My beloved One in Christ

I received a very nice spam letter in the mail today, from a fellow Christian. Nice that she wants to share her wealth with me, no ? (Sarcasm!)

Hello My Beloved One In Christ.

I greet you with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, It is true that this letter may come to you as a surprise. Nevertheless, I humbly ask you to give me your attention and hear me well.

My name is Mrs H. D. from Australia. I am H. to Dr.D, who worked with our Embassy in Ivory Coast ( Cote D'ivoire ) for a period of 8 years before he died . We were married for 22 years without a child before he died after a brief illness. Since his death I decided not to remarry due to my religious belief . When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of US$6.5m (Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United State American dollars ) with a Bank in Cote D'ivoire. Presently this money is still in the custody of the Bank in Cote D'ivoire. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Four months due to cancer illness.

Having known my condition I decided to donate this money to churchs, organisation or good person that will utilise this money the way I am going to instruct herein.

I want you to use this money for churchs, Charity organisation, orphanages, widows and other people that are in need. l took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money . Moreover, my husband relatives are not close to me since I devolop a Cancer problem and it had been their wish to see me dead in order to inherit his wealth since we have no Child. These people are not worthy of this inheritance. This is why I am taking this decision.

I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my ill-health. As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact of the Bank in Cote d'ivoire where this money is deposited. I will also issue a letter of authorisation to the bank that will prove you the present beneficiary of this money. I also want you to always put me in prayer.

Any delay in your reply may give me room to look for another good person for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.
Hoping to receive your response soonest.
Thanks and Remain blessed .
Yours sister in the Lord,
Mrs. H. D.,

An Atom of Doubt

I got another spam in my mail, and this time they promise me more than 25 million dollars. I wonder how many loafs of bread that would buy me LOL

His message was as follows:

My name is Dr Ali xxxxx, I am the Bill and Exchange manager here in Bank Of Africa (BOA) Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.West-Africa.

I have a business proposal in the tune of $25.8 million,(Twenty Five Million Eight hundred Thousand only) belonging to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in plane Crashes 2003.

You should not nurse any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the smooth transfer of this funds and your acceptance is what will crown this effort.

If interested, please contact me with the following information below through xxxxxxxxxxxx@ymail.com for further details.

Your International passport or ID card .......
Your private telephone number ............
Your Profession ........................
Your age.................................
Your country.............................


Kind Regards,
Dr Ali xxxxx
Bill & Exchange manager
Bank Of Africa (BOA).
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

Humanitarian

An interesting message from a Mrs. Jenny Lee.

Subject: Humanitarian
Greetings from Mrs. Lee,
My name is Jenny Lee; a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have for the good work of charity. I was diagnosed for breast cancer for about 2 years now.I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of God, rather than allow my husband evil relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly. They don't care about man kind, all they care is how to rob some money from me and spend them ungodly.

Please pray that the good Lord forgives me my sins. I have asked God to forgive me and I believe he has because He is a merciful God. I will be going in for
a surgery soon and I want to make sure that I make this donation before undergoing my surgery.I decided to donate my fund to you for investment towards the good work of the lord, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and for the assistance of the widows and unfortunate mothers. At the moment I don't want any telephone calls due to the fact that my husband's relatives are always around me and trying to see if they can overhear my conversations and my health status as well.I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly. please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others. It is true that I dont know you and you don't know, but I have been directed by God to contact you for this grace. I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished.
Reply me through this my most private email:
Regards,
Mrs. Jenny Lee

My own private ATM card

Look what i found in my mail :

An ATM Card with Card Number:xxxxxxxx have been approved in your favor by the UNITED NATION,The ATM Card Value is $315,810.00 USD.Contact Mr.Harry Conklin.

Message from Donne Bossoka

Look what the cat dragged in :)

Dear,
I am introducing my self as Miss.Donne Bossoka, the only Daughter of late Mr. Amon Bossoka, I wish to request for your assistance in a financial
Transaction. And I wish to invest in Manufacturing and real estate management in
your country.

I have Seven million three hundred thousand united states dollars.USD ($7.300, 000) to invest in your country, and I will require your assistance in helping me stand as my foreign business partner to claim the consignment out from Security company to your country, the consignment

was deposited in Africa and was letter lifted to Europe where the consignment is now under the care of the security company diplomat in Europe. I will
be gladly to give you 25% out of the total sum for your honest assistance.

