A new one

I just got this one...that makes three today. I'm changing my email address tonight so it should stop for awhile. In the meantime, I think this is another scam.********************

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Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:41:24 +0200
From: "Mr Peter Fischer" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: Next Of Kin Pay-Out(Claim Your Inheritance)!!!
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Dear Sir/Madam,

Please permit me to introduce myself to you.
I am PETER FISCHER, An Accountant in London, United Kingdom. I
got your contact
from the British Council, and I have decided to
contact you so that we can carry out this
mutually beneficial business transaction.
My late Client (A National of your COUNTRY)
until his death aboard an AERO FLIGHT 801 in
2001 deposited a total of USD$5.5M with OUR BANK, UNITED
KINGDOM.

He gave me the custody of the deposit documents,
and as such entrusted me with the Legal Rights
to transfer and execute this deposit to any Next
of Kin after his demise. I have since tried to
locate any Next of Kin without success, hence I
decided to contact you so that you can rightfully
stand as the next of kin to inherit the deposited
sum by virtue of the fact you share the same SURNAME
as my late CLIENT.
I am writing you confidentialy because you will be
able to claim this DEPOSIT because you have the same
SURNAME as my Late CLIENT.
You will be entitled to 40% of the total sum should
you be willing to assist me in this business
transaction, 10% will be earmarked for taxation
expense and I will get the remaining 50%.
I will prepare a formal agreement to guide
us in this transaction for accountability purpose.
Please reply to my private email: [email protected]

Yours truly,

PETER FISCHER

42 Campshill Road,
London United Kingdom.
Tel: + 44 793 997 8490
Email: [email protected]

Yup, they are flooding you now, Fiesty. This is a standard Next of Kin (NOK) 419 scam. NOK is one of the "classic" 419 formats. First the scammers try to get you to pose as the relative of a dead person to help them steal a (nonexistant) fund. If you agree, they start to hit you for "fees" such as "drug clearance certificate", "fund transfer fee", "courier fee", "lawyer fees", and pretty much anything else they can dream up. Many many people have been taken in by this one.

This is the exact same thing as the one that took me for over $2,000 last week. I know better now and it makes me so angry to know that these preditors are out there. First they wanted a transfer fee, then the courier had to be paid, then a diplomatic yellow flag needed to be purchased. When I refused to fork over the $4300 for the flag, they started to threaten me. That is about the time this group notified me of another scam. It gave me the courage to say absolutely "no" and when they kept calling, I finally told them that if they called again, I would call the police. It must have worked because I haven't heard anything else from them. Hurray! Thank goodness you all contacted me.

I'm glad to hear that you are out of it now, Fiesty, but very sorry that you lost money to this scum. Threats are a common tactic used by these scammers when persuasion doesn't work, but don't worry. In reality, they are cowards trying to use schoolyard bully tactics to get more money out of you. You did really well in standing up for yourself and refusing to be bullied into continuing with the scam, and even better in learning more about these scams and how to spot them.

Sorry to hear you have lost out to these scammers but at least you were able to face the reality that you were being scammed and stopped sending them money. Sadly once some people have sent money it becomes a matter of pride and they don't want to face the facts that nothing is coming their way and so continue to pay out; getting themselves into all sorts of trouble.

The reality is these scammers are very good at pushing the right buttons to extract money and therefore there is nothing to feel bad about. They might try and get you back into their game but just remember there is no money. Also as you have lost money you might want to read up on recovery/compensation for past efforts scams.

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=58
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57

Changing your Email address is a good idea. Keep the new one as private as possible and do not sign guestbooks as this how a lot of scammers harvest Email addys from the net.

@ Feisty - It's safe to assume that ANY email from a stranger offering you 'easy money' by whatever means is a scam. As you are no doubt discovering as you read around this site there are any number of variations on internet scams but they all have one thing in common - sooner or later they all want you to send them your money. But you are now one step ahead of them now, right? You win

I can imagine how you feel being $2,000 out of pocket, and that's one thing the scammers play on. Even when a victim knows it's a scam this becomes like an investment and, in the mind, it is easier to pay up more money than accept that it has always been just a scam. These situations are the hardest for warners to handle.

Fiesty, I'm thankful that is all they got out of you, but I too know how much losing that amount of money would hurt.

I'm glad to see you're using a name (ie. "Fiesty") even here in which is something a scammer is not easily going to find you with.

