Scam Money Transfers -
"Unfinished Business"
Example - VICTORY LAW CHAMBERS, Mrs. Selma Ward
"Compensation Check"
Did you receive an email from a "Mrs. Selma Ward" of VICTORY LAW CHAMBERS who says
"How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. I am using this opportunity to thank you for your great effort to our unfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reason or the other best known to you.".
and to contact "BARR. RICHARD MOORE"?
It's the usual scam of a self-described barrister, lawyer, "government official" or even unnamed job, who claims that there are "unfinished" or "unpaid" contracts owed to you for work you did for them.
Let's analyze this, shall we? Have you ever been to Nigeria, or whereever they claim to be? Have you ever heard of them before? Then either you are boarding planes, working and traveling back every night while you sleep, or it is a scam.
Let's presume scam, shall we; as it is more plausible. Of course, it is all a scam. Mrs. Selma Ward (not his real name, obviously) hopes to con you into sending money for various "fees" to free the fortune. If you would like a step by step explanation of how this type of "Advance Fee Fraud" works, click here!
Notice (highlighted below) some of the other obvious signs that this is a scam are poor spelling , use of free Yahoo/Hotmail/etc email accounts, proposals that make no sense, etc.:
Scam email, received April 2, 2008:
From: Mrs. Selma Ward [ contactn2r@gmail.com ]
Dear Friend,
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. I am using this opportunity to thank you for your great effort to our unfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reason or the other best known to you. But I want to inform you that I have successfully transferred the fund out of my bank to someone else account who was capable of assisting me in this great venture through the help of the diplomat i told you about.Due to your effort, sincerity,courage and trustworthiness' you showed at the course of the transaction I want to compensate you and show my gratitude to you with the sum of $750,000.
I have authorized my new lawyer who is now also my legal adviser to issue you international certified bank cheque cashable at your bank.My dear friend I will like you to contact the lawyer for the collection of this international certified bank cheque.
The name and contact address of the lawyer is as follows.
VICTORY LAW CHAMBERS
CONTACT PERSON : BARR. RICHARD MOORE
PHONE NUMBER: +66899282251
Email: ricdmr@gmail.com
Location: Bangkok, Thailand.
At the moment, I'm very busy here because of the investment projects which I and my new partner are having at hand in Paris France. Finally, remember that I have forwarded instruction to the Lawyer on your behalf to send the bank cheque to you as soon as you contact him without delay.
Please I will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is from the bottom of my heart. Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hope to hear from you soon.
Your Friend,
Mrs. Selma Ward
And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive. We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.