Please it's very important you contact me immediately on my private e-mail( xxxxxx@yahoo.co.jp ) for further explanation on the whole
entire work plan.

Awaiting your immediate response

Regards
Donne

Bank of Africa

Dear friend,i am Amos Nemesio, manager auditing & accounting section Bank of Africa. It's my urgent need for a reliable and reputable person that made me to contact you for this business which involves transfer of huge sum of money to a foreign account. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($11.5 million USD) into your account.

I need a foreign partner who will support me because i cannot claim this money without a foreign partner since the deceased client (the owner of the fund) was a foreigner. I agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account and I want to assure you that this transaction is absolutely legal and risk free since i works in this bank. Before we proceed, i would like to know your ability to handle this over there in your country. Please tell me more about the political stability in your country and how safe it is to invest in your country.
I will be waiting for your urgent response to my private E-mail: xxxxxxx@mail.com

Thanks,
Sincerely,
Amos Nemesio

TREAT VERY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT RESPONSE

FROM THE DESK OF : MR SOKI ANITA,
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING SECTION,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (A.D.B)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO,WEST AFRICA.

Dear Friend,

I am Mr Soki Anita, the Manager in charge of auditing and accounting section of African Development Bank (A.D.B),Ouagadougou Burkina faso West Africa with due respect and regard. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.
During our investigation and auditing in this bank , my department came across a very hugesum of money belonging to a person who died in year 2003 in a plane crash and the fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank with out any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our discovery to this developement.
The said amount was TWENTY TWO MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS.($22.3m)Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put the claim over this fund as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased,get the required approval and transfer this money to a foriegn account has been put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also benefit your self to this great business pportunity.

Infact i could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country as a civiassist(A Banker),we are not allowed to operate a foriegn account and wouldeventually raise an eye brow on my side during the time of transfer becuase i work it may be after due verification and assist by the correspondent branch of the bank where the money will be remitted from to your own designation bank account.I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free.On smooth conclusion of this transaction,you will be entitled to 40% of the total sum as gratification, while 60% will be for me.

Please;you have been adviced to keep top secret as i am still in service and intend to retire from service after we conclude this deal with you,I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment,either in your country or any country you advice us to invest.

All other necessary vital information will be sent to you when i hear from you,
Yours faithfully.
Mr Soki Anita
N/B
TREAT VERY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT RESPONSE

Compliments of the day!

Sometimes the scam messages are hard to understand. The lingo is weird or the grammar is absent. What about the following message:

Hello,

Compliments of the day I am Barr. Frank Wright of Frank Wright & Associates,I have a client that wants to make a huge investment in your country.My client has directed me to make contact and find a suitable partner for
this great business venture. One of the pre-condition for this business relationship is that his prospective partner must be vast in business

management and must be ready to travel or receive representatives to discuss issues concerning any major investment. This was strictly specified by my client as a pre condition that will be in existence before the establishment of business agreement between my client and the prospective partner. My client is a top government official and would not like any scandal and he is ready to shelve official protocol to protect you and him from such scandal or any act capable of bringing both of you in lime light.

Though this transaction will be done within the premix of the law guiding both countries. Let us know if you are qualified for this great business venture that will be highly beneficial to both parties by providing us with your contact details. We shall cement further understanding once we hear from you.

Regards,
Frank Wright Esq.

Degree for Sale

Have you ever wanted a degree that says you are a Doctor? Look no further!

I received a spam message that will solve all my problems [irony! sarcasm!]

BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT! Is your lack of a degree holding you back from career advancement? Are you having difficulty finding employment in your field of interest because you don’t have the
paper to back it up – even though you are qualified?
If you are looking for a fast and effective solution, we can help! Call us right now for your customized diploma: Inside U.SA.: 1-xxx-xxx-xxx Outside U.S.A.: +1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Just leave your NAME & TEL. PHONE # (with country-code) on the voicemail and one of our staff members will get back to you promptly!

