I have been receiving con letters from Nigerians wanting me to help them free up accounts by sending them money.

Each Email is from a different name.

I haven't replied as I realise they are running a con scheme.

Does anybody on the forum received any of these letters and can anybody tell me how I can stop them coming.

Hey PopT,

There's a great site called 419eaterwhich will give you a load of info on these con artists and ways of getting revenge!

Mwww.419eater.com (http://www.419eater.com)

M

I would be careful about getting revenge on them; these aren't friendly white-collar criminals! Just ignore the mails!

K x

when i get them, i find out what account it came from and then email there email server (like yahoo, hotmail whatever). The server providers are happy that people report these people and the accounts are closed down and you never hear from them again.

If you've got time on your hands you could sign the scammers email account up too loads of spam. There are websites that can do this for you (cant remember offhand) but you type in the email address and the website signs them up for all kinds of rubbish so they will get 100's of spam emails.

Originally posted by PopT
I have been receiving con letters from Nigerians wanting me to help them free up accounts by sending them money.

Each Email is from a different name.

I haven't replied as I realise they are running a con scheme.

Does anybody on the forum received any of these letters and can anybody tell me how I can stop them coming.

There's no real way to stop them. Your best bet is to use an email client with baysian spam filtering like Mozilla Thunderbird, or talk to your ISP about setting up a server side spam filter on your incoming mail.

The best way to prevent spam is not to post your email address somewhere where spammers can see it and add it to their lists. Once your address is on their lists there is very little you can do to get it taken off again.

Just had one reported to us at work.

It reportedly is from one of the bank staff whose private client died leaving 14.5 million in an account that the bank official has access to.

All it needs is for the target to claim to be a next of kin.

Presumably at some point down the line they will ask for money in order to free up the funds.

Good rule of thumb is that if it sounds to good to be true it usually is.

For more anti-scam humour see:
http://www.scamorama.com/

Read some of the amazing stories picked out in red down the right hand side of the webpage.

Also don't forget to warn your friends and relations (esp sweet trusting ones) about these evil scammers

had three of these in one day,what i usually do is e-mail them back with a mobile phone number and await their call,its costing them time and money,you should hear their colourfull language,it sure is fun :)

There's also ArtistsAgainst419 (http://www.aa419.org) which has some "interesting" ideas for dealing with this type of scum which is mentioned on TheRegister.

Originally posted by Norbert
For more anti-scam humour see:
http://www.scamorama.com/

Read some of the amazing stories picked out in red down the right hand side of the webpage.

Also don't forget to warn your friends and relations (esp sweet trusting ones) about these evil scammers

This is good : http://www.scamorama.com/mandy_bra.html

well, I laughed.

Ive had loads of these and, I believe they came from some one I had started to chat to on e pal world, she was a thai woman, (so she said) and ever since talking to her I started to recieve dodgy e mails from destitute african women whos father had left them a bundle in some deposit box or another, they always seemed to use the terms but for the grace of god and your god fearing self and such like it would make me send them money.

Obviously I sent nowt, but I did send them some tricky letters back which made me laugh loads as I wrote them

had loads,dont answer them, i e mailed one back telling him my office was closed but he could contact my head of station mr d blunkett on a phone number that the police use to moniter these scum, he replied later by sending a my doom virus attachment, obviously the fool had called the police number, lol

Advance fee fraud.

The UK's National Criminal Intelligence Agency says £150 million a year is reaped by variations of this fraud. (...) In the last year, the NCIS says it has detected an increasing number of frauds in which bogus bank websites are set up, and the victims are provided with a PIN number and logon ID which apparently allows them to see that the prize has already cleared into the account. The identities of genuine companies are sometimes used to add an extra layer of authenticity.

Help shut down these fake banks here! (http://www.aa419.org/vampire/ladvampire.html).

Its surprising how many idiots there actually are out there.

Also suprising how stupid the con artists are ... there's (almost) nothing I like to see more than a con man being conned ...

http://www.419eater.com/html/trophy_room.htm

Some 'scambaiters' have even gotten the lads (these nigerian con men) to send them cash (like a $100 usd bill) and even samples of gold bullion ... as tokens of 'good will' etc ...

I look on the bright side. If I had taken everyone that I have received up on their offer, I would have able to totally wipe out third world debt and all of us would have a better future.

Instead, I went to the Dev Cat on Sunday evening .......