Wordout

Fake Yahoo/MSN Lottery EMail

A Twist on ‘MicroHoo’

I guess these scammers were counting on the merger between Microsoft and Yahoo! to go through. Clearly, our language is not all they don’t understand. Those two companies are, and have been for decades, strong competitors and at times, bitter rivals. Each has continuously either sought or hoped for the other’s demise. So the entire premise of this scam, a joint Yahoo/MSN Lottery, is on its face a farce.

To give them credit, they confused the issue enough by trying to pose as a separate entity from either of these companies, but stating that “YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online” is an easily recognizable lie. There is no “Yahoo/MSN” and Windows runs on your desktop, not the web. Not yet, anyway.

Take my hand so I don’t stumble over these protruding scam flags. I’ll mark them in BOLD, for those who come after us…

Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation (No way this is right. See above)
Baley House, Har Road Sutton,
Greater London SM1 4te
United Kingdom.(Period?)

Dear Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money ( no ‘a’ ) of One
Million Great Britain Pound Sterling’s ( written incorrectly with an apostrophe ) (£1,000.000.00) for the month of APRIL 2008 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE. YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected. (Do I need to even add a comment here? That sentence, laid out in a single line, could stretch from Santa Barbara to Norfolk. If everything else in the email were perfect, that one sentence would expose the scammer.)

You are to contact the events manager.
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number…………………YM 09102XM
Reff number…………………..YM 35447XM
Winning number……………….DTYFM0988
Transfer Number…………………45009423
However you will have to fill and ( “fill out” ) submit this form to the events manager.

1. Full name…………..
2. Contact Address……..
3. Age………………..
4. Telephone Number…….
5. Sex………………..
6. Occupation:…………
7. State………………
8. Country……………. (There’s your identity)
9. Your Reference Number, Transfer Number and Batch number at the top of this mail.
(CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name:Mr walter cook ( CAPS )
Tell:+447031985750
E-mail: claim_officexyz@yahoo.com.hk (There’s the Yahoo address in, where else? Hong Kong.)

As scam emails go, this one’s fairly easy to spot. Even if you know nothing of the rivalry between Microsoft and Yahoo!, or the recent bid by MS to take over Yahoo!, you should still be able to see enough wrong with the other content to mark this one for the furnace. That one, long, run-on sentence that makes up over half of the 1st paragraph is enough for me.

A good rule of thumb is this: If there are MILLIONS of DOLLARS involved, the person in charge of it will possess a formal education including years of English usage. Allowing for style and grammatical quirks, there should be no more than 1 or 2 mistakes. And there should be absolutely zero glaring errors.

I am Jon. I write long sentences, but ( expletive deleted )!

Get Wordout sent to your EMAIL!

May 6th, 2008 Posted by Jon | Fake EMails | Leave a Comment

Fake Telex Remittance Department EMail

Attn: Honorable Contractor

By now, everybody on the web should know about the constant barrage of email scams originating in Nigeria. So how anyone could fall for this is beyond me. Nevertheless, there are desperate times coming up, and sometimes necessity, and not greed, makes us hope so hard that we lose our better judgement. With that in mind, follow along as we expose this one for what it is. As usual, glaring errors and scam-flags are BOLD. Here and there I’ve added my own comments. Enjoy…

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA(Nigeria? Think about it.)
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
TELEX REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT
TINUBU SQUARE,VICTORIA ISLAND
LAGOS-NIGERIA

Our Ref: CBN/IRD/CBX/021/04
CONTRACT #: MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/009,
Swift Code: BPH KPL PK,
A/C#: 329606=101244=169=678

Our Ref: CBN/IRD/CBX/021/06

Attn: Honorable Contractor ( I happen to be a contractor. Are you? And even so, I’ve never contracted with Nigeria.)

My Name (Caps) is Rev. Dr. Tony Abiodun Director (Reverend Doctor, huh? Guess we HAVE to respect that.) Telex Remittance Department Central Bank of Nigeria. I was mandated by President Musa Yauda (Search for this guy on Google. He’s President of Nigeria, right? He doesn’t exist on Google. The name “Musa” does have an historical context, though.) this morning to personally look into your case file which (comma) has been pending for the past 5-10 yrs. (You’d think he would know how many years, but 5 to 10 is an error factor of 100%!)

>From (That ‘>’ before the “F” was included in the email) all indications, their (”there”) has been (”have been”) several reports coming from the International Communities (CAPS) that contractor are been (either “are being” or “have been”, make up his mind for him, would you?) duped by fraudsters and criminals from Nigeria. These was the reasons (”These were”) why the President him self (”himself”) has appointed me to handle this transaction personally and give him the daily report and ensure that your contract payment with the Federal Government of Nigeria is finally resolve (”resolved”) once and for all.

A part (”partial”) payment of $10.7 Million Dollars has already been approved a (”a”?) by Mr. President (’the’ President would be more “politically correct”.) this morning, all (Getting to be a long sentence with that comma there.Should have been a period, with a capital Y starting the next sentence.) you are required to do now is to provide your Bank (CAPS. But you can tell how important they think that word is.) information where you want your contract funds or winnings to be transferred into.(Are they contract funds or winnings? You’d think he would know.)

You are advise (”advised”) to provide all the information’s to me via Email: drabioxyz@hotmail.com (”information”. and notice this time we get a hotmail address instead of a yahoo address.)

Name:
Address:
Age:
Tel:
Occupation:
Bank Name:
Bank Address:
Account Name:
Account Number
Routing/Swift
(Everything he needs to steal your identity.)

Kindly provide the information’s (spelling again) within the next 24hrs (HURRY!) to our telex department make the transfer of the $10.7 Million Dollars into your Bank account without any delay. (Wow, was that a sentence from Hades or what?) But if you don’t want wire transfer we can give you another opition. (spelling)

Regards,

Rev. Dr. Tony Abiodun
Director Telex Remittance Department(CBN)

Sometimes, these scammers remind me of little children. You know how it goes. They start off reasonably enough, maybe even anticipate some of your objections and, like good little salesmen, try to incorporate them into the presentation. Notice how this guy spends half his time distancing himself from scams originating in Nigeria.

But after that, he completely falls apart with run-on sentences and a horrible mangling of the English language. I can just see this guy as a child, nearly out of breath with anticipation, hardly able to form a coherent thought, much less a complete and correct sentence. He is absolutely positive you’ll fall for this one.

I am Jon, and he is wrong.

Get Wordout sent to your EMAIL!

May 6th, 2008 Posted by Jon | Fake EMails | Leave a Comment