Confidential - A Suspended Account

Ever heard of a suspended account? Well, I didn't, but mr. Kan Walter from Ghana of all places contacted me to tell me he has more than 3.7 million dollars in one of these suspended accounts, and he want to give 35% to me!

Nice guy, no? I think I will give this a miss...but scambaiters are free to engage in whatever type of warfare they want :)

FROM THE DESK OF
MR.KAN WALTER
BRANCH MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK
KUMASI BRANCH GHANA.

Hello Dear,

My name is Kan Walter, I am the branch manager of the International Commercial Bank Kumasi branch Ghana. I got your information during my search through the Internet. I am 46years of age and married with 3 lovely kids. It may interest you to hear that I am a Man of peace and I don't want problem, but I do not know how you will feel about this because you may have double mind. But I am telling you that this is real and you are not going to regret after doing this transaction with me. I only hope that we can assist each other. But if you don't want this business offer kindly forget it and I will not contact you again.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the regional manager of the International Commercial Bank; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city (Accra-Ghana) at the end of each year. On the course of the last year 2008 end of last year report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar [3, 750.000.00] which my head office is not aware of it and will never be aware of. I have since place this fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary.

As an official of the bank I can not be directly connected to this fund, so this informed me of contacting you for us to work, so that you can assist and receive this fund into your bank account for us to SHARE. Mean While you will have 35% of the total fund, Note there are practically no risk involved, it will be bank to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with our branch so that my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.
If you accept this offer to work with me, I will appreciate it very much as soon as I receive your response I will give you details on how we can achieve it successfully. Please contact me with this email address: xxx@yahoo.com

Best Regards

Mr.Kan Walter

Confidential - A Suspended Account

Ever heard of a suspended account? Well, I didn't, but mr. Kan Walter from Ghana of all places contacted me to tell me he has more than 3.7 million dollars in one of these suspended accounts, and he want to give 35% to me!

Nice guy, no? I think I will give this a miss...but scambaiters are free to engage in whatever type of warfare they want :)

FROM THE DESK OF
MR.KAN WALTER
BRANCH MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK
KUMASI BRANCH GHANA.

Hello Dear,

My name is Kan Walter, I am the branch manager of the International Commercial Bank Kumasi branch Ghana. I got your information during my search through the Internet. I am 46years of age and married with 3 lovely kids. It may interest you to hear that I am a Man of peace and I don't want problem, but I do not know how you will feel about this because you may have double mind. But I am telling you that this is real and you are not going to regret after doing this transaction with me. I only hope that we can assist each other. But if you don't want this business offer kindly forget it and I will not contact you again.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the regional manager of the International Commercial Bank; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city (Accra-Ghana) at the end of each year. On the course of the last year 2008 end of last year report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar [3, 750.000.00] which my head office is not aware of it and will never be aware of. I have since place this fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary.

As an official of the bank I can not be directly connected to this fund, so this informed me of contacting you for us to work, so that you can assist and receive this fund into your bank account for us to SHARE. Mean While you will have 35% of the total fund, Note there are practically no risk involved, it will be bank to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with our branch so that my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.
If you accept this offer to work with me, I will appreciate it very much as soon as I receive your response I will give you details on how we can achieve it successfully. Please contact me with this email address: kan.walter@yahoo.com

Best Regards

Mr.Kan Walter

Message security: Paypal

I received a Message Security : D'acces frauduleuses à votre compte PayPal !

The sender is supposedly : paypal (service@paypal.fr) but of course the changes are 99,99% sure that this is a scam.

I will open the message later in a secured environment.

French Businessman dies in a plane crash

This is a great spam message: an International French Businessman dies in a plane crash together with his ENTIRE FAMILY! Talk about bad luck! And it's just my luck that I will inherit 10 million dollars. If you want some of the money, just write me. I won't be able to spend everything on my own LOL

Dear Friend,

I'm MR.SANA KABORE , an accountant in a financial institution here in BURKINA FASO. I have decided to contact you for a fund transfer transaction worth the sum of US$10,500,000.00 into your reliable bank account as the sole NEXT-OF-KIN to the foreign deceased customer of our bank (an International Billionaire French Businessman) who was killed with his entire family by PLANE-CRASH in Central England in the year 2003. Since his death occured, no body have show up as his next of kin for the claim because the account is untraceable.

