PC-Armor Computer Security News Blog

Notification, Lottery Winner, Response Needed, My Wish….

We get many email scams each week and the title of this blog has some of the more common subject titles for these types of emails.  Additionally, some other email “subjects” that should raise red flags include:

• Security Alert from the board of trustee
• RE: Hello
• I AM WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU SOONEXT
• RE: CHANGE OF YOUR BANK A/C DETAILS/ REPLY ASAP!
• CONTACT MY SECREATARY
• FROM THE DESK MR MUHAMMED OMAR
• Strictly Confidential
• Your Winnings
• CONTACT ME URGENTLY
• From: Central Bank ATM CARD
• Dear e-mail owner
• RELEASE OF YOUR FUND VALUED 8.3M DOLLARS
• Your Payment
• CONTACT MR WILL FREEMAN
• IMMEDIATE DELIVARY OF YOUR FUNDS

These are just a handful of the many, many different email subjects lines associated with scams that have one purpose…to steal someone’s money and/or identity.  If you have ever read these types of scam emails, you have may noticed that many of them ask for the following types of information:

1) YOUR FULL NAME:
2) FULL ADDRESS OF YOUR CITY, STATE AND COUNTRY:
3) PHONE, FAX AND MOBILE:
4) COMPANY NAME, POSITION AND ADDRESS:
5) BANK INFORMATIONS:
a) BANK NAME:
b) BANK ADRESS:
c) ACCOUNT NUMBER:
d) SWIFT CODE/
e) ROUTING NUMBER:
6) PROFESSION,AGE AND MARITAL STATUS:
7) A COPY OF YOUR INT’L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE

As people become more savvy, the scammers have to come up with new ways to trick their victims; well, here is a new scam we received.  As you will see, it doesn’t follow the typical promise stating that someone left you millions of dollars or you just won a lottery somewhere; instead, the scammers are using a new angle, stating that FedEx has a package waiting for you and all you have to do is complete a form to receive the package.  Here is the scam:

From:     Add Contact
FedEx Online Management Team
“FedEx Online Management Team” <fedex012@msn.com>
Subject:     NOTIFICATION

Customer Service:Dear Customer,We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Package that is been registered with us for shipping to your residential location. We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details. It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to your package. However, we cannot quote it’s content to you via email for privacy reasons. We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $900,000.00 USD. As you know, FedEx do not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable. The package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague as claimed, and your colleague explained that he is from the United States but he is here in Vietnam for a three(3) month Survey Project as he works with a construction firm in Vietnam Asia. We are sending you this email because your package is been registered on a Special Order. What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatchment of your package to your residencial address. Note that as soon as our Delivery Team confirms your informations, it will take only one working day (24Hrs) for your package to arrive it designated destination.For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid by your colleague before your package was registered.Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism in your country.

This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country. However, you will have to pay a sum of £100 which is equivalent to $199.432 USD to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the FedEx company as stated in our privacy terms & condition page. Also be informed that your colleague wished to pay for the Security Keeping charges, but we do not accept such payments considering the fact that all items & packages that is registered with us have a time limitation and we cannot accept payment without knowing when you will be picking up the package or even respond to us. So we cannot take the risk to have accepted such a payment incase of any possible demurrage. Kindly note that your colleague did not leave us with any further information. We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of the foremost package, we may refer the package to the British Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address. Kindly contact the delivery department (FedEx Delivery Post) with the details given below:Contact Person: Mr. Chu Van Duong.Email: fedexdeliveriesvn@yahoo.com.vn
Kindly complete the below form and send it to the email address given above. This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.FULL NAMES:TELEPHONE:POSTAL ADDRESS:CITY:STATE:COUNTRY:As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the neccessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the Security Keeping Fees. As soon as they confirm your payment of £100 GBP which is equivalent to $199.432 USD, they shall immediately dispatch your package to the designated address. It usually takes 24 hours being an over night delivery service. Note that we were not instructed to email you,but due to the high priority of your package we had to inform you as your sender did not leave us with his phone number because he stated that he just arrived England and he wasnt on phone yet. We indeed personally sealed your Bank Draft and we found your email contact in the attached letter as the recipient of the foremost package. Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email addressand ensure to fill the above form as well to enable successful reconfirmation.All responses must be forwarded to: fedexdeliveriesvn@yahoo.com.vnYours Faithfully,Mrs. Margaret Blaire.FedEx Online Management Team.All rights reserved. © 1995-2008 FedEx.

