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Many of the people in the fraud emails claim a profession of some kind. Some of the more frequent ones include merchant, manager, director, accountant, attorney and even reverend. In the case of manager and director, the practitioner usually works for a bank or financial business. Internet scams of this kind include the Nigerian inheritance scam as well as various bank account transfer scams. While a majority of Internet banking scams seem to come from African countries such as Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast, the business Internet scams are more dispersed around the globe. The merchants that are presented in the scam letters claim to deal in cocoa, gold and oil. Business Internet scams usually include a merchant or other businessman who is dying of cancer and needs help giving money to charities. Sometimes, the scammer will ask the intended scam victim to set up a charity to disperse the funds. The scammer, posing as a dying person, wants the people who are reading the scam emails to receive the charity money because their friends and relatives can't be trusted. God is mentioned often in the scam letters that people receive, especially in the ones from Africa. Internet scams from Africa also state that the scam victim will receive a percentage of the proceeds for helping out the dying person. While the percentage usually varies between 10% and 50%, a percentage rate of 20% or 30% seems to be fairly common. It is common for the theme of the dying person to be tied in with the mention of a charity. Scams with a dying person or a person with cancer can take a different direction without the charity, however. This particular Internet scam transitions from an introduction that mentions a business or profession to asking for help with charity. The charity or business scam as presented in Internet scams such as this one sometimes leads to a check scam if the scam victim replies to the scam email. In this situation, the targeted scam victim receives a fake check that they cash and then send the money back to the scammer. When the bank discovers the error, the scam victim pays out of their bank account. Dear Friend.
Saturday, April 19, 2008 4:30 AM Dear Friend. Greetings to you and Please permit me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Peter Wilson Toure, a Cote D'Ivoire citizen in West Africa. I was a Coco Merchant before I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer which cchas defiled all medical solutions and according to medical experts I only have a few more weeks to live. As you read this you do not have to feel sorry for me as it is a universal truth that we all must die someday, I have particularly not lived my life well in spite of my wealth and possessions as I never really cared for anyone (not even myself) but my business only. Though I was very rich I was never generous, I was never caring about people but only dedicated my time, resources and my business as these were the only thing I cared about. But now I regret all these as I now know that there is more to life than just accumulating all the wealth in the world as I lay helplessly on my sick bed. If I was given a second chance to live again I sure would live my life a different way from how I have lived it owing to what has befallen me now. As my last days alive are drawing closer and closer, I have already willed out most of my properties and assets to my immediate and extended family members as well as a few close friends. I also want my soul to be at peace with God and for him to be merciful on me and accept my soul and to this regard I have resolved to give my remaining funds to charity organizations as I want this to stand as one of the last deeds I indulge in on earth before I die. Though I have already distributed money to some charity organizations, Now that my health has deteriorated so badly I can no longer continue with this myself and also I do not trust my immediate family members or close friends on this as I have once asked them to close one of my accounts and distribute the funds therein to charity organizations around the Globe, But they greedily kept the money to themselves. Presently I am contacting you with this as I have lost confidence in them because it is obvious they are not contempted with what I have left for them. The last of my funds which no one knows of is a cash deposit of $ 28 Million Dollars, (Twenty Eight Million U.S Dollars) stashed in 2 metalic trunk boxes and declared as Personal effects of high security value which I have with a finance/Security Company in Europe. All I am asking of you is to assist me in making the collection of this cash deposit and distributing of the funds to any charity of your choice after keeping 20% of the funds for yourself and your family. Please contact me as soon as you get this letter if you are capable and sincere to handle this project on my behalf so I can forward to you all relevant documents necessary for the claims and the name of the security firm where the funds are deposited. Please if you find this mail offensive, Ignor it and accept my appology, I also want you to put me in your daily prayer, asking God to forgive me my sins and accept me back in his Bosom so that i will have part in heaven as my last day is at hand, Thanks for now as i do look forward to hear from you in other to enable me procced and gave you all the required details and informations Which will back you up in getting the Fund retreived out and legal used according to my instruction to you, May God bless you Yours truly Peter Wilson Toure.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One noticable attribute about business Internet scams is the greeting. While the greeting might be the standard "Hello" or "Dear," sometimes it will say "business proposal." There are many more features of African scam letters that make them easily recognized. One of the more obvious characteristics is the bad grammar, punctuation and spelling. The constant abuse of the English language is a primary attribute and gives the email author away as a foreigner. Although the errors might seem negligible at first since the scam email author might not write or speak English as a primary language, if the person is a wealthy merchant, however, with a thriving business then it is expected that they would need good writng skills to succeed at that business. The repeated greeting can also be considered as an identifying feature although it is not as common. By identifying and recognizing the common attributes and characteristics found in Internet scams such as this one, the person receiving scam letters from Africa and other continents will be automatically on alert to avoid becoming a scam victim. Many Internet scams diverge from the scam letter mentioning the dying millionaire with a cocoa or oil business, however. Some Internet scams target job seekers and people on dating websites as well. Once a scam is identified, it should be reported to authorities such as the FBI. Return to Phishing Internet Scams Home Page » Return to Internet Scams Home Page |