Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010
From: MRS. Mthembu Hlengiwe webattza@att.net
Reply-To: hlengiwemt@gmail.com
Subject: MRS. Mthembu Hlengiwe
Dear Sir/Madam,
It is my desire to investment some funds ( Money ) in your country.Attached to this
email is my Investment Proposition. I would like you to go through it and respond
back if you are interested.
Yours Sincerely,
MRS. Mthembu Hlengiwe
Email: hlengiwemt@gmail.com
Tel: +1 206-203-1778
Foreign language/'symbol salad' headers:
From: “Federal Bureau Of Investigation”
Reply-To:
Subject: ATM CARD PAYMENT
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 19:22:28 +1100
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J. Edgar. Hoover Building, Washington D.C
ATTN: BENEFICIARY
This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr Frank Nweke,Sanusi Bello none officials of Oceanic Bank, none officials of Zenith Bank and some impostors claiming to be theFederal Bureau Of Investigation agents. During our Investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.
So therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by coordinating your payment in the total amount of $800,000.00 USD which will be deposited into anATM CARD which you will use to withdraw funds anywhere of the world. You now have the lawful right to claim your funds which have been deposited into theATM CARD.
Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been involved in this transaction, you are now to be rest assured that this transaction is legitimate and completely risk-free as it is our duty to Protect and Serve citizens of the United States Of America. All you have to do is immediately contact the ATM CARD CENTER via E-mail for instructions on how to procure your Approval Slip which contains details on how to receive and activate yourATM CARD for immediate use to withdraw funds being paid to you. We have confirmed that the amount required to procure the Approval Slip will cost you a total of $200 USD which will be paid directly to theATM CARD CENTER agent via Western Union Money Transfer / MoneyGram Money Transfer. Below, you shall find contact details of the Agent whom will process your transaction:
CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: MR. PAUL SMITH
EMAIL : paulsmith2@gala.net
TELEPHONE NUMBER : +234-703-586-0779
Immediately contact Mr. Paul Smith of the ATM Card Centre with the following information:
Full Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Direct Phone Number:
Current Occupation:
Annual Income:
Once you have sent the required information to Mr. Paul Smith he will contact you with instructions on how to make the payment of $200 USD for the Approval Slip after which he will proceed towards delivery of theATM CARD without any further delay. You have hereby been authorized/guaranteed by the Federal Bureau Of Investigation to commence towards completing this transaction, as there shall be NO delay once payment for the Approval Slip has been made to the authorized agent.
Once you have completed payment of $200 to the agent in charge of this transaction, immediately contact me back so as to ensure your ATM CARD gets to you rapidly.
FBI Director
Robert Mueller.
Two years ago Radio 4 reporter Simon Cox wrote in the Magazine about how he had traced the mastermind of an e-mail spamming scam. It signalled the start of a legal case which has just seen the spammer ordered to pay a huge fine.
It all started with a bottle of pills. They were the colour of bluebottles and as big as beetles. In December 2007 I ordered the "Manster" pills from the Elite Herbal Website - advertised in an e-mail for their penis enlargement qualities.
I paid $70 for the promise of "new exciting horizons of sensual pleasure". I wanted to find the spammers who plague our inboxes with unwanted e-mails and Elite Herbal was the ideal place to start.
As well as Manster the site sold everything from diet pills to herbal Viagra and was part of the world's biggest spamming operation. Finding the men who ran it wasn't going to be easy.
I decided to follow the money trail. After various dead ends I managed to track a computer monitoring Elite Herbal orders to an IP address [a unique code ascribed to each computer on the internet] in Christchurch in New Zealand.
It belonged to Shane Atkinson.
When I called him he denied sending any spam e-mails: "It wasn't me mate, we closed all that down years ago. I'm not controlling any computers, mate."
