Michael Harris
07-28-2004, 10:57 AM
To All:
This is another one of those articles or news items that just has to be shared. I hope it helps.
This message was redacted (made ready for publication) to correct obvious typos that always creep in when email messages are forwarded and copied.
From: "Director - International Web Police" <Director@web-police.org>
To: "Web Police News Service" <webpolice-news-service@igwpnet.securesites.net>
Subject: [Web Police News Service Bulletin] Lottery Cases
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 05:00:00 +0000
ONLINE LOTTERY ****
How it originally started
A couple of years ago some "not so nice" people set up a fake Pop up ad on many sites that said "Enter Now to Win a Free Vacation". Problem was the Vacation wasn’t free at all. In fact the Vacation didn’t exist. They contacted every person who entered the draw and said "You Won!" Then the **** started. They requested your full name, address and Social Security (SS) number for American citizens for "tax reasons". They then stated all State and Federal along with Airport taxes had to be paid in advance along with an "administration fee". Usually the total amount was between $500.00 and $600.00. You had two ways you could pay. Either online with a credit card through such services as PayPal® or through Western Union®. They then told you all orders will be processed in 6 to 8 weeks. Once the 8 weeks were up, You would get an Email stating your order number and give you the name of an online travel agency. You would contact this travel agency to confirm your order. You would get a reply email stating order processed and tickets are being mailed out. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping.
All sounds normal. Here is how the **** works.
The company who placed all the popup ad's that you signed up for also owned the "advertising" company who emailed you saying you won the trip. They even own the "Travel Agency". They say 8 weeks to process. This is because the first 2-4 weeks they are contacting all the people who put their name in the draw and getting them ready to be suckered in. This is called "fishing" or "reeling". Once they have all the people ready they hit them all at once to send the money via PayPal® or western union. Now they state 6 to 8 weeks for processing. How did they come up with 6 to 8 weeks? Simple. Some people will send the money right away. Some will need a few weeks to come up with the funds. This way they can gather as many funds as possible while the "travel agency" is going bankrupt. The "advertising company" will then set up the next part of the ****. They will email everyone at once with a confirmation #. Everyone will have the same number to make life easier. They will tell them to contact the "travel agency" to place the orders. By this time they have had your money for 2 months moving it from location to location. The travel agency will state you shall receive your tickets within 4-6 weeks. This gives them another month to move money around. The main "advertising" company protects themselves by stating all sales final or no refunds or exchanges on their site. You are now in a binding contract.
3 months has passed since you sent the funds and still no tickets. By now you are getting upset. It will usually take the average person 1 month of trying to Email and phone calls before they figure out they have been had. It took them 6 months to set up the whole **** including time to advertise. 4 months has passed now and your money is long gone. You will never see it again. So you contact your local police only to find out they cant do anything because the incident is International and the country the **** took place in has no Computer Crime Laws.
NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE BASICS, LETS MOVE ON TO THE LOTTERY ****.
Online Lottery ****
Unlike the original ****, the lottery **** is bolder. They send massive E-mail spams out to millions of people at once stating they won an online lottery. Some "prizes" were listed as high as $2 Million. These 00000 targeted the lower to middle class people. They used basic psychology. You only see the amount and feel you can now get out of debt and have no worries for the rest of your life. Pay off the mortgage, Pay off the credit cards, Put the kids in better schools, Buy that new car, No more overtime, No more stress or worries! They work of people’s emotions and use it to their advantage.
YOU REPLY TO THEIR EMAIL HERE IS WHERE YOUR LIFE GOES DOWNHILL
The **** Starts
You reply to the Email. The first thing the do is say we need your basic info to pass on to our legal department. You agree and give them your name, address, phone number, email address so their "legal" department can contact you. Usually overnight their "legal" department will contact you by Email and ask you to make copies of your identification so they may start with the process. They will ask you for copies of your driver’s license, Social Security card, passport and other various government identification you might have. Some scammers go as far as to ask for your banking information including account numbers. You fall for this and fax them copies of all your Identification. Welcome to the world of Identity Theft!
Identity Theft
They will use all your personal information for various reasons. Some reasons will be to take out credit under your name; open bank accounts around the world under your name so they can rip off other people; sell your identification so someone can enter the country under your name illegally. You have now been a victim of Identity Theft. Now that they have stolen your Identity, They move on to the next part of the ****. Stealing your money.
