Scam: Gadgets Ltd UK

I haven't checked whether there is a real company operating under this name, but I haven't seen a scam as blatant as this in a while. Nothing subtle here, just send money via Western Union in return for a false promise that you'll receive goods. If anyone has dealt with this clown, please tell us where he wanted the Western Union transfer sent. With a gmail address and a UK +4470 "forward anywhere" number, he could be anywhere in the world, but following the money is always interesting.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gadgets Ltd UK <gadgets.lmtduk@gmail.com>
Reply-to: gadgets.lmtduk@yahoo.com
Date: 6 Dec 2007
Subject: APPLE iPhone/Sony PS3(60GB)for $600 USD FREE SHIPPING
To:

APPLE iPhone/Sony PS3(60GB)for $600 USD FREE SHIPPING


We are offering The Revolutionary APPLE iPhone 8GB and Sony PS3(60GB) =
$600 USD FREE SHIPPING


SAMPLE PRODUCTS PRICE LIST

Video Games
Playstation 3 ........$300
Nintendo Wii......... $200
Sony PSP......... ....$140
Xbox 360 Platinum.... $140
Xbox 360 Premium..... $120

Apple ipod Nano 4gb....$100
Apple ipod Nano 80gb...$250

GSM PHONES
Nokia 8800 sirocco....$350
Motorola V3i D&G......$250
Nokia N95......... ...$320
Nokia N93......... ...$260
Nokia N93i ...........$280
Nokia N70 ............$160
Nokia N72 ............$175
Nokia N73 ............$250
Nokia N80 ............$200
Nokia N90 ............$200
Nokia N91 ............$200

Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson W800i....$200
Sony Ericsson W810i....$225
Sony Ericsson W900i....$250
Sony Ericsson K510i....$105
Sony Ericsson W800i....$150
Sony Ericsson k750i....$165
Sony Ericsson M600.....$302
Sony Ericsson k700.....$100
Sony Ericsson W600.....$156
Sony Ericsson w850.....$230

PDA
Palm Treo 650........$170
Palm Treo 700w.......$250
Palm Treo 750........$240
QTEK 9000 ...........$300
QTEK S110 ...........$250
HTC P3300 ...........$300
HTC P3600 ...........$350
Dell Axim X51V.......$350
i-mate Jam ..........$400
i-mate K-Jam ........$420

All GSM Phones,Brand New,Tri- Band, Simfree ,Unlock and open to all GSM
Networks

world wide with 1 yr warranty and Video Games are also Brand new
with Complete Accessories plus Int'l Warranty .

Our Very Flexible Terms of Trade
Prices are in US Dollars
Payment:  Western Union Money Transfer
Delivery :FedEx Express 2-3 days after payment
Warranty : 1 Year Int'l warranty with 90 days return policy with full
refund option.

Thank you and looking forward to your order CONFIRMATION soon.

NOTE : FEEL FREE TO CALL OR REQUEST MORE INFO

John Philips
GADGETS LIMITED (UK) LTD
Registered No. 05881519
THE OLD STABLES, ARUNDEL ROAD,
POLING,ARUNDEL,WEST SUSSEX,BN18 9QA
UNITED KINGDOM
TEL : +447031917966, +447031917369

News: UK Clarifies Cheque Clearance Times

This is good news for residents of the UK who have been targeted by cheque forgery scams, which account for a fair slab of the job scams I report at Suckers Wanted. Banks have been quite clear about how soon after depositing a cheque you can draw on it, but they have been rather less clear about how long it takes to fully process the cheque. There is a window in which you can withdraw the funds, but the cheque can still bounce, and this is the window that scammers exploit. Although the window has not been eliminated, new rules make the window small and uniform across banks. If you receive a cheque in the UK and you don't fully trust the source (which you should not, unless you have significant prior experience with it), you should wait seven working days before you act on the payment. If the cheque hasn't bounced in that time, it's the bank's problem for not detecting the issue quickly enough.

These rules come into effect on the first of December.

Advance Fee Fraud: US Green Card Lottery

It's that time again: the time when you can apply for consideration in the U.S. Department of State Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery, and also when scammers will pretend that you've won it (see example below) in order to defraud you. It may come as a shock, but I didn't apply for entry to the increasingly-misnamed "land of the free", and I happen to know that " applicants selected in the Diversity Visa random drawing are notified by the Department of State, Kentucky Consular Center by letter, NOT email" [source].

There are a great many variations on this type of green card lottery fraud, but this one is a blatant case of advance fee fraud: they want you to pay a "visa processing fee". I suspect that they are not associated with us-green-card-lottery.org, although I don't think too highly of that site either. If you're going to enter this lottery, do yourself a favour and deal only with the U.S. government directly so that you can clearly tell the scams from the real deal.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: us green card lottery service <usgclsa@walla.com>
Subject: The Official U.S Green Card Lottery Program
To:

