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Fake Ming Yang Cheng EMail

Scammer School

If a class for scammers exists, then whoever wrote this email should teach it. It stands with rare company at the pinnacle of scam emails. The author is obviously more familiar with western writing styles and, with only a few exceptions, pulls off the deception quite expertly. I had to re-read this one several times to find the errors. They just aren’t that easy to find.

But there they are. Hidden away tightly between the perfectly chosen and carefully placed words are grammatical, spelling and style errors that, once you see them, are like burning flashes on the road, guiding us safely through the muck on our internet superhighway. As we follow along, I’ve BOLDED the errors and inserted some comments…

MING YANG CHENG AND ASSOCIATES
SOLICITOR AND ADVOCATES
NO. 24, JALAN MELAKA RAYA 31,
TAMAN MELAKA RAYA
MALAYSIA
TEL: 0060 16 236 4527
Email: barr_yangchengxyz@yahoo.com.hk

I am Ming Yang Cheng, an attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, that shares (should be “who shares”) the same last name as yours (should be “you”), who here in after (should be “herinafter” or “hereafter”) shall be referred to as my client, died as the result of a heart-related condition on the (shouldn’t be a “the” here) 11 November 2001. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the Gulf Air Flight Crashes in Persian Gulf near Bahrain Aired August 23, 2000 – 2:50 p.m. ET as reported on:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/23/bn.08.html (This is a real story about real people. It’s included to give you a reference source to check, implying the validity of the entire email. Any other tragedy could have been used here, to the same effect. Also, did a doctor actually blame a heart condition on an emotional state of loss? Granted, that could make an existing condition more acute perhaps, but cause the condition itself? I doubt there’s any medical backup for that statement, and none is provided. It’s included in this email to appeal to our emotions. If there’s something that every person on this planet has in common, it’s our feelings of loss when we lose someone we love.)

I have contacted you to assist in distributing the money left behind by my client before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable (misspelled word) by the bank where this deposit valued (missing comma) at Seventeen million five hundred dollars( US$17.5 million dollars) (the rule would be to make all the first letters upper case or lower case, but not mixed together like that) is lodged. This bank has issued me a notice to contact the next of kin, or the account will be confiscated.

My proposition to you is to seek your consent to present you as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my named client, since you have the same last name, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you. Then we can share the amount on a mutually agreed-upon percentage. All legal documents to back up your claim as my client’s next-of-kin will be provided. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through.

Let me interrupt this joy-ride for a moment. Look at that last paragraph. “Honest cooperation”? It’s a popular enticement that I find over and over in lots of these scam emails. The idea presented here is that you’re so greedy and unethical that you’ll jump on the chance to make a percentage of 17 million dollars, regardless of what it takes. And the scammer uses that same idea to justify to himself and anyone who knows what he’s doing. Just think, there’s somebody somewhere who believes that if you’re so unethical as to agree to something this illegal, then you deserve to have your cash and identity stolen.

I agree with that guy. By agreeing to help out on a scam like this, you’d be showing yourself to be a scammer as well. Anyone who would want to get involved in this deserves what happens to them. Now, back to the email…

This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. (Unless you’re part of the current US administration, this can’t be true, the law still applies to you.) If this business proposition offends your moral values, do accept my apology. I must use this opportunity to implore you to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this matter extraordinary (should be “extraordinarily”) confidential (gotta keep this quiet, or the scam will be revealed. Don’t forget, thousands, or millions of these identical emails are sent.), whatever your decision, while I await your prompt response. Please contact me at once to indicate your interest. I will like you to acknowledge the receipt of this e-mail as soon as possible via my private EMAIL :( barr_yangchengxyz@yahoo.com.hk) (click that link and the scammer makes a profit. Why? Because you just validated your email address, which will now be sold for 40 cents or so. Oh, and prepare for the onslaught of spam and scam emails that replying to this email will generate. On another subject, why was the frowny face included? That’s one we’ll never know.) and treat with absolute confidentiality and sincerity. I look forward to your quick reply.

