Check Scams, Debt Collection scams and other financial scams.
#12612 by GomerPyle Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:07 pm
Scammers are fascinated by this type of account, mainly because if they can get their hands on enough details to be able to convince the bank that they are you, they can wipe you out for a fortune.

Home equity accounts are usually an account that consolidates all your accounts, including your home loan into one, and you can draw money off your mortgage or repay money with great flexibility.

The advantage to a scammer is that the account will have a big loan limit on it and he will know that, if he can get enough information off you, he has a shot at ringing your bank, and by using the information you have supplied, make a transfer off your account to himself.

I think this is a low chance scam, but if it works, the payoff is immense. Firstly, people with this financial arrangement are usually not needing any other financial help and would ask their bank, not a stranger off the internet, if they needed assistance. Someone with this sort of set up is usually going to be financially astute.

I note that it involves receiving (counterfeit) cheques. The scammer knows he can write out larger cheques if a person has this type of facility in place, and as a bonus, can go for taking as much money as the limit will allow.

Mr Allen Murphy

from Mr Allen Murphy <[email protected]>
reply-to [email protected]
to
date Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 4:47 AM
subject The Home Equity Relief
mailed-by msn.com

Dear Sir/ Madam,

The Home Equity Relief in conjunction with the New Face Of American Govt and the International Monetary Fund {IMF} is embarking on its first ever global Home Equity assistance scheme; a risk free financial windfall for interested participants who currently own a house.

You MUST be a home owner who currently has a Home Equity Line of Credit Account with any reputable institution in America. Being a home owner alone will qualify you to participate as you are expected to have a Home Equity Line of Credit current at this moment.
We are looking for interested participants who will help receive payments on our behalf from our teeming individual and corporate sponsors who are about to start funding our global charitable activities.

If you are interested in participating, we shall inform any of our individual or cooperate sponsors/donors to make payments to us through your account. You will be required to take 10% of each deposit and send the rest {the remaining 90%} to any of our authorized representative or agent’s account. It will be a tax-free transaction.

Please if you are not a home owner with a current Home Equity Line of Credit Account, do NOT reply this mail. Note that this is not a lottery and no fees will be required from you. Note also that a mortgage account, or savings account is not required, It must be a Home Equity Line of Credit Account.

Reply with your full names, contact phone number and home address so that we can contact and guide you.

Thanks for your anticipated participation.

Sincerely,
Mr Allen Murphy
Director
Home Equity Relief


This is a long shot by a scammer, but he only needs this type of scam to work once and he is set up for life, as a victim would have their life destroyed.

Non-EU citizens should go here to find out about obtaining a visa to work as an au pair in the UK
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/doineedvisa/
Whenever payment is requested by Western Union you're dealing with a scammer
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#12613 by Clair Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:28 pm
Now that is an interesting twist with a very specific target audience. Where you able to trace the IP to see where it originated from?
#12614 by GomerPyle Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:45 pm
This is the header but I can't get the header analyser to work at the moment.

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.216.39.213 with SMTP id d63cs505346web;
Thu, 6 Aug 2009 20:47:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from mr.google.com ([10.141.22.2])
by 10.141.22.2 with SMTP id z2mr373483rvi.268.1249616854903 (num_hops = 1);
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:47:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.141.22.2 with SMTP id z2mr268579rvi.268.1249616854884;
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:47:34 -0700 (PDT)
X-Forwarded-To: [email protected]
X-Forwarded-For: [email protected] [email protected]
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.141.34.1 with SMTP id m1cs333495rvj;
Thu, 6 Aug 2009 20:47:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.150.218.10 with SMTP id q10mr1511852ybg.19.1249616853224;
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:47:33 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from blu0-omc2-s33.blu0.hotmail.com (blu0-omc2-s33.blu0.hotmail.com [65.55.111.108])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 40si2836679ywh.15.2009.08.06.20.47.32;
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:47:33 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.111.108 as permitted sender) client-ip=65.55.111.108;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.111.108 as permitted sender) [email protected]
Received: from BLU119-W24 ([65.55.111.71]) by blu0-omc2-s33.blu0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);
Thu, 6 Aug 2009 20:47:31 -0700
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Return-Path: [email protected]
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="_590b616a-44c6-4dc3-8286-27661bfef773_"
X-Originating-IP: [41.211.226.158]
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
From: Mr Allen Murphy <[email protected]>
Subject: The Home Equity Relief
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 03:47:32 +0000
Importance: Normal
MIME-Version: 1.0
Bcc:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Aug 2009 03:47:31.0580 (UTC) FILETIME=[CAAE8BC0:01CA1711]

