Criminals use email as an inexpensive, easy way to reach a large number of people quickly. Their promises of an easy payday can be tempting, but don’t let their tricks fool you into giving up your hard-earned resources.
Here’s a sample email recently received from a scammer. The email has been copied verbatim to show you each and every nuance of the criminal’s deceptive words to gain your interest and action.
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“On Monday, January 16, 2017 3:10 AM, Mrs.Susan Dansuki <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Beneficiary,
Be informing that we have been authorized by the United Nations Debt
Reconciliation Unit to release your compensation payment of
US$1,500,000.00 through Money Gram transfer. You will be receiving
US$5,000.00 daily until the total sum of US$1,500,000.00 is completely
transferred to you.
Besides, we have already sent your first payment of US$5,000.00 today,
therefore, you are advice to contact (MR. MARCEL OWURAH) and request him
to give you the payment details such as Money Gram reference# and senders
name to enable you pick up your first payment of US$5,000.00 at any Money
Gram office around you. Contact him with the information below.
Contact Person: MR. MARCEL OWURAH
Phone Number: +229 94 06 77 68
E-mail: [email protected]
REMEMBER TO FORWARD HIM YOUR FULL INFORMATION AS REQUIRED BELOW TO ENABLE
HIM LOCATE YOUR PAYMENT FILE AND ATTEND TO YOU IMMEDIATELY.
1. Your Full Name:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Occupation:
5. Telephone Numbers:
6. Country:
NOTE: that the amount to be paid to you is (USD1.500, 000.00), we expect
your urgent response to this email to enable us monitor the payment
effectively.
Best Regards
Mrs.Susan Dansuki.”
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This email sender isn’t interested in sending money to the email recipient who remains unidentified throughout the entire message. A recipient who responds to this scoundrel will instead receive a request for money.
Never send a stranger money to receive a larger sum of money in return. It is always a scam, and you’ll only lose your cash to a criminal who will take as much from you as possible.
Would you like to know more about this scammer’s base of operations? Here’s a quick way to check the sender’s domain:
- Go to http://scamadvisor.com
- Copy and paste the domain name of the sender’s email address (after the @ symbol) into the box asking for “Enter the website name here.” In the email above, the sender’s domain name is mavericks.ru.
- Review the results
Based on information from http://scamadvisor.com, the sender of the email above is from Russia and interaction with the website involves a high risk. If the generic nature and extreme generosity of the email aren’t enough to dissuade you from responding, let the source of the email be the final nail that seals this scam in a coffin of contempt.