Nigerian Scam involving whistles

TonyHiggins · Post by **TonyHiggins** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:34 pm

This is an actual email I got today (am I being too hasty to judge?:roll: )

Dear Sales,
I'm highly interesting in purshasing the folloowing product
in your store.They are listed below,

WHISTLES (Six hole flutes) ................................100qty

Storm Whistles......................................100qty

Walton's tin whistles ..........................50qty

Then i will like you to calculate the total cost of them
including shipping cost to Lagos Nigeria . I will then send
you my credit card account details for the mode of payment,
Then i will like the goods to be shipped via DHL OR USPS GLOBAL
EXPRESS SERVICE 2-3 Days Express shipment to my contact address
below.
Contact Address:
7 cash street off palm
avenue Street mushin, Lagos
23401
Nigeria
SO LOOKING TO HEAR FROM YOU SOONEST
THANKS
BEST REGARD
MARRY KEMI

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:37 pm

The funniest part is the "contact address":

7 cash street off palm
avenue Street mushin, Lagos

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:47 pm

Not that this particular person is a Scammer...

...but I am very surprised that you never hear about someone sending something nasty to Nigerian Scam people. I did hear about a man that ended up shooting up the Nigerian embassy though Hurting people that had nothing to the money that he lost. There even groups now that try to find these people and try to turn the tables and scam then, or at least waste much of their time.

ChrisA · Post by **ChrisA** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:30 pm

It's called 'scambaiting', and you can learn about it at http://www.419eater.com

It's not recommended to scambait from a real, traceable IP address with real, traceable
information since some scammers are part of violent organized crime rings. Some scams
involve getting you to fly into reach of the gang, at which point you and your money
would disappear. Most scammers are just trying to get you to wire them money (or send
them valuable items in exchange for money that never will actually get to you).

It does appear that the Nigerian government has no interest in doing anything to prevent
or reduce scamming, so the government members do have an indirect responsibility for
what's happening. However, shooting up an embassy is not likely to affect government
policy in any useful manner, aside from being, well, a completely nutzoid thing to do,
technically speaking. (I'm sure 'complete nutzoid' will be a recognized mental disorder any
day now...)

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:40 pm

ChrisA wrote:It does appear that the Nigerian government has no interest in doing anything to prevent or reduce scamming, so the government members do have an indirect responsibility for what's happening.

I thought it had more to do with the Government's ability to stop the scams not lack of interest.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:53 pm

This sounds very similar to a scam that our publishing company went through. Some church in Nigeria contacted us for Bibles....200 I believe. We unfortunately fell for it and sent the Bibles. We did receive credit card information and billed the card and even called the credit card company who said the number was fine, and so we shipped the Bibles out. It cost us $1500 in shipping and a month or so later, the credit card company took the money out of our account and said that it was never authorized. There was nothing they could do about it. We lost the money for the Bibles, the money for the shipping, plus we lost the Bibles entirely as they were never sent back. We pretty much felt like one of those suckers you hear tell about

But we honestly had no reason to believe that it was a scam....I wish now we had looked further into it. You live and you learn, I suppose.
It very well could be legit, but I'm doubting it based on what we went through. What you could do (if you feel it could be legitimate) is reply to the email, and see if you get a response. Then insist on an international money order...tell them that once that is in your hands, you will send out the whistles. I would, under no circumstances, take a credit card order in this situation.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:56 pm

Tony, do you even sell whistles?

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:22 pm

This is an interesting way to sneak in

A COMMERCIAL POST!

Take it from a veteran 419eater scam-baiter, it is a fraud as described by izzarina.

Forward the email to me with return addy via PM It has potential for an interesting bait!

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:48 pm

I vote Scam. Didn't Elfsong whistles deal with one of these a few months back?

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:58 pm

izzarina wrote:This sounds very similar to a scam that our publishing company went through. Some church in Nigeria contacted us for Bibles....200 I believe. We unfortunately fell for it and sent the Bibles. We did receive credit card information and billed the card and even called the credit card company who said the number was fine, and so we shipped the Bibles out. It cost us $1500 in shipping and a month or so later, the credit card company took the money out of our account and said that it was never authorized. There was nothing they could do about it. We lost the money for the Bibles, the money for the shipping, plus we lost the Bibles entirely as they were never sent back. We pretty much felt like one of those suckers you hear tell about But we honestly had no reason to believe that it was a scam....I wish now we had looked further into it. You live and you learn, I suppose.
It very well could be legit, but I'm doubting it based on what we went through. What you could do (if you feel it could be legitimate) is reply to the email, and see if you get a response. Then insist on an international money order...tell them that once that is in your hands, you will send out the whistles. I would, under no circumstances, take a credit card order in this situation.

I can see the point of this type of scam for objects with a high re-sale value but who is going to pay a lot of money for Bibles - no disrespect to any Christians - which are easy enough to come across .Many Christian organisations give them away,I seem to recall reading recently.
Maybe it was a prelude to a larger scam which never came off...Strange

Slan,
D.

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:40 pm

The Complete Works of Shakespeare is of immense value to an illiterate person on his way to an unstocked can.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:28 pm

dubhlinn wrote: I can see the point of this type of scam for objects with a high re-sale value but who is going to pay a lot of money for Bibles

Well, it really depends. We DO sell that many to resellers quite often, so thinking that someone in Nigeria wanted to buy that many wasn't too far fetched. Mind you that I said too far fetched. I'll think twice before selling ANYTHING to Nigeria again

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:51 pm

What seems weird, both with Bibles and with whistles, is that someone appears to be scamming for objects with no major resale value. I would think that, if you wanted to pull something of this magnitude, you'd either be trying to get credit card/bank numbers (per the original Nigeria scam) or something like electronics that you could fence for big bucks.

I don't know, though...maybe it's just part of the mindset, i.e., "let's see what we can get." Back before many people had in-home internet, I was on a penpal list organized by the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom. While I ended up with many wonderful penpals in Europe and the UK, I also ended up getting letter after letter from people in Nigeria. Each one asked, flat out, for "presents" (and one person, who claimed to be a 16 year old girl, even gave me her clothing sizes...in both U.S. and European measurements!). I seriously doubt that any of the Nigerians who wrote me were vegetarians...I think they used mailing lists like that one to see what they could con people into giving them. It's sad, and I know how bad it sounds, but I really do think it's part of the culture.

Redwolf

TonyHiggins · Post by **TonyHiggins** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:21 pm

No, I don't sell whistles, except the occasional one like the rest of you nuts on this board. I'm figuring they would get around to some artful attempt at getting financial info from me because of some snag in their banking system or something. I don't plan on responding.

Hmm...maybe one of you guys sent this to rattle my cage. Maybe, my avatar makes me look like an easy mark.
Tony

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:59 pm

I always thought that the Nigerian scams were a government-instituted program to teach English to its citizens. Plenty of practice here.

Kevin Krell

Chiff and Fipple Forums

Nigerian Scam involving whistles

Nigerian Scam involving whistles

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