Something Smells Phishy To Me…

HAHAHAHAHAHA!  LMFOA!  This is the first scam email I’ve seen actually capitalizing on other famous email scam names… Ma Delun is undoubtedly the most famous name used in phishing and advanced fee fraud schemes (Nigerian 419), followed closely by Robert Mueller (the current director of the FBI), Jürgen Krügger and the Epmgigo Rebels, so I think that it is tremendously funny that they name Ma Delun and “an imposter from the FBI” while laying down their sceme in this email.

I love the warning at the end of their email, too.

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From: investigation.dept@fbi.gov
Reply-to: fbi-usa.gov1@live.com
Sent: 12/12/2008 1:45:31 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: ALERT FROM THE FBI

Washington Field Office Federal Bureau of Investigation 601 4th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20535 (360) 637-3443

ATTENTION: Beneficiary,

This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Imposters claiming to be Ma Delun of the Bank of China and an imposter claiming to be the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During our Investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfill your Financial Obligation giving to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

So therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by arranging your payment in total of US$800,000.00 in an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw money anywhere in the world. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in the ATM CARD.

All I did want you to do is proceed and contact the ATM CARD CENTRE via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $550.00 only and note that your Approval Slip contains details of your PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (PIN) which you will use in activating your ATM CARD in any ATM MACHINE in the United States of America.

CONTACT INFORMATION

NAME: MR. PAUL SMITH
EMAIL: atmcardcentre1@hotmail.com
PHONE #: +2347027797613

This ATM Card Centre will send you an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw money in any part of the world, but the maximum twenty thousand five hundred dollars per day.

If you wish to receive your funds in your ATM SWIFT CARD, kindly use the above information to contact Mr. Paul Smith, the director of the ATM CARD CENTRE and provide him with the below information.

1. Your full name:
2. Full address for ATM Card delivery:
3. Phone/ fax #:
4. Age:
5. Gender:
6. Occupation:

You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram details on how to send the required $550.00 so that they will make your ATM SWIFT CARD available and shipped to your doorstep immediately.

As soon as you have contacted and provided the ATM CARD CENTRE with the required info and fee, they will make your ATM SWIFT CARD available and shipped to your doorstep immediately.

This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $550.00 ONLY to Mr. Paul Smith via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your winning prize of $800,000.00 we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $3,000 which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you.

We order you get back to this office after you open contact with the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTRE and we do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.
.

Faithfully Yours,

ROBERT S. MUELLER, III
DIRECTOR
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535
TELEPHONE: (360) 637-3443

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Note: Do disregard any email you get from any imposter or office claiming to be in possession of your ATM CARD, you are advised only to be in contact with Mr. Paul Smith of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person you are suppose to deal with in regards your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any email you get from imposters to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

I received the following vishing attempt today.  The scam email asks its intended victims to call a number, (800) 927-1839 and tries to fool them into believing that they are calling their bank, U.S. Bank.  It then asks for secret US Bank account information, which of course will be used by the thieves to steal the victim’s identity and money.

Do not fall for these fake phone numbers.  If you have a question about a bank account or your credit card account always call the number printed on the card or call your local bank branch directly.

From: U.S. Bank Alerts [mailto:alerts@cs.usbank-email.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 2:15 PM
To: [redacted]
Subject: U.S. Bank (Message from Customer Service)

I got this scam email 9 times in less than 4 hours across 5 different email addresses.  I guess they thought it was really important to be the featured email scam of the day.

From: jonesinkuwait9020@yahoo.com
Reply-to: mrsmaryjones9020@gmail.com
Sent: 12/4/2008 4:23:36 P.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: HI

From: Mrs Mary Jones of Kuwait

RE: Donation for the less priveledged.

I am the above named person from Kuwait. I am married to Dr. Harry Jones who worked with Kuwait Embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2000. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again christians. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $8.6Million (Eight Million six hundred  thousand U.S.Dollars) with a finance/security company in United Kingdom.

Presently, this money is still with the Security Company and the management just wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the trunk boxes of money or rather issue a letter of authorisation to somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over. Presently, I’m in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for oesophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few weeks to live. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to victims of this fire outbreak in Australia and other charity organizations.  Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them.

Please, I beg you in the name of God to help me collect the deposit and the interest accrued from the company and distribute it accordingly. I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund churches,orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. I took this decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money.

Exodus Chapter 14 Verse 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I don’t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Finance/ Security Company in United Kingdom. I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund. I want you to always pray for me because the lord is my shephard. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for another person for this same purpose.

Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. Hoping to hearing from you soon. Remain blessed in the name of the Lord and carefully respond through the below email herein.

mrsmaryjones9020@gmail.com

Mrs Mary Jones

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This is what I find hilarious about this scam email:

1.  That people will fall for it- no matter how ludicrous.

2.  That Robert Mueller, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Executive Governor of the Bank of Nigeria would both use a free email service, live.com, to send out official email.

3.  That he would start an email off with, “Good Day.”

4.  That he would end an email with, “Have a blessed day!”

5.  That some fraudster took the time to write such a long-winded scam email, when statistically a shorter one works more often.

From: fromthedeskoffinanceminister@nichesitestore.com
Reply-to: fbi.crimeinvestigation01@live.com
Sent: 11/27/2008 1:21:27 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI. WASHINGTON DC.

ROBERT MUELLER III
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON DC.
FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET

Good Day,

How are you and your entire family, We The Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington,D.C in conjunction with some other relevant Investigations Agencies here in the United states of America have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you presently have a transaction going on with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as regard to your over-due contract payment which was fully endorsed in your favor accordingly.For security reasons it is against our protocol of operation to release our security numbers to clients, we the F.B.I have purposely created.

It might interest you to know that we have taken out time in screening through this project as stipulated on our protocol of operation and have finally confirmed that your contract payment is 100% genuine and free from all facet and of which you have the lawful right to claim your fund without any further delay.  Having said all this, we will further advise that you go ahead in dealing with the Central Bank office accordingly as we will be monitoring all their services with you as well as your correspondence at all level. In addition, also be informed that we recently had a meeting with the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, in the person of Prof. Charles Soludo along with some of the top officials of the ministry regarding your case and they made us to understand that your file has been held in abase depending on when you personally come for the claim.

They also told us that the only problem they are facing right now is that some unscrupulous element are using this project as an avenue to scam innocent people off their hard earned money by impersonating the Executive Governor and the Central Bank office. I will use this opportunity to WARN you against some hoodlums who are impersonating my office and other government agencies for the purpose of extorting money from innocent CITIZENS like you. Be very vigilant and always forward  to my office, any messages sent to you before replying to them so that we can confirm if its genuine or not. We are poised to taking this
precaution so as make sure you don’t fall victim to those miscreants who are claiming to be who they are not.

We were also made to understand that a Man with name (Mrs. JOAN C. BAILEY from TEXAS) has already contacted them and also presented to them all the necessary documentations evidencing your claim purported to have been signed personally by you prior to the release of your contract fund valued at about US$12,500,000.00 (twelve million five hundred thousand united states dollars),but the Central Bank office did the wise thing by insisting on hearing from you personally before they go ahead on wiring your fund to the Bank informations which was forwarded to them by the above named Lady so that the main reason why they
contacted us so as to assist them in making the investigations. We recently had a meeting with the Executive Governor, Central Bank office prior to your case and they presented to us the real official contact information of the genuine Central  Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of which we have enclosed below for your observation and reference.

EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR: CHARLES SOLUDO
OFFICE ADDRESS: Central Bank of Nigeria,
Central Business District,
Cadastral Zone,
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory,
Nigeria.
TEL: 234-80-857-912-07
Email:foreigndepartment0001@live.com

NOTE:
In your best interest, any message that doesn’t come from the above official email address and phone numbers should not be replied to and should be disregarded accordingly for security reasons. The reason is because we received a fax today from the Central Bank office, stating that they have recently been informed through their underground monitoring unit that some hoodlums are contacting you claiming to be from the central bank of Nigeria, just to collect money from you for no just course. Although,  We have started our investigation on how to get this hoodlums and as well bring them to book and note that any information you send to us, will go along way in helping us track this fraudsters down. To this effect, we will like you to forward to us any of their contact information so as to enable us forward copy to all the relevant security agencies.

Ensure you follow all their procedure as may be required by them as that will further help hasten up the whole process as regard to the urgent release of your fund to you as instructed. Also have in mind that the Central Bank of Nigeria equally have their own protocol of operation as stipulated on their banking terms, so delay could be very dangerous.Once again, we will advise that you contact them with the above email address and make sure you forward to them all the necessary informations which they may require from you prior to the release of your fund to you accordingly. Once again, we will advise that you  contact the Central Bank office only with the above information as soon as you can because they have already started sorting our contract payments to serious clients and your case should not be exempted. This is all I can tell you for now until you have contacted them as directed.

Should in case you need any more informations in regard to this notification, feel free to get back to us so that we can brief you more as we are here to guide you during and after this project has been completely perfected and you have received your contract fund as stated.

Have a blessed day !

Best Regards,
Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA
E-mail: fbi.crimeinvestigation01@live.com