Haiti disaster attracts Nigerian scammers

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It happened after the Indian ocean tsunami and after Hurricane Katrina. It’s happening again with the earthquake in Haiti that has killed tens of thousands and left hundreds of thousands injured, homeless, hungry or without medical treatment: Scammers in Nigeria and elsewhere are stealing money meant for victims of the disaster.

If you think there is a line that such scammers won’t cross, think again.

Here is an email soliciting donations on behalf of “HAITI CITIZENS LIVING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM” with relatives living in Haiti, but really originating from an IP address in Nigeria, West Africa:

PASTOR JOHN BROMA
HAITI CITIZENS IN UNITED KINGDOM
23 BEN AVENUE S/W,LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM

DEAR SIR/MADAM

WE ARE HAITI CITIZENS LIVING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM WHOM THEIR FAMILIES
ARE AFFECTED BY THE RECENT EARTQUAKE,WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RAISE MONEY
TO HELP THE HAITI CITIZENS WHO ARE WITHOUT FOODS,DRUG AND SHELTER,SO WE
PLEAD THAT YOU SUPPORT US WITH WHAT EVER YOU CAN.

ALL DONATIONS SHOULD BE SEND THROUGH WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER
BECAUSE OF THE URGENT ATTENTION NEEDED.DO SEND IT TO THE INFORMATIONS BELOW.

PASTOR JOHN BROMA

HAITI CITIZENS IN UNITED KINGDOM
23 BEN AVENUE S/W,LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU FORWARD THE WESTERN UNION INFORMATIONS SUCH AS
SENDERS NAME,AMOUNT SEND AND THE MTCN.WE PRAY THAT ALMIGHTY GOD WILL
BLESS AS YOU HELP THE SUFFERING HAITI CITIZEN.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP

PASTOR JOHN BROMA(SECRETARY)

Looking at the message headers we see:

Received: from User ([82.128.33.35] RDNS failed) by mail.westnet.com
with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:13:32 +0900
Reply-To: <pastorjohnbroma@yahoo.com>
From: HIATI CITIZENS IN UNITED KINGDOM<pastorjohnbroma@yahoo.com>
Subject: HELP FOR HAITI
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:21:10 -0800

IP address 82.128.33.35 belongs to a cell phone provider in Nigeria:

inetnum: 82.128.32.0 – 82.128.63.255
netname: INET-MLTL
descr: CDMA 1x/EVDO Dial up pool
country: NG
admin-c: RIA27
tech-c: RIA27
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MLTL-INT-MNT
mnt-lower: MLTL-INT-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
parent: 82.128.0.0 – 82.128.127.255

person: IP Admin-RIPE
address: Multilinks Telecommunications Limited
address: 231 Adeola Odeku Str.
address: Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

The criminal who sent this mail must be one of their customers.

If you want to make a donation to help those affected by the disaster, send it to the Red Cross or another well established relief organization. Beware of any stranger who asks you to wire money by Western Union or MoneyGram, because these instant wire transfer services are essentially anonymous and untraceable and there are no safeguards whatsoever against abuse by criminal recipients, who can not be traced. That is precisely why scammers prefer you to send money that way.

If hell exists there must be a special place there waiting for these scammers, who even make money out of the orphans and dying in Haiti.

12 thoughts on “Haiti disaster attracts Nigerian scammers”

  1. Here is a “dying widow” scam format modified to take advantage of the Haiti catastrophe: The dying widow (i.e. the Nigerian scammer) wants you to donate her money to the victims of the Haiti earthquake, but first you’ll have to send money to her lawyer:

    Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:33:19 +0000 (GMT)
    From: “ongoog1@yahoo.com”
    Subject: pls confirm

    Dear Beloved,

    My Name is Mrs. Jane Pius I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have to charity through you.You may be wondering why I chose you. But someone has to be chosen. I am 73years old and was diagnosed for cancer about 2 years ago,immediately after the death of my husband who had left me everything he worked for.I have been touched by the lord to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to charity through you for the good work of humanity,rather than allow my relatives to use my husband’s hard earned funds inappropriately. I have asked the lord to forgive me all my sins and I believe he has,because He is merciful.

    I will be going in for an operation,and I pray that I survive the operation. I have decided to WILL/Donate the sum of $5,900,000.00 Million to charity and the victims of the haiti earthquake through you for the good work of the lord, and to help the motherless,less privileged and also for the assistance of the widows. At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls, due to the fact that my relatives are around me and I have been restricted by my doctor from taking telephone calls because I deserve all the rest I can get. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others.If you are interested in carrying out this task,i will inform my Family Lawyer so that he can arrange the release of the funds to you. I know i have never met you but my mind tells me to do this,and I hope you act sincerely.I will pay you 30% of this money if you will assist me because I am now too weak and frigile to do things myself because of my ca ncer.

    NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished,as I don’t want anything that will Jeopardize my last wish. please i will appreciate you to kindly get back to me through this
    email address janepius@stargatesg1.com for further and effective proceedings.

    Remain Blessed in The Lord
    Mrs. Jane Pius

  3. One more that has been reported to us:

    From: Sgt.Henning Hansen [Sgt.Henning@myway.com]

    Haiti Relief and Development

    On January 12, a series of earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to
    7.3 devastated Haiti. The American Red Cross is working with its partners in the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network, including the Haitian Red Cross, and other partners to assist those affected by this disaster.

    Your gift to the American Red Cross will support emergency relief and recovery efforts to help those people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
    Assistance provided by the American Red Cross may include deploying personnel, sending relief supplies, and providing financial resources.

    International Response Fund

    You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by sending your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, accountant name by western union, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at +1-315-366-4253 or our london office +447031886030 you can still donnet at our (Spanish) office, 0034 672 861 321

    You have the right to make the payment at any of this three country

    Here is the Re Cross Given payment instruction follows:

    UNITED KINGDOM ACCOUNTANT OFFICER CONTACT INFOR:
    RECEIVER’S NAME; raymond singh
    DESTINATION; 67 Nelson baskata Street, Bradford Manchester United Kingdom MTCN:………………………..

    UNITED STATE ACCOUNTANT OFFICER CONTACT INFOR:
    Receivers Name: barbara Dionisio
    Destination: 6 fonitur raod Washington, D.C MTCN:………………………..

    SPANISH ACCOUNTANT OFFICER CONTACT INFOR:
    Receiver Name: David Majok
    Destination: 18 arurubu street 889000 Malaga spain MTCN:……………………….
    Thanks for you support God will pay you back: Please Email: US at
    (cross_red.usa@live.com) as soon as you make the payment

    SIGH
    AMERICAN RED CROSS

  4. Glad to have found your link off a WOT warning. You may be interested in the related work that we are trying to do. Slide show http://www.leadsleap.com/go/26803
    and new site http://internetscamsanonymous.com

    The Internet Scams Anonymous Group provides support services for those that have been scammed to help them recognize and avoid the next scam or fraud. Valuable for those that have scammed, the new internet user or newbie, and those oldsters (but still want to learn) that are trying to grow their online business and be successful.

    At times, it seems the scammers and spammers are winning. Unfortunately, reducing spam will not necessarily reduce the scammers who are quite innovative. But at the rate of growth for new users, we must try all means to help.

    Thank you for the work that you are doing.

  5. I am a Nigerian-American. many of the initial victims of this crap were complicit Americans. Yeah, I’ll send you millions of dollars from my dictator father, but you have to play hush and keep it in your account.

    I hold all accountable. The people perpetrating the scams in Nigeria are crooks giving the country a bad name and fleecing some well meaning people (with letters like the above). But the Americans who get caught with the “dictator” form of the letters are crooks as well who would gladly jeopardize the welfare of innocent Nigerians. At least the Nigerian crooks are largely out of job teenagers and not grown up weasels!

  6. There’s a great book – though it is fiction, it describes the whole Nigerian scam artist lifestyle from the perspective of the scammer – it’s called “I Do Not Come to You By Chance’ by female Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.

    Worth a read definitely!

  7. this is quite educative , i almost got into donating tot one today . tanks .

  8. Got another one today:

    ====
    Dear Sir/ Madam

    Reach out to the Haiti Earthquake victims today.

    Save a life there through M.E. FOUNDATION HOME

    Any form of donation will be appreciated, get to donate today through M.E. FOUNDATION HOME by writing to our Home Team leader Mr. David Isco Iker on ikerdavidmary@in.com.

    Remain Blessed

    Yours in Faith

    Mrs. Mary Isco Iker
    President
    M.E. FOUNDATION HOME
    ====

    Sent through a server in Belarus, with a mix and match of free webmail accounts in the headers and bodies:

    ====
    Received: from hosting.solo.by (hosting.solo.by [195.222.70.114]) by
    sienna.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 709C1200214 for <joewein@pobox.com>
    Thu, 4 Feb 2010 07:26:17 -0500 (EST)
    Received: by hosting.solo.by (Postfix, from userid 33) id 940ED1CFF5B; Thu,
    4 Feb 2010 14:25:15 +0200 (EET)
    To: joewein@pobox.com
    Subject: HAITI EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
    From: Mrs.Mary Isco Iker <onye302000@in.com>
    Reply-To: sapklin@ymail.com
    ====

  10. It still amazes me that anybody could fall for these obvious scams. But enough people fall for them to make this very profitable for Nigerian scammers, and the emails won’t stop until people smarten up. If you expect something for nothing, then you can also expect to get ripped off.

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