Shane and his brother Lance were well known spammers who ran a global operation with another man, Jody Smith, in the US. For years they had exploited the lack of anti-spamming legislation in New Zealand but the country had recently brought in new laws and the authorities were determined to shut down Elite Herbal.
Planned raid
E-mails subsequently shown to me by law enforcement sources showed that shortly after my phone call Shane Atkinson had contacted his suppliers in India asking what was going on.
I had already been in touch with them and they also wanted to know why a BBC journalist was asking awkward questions.
New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs had been planning to raid Atkinson's house in early 2008 but following my phone call they were forced to act.
They raided Shane's house in December and took away his computers. It meant officers working over the holiday. As one later told me I wasn't their favourite journalist.
To make matters worse, the case led to headlines in New Zealand asking why a British reporter had got to Atkinson before the police.
One memorable interview with a radio station in Auckland began with the question "Why are the police here so crap?"
You don't get that kind of question from John Humphrys, so I fudged a reply and wrapped it up as quickly as I could.
It wasn't long before New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs got in touch. In early 2008 I received an e-mail asking if I could provide any material for the investigation into Shane Atkinson and the Elite Herbal spamming operation?
An affidavit followed asking for as much information as possible. Not surprisingly BBC producer Richard Vadon and I declined to hand over anything that would reveal any sources but after lengthy conversations with lawyers and the BBC's policy advisers, we did give them some material which had already been in the programme.
£150,000 a month
For several months everything went quiet. I assumed my spam adventure was over. Apart that is from the scores of spam e-mails I was still getting every day.
Then in the autumn of 2008 two officers from New Zealand's anti-spam unit flew over to visit me.
Atkinson was refusing to plead guilty and they wanted to know if I would testify should the case come to court. I agreed, in principle uneasy at the prospect of appearing in the witness box. All of this for a civil case, which at the most would mean Atkinson getting a fine.
In June, my police contact told me to put a date aside in my diary for late 2009 to fly to New Zealand as Shane was still intending to go to court.
Luckily I didn't have to make the trip. Shane fell on his sword and agreed to pay a fine to settle his case. It cost him NZ$100,000 (approx £60,000). It was the same amount his brother Lance agreed to earlier in the year.
Not much when you consider one law enforcement official told me it was estimated the gang was making about £150,000 a month.
The Federal Trade Commission in America was also on the case. They were targeting Lance and the man running the US end of the operation, Jody Smith. Earlier this week the FTC announced Smith would turn over nearly all his assets.
They also imposed a $15m fine on Lance Atkinson. It sounded impressive but Lance had already been given a $2.2m fine by the FTC in 2005. As he was living in Australia the US authorities couldn't force him to pay. Unless he is planning a trip to Disneyland the fine will remain a largely symbolic gesture.
The Elite Herbal website is no more. It has been replaced by another. Are Shane and Lance Atkinson still running spam e-mail operations? The authorities don't think so, as they are keeping an eye on them. Filters are getting better at blocking out spam but with 120 billion sent each day you only need a tiny percentage of buyers to make some serious money.
And what of the Manster pills. I was tempted to try one, for research purposes obviously. My producer, Richard, wanted me to but he was over-ruled by a far greater power - my wife.
From: gerald alberto webex2008@aim.com
Subject: PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010
Reply-To: alexmurray2000@rediffmail.com
Good day Dear Partner,
Firstly,I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of
a Certified mail/Post-mail. This is due to the urgency and importance of the
information. This project is based on Trust, confidentiality and sincerity of purpose
inn order to have an acceptable meeting of the minds. I am fifty two (52) years old
established lawyer. My name is Mr.Gerald Luis Alberto, a legal personal attorney to
an expatriate and a consultant with a France oil company, NOCOZOIL (Now deceased) He
died in the Tsunami disaster on 26th December 2004 while on vacation in Thailand.
