Scam Money Transfers -
Fake Grants
Example - The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation
-
www.queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk
Mr Jacob Kauffman, London (or Hong Kong?)
Here's a variation on the basic scam money transfer email. You received a a check in the mail from "The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation", possibly using a name "Mr Jacob Kauffman" or website www.queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk, of which you are supposed to return 10% to them (at this point you should be asking yourself, why they didn't just keep the 10%!)
Did the email say:
The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation, would like to notify you that you have been chosen by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a cash Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business development.
Note the obvious and repeated misspelling of the name "Elizabeth". That alone tells you it is a scam. One really doesn't need to read more than a few words of this email to see that it is a very obvious and pathetic attempt at a scam. The scammer really didn't even put much effort into making it believable.
In the specific case below (The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) there are quite a number of inconsistencies that add up to "scam" to us. See the email below and a review of the available facts following it.
And if you were crazy enough to write back to them, click here to a typical response the scammers send.
Sample actual scam letter from "The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation":
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 07:45:01 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: QUEEN ELZABETH'S THE SEC II FOUNDATION
From: QUEEN ELZABETH'S THE SEC II FOUNDATION <info@queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk>
Reply-to: martinsscott_2008@yahoo.com.hk
QUEEN ELZABETH'S THE SEC II FOUNDATION <info@queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk> wrote:
Queen Elizabeth's The Sec II Foundation
WOODLANDS ROAD,LEATHERHEAD COURT,
LEATHERHEAD SURREY KT22 0BN
UNITED KINGDOM
Registered in London No 892013 / Registered Charity No 251051.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Foundation's Officer,
Queen Elizabeth's Foundation
The Queen Elizabeth's Foundation, would like to notify you that you
have been chosen by the board of trustees as one of the final
recipients of a cash Grant/Donation for your own personal,
educational, and business development. The Queen Elizabeth's
Foundation, established 1977 by theQueen Of England (Queen Elizabeth
II) and now supported by the Economic Community for West African
States (ECOWAS), United Nations Organization (UNO) and the European
Union (EU) was conceived with the objective of human growth,
educational,and community development.
Based on the random selection exercise of internet websites and
millions of supermarket cash invoices worldwide, you were selected
among the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of $ 175,000.00 USD.
( ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND USD) as charity donations/aid from
the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation,ECOWAS, EU and the UNO in accordance with
the enabling act of Parliament.
(Note that all beneficiaries email addresses were selected randomly
from over 100,000 internet websites or a shop's cash invoice around
your area in which you might have purchased something from).
You are required to fill the form below and email it to our Executive
Secretary below for qualification documentation and processing of your
claims.
After contacting our office with the requested data, you will be given
your donation pin number, which you will use in collecting the funds.
Please endeavor to quote your Qualification numbers (N-222-6747, E-900-
56) in all discussions.
FULL NAMES:________________________
ADDRESS: _________________________
CITY:_________________________
STATE:_____________________ ZIP: _____
COUNTRY________________________________
SEX:_______________
AGE:_________________
MARITAL STATUS:_________________
OCCUPATION:________________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS:_____________________________
TELEPHONE NUMBER:_____________________
===========================================
SEND ALL YOUR CLAIMS AND INQUIRIES TO THE
Executive Secretary - Mr Martins Scott
Email: martinsscott_2008@yahoo.com.hk
Tel.:+23480-6483 1325
===========================================
All information is strictly confidential and will only be used for the
purpose to which it is been requested.Please note that these
donations/Grants are strictly administered by Economic community for
West African States (ECOWAS),European Union (EU) under delegated
powers from the United Nations Organization (UNO). This means that
your qualification number will be reffed to know the organization (ECOWA
or EU) that will handle your payments.
On behalf of the Board kindly, accept our warmest congratulations.
Regards.
Mr Jacob Kauffman.
Queen Elizabeth's Foundation Officer
Queen Elizabeth's Foundation website:
It doesn't exist: try surfing to www.queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk. Even if you spell it correctly (note the missing "i", can't find the server at www.queenelizabeth-foundation.co.uk. it still doesn't exist)
Message headers:
X-Originating-IP: [216.152.26.34]
Return-Path: <info@queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk>
Authentication-Results: mta376.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 216.152.26.34 (HELO chernobyl.anc.net) (216.152.26.34)
by mta376.mail.re4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:07:20 -0700
Received: (qmail 26852 invoked from network); 5 Apr 2008 12:45:10 -0000
Received: from vesuvius.anc.net (216.152.24.73)
by arkansas.net with SMTP; 5 Apr 2008 12:45:10 -0000
Received: (nullmailer pid 1140 invoked by uid 60001);
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:45:07 -0000
Received: from 78.138.5.46
(SquirrelMail authenticated user bettsnar)
by www.arkansas.net with HTTP;
Sat, 5 Apr 2008 07:45:01 -0500 (CDT)
Message-ID: <44062.78.138.5.46.1207399501.squirrel@www.arkansas.net>
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 07:45:01 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: QUEEN ELZABETH'S THE SEC II FOUNDATION
From: QUEEN ELZABETH'S THE SEC II FOUNDATION <info@queenelzabeth-foundation.co.uk>
Reply-to: martinsscott_2008@yahoo.com.hk
User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.13
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
CC: recipient list not shown: ;
Content-Length: 2958
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.