The following email wound up in my spam folder. I hardly ever read anything from in there, and very rarely post a story about what I found. But this one deserved special acknowledgement and scorn. Basically, the con artist on the sending end wants you to send them a gift card (iTunes, Sephora(?) or Steam) in order to have the “bank” transfer tens of millions of US dollars into your hot little hands.
I’ve copied all the text as-is, except where needed to join broken sentences into a semblance of paragraphs. Otherwise punctuation, spelling, and grammar are as-is. There’re all sorts of red flags around this, yet I’ve read that it’s been used successfully in the past into conning someone, somewhere, so it’s still cheap enough to send this out all the time.
Please, folks, please don’t be taken in. TANSTAAFL.
WELCOME TO BANK OF AMERICA HEADQUARTERS.
ADDRESS: 100 NORTH TRYON STREET CHARLOTTE,
NC 28255-0001 U.S.A,YOUR URGENT ATTENTION NEEDED,
Welcome to Bank of America, We are a socially responsible organization, providing banking and membership services to individuals, companies, trade unions, charities, credit unions and membership organization sectors. We listen to and understand what our customers want and have developed a service which offers a wide range of benefits. One of our key objectives is to provide value for money banking for all of our customers. That means delivering a wide range of services that can be tailored to your exact needs, including the smooth transfer of your banking to Bank of America In regards setting up an Online bank account with us, Your details have been forwarded to us earlier by International Monetary Fund and Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) declaring you as a beneficiary to receive the total sum of $15,700,000 USD (Fifteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars,
NOTE: If you do not Sequel to your information recorded on file and in accordance to the IMF and Stock Market State Commission (SSMSC) rules and regulations on operational banking policy on transfer of large amount of money emanated proceeds, Be informed that you are advised of this very need for you to setup a Resident Account with BOA Plc which will be responsible for clearing of your funds here in USA before the funds in cash can be transferred from your account in your name with Bank of America to any bank account of your choice, you are required to choose from the under listed options, the most suitable account type to you.
Please you will need to choose from the options below your mode of collection of your funds and also provide the information below for processing of your fund release:
1. Via ATM Card.The total funds will be loaded into an ATM Card in your name and sent to you which will take 2 days for the card to arrive and you can withdraw a maximum sum of $100,000 US per day at any ATM Machine worldwide. The delivery fee is $140.
2. Bank to Bank Transfer. The cash will be transfer directly into your nominated account which will take 24 hours for the funds to reflect into your preferred account , The cost of transfer charge is $180
3. Cash Delivery. We can arrange the funds to be sealed in a consignment box without anyone knowing what is inside it and delivered to your address of delivery in cash. This will take a maximum of 2 days so you sign for collection. This will cost $200.
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PURCHASE ITUNES GIFT CARD OR SEPHORA GIFT CARD OR STEAM GIFT CARD DEPENDING ON YOUR CHOICE OF RECEIVING YOUR PAYMENT AND SEND IT HERE WITH CLEAR PICTURES OKAY.
We guarantee that the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law. Due to the fact that the fund is donation claims valued at $15.700.000.00 USD, there should be a supportive clearance from the IMF before the commencement of the wire transfer. Please read the above procedures very carefully and revert back at your earlier convenience for us to move forward.
Thanks for banking with us. I await your urgent response.
YOURS FAITHFULLY
MR. BRIAN T. MOYNIHAN, CHAIRMAN,PRESIDENT AND CEO
Radarwitch
Please tell me no one in this day and age is stupid enough to fall for a scam like that.
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Perhaps not this exact spam email, but the use of a scam paying the fraudster with gift cards is a common scam, especially against retirees. Then you get a phone call about your social security number being “turned off” or the local utility company coming to turn off your power due to lack of payment. I’ve had to field a few of those by fraudsters claiming, loudly, over the phone that a sheriff/utility person is just minutes away from showing up and performing Dire Actions. So pay a fine RIGHT NOW to stop that from happening, and oh, by the way, would you please do so via a gift card.
This is the first time I’ve seen the gift card scam in the body of a spam email (but I certainly haven’t been looking very hard).
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Oh yes the calls come in here too. Pretty funny when they threaten Canadians with the FBI and having our Social Security numbers cancelled. But in general the frauds work because so many people do not know how such a situation would play out in real life. As in no one from a bank just tells you you’re getting $15 million out of the blue and Microsoft doesn’t know or care if there’s a problem with your computer.
In the past 3 months while my wife has been stuck in England I’ve had the phone OFF because the number of legitimate calls in that time was six, whereas the scam calls average two a day.
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