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July 30, 2010

Instead of the overly long tales of woe about how someone with my same last name died intestate with boatloads of cash hidden in a foreign bank, or the hyper-detailed lottery winning notifications complete with batch numbers, the following 419 scam email message is a testament to the value of brevity:

From Charles Bean
Deputy Governor
Financial Monitoring
Bank of England [B.O.E]

This is to officially inform you that your long awaited overdue Inheritance fund valued at $8m Eight Million United State Dollars only has been approved for immediate payment to you.

For the Purpose of Verification and authentication.

You are advised to Contact me on [removed]@live.com

Thanks,

Charles Bean.

There will be plenty of inexperienced recipients of this missive who will not realize that a live.com email address is from a free account, rather than an official Bank of England email address. I think this short and simple approach may be more effective in getting suckers on the hook than the taller tales told by this guy's fellow scammers.

July 05, 2010

Just when you think you've seen it all, in comes a 419 (advance fee) scam message that holds no punches. No, I didn't win a European lottery, but the crook claims to work for the lottery organization and wants me to help her steal over 4.5 million pounds. My percentage would be 60%.

Here's the full pitch:

Good day Friend,

My name is Mrs. Ahlenious Inga-Britt, I work with the Euro Lottery. I am soliciting your assistance for a swift transfer of 4,528,000 GBP, should you be willing to assist me in this project, You will be giving me just 40% of your winnings.

To be brief, you will have to register online and due to my position in
the office I will guarantee you of becoming a winner of the above stated amount. Note that I will secure the payment for playing the lottery here in my office.

Naturally, every body would like to play a lottery if they are assured of winning.

I am assuring you today to be a winner, please do not take this for
granted as this is once in a life time opportunity as we both stand to
collectively gain from this at the success of the transaction.

Should you be willing to run this transaction with me, please do respond to e-mail: [removed]@8u8.hk

Regards,
Mrs. Ahlenious Inga-Britt.

419 scams tend to target the gullible, the sympathetic (to a phony sob story), and the treasure seeker. This one appeals directly to a fellow criminal. Make that a stupid fellow criminal who can't spot a scam when it sits right in front of him.