Email Scams on the rise in Africa

Email scams seem to be on the rise in East Africa lately. In a space of two weeks, two friends of mine have had their addresses either hacked or have been lured to reveal their email address login information to Nigerian fraudsters. These scams are so rampant with hotmail and yahoo mail users

Once a user's email address hacked, the fraudsters completely lock out the user in the process claiming the user's personal information. They then send out a uniform email to all the user's contacts. The email scam so familiar is;

I hope this message finds you in best of health. I had traveled to Nigeria for official purposes, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged, I am so confused right now, I don't know what to do or where to go,I didn't bring my phone here, I have access to only emails, Please can you send me $3500 today so I can return home, As soon as I get home I would refund it immediately.Write me so I can let you know how to send it. Keep this to your self only please!!. Thanks

I wait to hear from you soon

Regard's
{victim's first name}

Great tips to follow to avoid Nigerian email scams
  • Do not click on any flashing signs in your inbox or on websites: Normally, these red flashy bars have words like "you have won a lottery of $50,000" or "Click to claim your prize" or "you are our 99,999th subscriber, click to claim $1,000,000" or "Your country is eligible! Click to Live and Work in the US"
  • These promises are not true: The purpose of the scam is to get money out of your bank account, not to put money into it.
  • Never provide your email address username and password plus the bank details. They will withdraw all the money from your bank account as well as sending fake emails asking for a lot of money from all your colleagues and friends.
  • Do not believe photographs of the “treasure” or about "dead rich parents" who left behind huge sums of money in a bank account somewhere in Nigeria or West Africa.
  • Do not agree to travel anywhere to meet these people. They may invite you to conferences promising to host you in luxurious hotels. Instead, they sometimes try to lure victims to meet them in Africa or other countries. Victims have been robbed of everything and even murdered.
  • Be aware that these scams are well-known. They used to be called “Nigerian letters” because they came by mail, but now these messages also come by phone, fax, or email.
Bottomline: Be very CAREFUL with anybody or email promising you a lot of FREE MONEY!

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Comments

  1. Anonymous2:02 AM

    Hi John, I leave my comment here because it is the latest entry I can see.

    I stumbled across your entry of 2006
    http://kjohnah.blogspot.com/2006/09/day-1-getting-8km-wireless-link-to.html

    I find this very interesting because of Kishoju. If you have time to react to this and start communication kindly leave me a note at my email kipala@web.de. Kind regards!
    Kipala

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:08 PM

    Hello

    I need to buy some stuff at http://boxedartmemberships.com/phpshop/billing.php (only 3$) but my credit card has been failed when I've tried to checkout. I've purchased by my credit card before, but I don't know why it's declined now. could you please purchase it for me? I'm in hurry and it's very important for me, I'll pay your cash as soon as I receive your reply. this website offers some pre-designed templates for websites and it offers a promotion for 1 week, it will send you a user name and password for accessing the download page. The only thing I need is that user name and password, so please send them by email to me after purchase.


    Thanks in advance
    Regards


    --
    (victim name)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:12 PM

    Hi John,

    My i got this email from my friend, since you wrote about nigerian scams, don't you think this is one? It reads:

    subject: reply (asap)

    How are you? Hope everything is ok? I just want to know if you can be of help to me.Something terrible happened to me on a trip i just made to Nigeria.I was robbed of all my belongings at the hotel i planned to stay in and i also lost my cell during the incident which makes it impossible for me to reach out to people at home.I have spoken to the embassy and they are not responding to the matter effectively.

    Please i need you to lend me about $1850 ,you can help me have it sent via Western Union Money Transfer so i can re-arrange myself and return back home. Below is the information you might require in sending me some money.

    Name: (My friend's name)
    Address: 24 Olowo close, off brown str, Lagos, Nigeria, 23401
    Text Question: what is my date of brith
    Text Answer: 1953
    Amount: $1,850

    Please, kindly let me know if you can be of assistance as I'm seriously in need of your help. Thanks and waiting to hear from you

    Regards..
    (my friend's name)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous11:55 AM

    hi john my name is kelly i am in the stats and thars a guy i am in love with but need to now if it is rill so here is his address and he sad his mom is sick and need 500 dollers but i dont now if i shoud he says his name is steve collins any way get back to me and let me now if this is a scame thankyou cookiek2006@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:22 PM

    After being Hacked, I no longer keep an address book within email accounts. I copy and paste them in. I have removed all of those MS add ins that want to keep talking to moma MS, and am in the process of setting up a LINUX Red Hat PC running apache web server and will set up my own small email hose / client system. This MS stuff is just to open. Back when we ran UNIX we did not have these issues.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1:58 PM

    Not to be mean but,people who fall for these scams in 2010 deserve what they get!They have been around to long and everyone has been aware of these stupid mugus who want free money.There is to much knowlege about these scams to be fooled now!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I Really Enjoyed The Blog. I Have Just Bookmarked. I Am Reguler Visitor Of Your Website I Will Share It With My Friends Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  8. Scammers are now targeting mobile phone users. This is the latest on my phone as its writen:
    ------------------

    Dear Sir Madam, Your number has been selected by our official company to win 5000$ call now to receive your prize, call imedietly congrutaltions. +50090867 (sender)

    ------------------

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! What an useful blog, it really helped me to gain such beneficial knowledge about your website, thus awaiting for such more blogs in the near future in your website.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They should ban all of those email addresses and respective IP addresses from those scam emails. Plus they should crack down on the source.

    ReplyDelete

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