Usually, con artists working the Advance Fee Fraud angle will promise untold wealth. This one, from Thea in Maryborough, promise something a lot more valuable…your life.
I felt very sorry and bad for you, that your life is going to end like this if you don’t comply, I was paid to eliminate you and I have to do it within 10 days.
Someone you call your friend wants you dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person came to me and told me that he wants you dead and he provided me your names, photograph and other necessary information i needed about you. If you are in doubt with this I will send you your name and where you are residing in my next mail.
Meanwhile, I have sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary investigation needed for the operation, but I ordered them to stop for a while and not to strike immediately because I just felt something good and sympathetic about you. I decided to contact you first and know why somebody will want you dead by all means. Right now my men are monitoring you, their eyes are on you, and even the place you think is safer for you to hide might not be.
Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? It is up to you. Get back to me now if you are ready to enter deal with me, I mean life trade, who knows, and I might just spear your life, $5,000 is all you need to spend. You will first of all pay $3000 then I will send the tape of the person that want you dead to you and when the tape gets to you, you will pay the remaining $2000. If you are not ready for my help, then I will have no choice but to carry on the assignment after all I have already being paid before now.
Warning: do not think of contacting the police or even tell anyone because I will extend it to any member of your family since you are aware that somebody want you dead, and the person knows some members of your family as well.
For your own good I will advise you not to go out once is 7pm until I make out time to see you and give you the tape of my discussion with the person who want you dead then you can use it to take any legal action. Good luck as I await your urgent reply:
Bye.
Mr Mohammed Salim
Special Killer of al Qaeda
After all, we all have enemies and skeletons in the closet. How many people can swear beyond all doubt that there isn’t someone out there who wants us dead?
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used to tell a story about just this.
[From "Storyettes," The Commercial Appeal [Memphis, Tennessee], 2 October 1897, Pg. 7, Col. C.]
“A friend of his who had often been told that there is a skeleton in the cupboard of every household, no matter how respectable that household may be; and he determined to put his opinion to a practical test. Selecting for the subject of this experiment a venerable archdeacon of the church, against whom the most censorious critic had never breathed a word, he went to the nearest postoffice [sic] and dispatched this telegram to the reverend gentleman: “All is discovered! Fly at once!” The archdeacon disappeared and has never been heard of since. “
-From “Storyettes,” The Commercial Appeal [Memphis, Tennessee], 2 October 1897, Pg. 7, Col. C.
Imagine you’ve been chatting with this nice Nigerian gentleman who would like your help cleaning several million dollars in black money that he claims has been treated with dark ink for ’security purposes.’
If you pay a few thousand bucks to the men, they’ll clean the money and give you half.
You’re not sure about this and so you google ‘black money cleaning’
At the top of the page you see two advertisements for companies that specialise in the process: Anzia and Century1.
You click on the links and find information that verifies the men’s claims.
So you hand over the cash.
In reality of course, the whole thing is a scam. There is no such thing as black money.
The con artists have paid google to advertised their fake businesses. Google are not just taking money from the swindlers, they are actively helping them promote their cause. They may even be considered accessories.
Even the search engine regular results support the swindler’s claims. Over the ten links on the front page, one is the wikipedia page explaining the fraud and one is a blog about scams.
The rest of the links are created by con artists to promote the swindle.
You can watch dailymotion/youtube videos, visit facebook pages and buy products on alibaba. All related to black money cleaning.
Google’s mission statement has always been “You can make money without doing evil”. I don’t know about evil, but this does seem a little dodgy.
The music on the show is eclectic Americana, with Old Time music, cowboy, blues, jazz, jug band, string band, ukelele and eccentric music from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.
Each selection is chosen for its medicinal qualities, creating a perfect prescription for healing the stress and purging the infelicities of the 21st Century.
I had an letter a few weeks ago about IGS and whether it was a scam. Thanks to another reader of the blog, I can know tell you more.
Kerrin writes:
I have been contacted by IGS Investments with a LINK DELETED software programme for horse racing. Do you know anything about it? Total outlay for software $11,900 for a return of approx $1,900 per week for 14 hrs spent on computer laying bets.
When we would not commit to that amount, started offering deals - deposit and pay off etc. I must admit the software programme is very enticing - you bet on a horse not to come first. If it wins you must pay the $20 bet times the odds. If it comes anywhere else then you make $20 less commission (about 50c). It is run through bet fair - I have never heard of them.
This sounds a hell of alot like a rehash of the sniper horse racing betting system, I mentioned on my old blog couple of years ago.
I have never heard of betting system that works. If they worked, people just would not sell them.
My advice is to keep away. It’s just not worth the risk.
Hi Nicholas, I listen to every week on the ABC and I love it. I have a query for you is IGS investment a scam. I have been contacted by them and a bit weary.
If it’s the same IGS I’m think of then keep away.
They are a gold seller who like to get you to buy large amounts of gold at under the market rates.
They even sneakily advertise in World of Warcraft by spelling out their website in dead bodies.
Nice analogy for how these guys work isn’t it?
Of course, if it’s NOT the gold company it could be the energy company who have been accused of scamming customers
hello Nicholas, had a phone from someone about viruses on computer, asking me to connect to their website www.teamviewer.com and said he was from Software Support of PC, wasn’t too convinced about what he was saying. Have you heard anything about them?
The short answer is Yes.
There has been, in Australia, a recent rash of con artists phoning people claiming to be from Microsoft. They claim that they have (via the magic of the internet) been made aware of a problem on your computer.
They then charge you for software and support you do not need.
The teamviewer call you received is another version of this swindle.
