News Dutch police arrest 52 in email scam raids

"Amsterdam police have arrested 52 people in the Dutch capital in connection with an email scam designed to defraud the gullible with get-rich-quick schemes.

Police on Thursday said the group was suspected of sending some 100,000 email messages to addresses in Japan and the United States.

The emails claim to be from a well-known individual or the individual's relative and promise the recipient a percentage payment from a sum of up to $20 million for help in transferring frozen funds to an accessible place.

In such scams -- made infamous by West African fraudsters -- once the victim is hooked, he or she is then is usually asked to put up hefty sums for air fares or other pretences."

Full story from Reuters: here

I got loads of these

 

so they are looking for gullible people ? and they mail to the usa ? whatever could they be thinking about your average american 8)

 

Yeah, what could they be thinking! HAHAHAHAHA

 

They don't just pick on Americans, they pick on EVERYONE. Unfortunately the 419 scammers are pretty good at what they do, and are making hundreds of thousands from people they've tricked.

Matt Alright from Scambusters (a BBC show) went over to Amsterdam to try to get scammed by 2 different 419ers. The first one got scared off by Matt's hard man routine, and they annoyed the 2nd by saying the money was somewhere in the park and they were following a map drawn by an 8 year old to its supposed location.

It's nice to see someone getting their own back, even if they are just a BBC presenter.

 

Anybody stupid enough to buy that sh*t story deserve to be conned. I mean really, c'mon!

 

I dont really agree with you coorz. How often do you get emails from relatives informing you about this crazy virus etc. It was all confirmed by Microsoft blablabla. I get them on a weekly basis, but none of my relatives are stupid (most of them have university degrees). It is just that internet, email and computers are very complicated for a lot of people and they dont want to ask for help, because they dont want to sound stupid.

 

Ok, perhaps i was a little too harsh on the 'stupid' part. But you are right about people's insecurity/ignorance regarding such issues especially when it is targeted towards a common weakness most of suffer from: greed. Too bad that's exactly the weak spot those criminals are aiming for.

 

Hell yeah.

 

Je hebt trouwens wel een kikke kast gemaakt!

 

What language is that?
GEINTJE! thx

 

are you saying its not common sense that someone offering you a "large percentage of millions" might be trying to trick you? people sending virus hoaxes is completely different. people get viruses all the time, so sending warnings on does not make them stupid, but falling for such a well known scam such as this surely cant be seen as clever thinking!

 

I am rather sceptic by nature, so I would investigate the issue first before I jump in. Just see it this way then. Publish an advertisment in the paper and wait for the reactions. I will bet you that a lot less people would react to the advertisment than to email crap.