The Spanish Prisoner
A deposed tyrant needs to move money out of his country, a rich man died leaving no will and having no heirs, a lottery was won; a well to do man wants to contribute all his wealth to a worthy person or a worthy organization…
Those are some of the resent themes seen in emails sent to millions of people all over the world.
Most people spot those as scams but some are hooked by the promise of riches that would never materialize.
Some sources claim that in the past 30 years more then 10 million people have been swindled out of their money and that in 2005 alone more then 3 billion dollars were lost.
Why is it that so many people all over the world fall for a variation of a scheme that has existed since the Middle Ages?
The answer lies in human nature and more specifically greed, unrealistic optimism and in some cases just plain old stupidity.
The basic rule of thumb is very simple:
A deal that seems too good to be true, is most probably too good to be true.
The best way to look at your email account is as if your address was published on a bulletin board all over the world accompanied with a little note saying: here lives a potential sucker, please send credulous offers.
Your email address is a magnet for con artists of all types and creeds, from snake oil sellers to professional con artists.
Let’s take a look at some examples of those emails:
Email 1 Exmaple
Why would the esteem Mr. Abdul contact you of all people?
Put yourself in the shoes of some one with the means and opportunity to commit fraud in such scale.
Would you contact a stranger ("I Got your e-mail address in Internet while browsing…") that might notify the authorities, without making some background checks?
Would you divulge so many incriminating details about your plan; to a stranger you don’t know if you could trust?
The answer to those questions is very simple, Mr, Abdul is an invented figure and Mr. David Ameeraly is figment of Mr, Abdul imagination.
Now how about this one?
Email 2 Exmaple
Did you ever hear of or play the "Bingo Lotto"?
"…Due to mix up of some numbers and names…"
Why are they contacting you if they did not verify it yet?
"…we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your funds remitted to you…"
The only reason why they want you to keep it secret is that it’s a scam and if you contact law enforcement authorities they would risk imprisonment or at the very least have to change their phone numbers their emails and send a bunch of new emails to a bunch of new potential Marks.
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