Best regards,
Ming Cheng
Attorney at Law
Tel: 0060 16 236 4527
Email:barr_yangchengxyz@yahoo.com.hk

NB: Please do not reply to this email, contact me directly with my personal email address stated here: (barr_yangchengxyz@yahoo.com.hk)

Like I said above, don’t click the link. And before I forget, see that “NB:” up there? It’s an abbreviation for the Latin term “Nota Bene”, which just means “pay particular attention to this”. I see that abbreviation alot in these emails. I guess they think it’s a common term among English speaking peoples. I personally know of only one person who ever used that term in conversation or otherwise, outside a classroom. If you see “NB”, well… then pay particular attention to that.
.

I am Jon, and I have very noted benny.

.

(edited)

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April 17th, 2008 Posted by Jon | Fake EMails, Need2No, The Net | one comment

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Fake Foundation de France EMail

Fondazione Di Vittorio

I know someone who wanted to believe this one so much that he responded to it. Several weeks later, he called me. Don’t fall for it! Remember this, and never forget it: No Official EMails From Any Legit Organization Will Have More Than One Error! Now that I’ve said that, let me make an exception for the current “Grade C-” administration in the US. They obviously need remedial training.

But back to the email: We see the “foundation’s” address in Italy. It’s called the Foundation de France. Created by the “Multi-Million groups”? And then more name dropping, ECOWAS, UNO and even the European Union. Obvious errors are BOLD. Let’s see how shallow the hole really is…

VITTORIO FONDAZIONE.
Corso Ercole I d’Este 44,
Ferrara 44100 – Italy.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Foundation’s Officer,
Fondazion Di Vittorio, ITALY
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it

CONCERN

Foundation De France as established 1979 by the Multi-Million groupswas
conceived with the objective of Human Growth, Educational and
Community development.The France Foundation in conjunction with the
ECOWAS, UNO and the European Union,These funds are freely given to you
to use for yourbusiness educational and personal development.

You were selected among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum
of US$100,000,000.00 (One Hundred Million United States Dollars) as
charity donations/aid from the France Foundation, ECOWAS and the UNO in
accordance with t he enabling act of Parliament.

You are required to expeditiously contact the Executive Secretary with
your Qualification numbers (P-333-7858,B-011-67) for processing of your
claims,you’ll be given your donation pin number.Contact Claudio
Giovanni (DPU) Information Officer.

Enter Personal Details:
First Name: Last Name:
Address Line 1:
Address Line 2 (optional):
City: State: Zip/Postal Code:
Country:
Valid Phone Number: Fax (optional):
E-mail:
———————————————————
DUE PROCESS UNIT:
Executive Secretary – Claudio Giovanni
Email:claudiogiovannixx@yahoo.com
——————————————————–
On behalf of the Board kindly accept our warmest congratulations
Yours faithfully,
Mr.Claudio Giovanni.

(Foundation officer

Knee Deep

I’d say we’re standing about knee-deep in the hooplah, wouldn’t you? There are simply too many grammatical errors to be believable. Run-on words and sentences, spaces missing after punctuation, and even missing punctuation (that closing parenthesis was missing in the original email). We also see the near-ubiquitous personal info request, as well as the Yahoo email address supplied for our response.

So how did my friend fall for this? He went to the website mentioned in the greeting to see if they were legit. The Foundation of Vittorio does indeed exist. It appears that they are a legitimate activity. Looking around their site, which is written in Italian, I found a disclaimer in English. It says: The “Giuseppe Di Vittorio Foundation” is victime of an informatic fraud; therefore we are not responsible for any alleged donation.

I am Jon, and if the errors in the email didn’t tell me, the Foundation’s website made it clear.

.

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April 17th, 2008 Posted by Jon | Fake EMails, Need2No, The Net | 2 comments

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