original copy of your lucky winning ticket and your deposit certificate
will be sent to you by your Claim Agent, DR LUIS FERNANDEZ.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Once again from all members of our staff and thank you for being a part of our International Promotions program. We wish you continued good fortunes.

Sincerely,

ANGELA MANNI (MRS)
PRESIDENT.

N.B. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CLAIMS AGENT. ANYBODY BELOW 18YEARS IS AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED.

Job Scam: Girtex

This looks like the common "help theives transfer stolen money out of the country" job scam. It targets Australians, and was sent to a ".au" address. The message was sent from 209.124.114.200 on Sun, 7 Aug 2005 22:07:18 -0000. The FORM data in the message was being POSTed to http://rozmova.if.ua/dating/upload/pic/west/info.php. A cursory inspection suggests that this is a third-party online dating site that has been compromised for the purposes of data collection.

EMPLOYMENT FOR FOREIGN COMPANY
Dear Sir/Madam,

Girtex inc. is a German company looking for people who will help us to establish a new distribution network in Australia to sell electronic goods. We have reached big sales volume of goods in US and now are trying to penetrate the Australian market.

We need agents to receive payment for our products (wire transfers) and to send the money to us this way we will save money because of the tax decreasing. Tax for international money transfer made by legal entity (company) in Germany is 25%. There is no sense for us to work this way, but tax for international money transfer made by a private individual is 7% - Thats why we need You! Soon we will open representative offices and pharmacies or authorized sales centers in Australia and the employees who will make efforts and work hard have a chance to become managers. Anyway we will not loose our employees.

The fact that despite the Australian market is new for us we already have regular clients also speaks for itself.

HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN? 250AUD from each transfer operation!

You will work as an independent contractor right from your home office.
Your job is absolutely legal. You can earn up to $2000-3000 depending on time you will spend for this job. You do not need any capital to start.

If you are interested, please feel free to ask for the general provisions.
Name:
City:
Age:
Your e-mail:

2005-08-06

Advance Fee Fraud: Ching Jin Yuen

This 419 is the standard plea for help in the transfer of funds, but with an Indonesian slant instead of an African one. As is also popular, it makes reference to real-world events, without being verifiably attached to those events in any way, shape, or form. It was sent to the contact address for this blog from 65.54.185.26 (bay15-f26.bay15.hotmail.com) on Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:05:22 -0000.

Dear friend,

My name is Mr. Ching Jin Yuen, and my home address is PONDOK JATI CR-1, 
SIDOARJO-61251, EAST JAVA, INDONESIA. I am writing to you to help me on both 
humanitarian and mutually benefiting interest grounds. I am relying on your 
help; in return, I will compensate you most generously. My story is not 
quite unique or new, but I believe this approach will bring a solution to my 
family ordeal. Please forgive me for invading your privacy. I specifically 
chose free, opensocieties, which we can only dream of. Because I believe you 
are a busy person, please let me briefly outline my agenda, and then, I will 
proceed to give you details. I am an orthodox Christian and a minority 
ethnic Chinese of Indonesia, and though we as a people have suffered 
Official and private persecution for years, but recently the economic 
downturn of Indonesia has been blamed on us and we have become the 
scapegoats please check the following Websites on Attrocities in Indonesia:

http://www.pacificnet.net/jue/idontknow/indonesia/indonesian_attrocities.html
http://www.huaren.org/editorial/id/080498.html
http://wcar.alrc.net/mainfile.php/Statements/41/

You will find countless articles on the subject, and it is sobering to say 
the last in the light of the foregoing, I took precautionary steps years ago 
and established a numbered Account in United Kingdom, Funds on current 
Deposit 9,375,406.98GBP. As it turned out, it was my wisest and best 
decision yet, and the future of my family is now centered on this money. 
How? Since the Riots broke out, the ethnic Chinese, particularly the rich 
and middle class have been restricted from emigrating to other countries 
with their wealth. The Secret Police trail and watch yourevery move; even as 
I write to you, my telephone is bugged and my family and I are virtually on 
house arrest. A Visa application by the unwary is an invitation for trouble 
and the Secret Police will instantly be at your door and your bank Account 
frozen these are the sordid details and our dear President Susilo Bambang 
Yudhoyonodoes not want the world to know about! On a practical side, I have 
tried both openly and also clandestinely to obtain visas for myself and my 
family at the American Embassy, Address: JI. Merdeka Selatan 4-5, Jakarta 
10110, Indonesia, Phone (62-21) 3435-9000; Fax: (62-21) 385-7189, and my 
efforts proved fruitless; even an application on humanitarian grounds to the 
American Ambassador, Mr. B. Lynn Pascoe, was turned down for "want of
merit", an official language meaning that a grant of visa will be against 
the interest of the State of Indonesia! In summary therefore, I am planning 
to emigrate to America or Canada or any other Western Country, and I need 
your help. I cannot do it from Indonesia.