[image redacted] The Official U.S Green Card Lottery Program United States Department of State, National Visa Center 32 Rochester Ave, Portsmouth , NH 03801-2909 www.us-green-card-lottery.org    Case Number:  2007BK21783000              Dear winner.   We wish to notify you that you are among the selected lucky winners of the U.S visa Lottery (Green Card) through our email ballot lottery program held on the 20th of July in Arkansas (USA) The Green Card email ballot lottery program was conducted under the terms of Section 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 2006 ( Pub.L.101-649) This is the second edition of the email ballot program and it provides winners "Green Cards"   The aims and objectives of the program is to give free visa's to citizens of developing countries around the world who wishes to travel to U.S and start a new life and work. The green card Lottery is a matter of huge benefits for those who want to try themselves abroad.   Selection 6.3 million Email addresses were randomly extracted during the 33-days extraction period that ran from 12.00 AM on Aug 10, 2007 until midnight, Sep, 9 2007. All extracted email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy for final selection through computer draw system and your email address attached to ticket number 56402-188 drew the lucky numbers which subsequently won you the U.S visa and we are sending the winning notification through the selected email addresses which means that, if you receive the notification in your mail box you have been selected among the lucky winners.   Your visa duration is 10 years multiple entries to the U.S, it is renewable upon expiration and it permits you to travel to U.S with your spouse. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. Our visa processing agents had been apportioned among the six geographic regions.   Visa claim application (step 1) Your visa winning details falls within our Asia/pacific booklet representative office as indicated in the draw system and we have forwarded your winning details to our Asia/Pacific office for the processing of your Green Card acknowledgement Certificates, therefore, FOR YOUR VISA FORM, REQUIREMENTS AND FURTHER DETAILS, contact our Asia/pacific agent with the below contact details;   Name:  Mr. Lewis Taylor.  Ofiice Address:  95 Wireless Road Panthumwam Bangkok Thailand. Tel:  +66- 8-1499-4471 Fax: +66-2251 9977 Email: uscounsular@oued.org      Approximately six hundred and twenty five (625) lucky selected winners had been notified through their selected winning email addresses including you today. All selected lucky winners will need to act on their claims applications quickly before the expiration of the visa claim deadline which is on the (30th Nov 2007)   Advanced Question. How can I make the claim of my visa? You will obtain your visa through the U.S Consular officer in your home country or any U.S Embassy nearest to you with your Green Card Acknowledgement Certificates that will be processed and send to you by our Asia/pacific agent. U. S. embassies and consulates will not be able to provide a list of winners until their Green Card acknowledgement certificates are processed with their case numbers and placed on the U.S Immigration Network Database.   Visa Processing Fee. Single-$755USD Dual-$1,250USD   What is processing fee? The processing fee pays for the accuracy preparation of your documents that will enable you to obtain your visa through the U.S Consular officer in your home country or country of your present residence. Green card experts charges a nominal fee to cover administrative and processing costs incurred in conjunction with the careful processing of every document. According to J.Stevenson Wilson, Author of Visa Lottery services Report, the total average fee charged by green card lottery services ($755USD) for one person,there is no correlation between the fee charged and the quality of services provided and its benefits.   Benefits. Winners will get FREE Airline Ticket to the USA. people that win this Lottery will get the constant legal status of the US inhabitant, an opportunity of free country entrance and departure, the right to be working in the USA legally and getting American salary. You may have any job in America, whether it is a government, public or private job. A permanent residence visa (as well as American work visa) eases your life. In addition to permanent legal residence Green Card holders also receive health, education, retirement, taxation, social security and other benefits.   Disqualification. Any selected lucky winner from the following countries will be disqualified; Mexico-Canada-Haiti-Columbia-Elsalvador-Jamaica-Poland-Peru-Korea-Dominican Republic-Philippines-Vietnam-Russia and United-Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) This is because each has more than 50, 000 candidates in the USA.   Please retain this letter and take it with you to your visa interview centre when directed.  Do not reply back to this notification email (busy)   Please read and follow all the enclosed instructions very carefully.   Sincerely yours, Mrs. Christine Roberts. Secretary General U.S Consulate-Kentucky.

---

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Info: A Nigerian Scammer offers his services

If you're currently looking for an experienced Nigerian scammer partner in India, then apparently this guy is available. In case you don't know the lingo, "wash wash" is the black money scam. Your guess is as good as mine as to why he thought I'd be interested in a partnership. Maybe he took "ideceive" as a literal "I deceive".

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: shama uman <sman11k@yahoo.com>
Date: 22 Oct 2007
Subject: ur guy from india
To: ideceive@gmail.com

HELLO
I AM FROM NIGERIA MY NAME IS pascal FROM IMO STATE IN NKWERRE L.G.A NIGERIA AM GUY MAN I HAVE BEEN TO MANY COUNTRIES SOME WERE LIKE ABIDJA ,TOGO, GHANA ,DUBAI, CHINA MALAYSIA NOW IN INDIA I DO ATTEND FACE-TO-FACE EXECUTION WASH WASH, CONSIGNMENT DIPLOMAT LEVELS ALSO TRANSFER.....WE CAN
DO THINGS TOGETHER MY GUY LET WORK OUT MONEY,IF YOU HAVE INDIA JOB AM HERE TO ATTEND IT FOR YOU AND YOU WILL GET YOUR % GUY HERE IS MY CONTACT MOBILE NUMBER +919899227328 OR YOU CAN EMAIL ME ON p_ben2k@yahoo.com MY BEST REARDS,
pascal (ONYEZE)
ONE LOVE
our mode of sharing is 60/40.

__________________________________________________
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News: Fake Checks are a Multi-Billion Dollar Business

According to a Reuters report, "an international crackdown on Internet financial scams this year has yielded more than $2.1 billion in seized fake checks and 77 arrests in the Netherlands, Nigeria and Canada." This is one of the possible frauds behind the "money mule" job scams I report at Suckers Wanted.

Spam: P.P. Bankcard Services

Here's a slightly interesting thing. This is spam, straightforwardly enough: it was sent to my Gmail account, and I have never corresponded with this party, let alone sent mail with the subject to which this is supposed to be a reply. So what's the motive behind the scam? Is it an actual business just trying to drum up custom through spam? More likely it's a kind of phishing, because the scammers are only interested in companies that do at least $300,000 a year in credit card or check sales. If anyone replies to this with an expression of interest, they've just marked their network as worth compromising, and they'll likely receive a reply containing attachments with malicious payloads, designed to leave back doors into the system for these miscreants to use.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Tucker <bancardoffice@gmail.com>
Date: 26 Sep 2007 04:10
Subject: Re: Phone Call For Merchant Account
To: Owner <ideceive@gmail.com>


Hello this is John Tucker with P.P. Bankcard Services, we help businesses setup, reduce, and clarify credit, debit, check, and atm processing costs. Our company even works with businesses that are considered "high risk" by other Processors.

I'm not sure if it would make sense for a phone appointment at the moment so I sent this email to see if you had any of the following situations:

>> Are you currently seeking to setup processing?

>> Are you currently processing and are dissatisfied with your Processor?

>> Are you receiving bad checks?

>> Are you having issues with Accounts Receivable and aren't receiving payments on time from customers?

>> Or, are you seeking to setup an ATM or receive a higher surcharge income from your ATM Machine?

If you have any of the above situations give me a call at: 1-866-543-6268 to discuss creating a potential solution. You can also send me a fax to: 1-866-553-8246.

*** Very Important, due to the popularity of our company and our programs we can only see businesses who will do at least $300,000 a year in credit card sales or check sales.

(To comply with marketing regulations, if you are fine and would not like to be included in future emails give me a call or send me a email and our office will gladly comply.)

