The Zillion Dollar Scam
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By Syed Rizwan Muhammad Rizvi, "IT" Journalist






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    For quite a long time people like you and I have been receiving emails regarding transfer of huge amounts of money to your account for nothing or more precisely for our consent only.

    Moreover, people like us may also find it an opportunity of a lifetime to take a bit of risk if such a huge amount can be deposited into our accounts, even if the risk is worth all our assets. After all, you would be able to cover the loss if the amount really gets deposited to you. With experiences of people I have interviewed I could reach only one conclusion, without a shadow of doubt they are scammers. In my opinion scamming is not the right word to use here; fraud should be the right word to use.

    I will discuss a few experiences here to let you people know how they cause you damage. The emails can come to you from anywhere in the world, but mostly you see emails coming to you from countries like Nigeria, Congo, Rwanda etc. though I have personally received emails from UK as well. Obviously when I say where the email is coming from I mean the physical location of the fraudster.

    Let me tell you about my own experience. A lady emailed me saying that her health was down and she was in the hospital counting her last days due to cancer. She needed to transfer some money to a person who could give half of the amount to charity in her name and keep the other half to himself. She “only” contacted me because I was the only “reliable” person to her. That’s why I never had a clue as to who she was. I replied to her saying, "I can help you out for your last days, but I am not interested in the other half of the money. If you really want me to give your money to charity I shall do so, but I don’t want a even a penny out of it." I asked her for proof. She emailed me back with her lawyer’s phone number and email address in UK. I called them but no one answered. I checked them on the internet, and it was a registered law firm, I emailed them regarding the thing and they confirmed that the email I received was true and was no fraud.

    After a few days I automatically received some info regarding opening a bank account in the UK and providing some initial balance to open the account. That made me a bit uneasy and I never responded. Even though I was not affected by this fraud as such, I knew people who were.

    These fraudsters have caused damage to people ranging between hundreds and thousands of dollars. Many of the victims were not able to collect the initial amount required for opening the bank account, and following their greed took credit from their friends and families to fulfill the requirement. What they got in return was a long wait for the good news and finally hopelessness.

    These frauds really target you personally because they know your religion, your internet personality and even your physical location. I have checked different samples of those emails; they perfectly suit the target’s mentality and one is compelled to follow the text. Their names will appear perfectly according to your society. I have always gotten emails with Muslim names, my fellow brethren from other religions have gotten emails according to their religion and social contacts, and thus it is easy to fall in the trap.

    I hope that after reading this, none of us will fall prey to these specious emails anymore and will investigate the matter first rather than committing to gain the offered advantage at very early stages.




    AUTHOR: Syed Rizwan Muhammad Rizvi

    TAGS: Entertainment            

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    Marjo




    Marjo says on 2005-01-10 00:17:32 about Nigeria scam
    Rizwan, Great article!

    I recently did a similar piece for an indie local, and even blogged about it. Along the way, I found out these Nigeria/international scams predated the Internet by decades. The World Wide web has made it simple for fraudsters to directly scam mass consumers.

    Where before, they had to settle for attacking established businesses via good ole' Ma Bell. LOL... lots of levels to this! You did a great job!









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