As a wealthy man I have some means and help, but because of the prying eyes 
of the Secret Police, I am greatly handicapped. I have made a lot of 
research and I have a plan that will work, with your cooperation will 
require your help to retain immigration Attorney who will prepare the basic 
paperwork for me; I will thereafter arrange with a contact Mr. Chin Chun 
Chang who resides in Malaysia and works as a Clerk Assistant and he will 
help me in processing visas and passports for me and my family from 
Malaysia. This contact will, at the appropriate time arrange passage for me 
and m y family to your residing country. Once in your country of residence, 
I will be free toinvest my money in any profitable business in your country.

Meanwhile, I have given the bank in UK currently with my funds instructions 
to follow my NEXT OF KIN in order to avoid anyone or the Secret Police 
forcing me under coercion to wire the funds back to Indonesia or anywhere; 
it is my greatest security. If you are willing to assist me you will please 
do the following for me: -

(1) You will have to contact the bank in UK with my instructions to make all 
necessary arrangement/transactions with them in order to effect my entire 
funds 9,375,406.98GBP into your specified bank account as my NEXT OF KIN.

(2) Upon receiving the money of 9,375,406.98GBP into your account, you will 
use part of the money to retain an immigration Attorney to advise me 
(though, from my researches, my emigration to Canada/America or any Western 
Countries is assured because of my SUBSTANTIAL UK HOLDINGS.

(3) You will please also arrange air charter transportation for me and my 
family from Malaysia to your country of residence details will follow later. 
If you are willing to help me, please reply ONLY by email, and we will 
establish our game plan.

However, in response to this email please forward to me the below 
information to enable my bank in UK to enable all necessary contact with 
you.

i.Your full names
ii.Contact address (Office/Residence)
iii.Telephone/Fax numbers (Office/Residence)

As soon as I receive the above information from you I shall forward to you 
immediately the complete details of my Bank in UK with my funds to commence 
the processing of transfer to your Bank with my instruction. Because, I made 
it known to my Bank in UK that I will provide my NEXT OF KIN in response of 
my funds transfer.

Thank you for your cooperation. I am looking forward to hearing from you 
soonest. Please, forward your reply to my email address below.

Your friend,
MR. CHING JING YUEN
E-MAIL: info_yuen2010@yahoo.co.id

Advance Fee Fraud: Ms. Kimaeva Lioudmila

This isn't the first time we've seen the name of Mikhail Khodorkovsky invoked in a 419 fraud. This one was addressed to the contact address for this blog, and was received from 66.219.103.122 on Fri, 05 Aug 2005 04:29:53 -0000. It's not entirely clear whether this was a webmail exploit or something else.

 I am Ms.KIMAEVA LIOUDMILA personal secretary to
Mikhail Khodorkovsky the richest man in Russia and
owner of the following companies: Chairman CEO: YUKOS OIL (a
Russian oil company) and
Menatep SBP Bank (A reputable financial institution)
who got arrested for his involvement in politics in
financing opposition political parties (the Union of Right
Forces, led by Boris Nemtsov, and Yabloko, a liberal/social
democratic party led by Gregor Yavlinsky) which poses a
treat to President Vladimir Putin second tenure as
Russian president.
More information are available on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3213505.stm and
http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2003/11/13/51215.html.
I got your contact in my search for a reliable and
trustworthy entity who could handle this confidential
transaction.
You will be entitled to 30% of the sum once everything gets
concluded. Please take this seriously as it is not a hoax.
All I need from you is to stand as a beneficiary to the
funds in one of his accounts that has not yet been
discovered by the authorities.
The account holds the sum of 50.2 million dollars($50.2m).
All modalities necessary for the successful transfer of this
money have been worked out and I wish to relocate out of
here quietly once we are through.
Please if you are interested, provide your details such as
full name, business name, if you have a business and
telphone number so that we can commence immediately. The
transaction has to be concluded in 2 weeks As soon as I get
your willingness to comply through
my most private email address( kmila1@myway.com ]
I will give you more details.

