[thechat] (great spam) FW: Urgent Assistance

[Seth Bienek]

> now this one is original:

Ah, the old 'Nigerian' scam.  This has actually been going on for awhile, and there are actually gullible people who follow along and end up having their bank account cleaned out.  In fact, it's a global operation that 'bilks business people out of about $250 million a year' (and is reportedly the third biggest industy in Nigeria).  These emails are always sent from free, relatively anonymous email accounts as well.

http://www.bestfrauds.com/money-swindle.html
http://www.fraud.org/scamsagainstbusinesses/tips/nigerian.htm
http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm
http://www.quatloos.com/cm-niger/cm-niger.htm - Gallery of dozens of 'Nigerian scam letter' variations
http://www.treas.gov/usss/index.htm?alert419.htm&1 - US Secret Service on the case.  (thinking that the 'Secret Service' having a well-known name is some kind of Oxymoron - not sure of the word for it.)

If you get this letter, the best thing you can do is report it right away to the National Fraud Information Center (1-800-876-7060).  They will take the information you give them and relay it to the appropriate authorities.

Forwarding the complete message, including the headers, to the abuse contact of the email provider should get the email address turned off fairly promptly.. You might help some poor gullible soul out by not letting their reply get to it's intended source.

SpamCop is a great way to do this automatically (and free):
http://spamcop.net

I wish people could learn:  If it sounds too good to be true, you can bet your ass it is.

Anyhoo...

Seth

"There is no great genius free from some tincture of madness."  -Seneca
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Seth Bienek
Digitaris Technologies, Inc.
tel (972) 690-4131, ext. 103
fax (972) 690-0617
icq 7673959
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