Thanks alot and I look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,

John Tucker
Account Manager
P.P. Bankcard Services and Systems
Direct Extension: 1-866-543-6268
Direct Fax: 1-866-553-8246

Job Scam: New money mule variant?

Here's a scam I haven't noticed before. Some dodgy West African wants to send you credit card details (stolen, of course) so that you can wire back money (ostensibly to a travel agency -- but we know it's just the scammer himself) via Western Union. Personally, if I were running a Western Union agency, I wouldn't accept payment by credit card -- especially not in "card not present" situations. Does this scam have a snowball's chance in Western Sahara of working?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: patrick clerk <patrick_clerks@yahoo.fr>
Date: 8 Sep 2007 01:13
Subject: I AM WAITING FOR YOUR SOONEST ANSWER
To: patrick_clerks@yahoo.fr

Dear Sir,
 
I am Patrick Clerks, at the time of the marriage of my son, I would like to reserve 2double rooms  and your restaurant or club bars for the day of September 20th, 2007.
I intend to regulate by remote credit card.
Then I would like to be in contact with the person in charge of the reservation.
the ammount that i can be able to spend is 10.000 euros which is planned for a cocktail and a dinner (of 18h with 23h).

Thus you will understand that I want the best for my only son that why i will try as much as possible to make this reception to have success.
Also I would like to make a reservation for 10 or may be 20 guests who will come to assist to the weeding of my son because those persons are his best friends and i want this day represent the most important moment in his life.That is the reason why i contact you in order to guarantee with you the success of this weeding.

I will ask you to help me sending a group of 4 persons three days before the weeding day as my representants close to you so that they can work with you and inform me in any organisation which will take place there,because this weeding is a challenge for me.
i want also to tell you that those person i will send close to you will help in the choice of the menu and the decoration and something else you will ask them to do before my arrival.

 

However I will consequently ask you to remove the reservation price and 5000€ by charging my the credit card that i will send you as soon as you give me your oK.
Not that this ammount of 5000€ wiil be used to regulate the plane ticket of those 4persons who will represnt me until my arrival.

Not also that i will need you to send the 5000€ to a member of NAKATA TRAVEL AGENCY which is located in Ivory Coast by western union because i used most of the time to take my travel ticket and i have a reduction there in each ticket.

 

I am currently in Morrocco for a congress and I benefitted from the occasion to take my son and his future wife with me for the choice of the weeding clothes they will need at the time of the ceremony that why i am not capable to make any transfer because the law of this country forbid this.
 
Thus I am waiting for your soonest response in  order to communicate to you my credit card number+ the scratch date for the payment.
MoreoverI ask you the disponibilty to help me resloving this matter.

 

Not that NAKATA TRAVEL AGENCY have problems with their machine so they cannot charge my credit card by themselve.

 

For your will to help me i will reward you with 500€ .

 

MY DIRECT PHONE NUMBER IS 0022504735052.

 

Respectifully yours.

Mr.Patrick Clerk

---

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Advance Fee Fraud: LIVE-PAYMENTS.COM

Some 419ers tell you they have a stash of cash they want you to repatriate; some tell you you've won the lottery; some want you to pretend to be next of kin to receive an inheritance; some pretend that you are owed money for contractual work in Nigeria. These scammers just tell you there's a payment waiting for you -- simple as that. The story changes, but the fraud remains the same: there is no stash of cash waiting for you -- they're just trying to blind you with dollar signs so that they can (a) take all your personal details, and (b) persuade you to pay a few small incidental fees on the way towards receiving this imaginary stash.

   Domain Name: LIVE-PAYMENTS.COM
   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
   Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
   Name Server: NS1.SEDOPARKING.COM
   Name Server: NS2.SEDOPARKING.COM
   Updated Date: 29-jul-2007
   Creation Date: 29-jul-2007
   Expiration Date: 29-jul-2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gilmac Financial Services <cititiconsultant@gawab.com>
Date: 06-Sep-2007 00:14
Subject: Live Payment
To: ideceive@gmail.com

ATTN:

You have been sent a payment, here is your payment information:

PAYMENT NOMBER:      03115027
PAYMENT DATE:    05/09/2007
PAYMENT VALUE:   750,000 USD
In order to receive you payment please confirm you identity in our verification page:

Dr. P. Brook

Gilmac Financial Services
Weeps-The Netherlands.
Tel: +31-634-254755
Fax: +31-847-118266
Email: live_payment@gawab.com


1). Full Names:..................
2). Residential Address: ........
3). Occupation:..................
4). Sex:.........................
5). Phone/Fax Numbers:...........
6). Country of Resident:.........
7). Nationality: ................
8). Payment Value:.........
9). Payment Number:...............
10). Amount.................
11). A scan or Fax Copy of any Valid Proof of your

Identification like International Passport or Driver's
License:................

All participants where 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 drawn from Europe, Asia, Australia,
New Zealand, Middle East, Africa, North and South
America. Do note also that every email addresses that
were used on this program were gotten without the
knowledge of each recipient. Be informed here that all
winnings must be claimed not later than the 15th Day
of September 2007 and that anybody under the age of
18yrs is automatically disqualified and hereby not
eligible to apply for a claim of this amount.

Congratulations from our management as we expect you
to make good use of your funds. Do note also that
every email addresses that were used on this program
were gotten without the knowledge of each recipient.
www.live-payments.com


Please follow the given instructions.
After we receive your confirmation, we will send you the payment.

Thank You
Live-Payments staff
Mr,Franck William

News: Monster.com data compromised

Here's an important heads-up for people with personal details on Monster.com. According to Symantec, a new piece of malware has been sucking out the personal details of job-seekers from that site, via compromised recruiter accounts. Consequently, we can expect some very targeted job scams aiming at monster.com users.

Advance Fee Fraud: Fondation de France

This is really just a variation on the "you won a lottery you didn't enter" scam. Only the cover story is different: you've been given a grant for which you didn't apply. This is typically advance fee fraud: they want money up front for some fee or other before you get to see any of your promised wealth. Sometimes they send a fake cheque or money order. Basically, don't get involved. Note that the FDF is a real organisation -- it's just that these scammers have nothing to do with it.

