How to get rich quick....or not! Scams and more...: "Johnny Brown" investigates...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

"Johnny Brown" investigates...

From: Total Quest Services [mailto:gr.gpoyser@centrum.sk]
Sent: 30 March 2009 09:12
To: unlisted-recipients:; no To-header on input
Subject: INQUIRY

Greetings,

My name is Johnny Brown; I work with the Total Quest Services, a consulting Firm in London, UK. We are conducting a standard process investigation involving a client who shares the same name with you and also thecircumstancessurrounding investments made by this client at HSBC Bank Plc.

The HSBC Private Banking client died intestate and nominated no next of kin to inherit the title over the investments made with HSBC Bank Plc. The essence of this communication with you is to request that you provide us information on three issues:

1-Are you aware of any relative/relation having the same surname, whose last known contact address was Madrid, Spain?
2-Are you aware of any investment of considerable value made by such a person at the HSBC Bank Plc.?
3-Can you establish beyond reasonable doubt your eligibility to assume status of next of kin to the deceased?
It is pertinent that you inform us ASAP whether or not you are familiar with this personality that we may put an end to this communication with you and our inquiries surrounding this personality.

You must appreciate that we are constrained from providing you with more detailed information at this point. PLEASE RESPOND BACK TO MY PRIVATE AND DIRECT EMAIL ADDRESS;(johnnybrownquest@yahoo.co.uk)as soon as possible to afford us the opportunity to close this investigation.

Thank you for accommodating our enquiry.Yours sincerely,

Mr. Johnny Brown
Total Quest Services
For: HSBC Private Clients.
This is a confidential message from Total Quest Services.

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What is advance-fee fraud?

According to Wikipedia advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain. Among the variations on this type of scam, are the Nigerian Letter (also called the 419 fraud, Nigerian scam, Nigerian bank scam, or Nigerian money offer, the Spanish Prisoner, the Black money scam as well as Russian/Ukrainian scam (also extremely widespread, though far less popular than the former). Both the so-called Russian and Nigerian scams stand for wholly dissimilar organised crime traditions, they therefore tend to use altogether different breeds of approaches.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Advance-fee fraud
The 419 scam originated in the early 1980s as the oil-based Nigerian economy declined. Several unemployed university students first used this scam as a means of manipulating business visitors interested in shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector before targeting businessmen in the west, and later the wider population. Scammers in the early-to-mid 1990s targeted companies, sending scam messages via letter, fax, or Telex. The spread of email and easy access to email-harvesting software made the cost of sending scam letters through the Internet low. In the 2000s, the 419 scam has spurred imitations from other locations in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and, more recently, from North America, Western Europe (mainly UK), and Australia.
The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud. The American Dialect Society has traced the term "419 fraud" back to 1992.
The advance-fee fraud is similar to a much older scam known as the Spanish Prisoner scam in which the trickster would tell the scam victim that a (fictitious) rich prisoner had promised to share (non-existent) treasure with the victim if the latter would send money to bribe the prison guards.
Insa Nolte, a lecturer of University of Birmingham's African Studies Department, stated that "The availability of e-mail helped to transform a local form of fraud into one of Nigeria's most important export industries."