Six years ago, My Client successfully executed a contract for the Spanish government
worth US$8.5 million dollars. A part payment of USD4.million dollars was paid to my
client, while the balance of USD4.5 million Dollars was still unpaid before my client
died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster. However, all my efforts to locate the
possible next of kin proved abortive. Untill his sudden demise, He was not married
and was 44years old.
NOW THE CRUX OF THIS E-LETTER is that the government of Spain is fully paying all
foreign contractors who have successfully executed their contracts and my client is
among those Benefited in this first quarter payment schedule, which has already been
deposited in his bank. As his personal attorney/Adviser, his bank has officially
notified and instructed me to forward particulars of my client's next of kin within
the next 14 official working days so that he/she can be paid the outstanding USD4.5
Million dollars otherwise his payment will be diverted to the government coffers
account as unclaimed bill.
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any of his relatives, I decided to contact
you for a deal so that we can work together as a team to remit the money to your
account as my client next of kin since I do not want to seat and watch my client hard
earned entittlement to go astray,i would like to assure you that I am proposing this
project to you with the best of intensions. As a lawyer, I have the power to secure
all the necessary legal documents that will be used for this claim.
All I require from you is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal
through. I guarantee that this transaction will be executed under a Legitimate
banking arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.Upon successful
conclusion of this project, you will be compensated with 40% of the total fund, while
60% will be for me.
If you are interested to work with me in this deal, kindly reply strictly to my
personel Email: alexmurray2000@rediffmail.com with your personal Telephone /fax
number for effective communication and oral clarification on how to proceed next.
Sincerely yours,
Mr.Gerald Luis Alberto
{Legal Adviser}
Header Analysis
The following IP addresses were extracted from your headers:
IP Address Probable Country
87.198.241.244 Ireland (Dublin)*
84.123.124.139 Spain (Valencia)*
* The last IP listed is usually the originating IP address
I'm having a little trouble coming up withMy dear friend....As you read this, I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday. this Razumovsky Tatyana, the 79 years old Russian widow based in New Mexico presently in Instanbul,Turkey on medical treatment. I have been diagnosed with Swine Flu which was discovered very late, due to my laxity in carrying for my health, before then i was disabled due to cancer of the ear making me unable to hear and speak. It has defiled all forms of medicine, and right now I have only about a few weeks to live, according to medical experts. I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone not even myself but my business.
the appropriate tears for this sad, sad, sad
and extremely pathetic pile of horse manure.
Pardon me while I force myself to squeeze out at
least one onion-flavoured drop.
Reply-To: mrstatyana101@gmail.com
From: Mrs Tatyana info@mail.com
Subject: HEAR MY CRY
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010
Subject: Hello Dear
From: mrs karen miller mrskarenmiller1@yahoo.com
Reply-To: missturnpoint@yahoo.co.jp
Hello Dear
My warm greetings to you. Do take this email as real and contribution to humanity
development. This is not an easy task due to my health condition and that is the main
reason why I contacted you. Not actually that you are the best with my intellectual
grading but I was driven to contact you from the innermost being. And that was my
main reason for getting to you. Please do not be offended and I will understand
completely if you cannot be of assistance to me.My name is Mrs.Karen Miller
Bernardus; I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have to you for
humanity services.
I am 51 years old (Netherlands Citizen) and I was diagnosed for cancer for about 2
years ago immediately after the death of my husband who has left me everything he
worked for and because the doctors told me I will not live longer than some weeks
because of my health. I decided to WILL/donate the sum of $2,500 000 (two million,
five hundred thousand dollars)to you for the good work of humanity and also to help
the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows.I wish
you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly and please use the funds
well and always extend the good work to others.I will be waiting your urgent respond
as soon as you receive this mail
Mrs Karen Miller
Header Analysis
The following IP addresses were extracted from your headers:
IP Address Probable Country
200.49.172.226 Guatemala (Guatemala City)*
41.202.94.165 Cote D'Ivoire (Abidjan)*
* The last IP listed is usually the originating IP address
Reply-To: garantytrust@netscape.net