In addition to the contact address given in this spam, " fdf_org07@yahoo.fr", a correspondent reports one which uses "fdfgrantoffice967@atmail.org ". These are freemail addresses which anyone could register, anywhere, anytime, and they're probably not the only ones in use for this particular scam.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: THE FONDATION DE FRANCE(FDF) <[random address]>
Date: 02-Aug-2007 22:08
Subject: THE FONDATION DE FRANCE(FDF)
To: [redacted]



THE FONDATION DE FRANCE(FDF)
http://www.fdf.org.

The Fondation De France(FDF) would like to notify you that you have been chosen by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a  cash Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business  development. The FDF, established 1977 by the Multi-Million groups and now  supported by the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS),  United Nations Organization (UNO) and the European Union (EU) was conceived with the objective of human growth, educational, and community development.

In conjunction with the ECOWAS, UNO and the EU, We are giving out a yearly donation of US$1,350,000.00 (One million, Three hundred and Fifty  thousand United states dollars only) each to 100 lucky recipients. These specific Donations/Grants will be awarded to 100 lucky international recipients worldwide, in different categories.

Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and millions of supermarket cash invoices worldwide, you were selectedamongst the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of US$1,350,000.00 as charity donations/aid. Nevertheless, according to the federal and international law concerning the personal collection of prize winnings, your bonding fees, broker fees, and tarrif fees, have already been deducted from your donation.So congratulations once again.

You would be required to send down the following informations:

FULL NAMES:______________
ADDRESS: _______________
CITY:____________________
STATE:__________________
COUNTRY________________
SEX:_______________
AGE:__________________
MARITAL STATUS:___________
NATIONALITY__________
OCCUPATION:_______________
E-MAIL ADDRESS:____________
TELEPHONE NUMBER:_____________________

You are required to contact the Executive Secretary below, for qualification documentation and processing of your claims. After contacting our office, you will be given your donation pin number, which you will use in collecting the funds. Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (FDF-444-6647-9163) in all discussions.

Executive Sec. Mr David Tinny
Email: fdf_org07@yahoo.fr

Tick a suitable mode for payment of your funding grant award as listed below:

1.Online Bank Payment
2.Courier Delivery

Do note that these funding grant are strictly administered by the EU, ECOWAS and UNO.

On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Martha C. Edmondson.
(Director of Human Resources )

Meta: I'm a slacker

The month of July, 2007, is nearly at an end, and if you look at the monthly archive for the Suckers Wanted blog, you might get the impression that it was a slow month for job scams. This isn't the case: I have a total of around sixty job scam spams that I didn't get around to processing. No doubt there was some repetition in this lot, so the total number of additional blog entries I ought to have written is somewhat less than that, but it's still a lot of work.

The reason for the slacking off has to do with my secret identity: he's been a busy boy, and this has seriously bitten into my deception spotting time. August isn't looking much more promising, either, but here's hoping for the best.

Advance Fee Fraud: 419 through 101egreetings.com

This is probably more common than I'm aware of, because my reflex action is to delete "ecard" notifications of this sort. Anyway, this is an instance of an "ecard" site being used to send 419 scam spam. I checked out the site, and there's no "report this as spam" button on the page that I can see, so shame on 101egreetings.com for leaving their system so open to abuse.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: danlami_zbplc@yahoo.co.uk <danlami_zbplc@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 07/26/2007;
Subject: A warm wish from Mr. DAVID DANLAMI
To: ideceive@gmail.com

Dear Recipient,

[Mr. DAVID DANLAMI (danlami_zbplc@yahoo.co.uk)] has sent you an egreeting from 101eGreetings.com
101eGreetings.com is all about saying something, expressing yourself,
and connecting . We have got ecards for all occasions to help you
celebrate all the little and big things in life. Share the joy with
people you love and care about, make them smile, by sending them an
e-wish from our collection.

Your ecard will be available on our server for the next [30] days.

--------------------------------------
        CARD DETAILS
--------------------------------------

To view your ecard, please click on the following link :

http://www.101egreetings.com/cgi-bin/greetings/viewcard.pl?cardnum=EG12505126072007783

Alternately, you may copy and paste this link in your browser's
address box.

Your ecard number is : [ EG12505126072007783 ]

In case you have any questions or queries regarding your greeting
please mail us at [ support@101egreetings.com ]


Best Wishes
Customer Care
http://www.101egreetings.com/

To send someone an ecard, please visit us at http://www.101egreetings.com

Advance Fee Fraud: Richard Dolls Foundation

I felt that this one was worth noting, because I don't recall having seen a 419 disguised as a conference invitation before. The bait here is the part that says, "Richard Dolls Foundation has set up an Access Fund to support the travel costs for all qualified participants." Depending on their modus operandi, they'll either ask for money up front (and never send you anything in return), or send you a fake cheque, get you to bank it, and then send them money based on the proceeds -- leaving you to foot the bill when the cheque bounces.

How do I know this is a scam? Easy. For starters, it's spam. For seconds, it's from a Yahoo freemail account. For thirds, "Richard Dolls Foundation?" Where do they get these names? And last, but certainly not least, the originating IP address of the spam was 77.70.128.146, which is presently delegated to a service provider in sunny Nigeria. 'Nuff said.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Doll Foundation <infor_dollfoundation@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 19-Jul-2007 03:14
Subject: Call To Participate
To: doll_foundation1@yahoo.co.uk

Hello Delegate,

This is a Call for Participation in an INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF NGOs holding from 20th August till the 30th of  September  2007 in London, United Kingdom where as many as 200 participants from across the world including Health Practitioners, Professionals in relevant fields, Lawyers, Psychologists, Women and Youth Development Groups, Government Officials, Donor Agencies and participating NGOs will meet to discuss issues pertaining to the Welfare of NGOs...and also to meet others like yourself; to learn, teach, inspire and being inspired. This event will be exploring the potential of a practical approach that will unleash and nurture the human capacity to create, collaborate and change positively, the world at large.

What are the objectives of this meeting? The meeting will provide a medium where participating individuals and NGOs will convene to address and discuss ways of improving key Humanitarian issues and topics with much emphasis on Human Rights, Gender Equality, Peace and Security, Social and Economic Development, Youth and Children, Health Education, Ethics and Value and Environmental Protection. Participating NGOs will have direct access to grants by International Donor Agencies.

The opening Lecture will be held by Dr Mrs Artemisa Franco who is the President of the Center for Human Rights Research and Development, Maputo - Mozambique.The program will include:
* Thought-provoking plenaries
* In-depth breakout and dinner sessions for strategy-development
* Capacity and skills-building sessions; and
* Debates to stimulate discussion.