Stealing Your Money
Once they have all your ID, they move on to the next phase of the ****. To milk you out of as much money as possible. They will state before they can release the funds they need to set up a bank account in your name. They will have a pre made website that looks like a bank and will set up a fake bank account under your name. You go there, Login and everything looks official. You are getting excited as your life is about to change. In fact it is, for the worse.
At this point they mention to you that you need to make a deposit into the bank account for "legal fees" and "administrative fees" before they can release your prize winnings. The total is usually between $5,000 and $6,000. It will always be an odd figure such as $5238.64 so it looks in order. They will state the money will stay in your account "in trust" until all paperwork is completed and the winnings are deposited. Once the winnings are deposited, The legal fees and administrative fees will be removed and all funds will be cleared to you.
Types of Payment
Usually they will ask for the deposit to be done through online services such as PayPal. They will Include other methods such as Western Union and bank issued Cashier checks. They will usually turn down personal checks and bank to bank electronic transfers since they do not have a licensed banking institution. This should set off red flags right away it is a ****. But at this point you are in too deep to back out. So you tell them you do not have $5,000 to give them. They will set up a "payment plan" for you where you can "deposit" money into your account and it will be "frozen". They will mention you borrow the money from friends and family or tae out a second mortgage or bank loan for the funds. You do this and send the money.
You Send The Money. Now What?
You send the money and check your "bank account". They will usually say it will take 5-7 business days for the funds to clear before it is posted. People will not question this as that is usual bank policy with new clients. This buys them an additional week before you start to ask questions. Finally, your "deposit" shows up in your fake bank account. You login to the website and see your deposit has cleared and you contact them to say the funds have cleared. They contact you back and state they will continue on their end to process the winnings. They claim it will take 7 to 10 business days to release the funds.
They will wait about 4 days then send you a letter stating the lottery winnings have been deposited into your account. You go to check the balance and see the $1 Million in there plus your $5,000 for the legal and administration fees. You have a balance of $1,005,000 in your account. They will state they will now be removing your administrative fee and legal fee's separately. This could take 5-7 business days each. After a few days you check in and see $3,000 has been removed from the account then a few days later the additional $2,000 has been removed.
Another couple of days have passed and you get yet another email from them stating all legal and administrative fees have been removed. They will contact the bank to remove the freeze from your account. They will state this may take 5-7 business days as per the banks policy. You wait then get a letter all funds have been released.
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM
How Do I Get My Money?
You look the page over and over and can’t find any way at all on how you can have access to your money. There is no possible way to make a withdrawal. You search the website to find out ways to contact the bank. Funny enough, the bank does not have a phone number or mailing address listed on any of their WebPages. Only an Email address. You contact them by Email. They now know you are starting to ask questions so they quickly reply to you in Email to a page on their site that does not exist. You write them back to say that page does not exist. They blame it on technical problems in a way to buy time so they can get as many people lured in before they have to shut down and move on. They then ask you to fax them another copy of your Identification so they can release the funds to you that you request by means of Cashiers Check that you may deposit into your normal bank account.
You fax them all your Identification once again and they will reply back to you they will be sending out a cashiers check to you. It will take 5-7 business days to process. This buys them more time. By this time, It has been close to 2 months since you sent them the money. They have had time to "launder" your hard earned money. In some cases, They end the **** here. In some cases, they will mail you a counterfeit cashier’s check just to buy some more time.
Ok, Well I Have Been Taken! Now What?
In the old days with Pyramid schemes, Chain letters and basic fraud 00000 it was simple. It was covered under Mail Fraud for most countries. With the Internet being World Wide, There is no "International law" in place. You are asked to follow guidelines and laws set out by your country of origin. If you are in Canada, You follow the laws that are set out by the Canadian government. If you are in USA, You follow the laws set out by the American government. Canadians do not follow American laws nor do Americans follow Canadian Laws. Some countries still do not have any Internet laws at all as the technology is still new. In fact, Canada and USA have laws in place that are 10 years behind and they are the front runners. This is not due to a lack of effort. In fact they are working hard to update laws as fast as they can. The Computer Crimes are just moving faster. It is easier to think of a crime then to write a law to cover that crime.
