[Cz-L] distress email scam

Answering Hardy's question below about the distress email that Mimi
received...

There are several ways the crook can get his/her hands on the money sent in
reply to a distress email. Basically, the scam is done through a money
transfer.

The most likely way is that the crook has you send the money to Western
Union in country XYZ addressed to the "sender". WU is notoriously sloppy
about making sure that the person who picks up the money IS THE PERSON TO
WHOM THE MONEY WAS SENT. They really don't care since they pocket the 20%
of the money, no matter if the transfer is legitimate, or stealing. It is
even possible that a local WU employee is working with the crook. But, even
if the local WU employee is not helping, the crook comes in with a fake ID,
gets the money, and vanishes.

WU should be sued for its loose practices which even allow crooks to copy
their websites and send "authentic" WU messages. There are other ways of
stealing via the internet that are more complex but all of them can be
avoided by taking a hard look at the distress email and asking a few simple
questions.

For you grandparents, the latest scam is grand-child sends a distress email
-- BUT DON'T TELL MY PARENTS OF MY PROBLEM BECAUSE THEY WILL KILL ME...
Same methodology, same result -- if you don't question it.

W

[Thank you, Wolf - and so ends this thread. Now we return to our regularly scheduled program. Moderator B]

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Subject: Re: [Cz-L] scam IN czernowitz-l digest: December 03, 2012
From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_BEZEQINT.NET>
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2012 18:37:22 +0200
X-Message-Number: 7

Wolfi,
  You seem to be very much in the know.
  If so , please tell me how does the crook cash the money
  sent on the victim's name ?
Hardy

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Received on 2012-12-06 19:49:46