Free Republic

Not good if you did. Beware of foreign pen pals promising money. At least wait for their check to clear before you wire funds. The “Nigerian Letter” scam is known as a “419” because the scheme violates section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code. While it seems like a laughable hoax, Americans lose millions of dollars annually to this fraud, which can appear in the form of a letter, email, voicemail, or text. The scam tries to gain access to your personal finances and works like this: Step 1: You are sent a form of payment for a large amount,...

<p>EARLIER THIS YEAR, thousands of people checked their e-mail and found a surprise: An American soldier needed help, and there was something in it for them. Their correspondent was a sergeant stationed in Iraq, he explained. He had accumulated millions in hundred-dollar bills—the older ones being phased out by the Treasury—from the cash brought into the country by the American occupation. The soldier needed to launder this money, fast, and needed a stateside bank account to do it. In return for a cut of the total, could he use yours?</p>

Who else got one of these scams in their e-mail?

Joe Eboh, a conman who was persuaded to prove evidence of his initiation into the Holy Church of The Painted Breast in a reverse scam Dear Honourable Friend. Those generous Nigerians who e-mail you with promises of a fortune are themselves being targeted in a new drive to deter cyber criminals. Millions of internet users have received messages offering them a huge financial reward if they help to release money trapped in a foreign bank account. And, although the majority of these e-mails are deleted, the fraudsters still find a sufficient number of gullible Britons to cost the country millions...

United Nations Trust Fund Switzerland Department of Humanitarian Affairs Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland. Congratulations Beneficiary, Your email has been selected by the United Nations(UN) for a cash grant award of Six Hundred And Fifty Thousand Five hundred United States Dollars,($650,500.00usd)for this year 2009 Grant Award.Your email address was selected during our random email balloting for the cash grant and if you received this notification,it means that you are a lucky beneficiary of our cash grant award. The united nations authorities has decided to give this award to 15 beneficiaries from all over the world to help fascilitate...

In times when more and more scammers/spammers are getting DomainKeys verified, others are finding adaptive ways to increase the probability of bypassing antispam filters. Take for instance this 419s scam artist, that's been pretty active in his scamming attempts as of recently.

Some person named "Azul Ajan" sent this to me: Dear Friend, First, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction.This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL AND TOP SECRET. However after series of petition was recieved by this present cregime from foreign contractors and inability of the BANK OF AFRICA to fulfill their obligation for the payment to its foreign creditors, in conjunction with the council of ministers, they mandated us to carry out a careful and comprehensive review of all overdue payments to foreign contractors and to effect payments immediately. During the above mentioned process,...

President Obama and Mrs Clinton. This was not expected to happen so soon, but now it is real. Obama sources confirm that the president will resign on the 15th of June and no reason has been given to the abrubt end of his presidency. Many world leaders got a rude shock a few minutes ago when they got a “Top Secret” mail informing them on the intended resignation. Obama will attend G20 summit in the UK soon and while there, he is expected to inform world leaders about the decision to resign. Insiders contacted by API say Obama will resign...

Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Seattle Division 1110 Third Avenue Seattle, Washington 98101-2904 Payment Code: R5109176K Reg No: 132731593 Date: March 29, 2009 The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered through our intelligence Monitoring Network that you are eligible to receive the sum of $7,500,00.00 USD regarding to an over-due Inheritance/Award payment which was fully endorsed to be paid in your favor. Therefore, the FBI Seattle Division in conjunction with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through our various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the transaction you have with the Financial Institution...

It has been interesting following the American politics. API feared that the new president would easily impose leaders on  the Kenyan people. That fear has now gone after listening to the president’s inauguration address a number of times.The man is inclusive and he has demonstrated that when making appointments selecting even some politicians who were his critics.API has written a personal letter today to President Obama congratulating him for having demonstrated inclusiveness as soon as he took office.During the campaign, API was one of the media outlets that criticised the President and that brought many Americans to API site because...

Posted by africanpress on January 20, 2009 Barack Obama - The First Black President of the United States of America 44th President takes the oath of officeIn politics people differ, people disagree, people campaign against one another and people support different people at different times.A new chapter has began and all should join in and make history. This is the history worth being part of from the start.Now the time has come to face the reality and those who have so far supported others - not Obama, should come together this day and join in the making of history that...

The time has come when the truth has to come out on what happened about the intended release of the now - much talked about - Michelle Obama tape and the Imam’s document on Obama. Many may have believed to this day that there was no deal between API and Fox News Network. We can now say there was a deal and API will take legal action against two Fox News Network employees who broke the agreement on the tape. API has investigated the case and has found out that the two officers did not inform their superiors about the...

I am very disappointed that you want to respect the feelings of obama and would agree to keep secret the material that you have. You certainly will be in good company but while it’s understandable for media in the US to do so because they want to curry favor and guarantee access, there is no reason for you to do this unless you too are trying to climb to the top of the heap with a media empire and obama has promised you help. It is the way he does business so come to think of it that is entirely...

So, if you don’t believe that the BANK OF THE NORTH INTERNATIONAL, ABUJA or a relative of Ex-Nigerian Head of State Late Gen. Sanni Abacha who died on the 8th of June 1998 has $12 million in ill-gotten gains just waiting to share with you, perhaps you will believe the FBI does. The latest version of Nigerian spam purports to be an “official order” from the FBI’s Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division confirming an inheritance or lottery winnings, reports the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a DOJ entity. Turn over some personally identifying information to claim your share, or perhaps face...

Woman out $400K to 'Nigerian scam' con artists  Story Updated: Nov 11, 2008 at 9:07 PM PST By Anna Song KATU News and KATU.com Web Staff SWEET HOME, Ore. – Janella Spears doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark. Besides her work as a nursing administrator, Spears – no relation to the well-known pop star – also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.So how did this otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a million dollars to a bunch...

Received today! Dear Winner, This is to notify you that your e-mail has won 250,000.00euros in the 2008 SPNL Sweepstakes e-Lottery.

Colin Powell celebrated his 71st birthday this year but he's clearly not too old to pull some cheeky Afro-hip-hop moves. His take on Olu Maintain's song Yahooze at the Africa Rising event at the Royal Albert Hall worked a lot better than his former boss George Bush's embarrassing inaugural shape-throwing alongside Ricky Martin. Although he kept his jacket buttoned, almost everyone deemed his dancing spot-on. But it doesn't look as if the former US secretary of state paid too much attention to the lyrics, or he might have discovered that the Nigerian hit is a celebration of that country's most...

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

ELIZABETHTON — An Elizabethton woman has been indicted by a Carter County grand jury on charges she had participated in an international Internet scam. Investigators interviewed Ouchaib on Jan. 24, during which time she told the police she had been receiving money from all across the country and forwarding it to a man in Lagos, Nigeria, who was known by many names, but most commonly as Elinmian Jonathon Smith. She had been conducting the transactions since December 2006.

Revenge is sweet — and thanks to tattoo ink, sometimes permanent — for a growing legion of "scambaiters" who have taken it upon themselves to punish the thieves behind those Nigerian e-mail scams. Posting their exploits online, scambaiters are turning the tables on the scam artists, conning the cons who have bilked unsuspecting people out of countless millions of dollars in a common scam referred to as the "419 scam" or advance-fee fraud. Typically, scammers start an e-mail relationship and get their victims to send money to people who claim to be dying or who need help to free a...