Regards,
Ms.KIMAEVA LIOUDMILA

2005-08-05

Advance Fee Fraud: Jacob Moboyo

This is a plain 419, notable only for the fact that it was sent to my legacy address rather than the usual approach of web-scraping. Also, it arrived twice. Both instances came from 196.39.9.66 (in Africa), one on Thu, 04 Aug 2005 22:56:10 +0000, the other on Thu, 04 Aug 2005 23:51:26 +0000.

From Mr. Jacob Moboyo.
Telephone + 27 72 135 8631.

Greetings,

My name is Jacob Moboyo, the elder son of Mr. Tami Moboyo of Zimbabwe.
This might be a surprise to you about where I got your contact address. I got your address from the South African Chamber of Commerce in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During the current war against the farmers in Zimbabwe
from the supports of our President Robert Mugabe to
claim all the white-owned farms to his party members
and his followers, he ordered all white farmers to
surrender all farms to his party members and his
followers.

My father is One of the best farmers in our country
and because he did not support Mugabes ideas,Mugabes
supports invaded my fathers farm and burnt everything
in the farm,killing my father and made away with a lot
of items in my fathers farm.

Before his death, my father had deposited with of the
Security Company in Johannesburg, South Africa the sum
of US$25,5 MILLION (TWENTY FIVE MILLION FIVE HUNDERD
THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS). After the death of my
father, we decided to move to the Republic of South
Africa where he had deposited the money in the
Security Company as valuables.

So I decided to contact overseas firm or a private Individual
that will assist me to move this money out of South Africa because
as asylum seekers we are not allowed to operate any Bank Account within South Africa.
We have agreed to offer you 25% of the total sum for your assistance, while 75% will
be for me and my family to invest in your country.

You can reach my Mother on this number but please note that she does not speak much of English.please do email us through the below email address.

Tel+ 27 72 135 8631
jacobmoboyo@zwallet.com

Thanks and God bless.

Best Regards
Mr. Jacob Moboyo.

2005-08-03

Advance Fee Fraud: Thomas Graham

Here is one common or garden variety 419 scam, telling lies about otherwise true stories in order to lend itself credibility. As is common with 419s of late, this message was sent through a poorly configured webmail system, this time at www.MyFamily.com. Hint to webmasters: the Internet is an unfriendly place, and having your site exploited by miscreants such as this is bad for your reputation, so be careful out there. The shamed IP address in this case is 66.43.25.158.

From The Desk of: Thomas Graham
Head of Trustee and Depository
Institutional Fund Services.
HSBC Bank Plc 24th Floor
8 Canada Square
London E14 5hq.
3rd Of Aug 2005.

   Compliment to you and your family.

 DearSir,

 I am Thomas Graham the Head of Trustee and Depository Institutional
 Fund Services HSBC Bank Plc London. I am writing following an opportunity
 in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us.
 In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of 14.5million
 British Pounds Sterling (Fourteen million five hundred thousand British
 Pounds) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late
 Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the
 plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31
 2000, including his wife and only daughter. You shall read more about
 the crash on visiting this site.
 http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
 http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.htm
l
 Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
 next of kin or relatives to come over and claim his money because we
 cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or 
 relation
 to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately I
 learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along
 with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this
 fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I
 and two other officials in this department now decided to make   business
 with you and release the money to you as the next of kin or
 beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement 
 since
 nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go back into
 Government treasury   as unclaimed bill.
 The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money
 remained after five years the money will be transferred into banking
 treasury as unclaimed funds.

 We agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign partner,
 while the balance will be for me and my colleagues.
 I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the
 percentages indicated above once this money gets into your account. 
 Please  be honest to me and trust is our watchword in this transaction.
 Note this transaction is confidential and risk free.   As soon as you
receive this mail you should contact me by return mail.

Please   all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these funds
to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details when I do receive
your response.Please in your response include your telephone number for easy
communication between us.
Best regards,

 Mr. Thomas Graham


_____________________________________________________________________
Get your own family web site at www.MyFamily.com!

2005-08-01

Pump and Dump: Odds and Ends

There have been a few seen-it-all-before type pump and dumps arrive in the last few days. I won't bother with full text or linking to all past instances -- just a quick summary of stocks and sources. The PSIV and EDEX were sent to "address X", and the PGCN to my legacy address.

