FBI delivery guy detained in Nigeria…needs your help

July 21st, 2009. By AbiK

So that’s basically what landed in my friend’s email inbox last week. I’d just blogged about Consumer Fraud scams and here was this gem. Seems if my friend forks over $500 (via Moneygram or Western Union) these kind folks will ensure he gets $5.8 million that’s just sitting there being detained at a Nigerian airport. Sounds like an email scam to me…

An email scam happens when something like this gets plopped in your inbox—I’m including the whole thing so you see how it works (my comments are in [brackets] ):

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET [sounds important!]

Dear Esteem Beneficiary, [shouldn’t that be “Esteemed”?]

Have you receive your fund from the FedEx Courier Service Nigeria? Or from any organization claiming that they have your fund with them? We have been watching every transactions that you made from last year 2008 up till date and you have to know that we are also working to make sure that your fund which is supposed to be delivered to you some days ago can be immediately be delivered to you without any further delay or any kind of excuses. [hmm, they seem really on top of it! they’re just not on top of editing run-on sentences]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not want any of our citizens to lose their fund and that is why we have been working every hour on our cyber watch department so you won’t get burnt by this scammers. [definitely a lousy grammar trend here…Can’t possibly be how folks at the FBI really write, right?]

We are aware of every payment you have made on the transaction you are into to make the transaction succeed, yet the fund is still held down by the drug law agency and the immigration officer at the airport. [What the *#%@ does this mean? Need to read this over a few times]

We want you to take note that our special investigation service diplomatic men are the one to deliver your fund of $5.8million to you without any further roadblock agencies. [Whoa! $5.8 million! Delivered to me?!?! Cool–that’ll be a nice cushion in this recession, huh?]

The diplomatic delivery men are in Nigeria where your fund is originated at the international airport now, as soon as you get back to this email by applying to the instruction that is sent to you, the delivery will take effect immediately. [Shucks, they’re in Nigeria…what should I do now?]

The payment you are to send now so that your fund can finally get to you is the sum of $500USD for the airport clearance of your fund due to the huge amount of money, and as soon as this has been sent down via money gram or western union international money transfer, the delivery will take immediate effect by the delivery diplomatic men. [Oh gosh, that’s easy—I just get a $500 money transfer and the guys in Nigeria can get through airport clearance and I get the $5.8 million…]

You have to stop every transaction you are into and communication with other organization to avoid delay on processing of your fund and wrong contact that is why we at the FBI have email you to warn you that your fund is in Nigeria at the immigration office where the diplomatic men will deliver it to you personally as soon as the payment of $500USD is sent to them. [Little spooky there, Bobby, but ok-you must know what’s best]

Get back to us at the FBI as soon as you receive this email. [Right on it, Bobster]

Thanks for your co-operation.

Robert S. Mueller, Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover Building

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA [nice touch]

This is a classic email scam—and it’s pretty obvious it’s a scam: don’t know who really sent it, it asks for money upfront, it says large sums will be delivered after receipt of only $500…yeah, it’s a scam. Delete it. Report it. Don’t get sucked in by it. And if you’ve been sucked into such a thing unawares, it’s probably a good idea to talk with a consumer fraud lawyer.

Tags: Consumer Fraud, scam

This was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.