Diary of a Nigerian Scam Artist or "There's absolutely noting to worry about."

[K7DAN]

All wanted was a nice, clean, fully-functional Kenwood R-1000 receiver. What I got was an interesting adventure and reminder that the buyer should always beware (AND READ THE QRZ SUGGESTIONS AND GUIDELINES, especial those related to WESTERN UNION/MONEY GRAM TRANSACTIONS!). Here's the story

After posting my want on QRZ, I got several responses direct to my Email address. One of them was supposedly from "Charles, W2RMY," offering an R-1000 with speaker for $150 including shipping (first clue, deal too good to be true). Here is complete text of the Emails. I think you will find them both educational and entertaining.

Please note that, ulitmately, I was able to contact W2RMY via phone and he was quite surprised to learn that he owned an R-1000 and had a grandson in Nigeria. Charles had nothing to do with this transaction. Here is the story in the scammer's own words:

Diary of a Nigerian Scam Artist or "There's absolutely noting to worry about."

------------

Hi Dan,

I have a very nice Kenwood R-1000 with a sp-100 speaker for sale. They are in excellent working condition and fully functional. Comes with manual and power cord from a non-smoker shack.

I am asking $150 USD for them and price includes shipping and handling. I will be shipping via UPS or FedEx whichever you prefer and shall accept payment via Western Union or Money gram.


73,
Charles W2RMY.

--------------------

Hi Dan,

How is Hong Kong today? I hear that's a very nice place to visit... I hope to take my wife and grandson sometime on a vacation but i don't know what country or city to visit yet... Although my wife is currently down with cancer, and my grandson who is in the U.S Army just got back from Iraq but is currently Serving in Nigeria...

Shipping to ******, California will not be a problem at all, all you need do is just give me the complete address where you won't the Kenwood R-1000 with a sp-100 speaker shipped to.

My PayPal account is currently dormant at the moment, so i can only receive payment via Western Union or Money Gram. Please let me know.


73,
Charles W2RMY.

---------------

Charles,

Please give me your phone number and a convenient time to call.

Thanks,

Dan...

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(201) 285-5174

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Dan:

I might not be able to pick up calls at the moment as i am currently recovering from a tooth surgery... I can only communicate through emails for awhile.

I know you are a bit skeptical about sending payment to my grand son. I do understand your concern and i also would be careful too. But i am just a retired man of over 65yrs of age and I am a God fearing man. I have been honest and sincere in all my financial delaings and life endeavours. I will never rip-off your hard earned money as I work hard for every penny I earn.

My grandson can only receive Money Gram payment at a Bank authorized for Money Gram payments as he would be asked for his valid id before he would be giving payment. There's absolutely noting to worry about.

Here are the all details you would need for payment via Money Gram:

Name(my grandson's name): Simon Mathew
Address: 54, River Road Lane, Army Base 3, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

You might be asked for a Test Question or Test Answer:

Your Test Question should be : Sender's First Name:
Test Answer: Dan


After payment do email me the details below from the Money Gram payment receipt:

Sender's Name:
Ref #:
Amount Sent:


73,
Charles W2RMY [aka SIMON MATHEW, Professional Nigerian Scammer and NOT, W2RMY!]

-----------------

Caveat emptor!

Dan...K7DAN / VR2HF

[AD6KA]

Hi Dan:

Were you able to get this guy's IP Address?
It canbe found in the "Complete Header" of an incoming rmail.
How you go about getting the complete header depends on
your email program. If you are interested, wrie me and I will walk you through it. Then you run the ISP Address through an IP Search Engine and it will ggive you the location, and sometimes evena map.
And there are scads od IP Tracing sites where you enter the IP just once nd it will run through a dozen IP Search engines.
AND...eveb Googling a susicous header will often show that it has beeb associated with knowb scammers.

Or did he use GMail,which blocks the outgoing IP Addy
so the receiver can't see it.

(Actually, there is a program called "ReadNotifu\y"(oneword) that CAN get a Gmail IP Address about
%90 of the time) So you can tell exactly where the email came from.
Not all are Nigerian, but most are , or fromWest Africa.
IN addition to ReadNotify getting the IPAddress, it will sendyou emails
telling you how many times he opened your message, for how long,
AND the email addresses and IP Addresses of everyone and anyone
he forwarded it to! (The organized scammers work in groups, with the
lowest level scammers screening the returned emails showing any
interest are tuned overto someone higherup in the gang, who has better
English and better scammer skills.

But most of the scammers are independent operators.
The gangs who operate en masse pay for all the Internet time
for the lower level guys. And if the lower level guy lands a fich
who pays up, he gets a small cut. The big boss of thescammer
gang is called an "Oga". That's Igbo for "big boss".

Anyway....check out ReadNotify Software if you are at all
interested in where these guys REALLY come from. More
and moe are coming from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia.
ReadNotify is a "Pay For" software, BUT they have a free one time
15 day trial period. It's quite cool.

73, Ken AD6KA

[K7DAN]

Yes, Ken, I did get the IP address. It appeared to be going through a proxy in the Sunnyvale area.The Email was a spoofed ATT address using Charles callsign. I like www.whatsmyip.org for IP related tools and port searches.

Thanks for the heads-up on ReadNotify. It might be handy in the future.

Watchful but hopeful!

Dan...K7DAN / VR2HF



Hi Dan:

Were you able to get this guy's IP Address?
It canbe found in the "Complete Header" of an incoming rmail.
How you go about getting the complete header depends on
your email program. If you are interested, wrie me and I will walk you through it. Then you run the ISP Address through an IP Search Engine and it will ggive you the location, and sometimes evena map.
And there are scads od IP Tracing sites where you enter the IP just once nd it will run through a dozen IP Search engines.
AND...eveb Googling a susicous header will often show that it has beeb associated with knowb scammers.

Or did he use GMail,which blocks the outgoing IP Addy
so the receiver can't see it.

(Actually, there is a program called "ReadNotifu\y"(oneword) that CAN get a Gmail IP Address about
%90 of the time) So you can tell exactly where the email came from.
Not all are Nigerian, but most are , or fromWest Africa.
IN addition to ReadNotify getting the IPAddress, it will sendyou emails
telling you how many times he opened your message, for how long,
AND the email addresses and IP Addresses of everyone and anyone
he forwarded it to! (The organized scammers work in groups, with the
lowest level scammers screening the returned emails showing any
interest are tuned overto someone higherup in the gang, who has better
English and better scammer skills.

But most of the scammers are independent operators.
The gangs who operate en masse pay for all the Internet time
for the lower level guys. And if the lower level guy lands a fich
who pays up, he gets a small cut. The big boss of thescammer
gang is called an "Oga". That's Igbo for "big boss".

Anyway....check out ReadNotify Software if you are at all
interested in where these guys REALLY come from. More
and moe are coming from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia.
ReadNotify is a "Pay For" software, BUT they have a free one time
15 day trial period. It's quite cool.

73, Ken AD6KA

[AD6KA]

Hi Dan:
Glad you got the IP,even if it was spoofed.

I forgot about this gem:

and my grandson who is in the U.S Army just got
back from Iraq but is currently Serving in Nigeria...
Uh, in what capacity? :confused:

What an idiot, there are no U.S. military bases in Nigeria.
We don't even sell them much military hardware,
most of it is from Europe, and not junk either. The oil revenue
in Nigeria is enormous, they are a founding member of OPEC.
The Government and military, both unspeakably corrupt, are
quite wealthy, while the people are quite poor.
It's a shame...