This message you posted above, I can't even begin to recall the hundreds, possibly thousands of ones just like it with only a few different details such as names and so forth.

As I trust you have been told, but is a reminder, make sure you completely cease all contact by those who scammed you and never reply, etc.

Another reminder - beware of recovery scams. I personally know of -zero- people who have ever recovered their funds. Accept the loss, and know you won't lose more, because now you are wise their games, have us as a resource should you have questions about anything you receive, and know not to be sending money to anyone (except your rent, utility payments and regular daily life.)

They are scum which is among the reasons I am glad to volunteer my time at fighting against them.

I want to really thank all of you for the kind words and the great advice. It means a lot to know there are people who really care enough to volunteer in this worthwhile endeavor.

Yes, I lost money that won't ever be recovered. It is just money though and not something more serious. No, I can't afford the loss but...again, it could have been worse.

Now, how can I join your group and help others to not make the same mistake? As I see it there are two choices. Have no further contact and cut all the losses or keep playing them and try to help catch them. From all the reading I've done lately, the latter seems pretty unlikely so other than to turn over the check that is coming (supposedly -- according to the company sending it and you all), my choice is to cut the losses and simply delete anything from these scumbuckets. Many years ago I decided to be a survivor and this will be no exception. Just wish I could do something more pro-active to see that others don't get into this mess.

Anyway, thank you to all who have been so helpful. Kudos to all.

Feisty, you're clearly determined to get over this hurdle, and I commend you for that. Thanks for sharing your story with us; it may help prevent someone else getting scammed.

If you want to play with these guys, you need to be on our sister site, www.419eater.com where they bait scammers and mess them about with a vengeance. Take a look in the forums there and see if you like what you see. I suggest you pick another name, though. There is already a member with a very similar name (pfeisty) so things could get confusing. Once you've tried baiting. you'll have a much better feel for what scams are all about.

The other thing you can do is spread the word. Tell as many people as you can about scams and how to protect against them. It's so important to get the message out there.

I am definitely ready to play with their heads for awhile. I will go to the site...then what? Are there instructions, do I sign up...what do I do to make it official? It is time some of them got a little back of their own. Ha! Ha! We shall conquer all.

Start here. Have a look around, get a feel. You need to be registered to see some of the forums.

Once registered you're sent a welcoming PM which explains a few things, but basically, read all the stickies (the threads at the top of each forum with "Sticky:" in front of them), make sure you understand everything and then if you like you can sign up for a mentor in this thread who will guide you through. You might want to read the published works too to get an idea of what you can expect, and ideas on how to handle the scammers responses.

Remember to bait safe: Don't give the scammers personal info of any kind and sign up to 419eater under a name you don't use elsewhere on the net.

If you have plenty of bandwidth spare, you can also/instead leech the bandwidth of scammes sites. Even if you can only contribute a few gig a month, it might be enough to knock a site offline leaving the scammer much explaining to do to his/her victims.

With that attitude you definitely need to check out 419Eater.

Lesson on internet scams= $2,000

Watching the scammers suffer in a good bait= Priceless.

Just be sure you sign up for a Mentor and bait safely.

Edit: Whatever you do don't bait these scammers from your own email address. Drop all contact with them from that and use a safe email address to bait them.

You can certainly bet the lesson has been learned...almost to an extreme point of not trusting anyone any longer. That is okay though.

Something I have noticed in the past two days...for some reason the barage of scam-type emails has diminished to only one or two a day. Whew! Do you think they read this site?

I have not had time in the past two days to sign up but that is on the agenda for tomorrow. Then I will definitely need a mentor to help guide and advise me.

Thank you to everyone. I feel so much better these days...and even a bit feisty.

It's doubtful that scammers read this site.
Of course, it's open to anyone and there is the chance that one or two may find their way here, but in general, scammers don't surf the internet. The vast majority of thier work is conducted through email and that's all they stick to.
You have to remember that nearly all of them work in interet cafes where it costs money to use a PC. Spending money on surfing the net is a waste when they see themselves as being better off looking for and trying to scam victims.
Sometimes you'll find that your email box will go quiet. All that means is that the scammers that have your address at the moment have exhausted it. But give it a few days and some others will have possession of it and you'll start getting the crap flowing through again.
Weekends are normally a quiet time too. A lot of cafes aren't open so the scammer simply has no access to a PC.