StockIP AddressDate Received
PSIV82.230.217.89Fri, 29 Jul 2005 01:41:40 -0000
PGCN61.207.157.134Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:44:14 +0000
PSIV60.10.84.159Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:37:54 -0000
EDEX218.23.66.95Sat, 30 Jul 2005 19:48:32 -0000
EDEX208.199.20.196Sun, 31 Jul 2005 17:12:14 -0000
PGCN210.213.224.9Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:24:30 +0000

Advance Fee Fraud: Philip Eze

For the record, one common or garden variety 419 sent to the blog's contact address, received from 203.200.89.200 on Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:39:14 -0000. The source address is in India, according to WHOIS, and it's the only IP address listed in the headers. There are no obvious signs as to whether this was injected from a webmail system (typical 419 modus operandi at the moment) or not, but the evidence is at least compatible with that theory.

I am Mr PHILIP EZE
secratary to the operation manager
Equity Trust  Bank,Lagos, Nigeria.

ATTN SIR 

I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On 
June 6, 2000, 
a Foreign Oil consultant/contractor with the Nigerian National 
Petroleum Corporation, 
Mr.Barry Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar 
months, 
valued at US$26,500,000.00, (Twenty-six Million, five hundred thousand 
Dollars) 
in my branch.

Upon maturity, my boss sent a routine notification to his forwarding 
address but got 
no reply. After a month,we sent a reminder and finally we discovered 
from his contract 
employers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that Mr. Barry 
Kelly died from 
an automobile accident. On further investigation, we found out that he 
died without 
making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. 
The bank 
therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Barry 
Kelly did not 
declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including 
his Bank Deposit 
paperwork in my Bank. No one will ever come forward to claim it. 
According to Nigerian 
Law, at the expiration of 5 (five) years, the money willrevert to the 
ownership of the 
Nigerian Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.


Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as an Foreigner to 
stand as next of 
kin to late Mr.Barry Kelly so that the fund US$26,500,000.00 will be 
released and paid 
into your account as the next of kin. I have All documents and proves 
to enable get 
this fund has been carefully worked out by me because of my position as 
the secratary 
to the operation manager .So if you are interested in this deal, 
quickly furnish me 
with your full names as it will appear in the claims doccuments to the 
bank, your full 
address, telephone and fax number. I am writing you because I as a 
public servant
(Junior staff with the bank),i cannot operate a foreign account or have 
an account 
that is more than $200,000.00 USD.

The money will be moved out for us to share in the ratio of 50% for me 
30% for you, 
10% for all expensis and 10% for orphanage After getting this fund 
accross to you, 
i intend to invest my share of this fund in your country, under your 
supervission as 
i can not take them all to my country.If you are interested, please 
reply immediately 
via my email address . 

Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and 
relevant documents 
that will help you understand the transaction. Please observe utmost 
confidentiality, 
and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for 
both of us because 
I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your 
country.(Buying of properties 
like houses, hotels etc) 

Please do send me your private/mobile telephone fax number so that we 
can have a smooth 
communication.

Awaiting your urgent reply 

Thanks and regards.
PHILIP   EZE

2005-07-29

Job Scam: Agroleeds International

I don't know if there's a company anywhere with the name "Agroleeds International" -- a quick search finds no instances. This particular spam was sent via Hotmail (bay16-f13.bay16.hotmail.com [65.54.186.63]) to the contact address for this blog, using the return address "workerman@ukrawmaterials.com". I'll make enquiries and see what comes back.

AGROLEEDS INTERNATIONAL
General Importers & Exporters
Tower House Hardwick Road
Great Gransden Bedfordshire
SG19 3BJ

We supply raw materials Into America, Canada, Australia . We are searching
for representatives who can help us establish a medium of getting to our
costumers in America and Canada as well as making payments through you to us.
Please if you are interested in transacting business with Us, we will be very
glad. Please contact our procurement officer,Mark Brian
mark_brian22@yahoo.com Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the
opportunity to negotiate your mode of which we will pay for your services as
our representative in America or Canada. Please if you are interested get back to
Mark brian
Very Respectfully,
Agroleeds International

2005-07-27

Advance Fee Fraud: Marie-laure Anne BILLARD

I've heard of 419 spams in languages other than English before, but I don't recall actually receiving any. I don't actually speak French, but I can recognise a 419 in it. Whether the French is native or a rough mechanical translation is a question I can't answer. This arrived at the contact address for the blog from 81.199.125.132 on Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:37:54 -0000.

