WARNING!

Be warned.

The infamous "Nigeria scam letters" are back with a slightly different theme. The guys somehow manage to steal ur email password and/or facebook account, then they send out msg's to ur friends saying that u are in some kinda trouble and u need help (money of course). I got one today, here's a sample.

Hello,

I Hope this message meets you in best of health, Pardon my mistakes because i did not inform you before my travelling and I am in a bad situation writing this email and it's for you, I had traveled to Nigeria for a Mission Conference, Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the Airport with my luggage, I am so confused right now, I do not know what to do or where to go,I did not bring my phone here, I have access to emails only,please can you lend me 1,750$ US Dollars today so I can pay for my Hotel Bills and buy air ticket to return home and leave this country. I promise to reimburse back your money when i return home,so let me know on time and I will be very grateful to you with your help on me about the money and send any amount to me so i can use it to feed myself...I will wait for your reply and forward you the Western Union Money Transfer Details you will need in sending the money to me.     

Please Keep in Touch

Regards,

yeah i also received something similar two months back.
btw. how do you know for sure its Nigerians?

These types of letters were primarily started by nigerian crooks in the late nineties, hence the name "Nigerian scam letters" , this isnt my definition by the way. This newer version, clearly points to criminals in Nigeria.

Now this is what I received some time back. We can play a game trying to punch as many holes
as possible in this narration. 

How's work on your end? This has had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state. I am in some terrible situation and I'm really going to need your urgent help. Yesterday, unannounced, I came to visit a new researchers' complex in Lagos, Nigeria. Well we actually got robbed in the Hotel I booked in and they made away with my wallet (which included my cash, diaries and cashcards). My cellphones were not brought along since I did not get to roam them before coming over. The phone cables have been burnt including internet connection cables and the Hotel's database has been compromised as well. So all I can do now is pay cash and get out of here quickly. I do not want to make a scene of this which is why I did not call the office or my house, this is embarassing enough. Please I want you to lend me a sum of $US1,630, just to clear my Hotel bills and get the next plane home. The Consulate only cleared me of my travelling documents and ticketing since I came in as a tourist and not on official purpose. I shall have your money reimbursed immediately on my return. I'll be waiting on you at the Hotel lobby for your mail.
 Looking forward to positive response.

These scams are aimed at gullible people.  If any of my friends actually think I'm somewhere in Lagos in business when I'm supposed to be schooling in China then perhaps they deserve to be scammed.

Besides, anyone in THAT much trouble would start their email like this:

F*ck!!! I'm in deep sh*t...I'm ttly screwed...get on Skype (or MSN) RIGHT NOW!!!

These scams are aimed at gullible people.  If any of my friends actually think I'm somewhere in Lagos in business when I'm supposed to be schooling in China then perhaps they deserve to be scammed.

Besides, anyone in THAT much trouble would start their email like this:

F*ck!!! I'm in deep sh*t...I'm ttly screwed...get on Skype (or MSN) RIGHT NOW!!!

U're right but these guys are damn so clever, I sometimes wonder how they do it. The sentence construction-with the little grammaticos- were perfect imitations of the way my friend whose email was hijacked to send this mail, speaks. My initial reaction was one of great concern for my friend, especially as i was in no position to cough up the amount of money requested. But after making a call to the friend wife to ask where his man was- his phone actually could not be reached, he was in a meeting. I found out that it was a scam.

The storyline is sh*tty.  #1 - If a friend of yours loses valuables in the hotel...and everything else is wrong with the hotel incl. phone lines, internet & the database - then who in their right mind is going to pay their hotel bills? #2 - If you're friend's in another country on a short, quick trip...shouldn't he have already paid for the return ticket, esp. since it's usually required?

The emails usually go to unsuspecting victims...anyone receiving suspicious emails should always consider the possibility that it's a scam.

One of my friends got scammed once, and he deserved it.  I told him "don't do it, can't you see it's a freakn scam" and his greed got the better of him...The scammer wanted $500 and promised to return a whole lot more.  7 years later, he's still waiting...

