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The most well known phishing scam - Get a million dollars from a strangerThe most infamous Internet scams was one promising about million U.S. dollars as fees to the recipient if he/she helped transfer funds of about 5 million USD. The email supposedly originated from Nigeria (or one of the African countries) and was sent by the wife/son/daughter of a slain military commander and hence it is sometimes also referred to as the Nigerian Letter Scam. FYI, the military commander was killed in a coup. I first encountered this phishing attack in the year 2000 and had dumped it in the Deleted Items folder though I confess that I did go through it thoroughly - and it was an interesting read. Further details can be found on the wikipedia web site - The Advance Fee Fraud or the Nigerian Scam or the 419 fraud The success of this phishing email was simple - it appealed to one's greed. A million dollars just for helping a stranger transfer their funds; few could resist that temptation. Even though this scam was detailed on several television channels and newspapers, people still fell into its trap and lost hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. How did this phishing scam work?The phishing email is quite long about 8-10 paragraphs of text and provides a detailed account of the issue which was the problem of transferring 4-5 million dollars accumulated by the slain military commander. The reward of the successful transfer would be 20 or 25% which would amount to about a million USD. The email would end with the contact details of the sender which would be a real email address and sometimes a real postal address too. The scam begins once you contact the sender. The reply would generally be prompt and you would be furnished a set of instructions that include transferring of a nominal amount needed to process bank documents required for initiating the transfer of funds. Sometimes, the senders would follow up by sending you "important" documents over post that would not only prove their existence but also allay your fears. Usually, the first request for money is followed by a similar one for a larger amount. The scammers are smart enough to keep you abreast of the progress and thus keep the carrot hanging. Over the years this phishing email has taken various forms - appealing to one's greed, romance etc. Though the modus operandi of these variants might differ their aim is one - to fleece you of your monies. Yes, people still fall for thisIt's surprising that even though this scam is common knowledge and has been detailed on television and newspapers people still fall in the trap. A few days ago as I lay in front of the T.V. with nothing better to do than change channels, as I came across stories and interviews with recent fraud victims. One of them lad lost about USD 7,000 and the other was in a worse situation with loses amounting to USD 30,000. Effects of the Nigerian scamThe Nigerian scam has lead to deaths, suicides, murders, kidnappings and even further frauds when the victims have themselves become conmen being driven by greed and trying to gather funds for the principal fraudsters. Examples of the Nigerian Email scam or the 419 FraudHere are some real world examples of the Nigerian scam or the 419 fraud. They have been collected by email - unfortunately, some of these do slip past my spam filters.
Page contents: Famous phishing scam attack defrauding the gullible of tens of millions of dollars.
Page URL: http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/articles/ famous_phishing_scam.php
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