OFF: scam letters addressed to interpreters

[Aiduza]

Про такое уже слышали? нигерийцы хотят и до нашей братии добраться. Не поддавайтесь на провокации!

http://www.iti.org.uk/pages/news/viewNews.asp?article=30
March 2005

Over the last few weeks I have become aware a new breed of email scam aimed at extracting money from interpreters.

If you have received emails such as the extract below please take great care in the information you supply, or better, do not respond at all.

The same message has been duplicated to interpreters with different languages inserted.

Please help a colleague by passing this information on.

Alan Wheatley --- ITI General Secretary

Response from the Serious Fraud Office - 8th March 2005

There is little that can be done about them other than for the authorities and institutes and associations and the press to remind the public of the nature of such sham deals. They are transmitted from foreign jurisdictions, using bogus names and are invariably untraceable. If, for example, the place of origin is Nigeria, where advance fee frauds are covered by Nigerian Penal Code 419, the authorities there have jurisdiction. The UK's National Criminal Intelligence Service www.ncis.police.uk recieve hundreds, if not thousands, of emails of an advance fee fraud nature referred to them by UK residents.

As you will probably appreciate, by using email these fraudsters can send offers to thousands of people. Most emails will be ignored because of their transparent falseness. But some people, dazzled by the prospect of sudden, effort-free riches, fall for the notion that they have been selected out of the blue to assist with, for example, the transfer of £12 million dormant state funds out of Africa for which they will get a £2 million cut but - oh by the way - must send a couple of thousand in advance to help administration and documentation because the millions are locked. It only takes a few to be hoodwinked to make it worthwhile to the fraudsters.

I noted the email from a Dr Kweku Nana of Ghana who has a wife, daughter and son who speak only Polish. This suggests that they are Polish by origin, do not live in Ghana (where Polish alone is not enough to get by)and also suggests that Dr Kweku speaks Polish (must surely do in order to converse with his Polish speaking family). However, he targetted interpreter (X) of (X Town) with a story of coming on holiday to (X County). He must have discovered - perhaps in a directory or interpreter services list - (X’s) name. I imagine that if there is a Slovak interpreter in Exeter, Dr Kweku has quite probably emailed that interpreter about a planned holiday in Devon. And perhaps Dr Kweku has a Lithuanian wife too and plans to visit the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Angelsey where there happens to be a Lithuanian interpreter.

If you have an email register of members of your Institute, you might want to consider warning them about these approaches and advise them to either ignore them or at least recommend that they refuse in any way to get involved in an arrangement where they are sent a (forged) cheque drawn on a bogus West African Bank for an amount larger than the agreed fee but with a request to return by immediate post (before the bogus cheque can be cashed - or not cashed) the balance of the overpayment. You will have noticed that the approaches to interpreters are only days before the supposed visit dates. This allows Dr Kweku to say there is no time for him to raise a down-payment or arrange a bank credit transfer in advance for encashment. In (X's) case Dr Kweku is asking him to deduct his translation fees from a larger payment to come from a "Christian brother" in the US or UK (doesn't Kweku know where his Christian brother is or is he too lazy to edit standard communications to fit the country?)

The plan is obviously to get (X) to refund the "overpayment". Under no circumstances should anyone do so or surrender personal bank details.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Dr Kweku Prince" Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 5:08 PM

Subject: Re: Re-Polish translator

HELLO (X),

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR EMAIL,YES PAYMENT IS IN PROCESS TO YOU.IT IS COMING FROM OUR SPONSOR WHO IS A CHRISTIAN BROTHER OF OURS IN THE US OR UK,AND HAS PROMISED TAKING CARE OF YOUR TRANSLATING CHARGES AND THAT OF MY TRAVELLING AGENT HERE IN GHANA.SO AS SOON AS PAYMENT GETS TO YOU,YOU WILL DEDUCT YOUR CHARGES OF :GBP1800 AND IMMEDIATLY FORWARD THE ACCESS FUNDS TO MY TRAVELLING AGENT FOR OUR TRAVELLING FEES.

(X),PLEASE DO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUST THAT AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE PAYMENT,YOU WILL ONLY DEDUCT YOUR TRANSLATING FEES AND FORWARD THE BALANCE FUNDS TO MY TRAVELLING AGENTS.I HOPE I HAVE MADE MYSELF VERY CLEAR.

AWAIT YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.PLEASE CALL ME ON MY DIRECT LINE AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS MAIL FOR MORE CLEARIFICATIONS.BUT PLEASE THERE WILL BE DELAY IN OUR ARRIVAL AS WE WANT PAYMENT TO GET TO YOU FIRST IN ADVANCE OK

REMAIN BLESSED,

DR KWEKU NANA.

TEL:[phone]

[Brains]

Ну и ладушки, пусть их. Imho, незачем мешать естественному отбору и отбраковке полных кретинов. Ясно ведь написано:
Most emails will be ignored because of their transparent falseness. But some people, dazzled by the prospect of sudden, effort-free riches, fall for the notion that they have been selected out of the blue to assist with, for example, the transfer of £12 million dormant…
Может, хоть пара мёртвых негров займётся игрой в баскетбол, метеньем улиц или погрузкой овощей на рынке.
А переводы оставят живым. Независимо от расы и цвета кожи.

[Romeo]

Я такое письмо от одного нигерийца год назад получал.

[Translucid Mushroom]

Если я вижу, что письмо из Нигерии, то оно почему-то сразу летит в Trash :)

[gogolesque]

i got one about a bank in africa wanting to give me funds which have been lying in the bank for 5 years, the "owner" of the funds is dead and there are not relatives to take the money, so they decided to randomly select a foreigner (me) who will then receive the money. asked for money and all kinds of personal info!
it was an amusing email to read, but absolutely absurd for anyone to believe it!

[Romeo]

Если вы нигериец, то сразу говорю, что переписываться с ТМ - дохлый номер. :)))

[Brains]

2 gogolesque
Не разделяю уверенности насчёт anyone. Глупость человеческая даёт нам представление о бесконечности. :-))))

[gogolesque]

Brains:
i agree with you, but it is still ABSURD to think someone can believe it! amazing, unbelievable things happen, but it was obvious that this is utter crap-o-la :))) but, people can be blind when it comes to free $

[Translucid Mushroom]

Romeo - :) Это еще почему, интересно?

[Aiduza]

А в Барселоне на улице La Rambla до сих пор в наперсток играют, а вроде цивилизованные люди... и кто-то попадается ведь на эту уловку!

[Romeo]

По Ла Рамбла вообще нельзя пройти без финансовых потерь... :)

[Slava]

А что вы думаете, например, финансовые пирамиды типа МММ бывают не только в нашей стране. Даже в Штатах были такие случаи. Тысячи людей попадались на удочку. Что приколько, в США одна такая пирамида была организована россиянами :-))

[Miff]

Гы, такая вот фигня мне приходит ежедневно, причем начала приходить после регистрации на ProZ.com Естественно, всё летит в трэш, и кнопочка "Пожаловаться на спам" в mail.ru неустанно нажимается. That does't seem to make a difference и я виртуально богатею каждый год на несколько миллиардов. Слёзы одни. :-)

[Friendly]

Slava, ППКС. Ведь верили ж люди в этот бесплатный сыр!

[LUC]

скорее одесситами

[Nina79]

i have already gotten in the habit of deleting all mail from Africans or with names similar to DR KWEKU NANA. i assume they are all scams. gives africa a bad name though, really