Bonjour .
Avant toute chose, je voudrais m'excuser pour mon intrusion dans votre vie privée.
Je me nomme Mme Marie-laure Anne BILLARD, Cadre au Departement Comptabilité et transaction au sein du groupe EcoBank-Côte d'Ivoire.
Un compte a été ouvert au sein de notre banque en 1985 et depuis 1990,aucune opération bancaire ne s'est effectuée. Ce compte présente à ce jour dans nos livres, un compte créditeur de 20.8 millions de dollars américains.
Après avoir consulté méticuleusement toutes les archives et les dossiers relatifs à ce compte, je me suis rendu compte que je pouvais disposer aisément de cet argent si je réussissais à le virer sur un compte à l'extérieur du pays.
Le possesseur de ce compte feu Mark Davids, un expatrié,ingenieur en chimie fut directeur de Petrol-Technical Support Services Inc.,il trouva la mort suite à un accident de la circulation. Personne ne sait à ce jour l'existence de ce compte. Ce compte ne possède aucun autre bénéficiaire aussi bien dans sa famille que dans son entreprise. Je voudrais transférer l'argent de ce compte sur un compte fiable à l'étranger mais je ne connais personne à l'extérieur.
C'est ainsi que l'idée m'est venue de vous contacter et de vous faire la proposition de virer cette somme sur votre compte bancaire, pour partage. J'ai conscience que ce message vous surprendra car nous ne nous connaissions pas auparavant, mais soyez sûr que c'est une véritable opportunité qui s'offre a vous et a moi.
Je vous demande de me répondre le plus vite possible pour eventuelle finalisation,tout en sachant compter sur votre dicrétion la plus totale .

cordialement.

Marie-laure Anne BILLARD

2005-07-25

Advance Fee Fraud: Mr. Joseph Buma

Received: one fairly ordinary 419 scam, sent from 81.148.69.35 on Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:35:04 +0000. The plot is the usual one, with real names and a link to a real news story to lend the big lie some credibility. Note also the "netscape.net" contact address -- very typical for 419s. The IP source address belongs to British Telecom -- one of their ADSL pools, apparently.

Dear DIRECTOR/CEO,

My name is Mr. Joseph Buma, I am an auditor in Standard Bank of South Africa . I am contacting you of a business transfer, of a huge sum of money from a deceased account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that everything has been well taken care off, and all will be well at the end of the day.
I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction. To ease your apprehension, I got your contact from the British chambers of commerce and industry, foreign trade division.
An account was open by a foreigner named GEORGE BRUMLEY, a citizen of Atlanta, United States of America, who died along with his entire family in a plane crash that took place in Kenya, East Africa.
Please, visit the website below for more information,
<http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html>

PROPOSITION;

Since his death, none of his next-of-kin are alive to make claims for this money as his heir, because they all died in the same accident(May his soul rest in peace). We cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out by a lawyer for the funds Twenty- five million United States dollars (US$25,000,000.00) in a domiciliary account to be released in your favour as the beneficiary's next of kin.

Because after some years the money will be called back to the bank treasury as unclaimed bills and the money shared amongst the directors of the bank. so it is on this note i decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the next of kin/beneficiary to this funds rather than allow the bank directors to share this money amongst themselves at the end of the year.
It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries.
Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with the following information if you are interested.

1.A Beneficiary name;. In order for me to prepare the PAPER WORK for transfer of the funds in your name. And also I want you to come down to South Africa to open a non-resident account for onward transfer to your overseas account, and for us to see face to face.

2. Details, particulars of your contact address.

3. Direct Telephone and fax numbers;. For our personal contact and for the confidentiality of this transactions.

I shall be compensating you with 25% of the total sum on final
conclusion of this project for your assistance, as I have also thought of doling out 5% to charity organisation from your locality based on your recommendation another 5% for the services of the lawyer while the balance 65% shall be for me for investment purposes in your country as I cannot bring back this cash to my country.

If this proposal is acceptable by you, please endeavor to contact me immediately. Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you by informing you of this transaction from my bank as I will advise you to kindly desist from responding at all if you do NOT intend to render any assistance.
Endeavor to respond via this my confidential direct e-mail address joseph200@netscape.net.

Thanks and best regards,

Mr. Joseph Buma.

Pump and Dump: PSIV

I have no prior instances of this stock in my spam corpus here, and a brief search didn't turn up any instances on the web. Due to the fact that the stock is sub-dollar and trades on the Pink Sheets, this is probably a standard case of pump and dump. Only one instance of the spam has arrived so far, received from 220.176.94.43 on Sun, 24 Jul 2005 05:24:00 -0000. This particular spam uses random excerpts from current news stories as filter-buster, and I'll include that part of the text for reference purposes.