In addition to the main program, the meeting will also host book launches, artistic and cultural activities, exhibitions, plenty of space and opportunity for informal networking and alliance building.

All plenaries and selected breakout sessions will have interpretation into English, Spanish and French.

Who can participate? What happens if more than 200 participants apply? Anyone who is a member of an NGO, Professionals in related fields, Students Unions, Lecturers of Universities and Community based organizations, the Clergy as well as women and youth development groups can apply to participate.

If more than 200 people apply (as we anticipate), a global selection committee will select a representative 200 from among the applicants. This committee will ensure that the participants at the meeting are truly international and represent a diverse range of interests, issues, and regions.

The events shall commence on the 20th till the 30th of July 2007 at Abba Queens Gate Hotel London.
I can't afford the cost - Can you help? Richard Dolls Foundation has set up an Access Fund to support the travel costs for all qualified participants.

How do I apply, and when is the deadline? All Interested organizations should send an email to the Local Organizing Committee. Participants MUST be a group of 1-3 persons to qualify for registration.

Contact Person: Rev. George Solomon
Email: infor_dollfoundation@yahoo.co.uk

Regards,
Local Organizing Committee
Richard Dolls Foundation

---

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News: 111 suspected 419ers arrested in Amsterdam

I'm pleased to say that the Netherlands is still taking Nigerian organised crime seriously, even if the UK has decided to slack off. As reported in The Register (among other places), police in Amsterdam last weekend arrested 111 people of West African nationality (primarily Nigerian). They are suspected of running lottery scams.

Spam: Job Scammer does OEM Soft too?

A few days ago, I received a short blast of identical spams (other than the "from" address, which was totally different for each instance) promoting dubious vacancies at a "company" called SunFx. For detail, see the SunFX Online Inc scam report at my Suckers Wanted blog. This particular instance of the spam stood out because it's mangled: it blends an OEM Software scam with the job scam. I suspect that this is either the same scammer running more than one scam, or at least the same spammer, possibly sending spam on behalf of more than one dodgy client.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Nelson <[redacted]>
Date: 09-Jun-2007 19:45
Subject: Re: Hi
To: [redacted]


OEM Soft Store 80% Discounts

  We are glad to present You this online software store with maximum lowest prices on the Internet. You won\'t find software anywhere else on the Internet with prices lower than here. All the programs we have here for sale and available for Download Only.

http://www.best-soft-download.hk/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MS Windows Vista Business Edition at ......ONLY $49.95

MS Office 2007 Professional .......................ONLY $49.95

ADOBE Creative Suite 3 Design Premium ..ONLY $37.95

SystemWorks Premier 2007 Edt .................ONLY $19.95

And many more...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Come and check out by yourself
http://www.best-soft-download.hk/
SunFx Online Inc. customer service department is currently offering employment for 10 Australia residents and 15 United States residents in order to provide it's new branch with qualified personnel.
The private client support desk is responsible for following up client enquiries, helping the clients to understand how SunFx Online can save them money on foreign currency transactions, and developing new business through referrals.
If you're a customer service fanatic, and enjoy working in a challenging and rewarding environment, please see below for our current list of opportunities.

Position: Customer service officer.
Salary: Your starting salary will be $2300 - $4500, which will be paid to you in accordance with our standard payroll procedures.
In addition, you will be eligible for monthly and annual bonuses.
Relevant Work Experience: Will be an advantage.
Location: Australia / United States.
Education Level: College degree will be an advantage.
Insurance: 1 month after you begin work, you will be covered under our group health insurance policy, unless you advise us that you do not desire such coverage.
Information regarding our health insurance, as well as other group benefit plans, is enclosed
Keywords: Telecommuting, flexiplace.


Should you have any questions regarding this letter, our offer of employment or anything else, please write me an e-mail.
We are excited to have you join our organization and look forward to working with you.

Please forward your full resume, contact information and questions to HR dept. e-mail: sunfxcareers@ssl-mail.com

You will be contacted within 1 to 4 business days.

Best regards,
James Nelson
Employment Manager
SunFx Online Inc.
sunfxcareers@ssl-mail.com

Spam: ship4love

This scam is funny. I don't know what the exact details are -- it looks like advance fee fraud, but I'm not going to bother digging up details. However, here are a few suspicious points.

• Does this whole thing reek of "bait" to you? Someone is trying to lure desparate males with some very tall tales here.
• A beauty pageant called, "The Beauty and Intelligence of Russia"? Oh really? Seems like nobody else on the Internet has heard of it.
• They advertise by spam. That's a good way to get victims, not customers.
• The domain name is freshly registered.

Speaking of domain registration...

   Domain Name: SHIP4LOVE.COM <-- scam
   Registrar: ENOM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.enom.com
   Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
   Name Server: NS1.SLAVHOST.COM
   Name Server: NS2.SLAVHOST.COM
   Updated Date: 10-apr-2007
   Creation Date: 10-apr-2007 <-- recent
   Expiration Date: 10-apr-2008

That's about all the effort I'm going to waste on this scam. Here's the original spam text for reference, though.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted]
Date: 01-Jun-2007 16:17
Subject: ship4love
To: [redacted]


Hello,

If you do not want to loose your money and to talk to girls who does not
even exist there is new wonderful opportunity to meet Russian girls in
person and to spend 7 days on cruise with them. On the 25 of July a
beautiful ship " St. Valentine " will sail from Sochi (Russia) and will
go around the Black Sea. There will be 50 Russian beauties who want to
meet a foreigner in order to make a family and they are ready to leave
Russia. These girls are disappointed in Russian men and they will be
happy to find the man abroad. All their pictures are placed on the
website. On the ship will be created such an atmosphere that will help to
start romantic relations. There will be invited only 30
foreign men on that cruise. And you can be one of them!
If you are interested, go in a site: ship4love.com

ship4love.com

Best regards.

Spam: CharityHope

Right... the link in this spam took me to a page full of porn video links, not a form for submitting a resume. Thankfully, I'm cautious enough to use a text-only browser when checking out such things, so I may have been spared an unwanted anatomy lesson. I also tried without the numeric extension on the end of the URL, and that took me to a page containing Javascript which did nothing, but looked a lot like Javascript I have seen on sites which try to exploit security weaknesses in web browsers.

