Spam by Private Message

R

runawaybunny

Guest
Last night someone registered the member name limy and used our private messaging system to send spam to several of our members. This type of message is a well known scam.

Here's the text of the message:

From Mrs Edith Stevens.
Dear One in Christ,
I am Mrs Edith Stevens ,from Cote D' Ivoire .I am married to late Mr frank Stevens, who worked as a senior manager with the Ivory Coast refinary for Twenty-Six years before he died in the year 2005,after a brief illness that lasted for only five days.
We were married for Eighteen years with a son (Olah) who later died in a motor accident. Before the untimely death of my husband,we were both born again Christians. Since after his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home . When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of one Million,Eight hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$1.8m) in a General Trust Account with a prime bank in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Presently,this money is still with the bank.
Recently,Following my ill health, my Doctor told me that I may not last for the next six months due to my cancer problem.The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness.Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to someone that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein,according to the desire of my late husband before his death.
I want this fund to be used in Christain Activities like,Orphanages, Christain schools, and Churches for propagating the word of God and to endeavor that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that "Blessed is the hand that giveth". I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision.
I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that "the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace". I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband's relatives around me always.I don't want them to know about this development.With God all things are possible.
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank in Abidjan. I will also issue you the documents that will prove you the present beneficiary of this fund. I want you and the Church to always pray for me because the lord is my shephard. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that Wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and
Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.
Contact me on this email address (********@yahoo.com) as any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another person for this same purpose.
Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your reply.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs EDITH STEVENS.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Oh gosh, I sure hope none of our members fall for this. There have been several segments on Dateline and 20/20 regarding this type of fraud and I am always saddened to see how many people believe it and send in their life savings.

Thanks for making us aware.

Nancy
 

If your bored, email them from a a hotmail account or something. String them along and be preposterous about it.

Strung one along for two weeks once. Funniest :censored2: I had done in a while. Provides tons of laughter when you see how much they'll try to keep stringing you along.

Gotta love those good old 411 scams.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
The letter clearly states:

I swear.....it's like DANG LADY WE GOT ENOUGH PROBLEMS HERE WITHOUT ALL YOUR THOU AND THO and scripture quotes - read some of our emails and posts - don't you think we pray to God EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF EVERY DAY? - your marketing strategist blows - try a different board or zip code with people who HAVE money and BELIEVE a scam artist cause some of us are RAISING scam artists and KNOW what to look for. eeessssssch.

I'm glad the spam post clearly states "I am not afraid of dying" cause if they come here for financial help - "they gonna die trying - sho nuf


Nuf sed
 

Stella Johnson

Active Member
Those people will try anything. These types of Nigerian scams have been around for about 5 years but for some reason the media is just catching on. :rolleyes:

Steph
 

Marguerite

Active Member
The Aussie current affairs shows have been dealing with this in the last week - in Australia, they aren't getting prosecuted as they should and as they are in other countries. These guys were filmed posting letters like this from an Internet cafe in Sydney - the cafe owner had no idea but these guys literally did a runner (the reporter was ready for them, he began the report by putting his running shoes on, which he clearly later got a lot of use out of). After the scammers had run off, back in the cafe the screen showed exactly what they'd been doing - posting loads of these emails.

The dangers of this are not just possibly losing your money - they will probably ask you to send some money to pay bank transfers, local taxes, whatever they want to call it. All it takes is a 1% response rate to 2,000 emails to keep them in business financially. More emails - a smaller success rate will make it pay, any more brings in big bucks. And every person who responds gives them a 'live' email address to sell on to other scammers.

But the big dangers also come with identity theft.

Before you even try stringing these people along, read "The Blue Nowhere" by Jeffery Deaver.

The poor grammar - some of it is feigned.

The other nasty scam to watch for (or your husbands to watch for) is the "Russian bride". These girls apparently get together once a week and compare letters and responses, coaching each other in getting a better response rate. They basically beg for money to come to "your wonderful country" and be free at last, maybe to find a kind man who will love them and treat them nice without berating them like their daddies used to do...

Depending on where they are mailing from, you can sometimes track them. But you need to be good at what you do. This is how the reporters are finding them, plus tip-offs from the public with the correspondence history.

Nasty stuff. Yet one more reason why we need to maintain personal privacy on this site and any others.

Marg
 
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