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March 28, 2024, 10:07:40 PM

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419 Blues

Started by Santa's Boyfriend, June 22, 2007, 10:17:47 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Santa's Boyfriend

We've all recieved the odd bit of Nigerian fraud email from time to time, but I've not heard of them doing this:

A couple of days ago I started recieving emails from people asking if I was trying to defraud them.  Here are the first two I recieved:

QuoteHey, I received this e-mail today and all the red flags came up while reading it. I did a search for you on the web and found your website http://www.bendickson.co.uk/

Wondering if you know about this.



----- Forwarded by ***** on 06/19/2007 03:06 PM -----
BENJAMIN DICKSON <nattuk115@hotmail.com>

06/18/2007 07:24 AM
Please respond to
benbbdickson@gmail.com

   
To
   Pedro_castro@hermanmiller.com
cc
   
Subject
   BE OUR REPRESENTATIVE.

   




Hello ,

My name is Benjamin Dickson and I am an artist. I live in England, with my two kids, one dog and the love of my life. It is definitely a full house. I have been doing artwork since I was a small child when I was in Canada where I took interest in arts that gives me about 23 years of experience. I majored in art in high school and took a few college art courses. Most of my work is done in either pencil or airbrush mixed with color pencils.

I have recently added designing and creating artwork on the computer. I have been selling my art for the last 4 to 5 years and have had my work featured on trading cards, prints and in magazines. I have sold in galleries, museums and to private collectors from all around the world. I am always facing serious difficulties when it comes to selling my art works to Americans/Canadians; they are always offering to pay with a US/CANADA POSTAL MONEY ORDER, which is difficult for me to cash here in England. I am looking for a representative in the States and in canada  who will be working for me as a part time worker and I am willing to pay for every transaction,which wouldn't affect your present state of work, someone who would help me receive payments from my customers in the states. I mean someone that is responsible and reliable, because the cost of coming to the states and getting payments is very expensive, I am working on setting up a branch in the state, and so for now I need
a representative in the United States who will be handling the payment aspect.

These payments are in money order and they would come to you in your name,so all you need do is cash the money order deduct your 10% percentage from the sent money to you and wire the rest back. But the problem I have is trust.

But I have my way of getting anyone that gets away with our money; I mean the FBI branch in Washington gets involved. It wouldn't cost u any amount,you are to receive payments which will be sent to you by FedEx or UPS from my business partners,which would come in form of a money order then you are to cash it and send the cash to me via western union money transfer all western union charges will be deducted from the money. If you are interested, please get back to me as soon as possible.

To facilitate the conclusion of this transaction if accepted, do send me by mail promptly with the following:

1. Your Fullname and present Occupation
2. Telephone number
3. Contact address

Thanks in this regards and looking forward to a fruitful relationship.

Regards,
Benjamin Dickson

N.B: Endeavor to send your reply to my alternative e- mail address:benbbdickson@gmail.com


Now it's obviously got all the hallmarks of a Nigerian 419 scam, and I told him so.  Then this one arrived:

QuoteI just received the email below.  I am aware it is a scam, but wondered if
you knew your name was being used?  My guess is not.  Peace,  Bill McVay

Again I told him that it's nothing to do with me.  That is my name, and yes I am an artist living in Britain, but the rest is pure fiction from beginning to end.  Quite why anyone would have trouble cashing American postal orders here in the UK is beyond me, as is the notion of being able to support a wife, 2 kids, a dog and a house by being an artist.

Anyway, by this time I was getting worried and put a warning up on my site (www.bendickson.co.uk) to warn anyone else who recieves one of these emails and googles my name, essentially advising people to tell this guy to fuck off.  Then I recieved a third email:

QuoteI told him to fuck off...good luck getting this monkey off your back. If there's any good news, I believe worldwide awareness is increasing about this stuff.
Some people are so fucking lazy.

I sent an email back saying it was probably a coincidence that this guy was using my name, but then he sent me this back:

QuoteCheck out his reply to me...man, this guy has balls.


Dear ****,

      Thanks for your swift response. This transaction is "REAL" and genuine. All you stand to gain is extra cash for yourself. It doesn't entails much. All you are required to do is to receive payments from our customers in your country and deduct 10% of the total sum and send the balance to us via Western Union money Transfer, all western union charges should be paid from our own part of the money.

However, if you so desire to work with us, do not hesitate to furnish us with the following and you can as well visit our website:http://www.bendickson.co.uk

1. Your Full name .
2. Your contact adddress.
3. Your private telephone number.

Awaiting your swift response. I wish you a pleasant day ahead. Remain blessed in the Lord.

Regards,
Benjamin Dickson

Blessed in the Lord...my ass.

Yup, that's my website alright.  This cunt really is trying to be me.

I'm not sure what to do about this.  Part of me wants to hunt him down and give him a sound thrashing (although that's probably the ex-teacher in me coming out), whereas another part wonders if I should just leave it alone and let it all blow over.  I also wonder if I should contact the police to cover my back.

What do you lot advise?

Baltimora

Definitely one for the police I would say given that he/she is using your name, occupation etc. The rozzers should be able to find out who it is through the ISP and get it sorted out relatively quickly. The risk of doing nothing is that someone will fall for it and then drag you into it even further. Good luck.

daisy11

I'd definitely phone the police as well, not your local station but the main switchboard and they'll log it, then put you through to the relevant department.

jutl

Certainly call the police here, but you might also want to check the email headers and contact the service provider and the authorities in the service provider's home state.

Santa's Boyfriend

The rozzers have been fairly nonchalant about the whole thing - there seems to be enough of it about that unless I've actually BEEN scammed, they're not really that bothered.  In addition, they don't seem to have thought of what's going on here (ie someone using my site to back up their false identity).  Mind you, one of the sites I was looking at today reckoned that fraud is the third biggest industry in Nigeria, and that the government themselves are in on it.  If that's true, I can see why the police are reluctant to chase down everyone who's doing it.

Anyway, I've phoned my local constabulary, emailed the Met (who seem to be the only one who have any interest in it - the local guys told me to contact the Internet Watch Foundation, which seems to be primarily interested in paedophilia, not online fraud or identity theft), and put up a warning on my site.  Not sure what else I can do.  At least now if any of this comes back to me, there is a paper trail.

I might contact 419eater and ask them if anyone wants to pose as a long-lost friend of mine, who has recieved one of these emails.  They might have a lot of fun with that.  If I do, I'll let you all know!

Uncle TechTip

Yeh get them to etch a tattoo on their forehead, I think they deserve it.