Scammers rely on human greed to get some poor soul to take their bait.  If you think about this particular email…how many times has FedEx sent you an email requesting that you complete an online form to receive a package?  I would be will to bet the answer is “NEVER!”.  Also, check out the horrible grammar; how long would FedEx be in business if they sent such poorly written correspondence?

The point here is simple…any time you receive an unsolicited email and the sender is requesting information from you; delete it!  It’s evil!

Attention: Winner

Isn’t it amazing how rich you can become by doing nothing? You don’t even have to enter any contests…because if you are connected to the Internet, you will probably receive numerous awards like this one. There’s just one little problem though…the generous organization(s) who want to give you all this wonderful cash will probably need to verify your identity by asking for certain information. Obviously volunteering such information is a bad idea; but someone must be giving out their personal information, because the awards keep coming. Here is another lottery winning email scam we received today:

Royal Dutch Shell plc.
SHELL GROUP INTERNATIONAL UK .
Shell Centre London
SE1 7NA.
(Registration 70339411).
REGISTERED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT.
REF NO: HLP/200-26937
BATCH: 2008MJL-01

Attention: Winner,

We wish to heartily congratulate you on your emergence as a 2008 SHELL GROUP AWARDS-INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS winner.
Your email which drew the winning number, of our yearly cash give away Promotions, was selected via our Random Computer Selection System (RCSS) and attached to file reference number (HLP/200-26937).
We write to hereby inform you that a prize of GBP 2,500,000.00 Pounds Sterling in cash are pending your redemption.
The verification department has already proceeded with the verification process of your winnings. We would instruct you on how to receive your prize money as soon as your claims have been verified.
To Proceed you are adviced to contact our paying bank personnel to activate an account so your cheque will be cashed and deposited at:

NEW ACCOUNTS DEPT.
LYOLDS TSB BANK PLC
ACCOUNT OFFICER:JAN PHILIP
TEL: +44 7005-947-384
EMAIL: newaccountdept01@yahoo.co.uk

Kindest Regards,
Steph Wilson
Shell Group International ,
United Kingdom .

If you receive emails such as this, check this site to see if you can find it:

http://www.scamwarning.org/

Chances are…you probably will.

Scammers are hedging their bets that human greed will make it worth their effort to try and steal money from the unfortunate few that take the bait.

RE: CHANGE OF YOUR BANK A/C DETAILS/ REPLY ASAP!

Well, for the past two days, we have received the following scam in our “info@pc-armor.com” email inbox. Both emails had identical subjects and body; however, the header information was different. The messages came from the Russian Federation and were sent to “undisclosed-recipients”. Here is the body of the email:

DEAR CLIENT RE: CHANGE OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS.
We have received an official notification on Friday 2ND MAY 2008 from MR EARIC E HOPE who claimed that you have authorized him to handle everything concerning the release of your payment as you are now in the Hospital taking care of your illness but in consideration to the nature of our activities here, we deem it necessary that we should get in touch with you first for confirmation before we can proceed with his request, therefore, we need your prompt instruction to proceed with him in this matter or not. Below are the Bank details that he has forwarded to us for the purpose of remitting the fund to him, thus:- HSBC BANK USA, N.A.
P.O. BOX 2013, BUFFALO, NY 14240 USA
1-800-975-HSBC (1-800-975-4722)
A/C NO: 253128218
ROUTING NUMBER: 022000020
A/C NAME: MR EARIC E HOPE. NOTE: The release of the fund will be fixed as soon as we receive your prompt response to this message therefore, it is very important that you should get in touch with us for immediate confirmation. If you need further information, feel free to get in touch with us while it is very important that you should call our Financial Officer, MR HARRISON LEYTTON on telephone number + 44 207060 1652 EXT 4 as soon as you receive this message.
Thanks and best regards.
Miss Hilda Duchess.
(Secretary/Financial Co-ordinator)
ANFIELD FINANCE & INVESTMENT CO LTD.

As the recipient of this email, you should ask yourself why was it sent to more than one address, when it appears it is written for an individual? Common sense questions like this would indicate this email is obviously a scam and besides, in our case, “info@pc-armor.com” is not a real person…so how could “info” be in the hospital?

The bottom line is this: when you receive any email that sounds too good to be true, it probably is! A good rule of thumb to remember is when someone wants to give you money, or they need more information from you, it is most likely a scam. When you receive such emails, question everything before replying or doing whatever it is they want you to do. A little investigative work can go a long way in protecting you and your assets!