Upon the investigation I carried out from his records, I found out that his foreign business consultant whowould have trace the account died earlier before the deceased. Therefore, this is a confidential and sealed deal.

For the success of this transaction, you should apply and act as the only existing NEXT-OF-KIN to the deceased which our bank will replace the deceased account information through proper documentation in position ofyour own account.

This transaction is risk-free, it will never harm your good reputation in your society because no one can trace the account, and on the instant of the transfer of the fund into your account, the chapter of this transaction will be closed entirely.

Note that in a business of this nature, the bank dont want to know yourdifference between the deceased country, religion or believe because our bank inheritance law is against that. So, it is a preference for us achieve this success without any problem.

Please note down that once the fund get transferred into your account, you will take 39% of the total sum for the assistance and role you are going to play in this transaction,(11%) will be used to establish a charity organization in your country with your supervision while the remaining will be for me and my other loyal colleagues here.

I need your urgent response and include your private telephone/mobile numbers for easy communication.Please reply if you can be trusted in this deal.

Thanks,
MR.SANA KABORE

Do you want 10 Million Dollars?

Another great spam letter arrived today, this time from the desk of AMUDU IBRAHIM. It says it is private and confidential, so do you think he will sue us for breach of confidentiality ? :-)

FROM THE DESK OF :AMUDU IBRAHIM,
PERSONAL ASSISTANT MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA(BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU
BURKINA-FASO,WEST AFRICA.

(PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL)

Dear Friend,

This message might meet you in utmost surprise,However,Its just my urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction, I am AMUDU IBRAHIM Personal Assistant Manager of Bank Of Africa(BOA)Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I want to inquire from you if you can handle this transaction for mutual benefits/life opportunity for you and me. The transaction is about seeking your consent to present you as the next of kin/ beneficiary of the US$10.3 MILLION DOLLARS,(TEN MILLION,THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS), and who is a customer to the bank where i work.

He was involved in the december 26th 2003 Benin plane crash in West Africa, with his family during their vacation journey . The Fund is currently in a suspense account awaiting claim, the bank made a public notice that they are ready to release this fund to any of his relatives abroad.

THEREFORE, by virtue of its nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL, top secret should be maintained please!,because i am still in the active service i do not need any form of implication especially now I'm in the verge of my retirement to endanger my career at last!.

Since we got the information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws.

In that regard, i decided to seek your consent for this prospective opportunity. Have it at the back of your mind, that the transaction does not involve any RISK, and does not need much engagement from you, since i am familiar with this kind of transaction being an insider.

Necessary modalities will be worked out to enable us carry out the fund claim under a legitimate arrangement. I have resolved to offer you 30% of the total fund, 10% for sundry expenses that may be incurred during the process of executing this transaction and 60% percent for me.

I will give you more details about the transaction when I receive your affirmative response,more clarification information.Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.

I look forward to your earliest response
Regards and thanks,
AMUDU IBRAHIM

NOTE:Your discussion regarding to this transaction should be limited,because am still in Active service. Let honesty and trust be our watchwords throughout this transaction. And your Prompt reply will be highly appreciated.

TREAT VERY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT RESPONSE

The number of scams that arrive in my mail box are amazing. And most of the time my yahoo or gmail account filters them out nicely. But occasionally their spambuster let some through, like this one:

FROM THE DESK OF : MR SOKI ANITA,
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING SECTION,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (A.D.B)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO,WEST AFRICA.


Dear Friend,


I am Mr Soki Anita, the Manager in charge of auditing and accounting section of African Development Bank (A.D.B),Ouagadougou Burkina faso West Africa with due respect and regard. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.
During our investigation and auditing in this bank , my department came across a very hugesum of money belonging to a person who died on July 2003 in a plane crash and the fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank with out any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our discovery to this developement.


The said amount was TWENTY TWO MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS.($22.3m)Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put the claim over this fund as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased,get the required approval and transfer this money to a foriegn account has been put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also benefit your self to this great business pportunity.