All in all, if you managed to find this page before clicking on any links, I highly recommend that you don't. If you clicked already, and you run Windows, you may want to scan your computer for the latest malware. It's also entirely likely that the number at the end of the URL is a unique tracking ID, and the spammer is creating a list of suckers who are silly enough to click on links in spam, which is always a bad idea (unless you're some kind of idiot who writes a blog about spam).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cleo <gerr[@]shapel.bir.ru>
Date: 13-May-2007 12:27
Subject: _The best time to join the team of CharityHope. Contact us by sending your resume.
To: undisclosed-recipients

Our Charitable Center, established in year 2000 by a team of highly qualified professionals who feel privileged to help world and people in their sorrow. We are working to help people donate money for realization our social and charity programs, called up to help growing generation to get education, for providing of charity projects, directed on formation of favorable social and informational area around children. We are working on developing of new children centers for their education, we are taking active part in support and adaptation of homeless children.
Our organization is pleased to inform you that there are available vacancies for a Donation Manager Position.

your resume - http://81.29.241.160/in.php?21352828

Our team is really happy to invite you to our company!

Spam: job@headfirm.net

Here's an interesting spam I found while sifting through the usual job scam spams. At first glance, this appears to be a standard job scam, but on closer inspection it lacks key ingredients. For example, it expresses as strict requirements that the applicant be registered with the SEC.

This is perhaps a clue to what they're really doing here: trying to find registered stock brokers. My guess is that this is the first stage of a "spear phishing" attack: anyone who contacts them claiming to be a stockbroker will be sent some documents in return, such as Microsoft Word documents. These are actually Trojan horse documents, crafted in such a way that they will attempt to install other software on the stockbroker's computer. The attackers probably want to gain access to stock trading systems so that they can buy and sell stock to manipulate the price for their own gain, or some similar scam.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [redacted] <[redacted]@hotmail.com>
Date: 10-May-2007 09:58
Subject: Good job offer from careerbuilder
To: [redacted]@gmail.com
Cc: [three more gmail.com addresses redacted]

This position is open as of 05/09/2007.

Financial Consultant Retirement Advisor - Stock Broker

Financial Consultant - Registered Rep - Money Management - Retirement Planning

We're looking for established money motivated reps. Huge payouts! 100% Commission.

We're an independent Financial Services and Investment Services firm looking for the next great member of our team. Our Financial Consultants provide Investment, Insurance and Financial Planning services tailored to meet the needs of business and individual clients. Are you ready to step away from the micro managed environment of the larger firms?

Would you like the freedom to actually give objective advice? If so, Keep Reading!

What's in it for you:

~ A professional work environment. We are passionate about what we do!
~ The freedom to do what's right for your client. No pressure to sell the monthly special!
~ Solid earning potential and benefits package. Strong Commission Structure.

What we are looking for:

~ Registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)(required)
~ Registration with the Medallion Guarantee Signature program (required)
~ Bachelors degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Communications or related field
~ 3 + years experience as a Financial Consultant, Registered Rep or Broker
~ Exceptional communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills
~ We're looking for proven producers with an entrepreneurial streak!

So, If you are a talented and experienced Financial Consultant or Financial Advisor, with a Bachelors degree and 3 or more years experience . . . Apply Today!

Salary: $350,000.00 - $600,000.00 /Year

Required Skills

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Financial Consultant, Retirement Planning, Stock Broker, Estate Planning, CFP, Relationship Management
If you are a good fit for the Financial Consultant Retirement Advisor - Stock Broker position, and have a background that includes (and/or):

Financial Consultant, Retirement Planning, Stock Broker, Estate Planning, CFP, Relationship Management and you are interested in working the following job types:

Sales, Business Development, Marketing

Within the following industries:

Banking - Financial Services, Accounting - Finance, Mortgage

About The Rewards

Work hard, perform well, and you'll be rewarded with a dizzying number of benefits including:

Competitive base salary
Bonuses and commissions
Medical and dental coverage
401k retirement plan
Paid vacations
Tuition reimbursement
Paid training programs
Comfortable work environment
Business casual dress

This offer will remain open until 04.30.2007. If you decide to accept our offer, as we hope you will, please sign the enclosed copy of this letter in the space indicated below and return it to us as soon as possible.
Should you have any questions regarding this letter, our offer of employment or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are excited to have you join our organization and look forward to working with you.

Our email is job@headfirm.net

Sincerely Yours,

CyberCoders Sales & Marketing Specialists

EMPLOYEE ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In response to the above offer of employment (INITIAL ONE ONLY):

______ I accept.

______ I do not accept.

Dated: ___________________, 20___

____________________________________________
[Insert employee name here]

P.S. If you accept this offer We would be glad to invite you to your personal interview.

Spam: Seek-Employment.com

I'm not reporting a scam -- or at least not knowingly reporting a scam -- with this post. Rather, I am offering a strong recommendation against using the services of " seek-employment.com" on the basis that the "chairman and founder" is a spammer. I don't know whether he scraped my email address off my blog, or off careerbuilder.com , although I suspect the latter for obvious reasons.

This particular spam originated in Australia and promotes an Australian business, and is thus in breach of the Australian Spam Act. The fact that this person is breaking the law in order to promote his business is hardly a ringing endorsement of his integrity. The Australian authorities may take action against him for spamming sooner or later, but I felt it important to name and shame in the meantime, since people should have fair warning before associating with a spammer. This is doubly important when the matter is employment, since such websites are often used by scammers, even if not run by them.

Here is a partially redacted extract of the WHOIS data that leads me to believe the registrant is in Australia.

Registrant:
   Top Chef
   XX Connemara Drive
   Perth, Western Australia 6108
   Australia

The following are the full mail headers associated with this spam. These also show that the country of origin is Australia, or more specifically the ISP "Amnet IT Services Pty Ltd".