--_590b616a-44c6-4dc3-8286-27661bfef773_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Non-EU citizens should go here to find out about obtaining a visa to work as an au pair in the UK
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/doineedvisa/
Whenever payment is requested by Western Union you're dealing with a scammer
#12616 by Clair Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:50 pm
Surprise! :shock: 41.211.226.158 NIGERIA Known Scammer 419Buster Database
#12629 by Jillian Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:49 pm
Moved here from the Employment scams forum.

Reading this is enough to throw up a red flag:

. . . global Home Equity assistance scheme; a risk free financial windfall . . .


The use of the phrase "risk free" is so common in scam emails.

Have you sent a payment to a scammer with Western Union and now realize it's a scam? If the payment has not been picked up, you can cancel it immediately! 1-800-448-1492

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#13779 by bill_b3llo Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:45 pm
It's far fetched that a scammer could call a bank and arrange a wire transfer, but it's been done.

Houstonian arrested in $44 million fraud case
By GUILLERMO CONTRERAS
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Sept. 5, 2009, 12:04AM
SAN ANTONIO — The FBI is investigating a fraud ring accused of bilking several banks and customers — including San Antonio-based USAA and the former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond — out of at least $44 million.

A Houston man is in custody here and agents are looking for a Nigerian man from Dallas featured on the television show America's Most Wanted. They are believed to have posed as customers to fraudulently withdraw money from bank accounts, including one at USAA that was tapped for $98,000.

The case is linked to a $44 million case in Virginia, said Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio.

Earlier this week, Adedeji Omarici Oyekan of Houston appeared in federal court in San Antonio, charged with financial institution fraud and conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud. The charges are related to the $98,000 stolen from the USAA account. He was ordered held without bail.

Authorities are looking for Tobechi “Tobe” Onwuhara, the alleged mastermind. He is under investigation in Seattle, where he once lived, and is alleged to have led a ring of people from Nigeria who accessed online databases to steal personal information for use in defrauding banks, records show.

USAA is working aggressively with authorities on the investigation, said a spokesman for the insurance and financial services company.

The ring targets customers who have a large balance in a home equity line of credit, and use the stolen personal information to transfer money to “mule” bank accounts. Mule accounts are opened by people who agree to let the ring use the accounts for a cut of the stolen money.

In USAA's case, Oyekan, Onwuhara and other ring members are accused of using the information to telephone USAA and pretend to be customers. The ring provided enough biographical information about one customer to persuade USAA to wire transfer $98,000 from the customer's account to mule accounts at Citibank in New York and Woodforest Bank in Houston, court records show.

Onwuhara has a past that involves credit card fraud, and authorities say he researched and tested his skills until he was successful.

Court records said he splits his time between Miami and Dallas, but could be in Atlanta, New Jersey or Canada.

With the stolen proceeds, authorities allege, he lived in a $600,000 home in Miami and rented a condo in Dallas for $4,000 a month, according to a segment featuring him on America's Most Wanted.

Among his victims is Sen. Thurmond's former chief of staff, according to the show.

Onwuhara flashed up to $50,000 at strip clubs, drove a Bentley, a Maserati and a Rolls-Royce. He also owned a recording studio and started his own rap label, S.W.A.T. Up Entertainment.

Onwuhara's fiancee, Precious Matthews, a Baylor alum, is among nine people charged with him in Virginia. Matthews, of Miami, is primarily responsible for calling financial institutions and persuading them to wire transfer money out of victims' accounts and laundering the proceeds, the affidavit said.

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