E-mail Scam Leverages News about Nigerian President and Swiss Banks

According to ESET, the security company, online fraudsters are familiarly capitalizing on one genuine news story towards crafting more persuasive e-mail scams. This time they are abusing the news about Switzerland's decision to give back $700m (EUR 546m) as portion of the funds which the erstwhile president of Nigeria apparently stashed inside Swiss banks.

The fraudulent electronic mail that is accompanied with two news clippings as well as a web-link leading onto one article published in The Sun newspaper of Nigeria, while addressing the recipient as Sir/Madam affably informs on behalf of Mrs. Maryam Abacha, spouse of Nigeria's first citizen of state over the period 1993-98 that Mr. Abacha had saved some money in an account of a bank in Switzerland for their sons Mohammed and Abba as well as herself. That bank has now returned $700m, representing their sons' portion, to the government of Nigeria on December 5, 2012. To know the details, the recipient may browse the given website, sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/switzerland-returns-700m-abac... Alternatively, he or she may, just for convenience, find the information by doing a Google search, the e-mail continues.

Subsequently, the e-mail suggests that Mrs. Abacha's portion of the money will soon be disbursed. Therefore, she is looking for a trustworthy person who'll accept the money to judiciously invest for her as well as her sons followed with helping them leave Nigeria prior to them getting totally ruined. To provide this help, the e-mail even solicits the person's conditions such as the fees he would charge, amongst others.

Unfortunately, according to ESET's security investigators, the above kind of scam represents the AFF (Advance Fee Fraud) scheme.

Remarking about it, David Harley, Senior Research Fellow at ESET states that it indicates that Internet-scammers aren't surrendering their malevolent e-mail spam.

The lesson thus obtained: irrespective of the level of conviction in the kind of e-mails, such as the number of proofs given, these messages must be overlooked followed with erasing them right away from the mailbox. For, failing so one can easily become entangled inside a web of untruths leading to loss of huge cash prior to even realizing, the investigators add.

Related article: E-Vote Machines Can Be Infected With Virus

» SPAMfighter News - 12/17/2012