Delivered-To: ideceive@gmail.com
Received: by 10.114.14.3 with SMTP id 3cs22579wan;
        Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:41:36 -0700 (PDT)
 Received: by 10.100.133.9 with SMTP id g9mr2323956and.1176457295956;
        Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:41:35 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <office@seek-employment.com >
Received: from seek-employment.com (203.161.72.73.static.amnet.net.au [203.161.72.73 ])
        by mx.google.com with SMTP id c40si2914339anc.2007.04.13.02.41.33;
        Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:41:35 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral ( google.com: 203.161.72.73 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of office@seek-employment.com)
Message-Id: < 461f504f.1c72d3df.2e81.3de2SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com>
From: Seek-Employment <office@seek-employment.com >
To: ideceive@gmail.com
Subject: Seek-Employment
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:42:08 +0800
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="de96afae-7651-4381-9dce-7b4afae7fbff" 
Reply-To: office@seek-employment.com

Images have been redacted from the spam body, which follows. Images were externally hosted at " seek-employment.com" and "topchef.com", which appears to be the property of the same registrant (if WHOIS is to be believed).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Seek-Employment <office@seek-employment.com>
Date: 13-Apr-2007 19:42
Subject: Seek-Employment
To: ideceive@gmail.com

If you could help forgotten children in crisis, by doing nothing but what you already do, would you? Sign up here
Dear Employer / Recruiter,   Seek-Employment is a new job board, with a greater purpose than being just another employment site. We want to positively impact the lives of suffering children across the globe.   Seek-Employment's goal is to provide exceptional online services to Employers, Recruiters and Job Seekers in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. A regular job ad is 100% FREE. Seek-Employment will raise money through added value advertising on its site. We will donate 100% of this revenue to Riverview Children's Foundation. By advertising your job vacancies on Seek-Employment for FREE, you help us generate greater site traffic, which makes it worthwhile for companies to invest in Seek-Employment's added value advertising, which raises money to help suffering children world wide.   You can now post your vacancies on Seek-Employment - FREE!   Riverview Children's Foundation   Riverview Children's Foundation promotes and supports projects that reduce suffering, and provides options for forgotten children in crisis, globally. The Vision is that we see children in crisis (not restricted to but including prostitution, abandonment, trafficking, and imprisonment) rescued, protected and empowered, to live out their lives richly and, where possible, contribute fully back into their own communities and cultures. We are currently partnering with projects in Cambodia, Thailand and Ukraine and our goal in the future is to have a global impact by supporting projects in Africa and other South East Asian countries. To read more about Riverview Children's Foundation click here   Thank you for your support.   Samuel Anders Jansson-Bush Chairman & Founder Seek-Employment		After you have created your Free account, logged in and placed a job vacancy on Seek-Employment you can: -   Find qualified staff such as Executives, Managers, Professionals, Trades people ---   Create job postings online that are instantly available to thousands of applicants, and receive unlimited resume responses.   Create a Company Profile page to showcase your company to potential employees. Upload your logo, add/edit or view jobs, archive and renew old jobs.   See online who has applied for your jobs (also can be received via email), send private messages / receive private messages from potential employees, search/consult jobseeker's resumes, bookmark and email jobseekers resumes, review statistics of how many times your job has been viewed and job applications received.    Receive Resume Mail - daily/weekly resumes sent matching employer's job.    Create sub-accounts for larger companies that need more than one login for their company account ( Please apply here)   Display posted jobs on your own website with the cross network option ( Please apply here).   Take this great opportunity today and you can potentially reach tens of thousands of job seekers daily   Click here to create your FREE account Search on Seek-Employment for jobs and much more... Posting your resume is FREE and easy. Our online job database connects you with the most recent jobs that fit your requirements. Register or log in HERE.
Copyright Seek-Employment 2001 - 2007. All rights are reserved | Remove me from Seek-Employment mailing list |

 

Job Scam: MRC International Auto Broker Company

I've started to receive a stream of money mule job scam spams using this identity. It's been on my radar once before, but it seems to be more in earnest this time. For spam samples, see the entry at my "Suckers Wanted" blog. One of the interesting things about this scam is that they are requesting "the ability to accept BPay transfers".

There are no restrictions on this vacancy, except for these little requirements: You should be at least 21 year, Basic knowledge of MS Office and e-mail, Ability to answer phone calls during a daytime, Ability to check your e-mail at least 2-3 times per day, A credit card in any Australian or New Zealand bank with ability to accept BPay transfers (you can apply for a new account especially for receiving funds from us). If you already have a permanent job this will not prevent you from being employed with us. So if you can check e-mail and communicate with us by phone (probably in dinner break) you can work from your office.

A quick search reveals that BPay is a bill payment system used by a large number of financial institutions in Australia, and the ability to make BPay payments is incoporated into Internet and phone banking services offered by those institutions. So far as I can tell, however, being able to receive BPay payments is much more difficult, involving a lot of paperwork at the very least. It's the sort of thing only a business would do if they really did have a billing infrastructure. I can only assume that this whole "BPay" angle is a smoke-and-mirrors distraction, and the money is actually sent via direct account-to-account transfer, as is the usual case.

Investment Scam: Direct2EG

It's a relative rarity that I get spam promoting a pyramid investment scam like this. They used to be quite common. My surmise is that the activity has mostly been relegated to discussion forums dedicated to this kind of shonkiness. If the WHOIS data for " direct2eg.com" is to be believed, this scam is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- a claim that I find entirely credible. Malaysia isn't the centre of scum and villainy that Nigeria is, but it's high on the list of such places, particularly as regards pyramid investment scams.

In the interests of not promoting this rubbish, I've partially redacted the spammer's affiliate IDs.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kissou abdoulaye <kiss_ablo54@hotmail.com>
Date: 29-Mar-2007 17:16
Subject: NEW PROGRAM.. BREAKING WORLDWIDE RECORD!
To:

hello

 

I stumbled upon a very interesting website recently. I've been spending some
time going through it and personally, I feel it's a very useful site...I even
learnt a couple of new things!

Just thought it might be useful for you too.

Membership fees is only a one time $20 out of pocket while you can earn passive and residual income  .The more you find prospect the more you achive your dream

 

In this program you earn money on every level. You'll start making money just after you activate your account!

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW 3 SIMPLE STEPS BELOW:
STEP #1
SPEND $20 in total from your e-gold account to 3 sponsors including $5 to the program administrator for the administration cost of the website. After your payment, you will be redirected to registration page.

MEMBER	PAY AMOUNT
limosine	$7
adrien	$5
jaguar	$3

STEP #2
SIGN UP to open an account by filling registration form with your username, email and e-gold account number.

STEP #3
PROMOTE your Direct2EG webpage using your referral link

 

HOW IT WORKS ..
After you spent $20 in total to 3 sponsors and sign up, you'll get a referral link to "Direct2EG" webpage which your name now becomes the top sponsor.