Most **** artists know this glitch and use it for their advantage. They will set up shop in a country with lapsed or no computer laws. They will set up hosting all over the world. Usually under the name of one of their former victims (back to the identity theft). They know American laws only protect American citizens within USA and they take full advantage of this. At this point in time The only thing you can do is find out what country they are operating out of and contact the Embassy for that country and apply pressure for tougher laws. Some governments allow it as they see it as an additional tax revenue.
What to Look For
• Most of these 00000 are being done by people who speak English as a second language. Watch for spelling mistakes, bad grammar, when you call them listen for Chinese, Spanish and South African accents.
• All "Official" lotteries will proudly display their Lottery License Number. This is a number to prove they are registered with local, state/provincial or federal lottery officials within their country. These numbers can be proven with a simple phone call to the lottery officials.
• Lottery agents will NEVER ask for an administrative or legal fee. All prizes won are free from any additional fee except shipping as some will have listed in their fine print. Example of this would be willing a car, TV or larger prize and will make taxes and shipping your responsibility.
• Lotteries will NEVER ask you to open a bank account with them in another country.
• Lotteries will NEVER ask you for copies of your Birth Certificate or Passport.
• Lotteries may ask you for your Social Security (US) number if the prize is $1,500 or higher in value as you will be required to report it as an income on your taxes.
• Lotteries may ask you to provide a copy of your driver’s license when picking up a prize from their office or 3rd party shipper.
• Lotteries will NEVER use a Yahoo!® or Hotmail® Email account
• True lottery companies will not contact you randomly by Email to state you won.
• Real lottery companies will have a phone number set up in your own country. They will not ask you to contact them overseas.
Thank You,
Bill Howes
Director of IWP Investigations
Computer Crime Lab Unit
Bill-03948@web-police.org
www.intergov.org
www.web-police.org
______________________________________________
Webpolice-News-Service mailing list
Webpolice-News-Service@igwpnet.securesites.net
http://igwpnet.securesites.net/mailman/listinfo/webpolice-news-service
© 2004 Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
The **** is for the word 's-c-a-m'. I have no idea why the system dislikes the word so much.
This is another one of those articles or news items that just has to be shared. I hope it helps.
This message was redacted (made ready for publication) to correct obvious typos that always creep in when email messages are forwarded and copied.
From: "Director - International Web Police" <Director@web-police.org>
To: "Web Police News Service" <webpolice-news-service@igwpnet.securesites.net>
Subject: [Web Police News Service Bulletin] Lottery Cases
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 05:00:00 +0000
ONLINE LOTTERY ****
How it originally started
A couple of years ago some "not so nice" people set up a fake Pop up ad on many sites that said "Enter Now to Win a Free Vacation". Problem was the Vacation wasn’t free at all. In fact the Vacation didn’t exist. They contacted every person who entered the draw and said "You Won!" Then the **** started. They requested your full name, address and Social Security (SS) number for American citizens for "tax reasons". They then stated all State and Federal along with Airport taxes had to be paid in advance along with an "administration fee". Usually the total amount was between $500.00 and $600.00. You had two ways you could pay. Either online with a credit card through such services as PayPal® or through Western Union®. They then told you all orders will be processed in 6 to 8 weeks. Once the 8 weeks were up, You would get an Email stating your order number and give you the name of an online travel agency. You would contact this travel agency to confirm your order. You would get a reply email stating order processed and tickets are being mailed out. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping.
All sounds normal. Here is how the **** works.
The company who placed all the popup ad's that you signed up for also owned the "advertising" company who emailed you saying you won the trip. They even own the "Travel Agency". They say 8 weeks to process. This is because the first 2-4 weeks they are contacting all the people who put their name in the draw and getting them ready to be suckered in. This is called "fishing" or "reeling". Once they have all the people ready they hit them all at once to send the money via PayPal® or western union. Now they state 6 to 8 weeks for processing. How did they come up with 6 to 8 weeks? Simple. Some people will send the money right away. Some will need a few weeks to come up with the funds. This way they can gather as many funds as possible while the "travel agency" is going bankrupt. The "advertising company" will then set up the next part of the ****. They will email everyone at once with a confirmation #. Everyone will have the same number to make life easier. They will tell them to contact the "travel agency" to place the orders. By this time they have had your money for 2 months moving it from location to location. The travel agency will state you shall receive your tickets within 4-6 weeks. This gives them another month to move money around. The main "advertising" company protects themselves by stating all sales final or no refunds or exchanges on their site. You are now in a binding contract.
