I was briefly excited by some spam email, forgive me. I can see how sometimes they can get you with just a little bit of plausibility.
Maybe I should have been instantly put off by the subject line, “Businnes offer Canon”, or the Czech return address. But the promise was so enticing. They liked my YouTube channel! They are a PR company who would like to send me Canon products, for free, that I would review on my channel! Awesome! They told me what the value of the products I could choose and keep would be, and it was substantial! They also sent me links to examples of other YouTubers they’d sponsored!
But it’s too good to be true.
I’m small time on YouTube — the channels they claimed to have sponsored had over a hundred times the subscribers I do, and were doing professional photography work, while my videos are crude in comparison. They didn’t ask me for money up front, which would have been a strong tip-off, but I suspect that would come up once they’d hooked me. I tried checking on the company, but they didn’t name it, another troubling sign. They used a generic email distributor, so that was a dead end. My correspondent did give her name, so I looked that up — it led to someone who was a “fraud expert at Capitol One”. Ha ha. Maybe our correspondent had been stung by a fraud expert before, and adopted her name as a pseudonym.
Darn.
The good news, though, is that I won’t be selling out, yet.
You’re an influencer!
Or someone thinks I’m a sucker!
@2: Potato, potahto…
A few months after one of my trips to America I received an email supposedly from the Executive Director of the FBI .
Oh dear I thought ,how did they get on to me so soon ,haha .
Anyway reading through it ,and noticing all the spelling mistakes ,I finally came to the bit about Nigeria .
I have posted a copy of it below if anyone would like a laugh .I was going to forward it on to Mr Robert Mueller III ,saying that someone was taking his name in vain.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET.60
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET. fbifbi72@rocketmail.com
21/03/2013 02:40
ROBERT MUELLER III
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI. WASHINGTON DC.
FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET.
ATTN:BENEFICIARY.
We believe that this notification meets you in a very good present state of mind and health. We the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) in conjunction with some other relevant investigation 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 We 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.
We were also made to understand that a lady with name Mrs. Joan C.Bailey from OHIO has already contacted them and also presented to them all the necessary documentation evidencing your claim purported to have been signed personally by you prior to the release of your contract fund valued at about US$1,500,000.00 (One 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 information 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 investigation.
Contact immediately the office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) via email with the below information accordingly:
NAME: SANUSI LAMIDO
OFFICE ADDRESS: Central Bank of Nigeria,
Central Business District,
Cadastral Zone, Abuja, Federal
Capital Territory, Nigeria.
Email: centralbankofnigeria12@rediffmail.com
Meanwhile, we will advise that you contact the office of the Governor of the Central Bank immediately with the above email address and request that they attend to your payment file as directed,so as to enable you receive your contract fund accordingly.
To this effect, you are required to reconfirm and authenticate your given particulars below for certainty and onward processing and release of you funds as we may not be held liable for any wrong payment.
FULL NAMES: __________________________________
CITY: _________________________
STATE: __________________________________
ZIP: ______________
COUNTRY________________________________
SEX: _______________
AGE: __________________
TELEPHONE NUMBER: _____________________
Ensure you follow all their procedure as may be required by them as that will further help hasten up the whole procedure as regard to the transfer of your fund to you as designated. 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. Thank you very much for your anticipated co-operation in advance as we earnestly await your urgent response to this matter.
Best Regards
Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
20535-0001, USA
I feel left out, davidc1. Haven’t gotten that model spam yet.
I did get one via SMS this very morning from “PA reliacard” with a bit ly URL, which I obviously didn’t click.
Interestingly, having checked that long dormant account, there were no attempted transactions, which I had strongly suspected anyway
Seriously? 11 months after all of the emergency unemployment is done, try to steal from such accounts now? I’m feeling slighted or something.
OK, embarrassed for them, actually.
davidc1@4, Quotes — glaring big clew right there… USAians don’t use (typically) that date format.
@blf #6:
The clues are deliberate inclusions. The scammers only want to get responses from marks who are uninformed about cons and not clever enough to be alerted by the anomalies in the email. They’ll be so much more amenable to the next stage of the swindle.