Sent to my university email box…

A customised “scholarship award” 419 scam! Let’s deconstruct it, shall we…

FROM: THE DESK OF THE VICE PRESIDENT MR.AUSTIN THOMAS.(TRANSNATIONAL
AWARD INTERNATIONAL) PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
REF NO: 12/0078/IPG
BATCH NO: EGS/ 20054117/08

Generated randomly, probably.

ATTN: WINNER.

RE: SCHOLARSHIP AWARD NOTIFICATION, FINAL NOTICE.

We are pleased to inform you, that as a result of our RECENT LOTTERY DRAWS HELD ON THE 28TH DECEMBER 2006. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:021-7276083-04 with serial number:31270-0 drew lucky numbers:05-06-12-14-38 which consequently won in the 5th category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in cash credited to file with REF:.EGS/3662367114/13

Oh, look, is that a different random batch number? Note the amateurish nature of the scam. I’m amazed anyone gets taken in by these things, but they do.

Note that all participants in this lottery program have been selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 Officials and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web sites,from Asia, Australia, NewZealand, Europe, North and South America, Middle East and Africa, as part of our International Promotions Program.This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei and other corporate organizations. This is to IMPROVE THE LEVEL O!
F EDUCATION WORLDWIDE and to ENCOURAGE THE USE OF INTERNET AND COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE.

“30,000,000 individual email addresses” obviously means “dictionary attack on .edu and .ac.uk”. This appears to be a fill-in-the-blank lotto scam – with the reasons for it just entered in by the scammer in particular depending on his run. Also, that O!<carriage return>F is in the actual email. Brilliant.

Your fund is now deposited with EcoBank and insured in your name For security purpose and clarity, we advise that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to your account.

Nah, I don’t think I’m going to do that.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. We look forward to your active participation in our next 4 million dollars slot.

This of course is the hook for the scam – there’s 4M available if you phone in. Shame the scam’s so bloody obvious, and the hook is too well hidden in the long paragraphs.

To begin the processing of your prize you are to contact your claims agent through our accredited Prize Transfer agents as stated below:

Name..Rev Paul Edward

Oh, a “reverend”. How trustworthy.

TEL: +234-80-3819 1724 CALL HIM IMMEDIATELY WITH HIS ABOVE DIRECT PHONE NUMBER IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM (USA) THIS IS HOW YOU DIAL 011-234-80-3819 1724 BUT IF YOU ARE CALLING FROM ANY OTHER COUNTRY,THIS IS HOW TO DIAL +234-80-3819 1724

They obviously think we’re that dumb that we don’t know how to dial an international number. Oh, and +234 is, of course, the international calling code for Nigeria; it is a mobile phone on the MTN Nigeria network.

Googling on the telephone number for the scammer has cropped up someone on Livejournal who’s received the scam from the same people; the name given in his scam email is “Rev Frank Ive”.

You are also advised to provide your claim agent with the under listed information as soon as possible send it to his two email addresses below,YOUR CLAIM AGENT E MAIL ADDRESSES BELOW,

E MAIL: pauledward1616@yahoo.com
E MAIL: pauledward555@myway.com

The same email providers were used for Frank Ive, presumably because these are the easiest free email providers to automate account creation for (and slowest to terminate people for 419 scamming.)

1. Name in full
2. Address
3. Nationality
4. Age
5. Occupation
6. Phone/Fax
7. Batch Number
8. Serial Number

All winnings must be claimed not later than one month after the date of this notice. Please note,in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications,remember to quote your Batch number and Serial numbers in all orrespondence.Furthermore,should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.Congratulations!!!once more and thank you for being part of our promotional program. Bear in mind that 10% of your fund will be going to the lottery organization that played the lottery with peoples name and email addresses that should be after you most have received the fund in your account,the 10% would have been given to them,just because the fund has been insured and will not be removed till you receive the fund in your account.

This of course is the trick to confuse people into not reporting their scamming until it’s way, way too late. Oh, and “orrespondence”? Tee hee.

Sincerely,

MR.AUSTIN THOMAS
VICE PRESIDENT.
TRANSNATIONAL AWARD

The same name was used on the Livejournal recipient’s mail too.

So what we’ve got here is a scam that is cleverly targeted but still misses the mark by a very long distance, not least because it got picked up by my university’s SpamAssassin system and was marked with a spam warning, but also because of what it lacks in spelling, grammar, good sense and layout. The question of course is why so many people get stung by 419 scams after this long and why they are allowed to just keep on going. It’s the money, isn’t it?