BIOTECHNOLOGY NEWS.....  MONDAY JULY 25 WATCH
. RADAR ALERT ....RADAR ALERT.....RADAR ALERT.....RADAR ALERT


Pacific Sunset Investments Inc.
SYMBOL: PSIV
CURRENT PRICE: .24
SHORT-TERM:  $1.00

How many times have you heard about this????
adverse drug reactions accounted for more than 2.2 million serious cases and
over 100,000 deaths,

PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV***PSIV

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
reported that adverse drug reactions accounted for more than 2.2 million
serious cases and over 100,000 deaths, making adverse drug reactions (ADRs)
one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death in the United States.

Breaking News for Pacific Sunset Investments

Pacific Sunset Investments Completes Gen ID Acquisition
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2005--Pacific Sunset
Investments, Inc. ("Pacific Sunset") (OTC:PSiV announced that it has
completed its acquisition of Gen-ID Lab Services, LLC, a California limited
liability corporation specializing in Single Nucleotide Polymorphism
analysis data. In addition, the board of directors of Pacific Sunset has
appointed Douglas Freedman to its board of directors with experience in
marketing. Additionally, the company has appointed Dr. Steve N. Slilaty,
Ph.D., to head an Advisory Board to assist the company with reviewing new
alternatives in the "SNP" field of technology.

Gen ID will provide "SNP" (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) analysis data.
The results of SNP analysis provide physicians with a more enlightened
choice of drugs and they will also be able to predict the effectiveness of
the drugs for individual patients. The use of an SNP test to help treat
childhood leukemia is currently being used by doctors and hospitals in the
United States.

Dr. Steve Slilaty is President and Chief Scientific Officer of Advanomics
Corporation, a leading-edge biotechnology company focusing on the
identification of disease related molecular targets using advanced
transriptomics technologies, which he recently developed. Dr. Slilaty also
is an Adjunct Professor at the Universite du Quebec in the department of
Microbiology and Biotechnology. Dr. Slilaty has founded three biotechnology
companies, Advanomics Corporation, Quantum Biotechnologies Inc. (now known
as Qbiogene Inc.) and Geneomics One Corporation. In addition, Dr. Slilaty is
one of the pioneers of Gene Therapy, having developed the first Gene
Transfer system in 1983.

(This is a partial clip of the news.  We suggest you go read the whole
release.  Our opinion is, this is important technology.  Go to yahoo or any
financial site and read the news)

CONCLUSION:
adverse drug reactions accounted for more than 2.2 million serious cases and
over 100,000 deaths,  Doesn't this say it all?

 A company to watch!

AGGRESSIVE INVESTORS TAKE NOTE NOW!
PUT Pacific Sunset Investments Inc. PSiV
ON YOUR RADAR SCREENS NOW,
AND WATCH THIS COMPANY STARTING NOW


them 1700 foreigners from 36 countries So far 
the bodies of just 400 foreigners have been 
identified and repatriated elections Ten suicide bombers also 
are reported to have
died in the attacksThousands of people took to 
the streets in Baghdad and Karbala to commemorate 
the day which marks v the martyrdom of Hussein 
the grandson of the Prophet MohammedThe attacks are v 
the latest examples of 
sectarian violence aimed at Shiites who make up 
the majority in Iraq The Shiitebacked United Iraqi 
Alliance won a plurality of votes in the v 
January 30 national assembly elections but fell short 
of an outright majority Sunni Arabs make up 
a minority that dominated the government under Saddam 
Hussein's regime Many Sunnis boycotted the assembly electionsA 
on a bike rode into a funeral tent 
in the AlBaya'a area 

in southwestern Baghdad and detonated himself Three people 
were killed and 38 woundedIn alKadhimiya in central 
Baghdad an Iraqi police car was attacked by 
a rocketpropelled grenade and 
the US military was called in When the 
American troops were on the scene a suicide 
bomber boarded a bus of pilgrims and detonated 
himself The attack killed a US soldier three 
policemen and a civilian Twentytwo civilians were woundedPolice 
said that in alWaziriya in northern Baghdad three v
people launched suicide attacks One detonated killing an 
Iraqi soldier The second as Unity Day when v v 
insurgents can voluntarily surrender The Baquba blast happened v v 
just 500 yards meters