Have you been scammed recently? If yes, better inform yourself before it happens all over again. Some con artists will try to squeeze every penny out of you even after you may not have any money left. You may receive an email from a con artist who will promise you to provide assistance in getting your money back. After all you’ve went through being recently scammed, this feels like a gift from the heavens to you. What happens is that you will be charged with hefty transfer, legal, income tax and whatever fees. Needless to say these “fees” are imaginary and the money you have been sending went straight into the con artists pockets. These professional scammers may have illegal ID’s as being registered lenders, government official or any other kind of identification.
EXAMPLE EMAIL
African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Attention: BeneficiaryWe have the utmost pleasure in sending you this message regarding to our meeting at the 53 Heads of State and Government of the African Union at their summit meeting on 31 January to 2 February in Addis Ababa. At the meeting where Mr. Jean Ping, the Gabonese Minister for Foreign Affairs, was appointed as the Chairman of the African Union (AU) focused was on scammed victim in the globe, foreign contractors that may not have received their contract sum as well as Inheritance, including people that have an unfinished and failed transaction due to government bureaucracy etc. The African union in a drive to restore and protect its image globally has resolved to compensate each person with sum of US$250,000.00.
Be notified that we found your contact in our list and that is why we are contacting you as this has been agreed upon and has been signed. You are advised to contact Mr. George Ikoli our West Africa Regional Representative in Nigeria. Contact him immediately for your ATM cash card of US$250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars). This fund is in ATM for security purpose. Therefore, you should contact Mr. George Ikoli immediately for further directives on how to receive your ATM on this email address.
Email: gikoli.auunit@live.com Tel: 234- 80 58 98 83 42.
Yours faithfully,
Philip Idamo Idamo
CONCLUSION
A centralized database of Nigerian scam victims, such as the ones mentioned above, does not exist. Anytime you get an email like that, you should always assume it to be a scam, and delete the message. If you haven’t contacted the person from this email address before, don’t even talk to them at all. They haven’t received your email address from a database of scam victims but they have either found your email address or bought it from a website you have signed up at one time.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I almost got scammed by someone claiming to be leasing a very cheap inner city apartment in London – it was too good to be true, but I wanted to look at the place. They said that they have been a victim before and that to prove my genuineness, I was to transfer money via Western Union not to her, but to myself.
They seemed to be very pushy – maybe I got an inexperienced one.
I told a friend about it and they told me it was a scam, so I was saved. He googled the article by BBC.co.uk and I was shaken up by it as I almost lost 700 pounds. Others on the forum had lost over 1000.
I thank my lucky stars.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I just got scammed recently…
I was buying something for 6.99, and the promised I’d get it in no more than 24 hours… well it’s 2 weeks now. They just keep saying the admin isn’t on, when I am clearly looking at the admin talking to other people. Yea it’s only 6.99 but I’m very broke…
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 am
I was scammed just the other day. I, unfortunately am an idiot when it comes to using the internet and not aware of all the scams going around. I listed some personal items for sale on Craig’s List and received an email from someone I thought was legitimate. I sent an invoice to this person using my Pay Pal account and received what I had believed to be an instant payment notification from Pay Pal saying the items were paid for. In the email it stated I had to give Pay Pal the UPS tracking number because the shipment was going to Nigeria. Yes, I have since read about the scams with Nigeria. So I gave the tracking number but after 2 days I still had not received my money. I spoke to Pay Pal and they confirmed there was no pending money on hold and that the email I received stating instant payment had been a spoof, (paypal@live.com). Needless to say, I am out the value of my personal items, $450.00, plus I am out the shipping fee of $124.00 as well as another $124.00 to hopefully get UPS to send the shipment back to me. I hoping it is not too late. It only takes the one time to lose a lot. To some, $124 is not a lot, but to me, I worked hard for my money and my personal belongings for someone to just be so greedy as to take it and not care. I have learned my lesson and you can bet it will not happen again. I have had to delete my bank account information from Pay Pal as well as notify my bank of the possible identity theft. I hope this helps anyone else.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I was scammed. I was desperate for a short term loan after starting a new job. I posted an ad asking for a short-term loan of $3000 on Craigslist. A man named “Wood” that said he was an expatriate living in England offered to loan me $3000 if I sent him a copy of my identification. I did it and didn’t hear from him for a couple of days and then he asked me for my bank account information, preferably a credit card, with a limit. Since I had lived in Europe before, I told him that I knew he could just wire transfer the funds online if he were truly serious about sending the money.
He kept stalling and wanting more information about my account (routing number, etc.). I finally figured out it was a scam because he refused to use Paypal, refused just to send a bank draft (which is easy from England), and kept pressing me for details of my account. Next thing I knew, the money I had in my account was gone (and I can’t even pay my rent now).
I kept hoping it was legit but if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Now I am going to be evicted from my home and this con artist that I thought was going to help me isn’t.
Please be wary of “james.1046@yahoo.com” and a man living in England that claims he is an expatriate working as an engineer at James Adam Construction in England (I later checked and found out there wasn’t a James Adam Construction anywhere in England).
June 27th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I JUST GOT SCAMMED. A LISTING ON CRAIGSLIST ADVERTISING A SECRET SHOPPING OPPURTUNITY. I HAD DONE THAT KIND OF THING BEFORE SO I WASNT TOO SKEPTICAL @ 1ST. HE WAS SENDING ME MONEY ORDERS, I HAD TO CASH THEM @ MY BANK, TAKE OUT MY FEE, & WIRE THE $ TO ANOTHER “SECRET SHOPPER” TURNS OUT THE MONEY ORDERS WERE FAKE, WHICH I ALWAYS THOUGHT MONEY ORDERS WERE AS GOOD AS CASH, NOT LIKE A CHECK WHERE YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR THEM TO CLEAR…I WAS WRONG. APPARENTLY BANKS CANT TELL FAKE MONEY ORDERS EITHER. SO NOW OF COURSE MY BANK IS AFTER ME FOR THE MONEY, WHICH OBVIOUSLY I HAVE NONE IF IM LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MKE EXTRA MONEY. BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IM GOING TO PAY IT. BUT I REPORTED THAT JERK, WE’LL SEE IF IT DOES ANY GOOD. JUST BEWARE PEOPLE…EVERYONE IS JUST OUT FOR THEMSELVES NOWADAYS
August 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Oh no Leah, they stole your lowercase letters as well!
Seriously though, the cops/fraudies know all about those sorts of ‘muleing’ scams, and the banks have insurance to cover things like this, you will just need to fill out a bunch of paperwork with the police and the bank will stop hounding you.
- Matthew
August 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I met up with mr wood from james adam construction online also. He was after a much larger score than $3000.00. Trying for access to Credit Lines from Banks. His Phone number is 44-704-575-7420 in London England. Claims to be an engineer and wanted help skimming Hundreds of thousands from his employers accounts. Wanted access to attorney Trust account and a line of credit for the scam.