3 months has passed since you sent the funds and still no tickets. By now you are getting upset. It will usually take the average person 1 month of trying to Email and phone calls before they figure out they have been had. It took them 6 months to set up the whole **** including time to advertise. 4 months has passed now and your money is long gone. You will never see it again. So you contact your local police only to find out they cant do anything because the incident is International and the country the **** took place in has no Computer Crime Laws.
NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE BASICS, LETS MOVE ON TO THE LOTTERY ****.
Online Lottery ****
Unlike the original ****, the lottery **** is bolder. They send massive E-mail spams out to millions of people at once stating they won an online lottery. Some "prizes" were listed as high as $2 Million. These 00000 targeted the lower to middle class people. They used basic psychology. You only see the amount and feel you can now get out of debt and have no worries for the rest of your life. Pay off the mortgage, Pay off the credit cards, Put the kids in better schools, Buy that new car, No more overtime, No more stress or worries! They work of people’s emotions and use it to their advantage.
YOU REPLY TO THEIR EMAIL HERE IS WHERE YOUR LIFE GOES DOWNHILL
The **** Starts
You reply to the Email. The first thing the do is say we need your basic info to pass on to our legal department. You agree and give them your name, address, phone number, email address so their "legal" department can contact you. Usually overnight their "legal" department will contact you by Email and ask you to make copies of your identification so they may start with the process. They will ask you for copies of your driver’s license, Social Security card, passport and other various government identification you might have. Some scammers go as far as to ask for your banking information including account numbers. You fall for this and fax them copies of all your Identification. Welcome to the world of Identity Theft!
Identity Theft
They will use all your personal information for various reasons. Some reasons will be to take out credit under your name; open bank accounts around the world under your name so they can rip off other people; sell your identification so someone can enter the country under your name illegally. You have now been a victim of Identity Theft. Now that they have stolen your Identity, They move on to the next part of the ****. Stealing your money.
Stealing Your Money
Once they have all your ID, they move on to the next phase of the ****. To milk you out of as much money as possible. They will state before they can release the funds they need to set up a bank account in your name. They will have a pre made website that looks like a bank and will set up a fake bank account under your name. You go there, Login and everything looks official. You are getting excited as your life is about to change. In fact it is, for the worse.
At this point they mention to you that you need to make a deposit into the bank account for "legal fees" and "administrative fees" before they can release your prize winnings. The total is usually between $5,000 and $6,000. It will always be an odd figure such as $5238.64 so it looks in order. They will state the money will stay in your account "in trust" until all paperwork is completed and the winnings are deposited. Once the winnings are deposited, The legal fees and administrative fees will be removed and all funds will be cleared to you.
Types of Payment
Usually they will ask for the deposit to be done through online services such as PayPal. They will Include other methods such as Western Union and bank issued Cashier checks. They will usually turn down personal checks and bank to bank electronic transfers since they do not have a licensed banking institution. This should set off red flags right away it is a ****. But at this point you are in too deep to back out. So you tell them you do not have $5,000 to give them. They will set up a "payment plan" for you where you can "deposit" money into your account and it will be "frozen". They will mention you borrow the money from friends and family or tae out a second mortgage or bank loan for the funds. You do this and send the money.
You Send The Money. Now What?
You send the money and check your "bank account". They will usually say it will take 5-7 business days for the funds to clear before it is posted. People will not question this as that is usual bank policy with new clients. This buys them an additional week before you start to ask questions. Finally, your "deposit" shows up in your fake bank account. You login to the website and see your deposit has cleared and you contact them to say the funds have cleared. They contact you back and state they will continue on their end to process the winnings. They claim it will take 7 to 10 business days to release the funds.
They will wait about 4 days then send you a letter stating the lottery winnings have been deposited into your account. You go to check the balance and see the $1 Million in there plus your $5,000 for the legal and administration fees. You have a balance of $1,005,000 in your account. They will state they will now be removing your administrative fee and legal fee's separately. This could take 5-7 business days each. After a few days you check in and see $3,000 has been removed from the account then a few days later the additional $2,000 has been removed.