Infact i could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country as a civiassist(A Banker),we are not allowed to operate a foriegn account and wouldeventually raise an eye brow on my side during the time of transfer becuase i work it may be after due verification and assist by the correspondent branch of the bank where the money will be remitted from to your own designation bank account.I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free.On smooth conclusion of this transaction,you will be entitled to 40% of the total sum as gratification, while 60% will be for me.


Please;you have been adviced to keep top secret as i am still in service and intend to retire from service after we conclude this deal with you,I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment,either in your country or any country you advice us to invest.


All other necessary vital information will be sent to you when i hear from you,
Yours faithfully.


Mr Soki Anita
N/B
TREAT VERY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT RESPONSE

What is Scam Baiting

Scam baiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. The purpose of scam baiting might be to waste the scammers' time, embarrass him or her, cause him or her to reveal information which can be passed on to legal authorities, get him or her to waste money, or, in the great majority of cases, simply to amuse the baiter.

The primary goal of scambaiting is stopping 419 Advance fee fraud, which bilks hundreds of millions of dollars from victims, and can lead to victims committing crimes to raise enough money to feed the fraudulent schemes.

Scam baiters often simply attempt to waste the scammer's time by pretending to be a victim; they often believe if a scammer is busy communicating with a baiter, then less time is left for finding and corresponding with potential victims. In "Conversations with a Nigerian Bank Scammer", writer Karl Mamer documents verbose "conversations" over email with several Nigerian 419 scammers. After statements like "Marco, my good and soon to be prosperous friend, you have correctly intimated from my writings on religion and Elvis that indeed, like you, I whole heartily [sic] agree that the separation of church and state is both unnatural and ungodly", "Marco" finally says "I am so scared to meet you with this amount of talking".

Another common practice amongst scambaiters is to ask the scammer to do something in order to prove their identity or their intentions, such as send a photograph of himself or herself in a compromising position. Baiting forums relish in a special bait they term "safari" in which they attempt to persuade scammers into traveling long distances to meet phantom victims or to pick up bogus wire transfers.

A small number of scam baiters claim to have convinced their scammers to send money to them, although the actual occurrence of this is disputed. Tom Craig, a former Scotland Yard officer, says that it would be unprecedented for 419 con artists to part with money and suggests that scam baiters could easily forge the scanty "evidence" of such successes. Other baiters have succeeded in getting their scammers to send them art or other "trophies" as evidence of completed work for the baiter, which is, of course, never paid.

In a paper titled "Scamming the Scammers - Vigilante Justice in Virtual Communities", Lauri Tuovinen and Juha Röning of the University of Oulu, Finland address the ethical issues of Patrick Cain's "Internet's First Blood Sport". They also use the term "digilantism" to describe the subculture of scam baiting and vigilante justice on the Internet.

Source: wikipedia

Terms used by 419 Scammers

Fall mugu (to)
To be fooled, to become victim of advance-fee fraud

Flash of account
Cause the victim's bank account to temporarily show a large credit. This is intended to induce the victim to believe in the deal and send money. The credit gets reversed by the bank when it is discovered that the original cheque or electronic transfer was fraudulent

Format
The scheme or script of an advance-fee fraud, e.g., the late dictator format (the scammer pretends to be a relative of a dictator, e.g. Maryam Abacha, "Wife" of Sani Abacha), the next of kin format, the lottery format

Guyman, guy
Scammer engaged in advance-fee fraud

Jokeman
A scambaiter

Luxcini
An investment scam involving a line of men's luxury clothing based in Beverly Hills, California

Maga, mugu, mugun, mahi, magha, mahee, mayi, mayee, mgbada(antelope)
Victim of advance-fee fraud. "Mugu" means "fool" and is often used as an insult by scam-baiters referring back to the scammer

Modalities
commonly used term for methods of funds transfer

Nwachukwu
An advanced fee fraud posing as a Stock Options trading corporation

Oga or Chairman
Boss

Owner of the job, Catcher
Scammer who makes the first contact with a victim and then passes him on to another scammer who finishes the job. The latter shares the spoil with the former.

Yahoo millionaires, yahoo boys
Scammers

Yahoo yahoo
The act of scamming, especially through the use of a Yahoo! mail address.

