Scam messages purport to come from the CEO of a Kuwait petrochemical company

Jan 30, 2014 13:26 GMT  ·  By

Security experts from Bitdefender warn that Nigerian scammers are increasingly targeting users of the professional social media network LinkedIn. The cybercrooks are creating fake accounts and sending out typical 419 messages to users.

In an example spotted by Bitdefender, the scammers pretend to be the CEO of a petrochemical company from Kuwait called Equate.

The scam messages contain correct contact information from the company, except for the PO box and the CEO’s email address, which of course, is on a private email service.

The scam messages read something like this:

“I am Mohammad Hussain the president & CEO Equate Petrochemical company Kuwait. I write to request your co-operation in my desire to find a foreign partner who will assist me in the relocation and Transfer of some amount of money which I have made available for investment purpose abroad to offer to secure the future of my children after retirement.”

Equate is aware of this scam. The company has posted an alert on its website to warn customers of the scammy emails.

“Equate does not send out emails soliciting business and assumes no responsibility/liability. Therefore, please ignore such emails and report to [email protected],” the alert reads.

Bitdefender says scammers also pretend to be employees of NatWest and Standard Chartered Bank.

Mostly, Nigerian scams are the same as they’ve always been. The scammers try to trick victims into sending them money after promising them the chance to make millions. The money sent by the victims is allegedly needed to complete the transaction.

However, as all cybercriminals, those who launch 419 scams keep up with the times and use various tricks to increase their chances of success.

In this case, they’ve started to abuse LinkedIn. Since many LinkedIn users are looking for business opportunities, some might fall for these scams.