Scammers are once again leveraging a legitimate news article in order to make their stories more convincing. In the latest scam, they’re relying on the fact that Switzerland will return $700 million (546 million EUR) representing part of the money stashed in the country’s banks by Nigeria’s former president.
The scam email, which comes with a couple of newspaper clippings and a link to
an article from Nigeria’s The Sun,
reads something like this:
“Dear Sir/Ma,
Greetings to you from Mrs Maryam Abacha, wife of the de facto head of state of Nigeria, 1993 to 1998. My letter may come to you as a surprise but please take a Little time to hear my cry for help.
My late husband left some money for me ,my son Abba and Mohammed at a Swiss bank before his death. The Swiss bank just refunded $700Million of my sons money to the Nigeria Government this week dated the 5th of December 2012. Please check On this site for details or you can just goggle the information for your comfort.
[link]
My own share of the funds is now available for disbursement. I need a trustable partner who can claim these funds and invest judiciously for me and my two children and also make provisions for us to live Nigeria before we are completely ruined.
Please give me your terms and conditions for helping me. How much you will take as your fee provided you will work with us as partners in progress. I have so many other transactions to take care but no freedom to do so. Please be straight with me.”
As ESET Senior Research Fellow David Harley
highlights, the name of Maryam Abacha has been utilized in numerous advance fee scams. However, this latest scheme shows that scammers are not giving up on their malicious campaigns.
The bottom line is that no matter how convincing they sound and no matter how much proof you’re provided with, such emails should be ignored. Otherwise, you can easily get tangled in the web of lies and you could lose some serious amounts of money.
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