The FBI are scamming me.

[Rik]

It makes a change from Nigerian bankers, I suppose:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Anti-Terrorist And Monetory Crimes Division
FBI Headquarters In Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Website: www.fbi.gov
Telephone Number : (206) 973-2572


Attn: Beneficiary,


This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won the sum of $800,000.00 USD from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you via a Certified Cashier's Check.


Normally, it will take up to 10 business days for an International Check to be cashed by your local bank. We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the United States Of America so as to enable you cash the check instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $800,000.00 USD has been deposited with Bank Of America.


We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited at Bank Of America you will be required to settle the following bills directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is located in London, United kingdom. According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the following -


(1) Deposit Fee's ( Fee's paid by the company for the deposit into an American Bank which is - Bank Of America )
(2) Cashier's Check Conversion Fee ( Fee for converting the Wire Transfer payment into a Certified Cashier's Check )
(3) Shipping Fee's ( This is the charge for shipping the Cashier's Check to your home address and this fee includes Insurance )


The total amount for everything is $500.00 (Five Hundred-US Dollars). We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $500.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited at Bank Of America and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee's to the Agent in-charge of this transaction via Western Union Money Transfer Or Money Gram.


In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge ( Mr. Michael Bulfield) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:


CONTACT AGENT NAME: MR. MICHAEL BULFIELD

E-MAIL ADDRESS: mbulfield203@gmail.com  Yeah, right, the FBI uses GMail!!

Telephone Number : +44-7552439382 Oh, and are operating in the UK on a mobile phone


You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:


FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:


You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram details on how to send the required $500.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $800,000.00 USD via Certified Cashier's Check drawn from Bank Of America, also include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately identify this transaction : EA2948-910.


This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $500.00 ONLY to Mr. Michael Bulfield via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your winning prize of $800,000.00 we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $3,000 which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you (The Winner).


Mr. Bill Nicholson
Special Agent.
Washington DC FBI.
Room, 7367
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001


Please find below an authorized signature which has been signed by the FBI Director- Robert Mueller, also below is the FBI NSB (National Security Branch Seal)

NSB Seal

                                                                                           






Authorized Signature
NSB SEAL ABOVE
NOTE: In order to ensure your check gets delivered to you ASAP, you are advised to immediately contact Mr. michael Bulfield via contact information provided above and make the required payment of $500.00 to information in which he shall provide to you

[kinmel]

No doubt poor Mr Bulfield now lives in a sea of spam as his email address is gleefully added to mailing lists everywhere.

[Rik]

Oh dear, what a shame.

[Steve]

I would have thought "G" men would use gmail

[Rik]

I did find that ironic, Steve.

[Simon]

All seems perfectly reasonable to me. 

[Sebby]

Seriously, how does anyone fall for this stuff?

[Rik]

For every con to succeed, there has to be a greedy mark, Seb.

[zappaDPJ]

So, how many ways are we going to split this then Rik? 

[Rik]

Two should do it, Zap.

[Noreen]

Rik, I mentioned your "FBI" scam on the American forum that I belong to and they said that you should forward it to http://www.fbi.gov/

[Rik]

Now done. 

[Den]

I've sent off my $500 and am now waiting, exciting isn't it Rik 

[Sebby]

[Simon]

I've sent off my $500 and am now waiting, exciting isn't it Rik 

It will be for Rik.  I'm sure that's his mobile phone number! 

[Rik]

You weren't supposed to let on, Simon.

[Simon]

But you promised me my half weeks ago, for setting up the gmail... oops!

[Rik]

Time to change our IP addresses...

[Simon]

[sobranie]

you can spend many happy hours reading correspondence between the spammers and their supposed victims here ...
http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/
Language & pix get a bit OTT but one hell of a laugh at times.
The choice of 'Albert Fred' is a good kicking off point.

[Rik]

It's tempting...

[davej99]

Time to change our IP addresses...

I have often wondered if it is a good idea to change one's IP address from time to time. IDNET is the first ISP I have experienced that provides fixed IPs as standard, rather than as a paid for option or block. I can see this is generally a benefit. But perhaps the chance to change it occasionally might be a good idea. On the other hand, if one a has a clean IP, it might be a good idea to keep it, rather than get a pre-owned one that has been to weird places and attracts unwelcome attention.

I used to notice with other ISPs that some session IPs would attract a lot of incoming traffic. However, I suppose the move to always on connections means in any event that IPs are used for prolonged periods. Would be interested in thoughts on this.

[Rik]

I like static, Dave. I've had much less firewall activity since moving to IDNet because I'm not inheriting an IP address which has been anywhere other than where I want it to, and I've always had control of the ping responses.

[Lance]

I had a static IP with f2s as well, much prefer it!

[Sebby]

I prefer a static IP too. It's handy for things like OpenDNS.