Promote your webpage. If a new member signs up from your referral link you'll get $7 before this new member can activate his/her account. You don't have to wait until your name reaches 3rd level position to be paid. You'll get the money even if you are still in the first level. You'll start making money just after you activate your account! This makes this program much better then other programs!

Your downlines will do the same thing as you do. Assume that every member gets 30 new member each and your your potential earning:

LEVEL	DEPOSIT PER MEMBER	TOTAL DOWNLINES	EARNING
1	$7	30	$210
2	$5	30 X 30	$4500
3	$3	30 X 30 X 30	$81000

 

 

www.direct2eg.com/?id=xxx

 

 

First create an account with e-gold.Please click here

 

http://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid=xxxx235

 

Click on "CREATE AN ACCOUNT" at the left of the menu section

Fill the form .

To fund your e-gold account please click here

 

http://www.me-gold.com/index.php?ref=xxxx235

 

 

Regards

KISSOU

---

MSN Messenger : appels gratuits de PC à PC partout dans le monde !

Info: Anatomy of an eBay scam

I ususally report on spam-based scams, so eBay scams aren't my usual cup of tea. My encounters have been primarily with the other side of eBay scamming: the hiring of mules to act as middle-men. For a more in-depth look at the eBay side of the fraud, I recommend the article "Anatomy of an eBay scam" at The Register. It's an abbreviated email exchange between the reporter (posing as an interested buyer) and the scammer.

In this particular scam, an eBay account with a good reputation is hijacked (by phishing the owner for credentials), and an item offered for sale under that identity with instructions to contact the seller via non-eBay channels. When contacted by a buyer, the seller then spoofs mail from eBay instructing the buyer to send payment to an "eBay agent" via Western Union. If the buyer falls for it and sends the money, the scam is complete and successful.

Note that a single fraudulent listing on eBay can be used to scam a large number of potential buyers, since there is no competitive bidding, and no goods are ever shipped. The scammer can just pretend that the goods are available to all who ask, and collect as many payments as possible. The payments could be made through a money mule: the article doesn't spill the beans on the identity of the Western Union recipient, so I can't make an informed guess about the process in this case.

News: Spammed Stocks Suspended

It's nice to have something to report other than the usual stream of job scams over at Suckers Wanted. Sophos is reporting that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has temporarily suspended trading on a swag of stocks that were being touted (and touted, and touted) in spam. This seems like a good thing, but I somehow suspect that the miscreants behind the spam will rapidly switch to a bunch of other stocks. I have doubts as to whether this action will yield long term benefits unless the SEC starts reacting quickly to new spams.

Info: Job Scam Changes, February 2007

This month has finally seen the demise of Impex Consult, active since December 2006, but the tail end of Norden continues to trickle in (active since November 2006), although only the domain "norden.hk" seems to be active anymore. Meanwhile, two new names have started showing up in a big way: Radius Investments and August Insurance. The "Radius Investments" scam is causing more damage than usual, because it is ripping off the identity of a real company, which is naturally suffering harm to its reputation through no fault of its own. On the plus side, it means that someone is motivated to stomp on the scammers and their domain registrations hard, fast, and continuously -- with lawyers -- which is about what it takes. My guess is that the scammers will give up on the idea of impersonating real companies pretty quickly because of this opposition -- but wait and see, because my predictions aren't always right.

Also worthy of note so far this month is a move away from image-based spam. The Impex Consult scam was the biggest contributor of such spam to inboxes last month (so far as job scams are concerned), and Radius is the major contributor this month, but the August scam has fallen back to plain text. The August spams have also been free of hyperlinks to their websites, and this has aided them in bypassing spam filters to a large degree.

Info: ITS Finance now Diving with Sharks?

It's often interesting to try to follow the scammer through a series of name changes. Some have such a distinctive modus operandi that the changes are obvious: you can almost predict what they are going to do next. Others are subtler and less conspicuous. All such evidence is circumstantial, but some evidence is stronger than others.

In this particular case, I believe there is overlap between the (currently inactive) ITS Financial Corp scam, and the (new) "Dive with Sharks" scam. My suspicions are raised by the very similar form of the spam. Consider the following comparison: an ITS spam is on the left, and a "sharks" spam is on the right. Neither is the complete email, but these ideas are expressed in the same order.

ITS Financial Corp	divewithsharks.biz
Hey there	Hello,
I hope this message finds you in a great spirit.	We hope you are reading this message in a fine mood.
For a start I'd like to welcome you on this opportunity because our firm just came about your contact and your brief profile through an email listing affiliated with HotJobs and I would be highly interested in giving you a work at home job in which you can earnextra income of close to AUD3000 monthly.	I'd like to welcome you on a very interesting opportunity. We supppose you will be very interested in a home job in which you could get about AUD4000 per month.
This work doesn't affect your present job and this is a very limited offer in which I would really require your immediate response. I will be hoping to hear from you soon, since this is a job that will enable you to work part-time.	This job will not affect your present career, it will only take a small part of your free time.
Please fill out our application form, no fees asked, just your basic contact details:	Please fill our application form. No fees are asked, just leave your contact details:
We will get back to you ASAP. Have a nice day	We will contact you soon. Thank you!

News: US County treasurer gets 419ed

Who falls for these outlandish tales of untold wealth endemic to the 419 scene? Sadly, it's sometimes people who are entrusted with the care of other people's money. Sophos is reporting that one Thomas Katona, treasurer of Alcona County, Michigan USA, for thirteen years, invested more than $1.2 million of county funds in Nigerian fraud scams. That's in addition to whatever of his personal wealth he poured down the 419 drain. He had been advised by bank officials that he was investing in fraudulent schemes, but denial is a powerful thing, it seems.

Sickening, isn't it? He's been charged with various counts of forgery and embezzlement, and can expect a sentence of ten years or more. It seems to me that imprisonment is counterproductive, though. There are probably lots of things that he can do to actively pay off his debt. Just make him an indentured servant of the county, pay him minimum wage, and get him to do work valued above that level of pay. The difference can go towards paying off the $1.2M he stole. For one thing, he can visit schools in his county and give the kids a lesson in "don't be an idiot sucker like me". Make some lemonade out of those lemons.

I can dream, can't I?