The Hitman Scam

An e-mail is sent to the victim's inbox, supposedly from a hitman who has been hired by a "close friend" of the recipient to kill him or her but will call off the hit in exchange for a large sum of money. This is usually backed up with a warning not to contact the local police or FBI, or the "hitman" will be forced to go through with the plan. This is less an advance-fee fraud and more outright extortion, but a reward can sometimes be offered in the form of the "hitman" offering to kill the man who ordered the original hit on the victim.

Romance Scam

A recent variant is the "Romance Scam" which is a money-for-romance angle. The victim is usually approached by the scammer on an online dating service, on an Instant messenger (like Yahoo IM) or even social networking sites. The scammer claims to have become interested in the victim, and have pictures posted of an attractive person who is not actually the poster.

The scammer uses this communication to gain the victim's confidence, and then ask for money. The offending party may claim to be interested in meeting the victim, but needs some cash up front in order to book the plane, hotel room, and other expenses.

In other cases, they may claim they're trapped in a foreign country and need assistance to return, to escape imprisonment by corrupt local officials, to pay for medical expenses due to an illness contracted abroad, and so on. The scammer may also use the confidence gained by the romance angle to introduce some variant of the original Nigerian Letter scheme, such as saying they need to get money or valuables out of the country and offer to share the wealth, making the request for help in leaving the country even more attractive to the victim.

A newer version of the scam is to claim to have 'information' about the fidelity of a person's significant other which they will share for a fee. This information is garnered through social networking sites by using search parameters such as 'In a relationship' or 'Married'. Anonymous emails are first sent to attempt to verify receipt, then a new web based email account is sent along with directions on how to retrieve the information.

Cheque Cashing Scam

Some schemes are based solely on conning the victim into cashing counterfeit cheques. The scammer will contact the victim to interest them in a "work-at-home" opportunity, or asking them to cash a cheque or money order that for some reason cannot be redeemed locally. A recently-used cover story is that the perpetrator of the scam wishes the victim to work as a "mystery shopper", evaluating the service provided by MoneyGram or Western Union locations within major retailers such as Wal-Mart.

The scammer sends the victim a cheque or money order, the victim cashes it, sends the cash to the scammer via wire transfer, and the scammer disappears. Later the forgery is discovered and the bank transaction is reversed, leaving the victim liable for the balance. Schemes based solely on cheque cashing will usually offer only a small part of the cheque's total amount, with the assurance that many more cheques will follow; if the victim buys in to the scam and cashes all the cheques, the scammer can win big in a very short period of time. Other scams such as overpayment usually result in smaller revenues for the scammer, but have a higher success rate as the scammer's request seems more believable.

Some cheque-cashing scammers use multiple victims at multiple stages of the scam. A victim in the U.S. or other "safe" country such as the UK or Canada (often the country in which the cashing victim resides) is sometimes approached with an offer to fill out cheques sent to them by the scammer and mail them to other victims who will cash the cheque and wire the money to the scammer.

The cheque mailer is usually promised a cut of the money from the scammer; this usually never occurs, and in fact the cheque mailer is often conned into paying for the production and shipping costs of the cheques. The cheque information has either been stolen or fictionalized and the cheques forged. The victim mailing the cheque is usually far easier to track (and prosecute) than the scammer, so when the cheques turn up as fraudulent, the one mailing them usually ends up not only facing federal bank fraud and conspiracy charges, but liability for the full amount of the fraudulent cheques. Because the cheque mailer is taking the fall, the scammer is even less likely to be caught, which makes it a popular variation of the scam for scammers in nations with tougher anti-fraud laws.

A variation of the cheque-cashing scheme involves owners of vacation rentals. The scammer will express interest in renting the unit for a much higher than normal rate, usually for an upcoming honeymoon, business trip, etc. The scammer also offers to pay all fees "up front" as soon as the unsuspecting unit owner agrees to the windfall rental.

Eventually a very official looking money order/cashier's cheque arrives. About this time the scammer requests that a portion of the rental fee be returned for some compelling reason...wedding called off, death in the family, business failure, etc. Due to the supposed crises, it is requested that most of the rental fee be returned via wire transfer. The unit owner in encouraged to retain "a fair amount" to compensate him for his time. The wire transfer is sent, only to find out later that the official looking cheque was indeed fake and the entire amount is charged back to the unit owner by his bank.