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The Nigerian domain name purchase scam

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namedropper

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I get the weirdest emails...

So, I have a website up listing my domains for sale, just like everyone else probably. Here's an email I got tonight:

"manager,

i saw one of your goods and i so ,much admire it.i will be greatful if u can sell it for me.the total some of the items are 20.they are all gold.i dont want any diamond neither nor silver.the goods will be shipped down to nigeria,lagos state.the name of the item is written below

Uppercase: FINEGOLD.COM -- Lowercase: finegold.com

arrange the total some of the money and tell me how much my expenses are.

thanks."

I figure this has to be a cut and paste job form letter of some guy thinking he can pretend to buy stuff and then get a bank account or some other nonsense, because nobody is this dense.

Although I would dearly love to sell him 20 FineGold.com domain names... I thought owning one of them was good enough personally.
 
K

kingdon

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Respond with $100,000 and a hotmail paypal address. I'm probably really stretching!
 

URLtrader

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He already knows your address from whois record. Ask him to send you Moneyorder or Banker,s Check for 50% of the agreed amount. Offer to accept balance after transfer of name. See what happens.
 

namedropper

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You are assuming this guy can use whois? He can't tell the difference between a domain name and physical property.

The standard goal from a Nigerian scam letter is to try to convince you lots of money will come your way either out of the blue or for hugely expensive purchases. He probably just did a search for "Gold for sale" and sent emails to all of them wanting 20 of their most expensive product.

I can't see the point in responding to him. If someone else thinks it'll be funny, the email address he listed to respond to was "[email protected]". You might want to coordinate your efforts so he doesn't get fivedifferent people claiming to be the owner. Of course that'd be funny too. All I ask is if you do write to him, that you post the correspondance here for everyone to see and laugh at.
 

parwold

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here's one I recieved that you might like to take up

FROM:MOHAMMED BELLO
EMAIL:[email protected]

DEAR SIR,

May it not be a suprise to recieve this letter from me ,considering the fact that you do not know me.

First I must seek for your understanding and pray that God will give you the wisdom to understand my problem and be in a position to help as you will be surely blessed as you help. I am MR MOHAMMED BELLO,I am 41 Years old and also the chief accountant with Zulf Bank Nig PLC . I have a transaction which I think will be of mutual benefit to both of us. In my desire for a foreign partner with whom to do
this transaction, I stumbled on your contact from a business directory.

As the head of accounts department of GBNP, I discovered some amount of money while I was auditing accounts for the 2001 financial year which has been lying there for over 3 years. On further inquiry, I discovered that this money totalling about USD$2O.5 Million (Twenty Million five hundred thousand United States Dollars) including accumulated interest which belonged to one MR. HUANG L. TANAGA ,
a korea Nationale who lived here and died intestate without providing anybody to claim the money.

This man died through a plane crash of ADC airlines in 1998. I have Successfully secured the money and with the assistance of my colleague, the money has been moved out of my bank and deposited in a security company. It was packed in three(3)metal trunk boxes as photographic materials. I would need your
particulars to enable me prepare documents which will authenticate that the Consignment belongs to you
as the next of kin to MR. HUANG L. TANAGA and to enable you claim the money since nobody has come to claim the money,because according to the law here if by the end of this year nobody comes up for the money it will be deposited into the government account. I want to be assured of a safe account
where the money will be deposited pending my arrival.
This transaction is absolutely risk free with no legal complications as we have made arrangements to secure all the legal documents that will free us from any litigation, I have made all necessary arrangements with the security company ,that as soon as i get your confirmation of interest in this venture,we shall put in all the necessary paper which will authorize the security company to lift the funds out of here to their offshore security company somewhere in Europe where you will travel to claim the funds . Before this money is entrusted into your care, you must assure me that the following terms listed below will be maintained between us.

1.BOTH PARTIES WILL NOT FOR ANY REASON CHEAT EACH OTHER.
2.BOTH PARTIES WILL WORK TOGETHER TO SEE THIS TRANSACTION
THROUGH.
3.A HIGH DEGREE OF TRUST AND CONFIDENTIALITY WILL BE
APPLIED FOR THE SAKE OF OUR WORK.
4.I AND MY PARTNER WILL STRONGLY BE BY YOUR SIDE AS YOU
CLAIM THIS FUND AND I AND MY PARTNER WILL ARRAGE AN
ATTORNEY(LAWYER)WHO WILL WORK ON YOUR BEHALF TO GET THE
NECESSARY PAPERS NEEDED FOR A SMOOTH TRANSACTION.
5.YOU WILL NOT DISAPPEAR WITH OUR FUND AFTER YOU HAVE
CLAIMED IT.
6.DISBURSEMENT RATIO WILL BE 70% FOR ME AND MY
COLLEAGUE,30% FOR YOU.
Finally I want you to note that we are going to spend money where necessary to make this venture work out successfully.There is need for you to confirm your interest in this transcation immediately as to enable us finalize this issue as soon as possible.

I must let you know that a high degree of trust is required and also we will like to use our own share to go
into any lucrative business with your help/assistance.Please reply through,email address{[email protected]}

Awaiting your urgent response now.

Yours Faithfully

MOHAMMED BELLO
EMAIL:[email protected]
 

namedropper

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Hmm, just got another email through the link on my site that is used for offers to buy FineGold.com. This time it was a far more standard Nigerian scam letter.

It's odd that they target that one specific link and not any of the others on the site. But then I don't need any more of these, I don't see why I'm complaining.
 
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