My mum almost got scammed once...someone called her up and we found it weird that she was speaking English on the phone so we assumed it was an international call.  It seemed like she was speaking to someone she didn't know (why else would she be speaking English?).  She then told my little bro to read her bank account number out loud (she didn't have her glasses on) and my sister quickly closed the call.   The person didn't call back so we're pretty sure it was a scam.

More on this crap.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153665/facebook_hit_by_nigerian_scam.html

Facebook Hit by Nigerian Scam
John E. Dunn, Techworld.com

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:52 AM PST

Scammers are trawling Facebook for victims using a convincing twist on the notorious 'Nigerian 419' scam.

Normally, 419 scams are easy to spot and involve email requests for money from supposedly rich individuals in countries such as Nigeria, from which the fraud gets its name. The latest Facebook attack is much craftier, however, because it hijacks the identities of real people known to Facebook members, asking for money under an apparently plausible guise.

An Australian news site reports that one Google Australian employee who was contacted using the social networking site by a person known to her, asking for $500 dollars to allow him to return home from Lagos, Nigeria, where he claimed to be stranded.

She became suspicious that the contact was bogus only after noting subtle irregularities in the fraudster's use of Australian English. "After chatting further, words such as "cell" instead of "mobile phone" tipped Wells off that she was not talking to her friend but someone who had taken over his account," the report said.

"Many Facebook users don't even know how many friends they have on the site, let alone what they are all doing and where they are, and this is providing the scammers with a new vector of attack" said Graham Cluley of Sophos, the company that unearthed this particular scam.

"Unfortunately this is just the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle taking place between Facebook users and cybercriminals intent on exploiting the site and its members for their own financial gain."

Social networking's insecurities are many-headed. Emails from domains such as Facebook are more likely to reach an individual's inbox because they come from trusted domains; hijacking such domains to create fake email accounts been one of the year's growing problems on webmail systems such as Google, Hotmail and yahoo.

As it is, Facebook users have a reputation for giving up personal information too easily, while such sites have also been under attack from a range of information-farming direct exploits.

A secondary problem is that social networking offers scammers the ultimate prize of being able to hijack the identity of a trusted person to execute fraud. The Facebook 419 scam is an example of this, using plausibility and a demand for a modest amount of money to overcome suspicion. If social networking systems become infected by such trust-based fraud to any degree they will likely become unviable in their current form.

"Unless people take more care when securing their computers and personal data, there's no doubt that we'll see more electronic conmen using stolen Facebook identities to steal money from the innocent by posing as their online buddies," said Cluley.

..this is comedy...why not ask them to send the hotel phone number?ur buddy is in shit right?he/she would atleast want u to call him/her...bet the accent would add doubts...oga i tell u brodah en sistoh... my moni stolen oh....tiiv brek me safe oh..aafan nah...send dowlah....people who fall for such crap are either very greedy or very kind....very thin line really!

As full of holes as these scams are they are well worth it....for every 100,00 or more emails sent they only need one positive reply.

Everytime I go home I see many of them in Internet bars, they usually come in small groups, and spent most of the day in front of the computers, just taking some breaks to talk on the phone with unsuspecting people overseas about millions of $$ that need to be transferred out of the country. Which is amusing when you see how they look.

These people are giving Nigeria a disservice and until the government takes real measures to counter this, the country will be losing billions yearly in lost businesses because of the lack of trust in anything Nigerian. I wonder how the legitimate business people survive in that environment.

If most of those crooks could use 10% of their intelligence to start a proper business (online or not) they could probably make a decent living.

These people are giving Nigeria a disservice...

Not only Nigeria but all of Africa.  That's why this kind of BS concerns all of us.  It's amazing how their government don't even care about putting an end to this.

More and more Africans are having net access.  Online transactions within Africa will increase with time.  Who's going to want to deal with Nigerians? NOBODY.  Who would want to deal with Africans? NOBODY.

Nigerians will tell you how it's only about 2% of the population that's involved in this BS, and that 98% are good people.  But it's amazing what this 2% of people can achieve, and what's more amazing is how good-for-nothing 98% of the population is.

Yeah i got it aswell a week ago but didn't open it.But How do you know that they are only nigerians not any of the others?
Anyways thankyou for the information regarding protecting our email's and passwords.