Scammers Reveal Targeted Countries & Offer Your Money Back Just to Scam You Again

It’s doubtful that the internet crooks behind this phishing email meant to reveal what countries they’ve targeted in the past, but it looks like they’ve done just that.

Instead of spamming us with the regular nonsense about how we’ve won millions in dollars in some lottery, a bank payment has been delayed or that they want to invest some large amount in our business, they’ve come up with the brilliant idea to tell us that they received a report that we’ve been scammed and that they want to return the stolen money back to us!

In the email, it states that authorities in both the UK and US have been working together to investigate scams targeting British, American, and Asian citizens.

So, to me, that says “Hey, we’ve targeted you guys before and we’d like to rob you again.” Right?

Ironically, although it’s implied that the email is coming from the FBI of the UK, the recipient of this phishing email is instructed to contact the Federal Bureau Investigation Corporate Head Office in Nigeria to retrieve stolen monies.

Here’s the email:

From: Princess K. Murphy <fbideskenquiries@eol.cn>
Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 3:02 PM
To: [removed]
Subject: URGENT: scammed victims Funds

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Head Office & Accounts

URGENT: scammed victims Funds

The Federal Bureau Investigation in UK in conjunction with the American  Government received a report of scam against you and other British/US and Asian citizens etc. You are listed and approved for payment as one of the scammed victims here in the UK. On this faithful recommendations, you are to contact the Federal Bureau Investigation Corporate Head Office In Nigeria for verification. Your funds will be transferred to you via western union. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Princess K. Murphy
Public Relation Officer.
Federal Bureau Investigation.

Sooo, wait, you want me to contact an organization based in Nigeria (a country that the infamous “Nigerian Scams” are named after) to receive money via Western Union (which is often times the method used to transfer money in scams anyway) in order to get my money back?

Fat chance!

Looking at this scam from a criminal point of view, it’s actually a pretty good idea. Should the phishing email actually reach someone who was scammed before, they may actually take the bait and believe that they can get their money back - and ultimately wind up being scammed again!

By the way, did you happen to notice that the ‘from’ address is “fbideskenquiries@eol[dot]cn”?  That .cn extension is actually for China, not the UK. Also, the email wasn't even addressed to me.

If you happen to receive this email, be advised that it is nothing more than a scam and you should mark it as spam if it wasn’t caught by your email filter and delete it.

Don’t engage the scammer by replying to it, just get rid of it.

You have better things to do with your time.

Photo Credit: doctorwonder

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