14 DAY TRIAL // Nigerian scams are not always run by Nigerians. Experts have identified a scheme that’s run by people in Guatemala. Over the past 2-3 years, they’ve been sending out SMS messages in an effort to trick unsuspecting people into handing over money and personal information.
Experts from Cloudmark have been observing the activities of these fraudsters. They’re sending out SMS messages to people in the US and Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, Belize and Nicaragua.
The texts are always written in Spanish and they inform recipients that they’ve won a car and $35,000 (€25,000).
“felicidades! CLARO y TIGO te informa que GANASTE $35,000.00 y un VEHICULO TOYOTA comunicate al tel:01150248XXXXXX llama ya,” the messages read.
The translation of this message is something like, “congratulations! CLARO and TIGO informs you that WON $ 35,000.00 and a TOYOTA VEHICLE call 01150248XXXXXX to claim.”
The crooks have even set up a call center and a number of websites to make everything look legitimate. Tech savvy users can probably tell that the sites are not genuine, but some people might take the bait, especially since they contain pictures of “lucky winners.”
When victims contact the scammers, they’re instructed to hand over some personal and financial information. Then they’re told that if they don’t want to go to Guatemala to pick up the car, it can be delivered to them.
However, they have to pay various amounts of money that are allegedly needed to pay the import taxes. The scammers can make a lot of money directly, but they can also steal their victims’ identifies.
Despite this being a scam that targets Spanish-speaking users, Cloudmark has found that 22% of all international spam arriving in the United States is actually part of this scheme.