banking scam emails

[ixychip1001A]

Why do people send emails offering to give you money or name you as recipient of funds? I presume its to get your bank details...but how is the scam done?

[Neilzulu1]

are you after some extra pocket money ?

[ixychip1001A]

No!

Im just interested in how the scam works...i would have thought its about identity stealing but the messages are usually really poorly spelled and the grammar is terrible.

It must fool some people, but how do the scammers make money from it?

[Ethel]

They pay large amounts of money into your account - say �10000.

You send �9000 by western union or similar to somebody else - making �1000 profit for doing very little.

Weeks or months later the �10000 is recalled for being fraudulent - leaving you �19000 out of pocket, and the scammers �9000 up.

Payments by WU are similar to cash payments - cannot be traced or recalled.

[vehelpfulguy]

As Ethel says, they often over pay for things, using a dud cheque.

For example you may be selling a car on e-bay for �5,000.

Someone from Nigeria (or wherever) contact you and says
that they have a friend in England who owes them �10,000.

They offer to buy the car and say this person will send YOU the �10,000 cheque, if you forward the "extra" �5,000 to them in Nigeria.

You get the �10,000 cheque and forward the �5,000 of your money to them in Nigeria.

Then the bank finds the �10,000 cheque is a dud (this CAN takes weeks) so withdraws it.

So you have lost �5,000 of your own money, and maybe the car if they bothered to take that as well.

[vehelpfulguy]

The other scam in the Nigerian 419 scam.

Here you get a letter or e-mail from a person in Nigeria (or wherever) saying that for all sorts of reasons they have 40 million pounds in the bank that nobody knows about (a rich relative died or it was profits from a dodgy oil deal etc).

They are trying to get it out of the country and looking for someone abroad who will store the money in their account.

Once they get out the country they will come and claim their money, and give you 10% (or whatever) for your troubles.

All they need is your bank details so they can deposit this 40 million pounds.

Of course if you agree you never see a penny of this 40 million pounds, and you find your bank acount emptied.

This scam can be extended by asking you to pay a small amount for "administration", if you fall for this they then want a bit more for "tax", then if you fall for this they want a bit more because the deal is getting complex. You either keep paying or give up when you realise you are being conned.

It always amazes me people fall for this.

Why did they chose you (they do not even know you), also would your bank not notice 40 million going into your account and ask questions, and also why should you trust them when they admit they are trying to steal all this money.

But every year idiots fall for it, see here

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

[vehelpfulguy]

Here is a site which explains how some cons work, both "normal" cons and internet cons.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/con-artist.htm

A search with Google on "Internet Scams" or similar gives a few sites which lists and explains some of the more common scams.

Here is one (but it is not very readable)

http://www.scambusters.org/

[Ethel]

Your bank account cannot be emptied simply by giving the account details. You would need to give an awful lot of additional personal information.

Look at your cheque book - account information including name of bank, branch, account number and name of account holder is available on every cheque you issue, along with your signature.