Another couple of days have passed and you get yet another email from them stating all legal and administrative fees have been removed. They will contact the bank to remove the freeze from your account. They will state this may take 5-7 business days as per the banks policy. You wait then get a letter all funds have been released.
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM
How Do I Get My Money?
You look the page over and over and can’t find any way at all on how you can have access to your money. There is no possible way to make a withdrawal. You search the website to find out ways to contact the bank. Funny enough, the bank does not have a phone number or mailing address listed on any of their WebPages. Only an Email address. You contact them by Email. They now know you are starting to ask questions so they quickly reply to you in Email to a page on their site that does not exist. You write them back to say that page does not exist. They blame it on technical problems in a way to buy time so they can get as many people lured in before they have to shut down and move on. They then ask you to fax them another copy of your Identification so they can release the funds to you that you request by means of Cashiers Check that you may deposit into your normal bank account.
You fax them all your Identification once again and they will reply back to you they will be sending out a cashiers check to you. It will take 5-7 business days to process. This buys them more time. By this time, It has been close to 2 months since you sent them the money. They have had time to "launder" your hard earned money. In some cases, They end the **** here. In some cases, they will mail you a counterfeit cashier’s check just to buy some more time.
Ok, Well I Have Been Taken! Now What?
In the old days with Pyramid schemes, Chain letters and basic fraud 00000 it was simple. It was covered under Mail Fraud for most countries. With the Internet being World Wide, There is no "International law" in place. You are asked to follow guidelines and laws set out by your country of origin. If you are in Canada, You follow the laws that are set out by the Canadian government. If you are in USA, You follow the laws set out by the American government. Canadians do not follow American laws nor do Americans follow Canadian Laws. Some countries still do not have any Internet laws at all as the technology is still new. In fact, Canada and USA have laws in place that are 10 years behind and they are the front runners. This is not due to a lack of effort. In fact they are working hard to update laws as fast as they can. The Computer Crimes are just moving faster. It is easier to think of a crime then to write a law to cover that crime.
Most **** artists know this glitch and use it for their advantage. They will set up shop in a country with lapsed or no computer laws. They will set up hosting all over the world. Usually under the name of one of their former victims (back to the identity theft). They know American laws only protect American citizens within USA and they take full advantage of this. At this point in time The only thing you can do is find out what country they are operating out of and contact the Embassy for that country and apply pressure for tougher laws. Some governments allow it as they see it as an additional tax revenue.
What to Look For
• Most of these 00000 are being done by people who speak English as a second language. Watch for spelling mistakes, bad grammar, when you call them listen for Chinese, Spanish and South African accents.
• All "Official" lotteries will proudly display their Lottery License Number. This is a number to prove they are registered with local, state/provincial or federal lottery officials within their country. These numbers can be proven with a simple phone call to the lottery officials.
• Lottery agents will NEVER ask for an administrative or legal fee. All prizes won are free from any additional fee except shipping as some will have listed in their fine print. Example of this would be willing a car, TV or larger prize and will make taxes and shipping your responsibility.
• Lotteries will NEVER ask you to open a bank account with them in another country.
• Lotteries will NEVER ask you for copies of your Birth Certificate or Passport.
• Lotteries may ask you for your Social Security (US) number if the prize is $1,500 or higher in value as you will be required to report it as an income on your taxes.
• Lotteries may ask you to provide a copy of your driver’s license when picking up a prize from their office or 3rd party shipper.
• Lotteries will NEVER use a Yahoo!® or Hotmail® Email account
• True lottery companies will not contact you randomly by Email to state you won.
• Real lottery companies will have a phone number set up in your own country. They will not ask you to contact them overseas.
Thank You,
Bill Howes
Director of IWP Investigations
Computer Crime Lab Unit
Bill-03948@web-police.org
www.intergov.org
www.web-police.org
______________________________________________
Webpolice-News-Service mailing list
Webpolice-News-Service@igwpnet.securesites.net
http://igwpnet.securesites.net/mailman/listinfo/webpolice-news-service
© 2004 Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
The **** is for the word 's-c-a-m'. I have no idea why the system dislikes the word so much.