MoMusings

I mentioned a while ago that some of the 419 scams I had seen recently had become quite ‘professional-looking’, as if the 419ers had taken a leaf out of the Phishers book. This is especially true of the so-called ‘Lottery‘ variants.

The ‘Lottery’ variant of the 419 Advanced Fee Fraud has been around for about two years now and was a major shift in the 419ers method of enticement. What usually happens is that you receive an e-mail stating that you have won a sum of money. Hang on don’t get too excited as it is a scam, there is no money, and you will end up being fleeced as you will be informed that you need to pay a ‘handling or administrative fee’.

To illustrate this, I have taken a number of screenshots of them, and I have included two screenshots below:

If I received all the alleged winnings from all the copies of the Lottery scams I get each day, then I’d now be richer than Bill Gates

In fact, by now I should own most of the planet, so you all owe me rent, come on pay up!

As I’m in a ‘festive’ frame of mind, and just for a bit of fun, here’s a modified version of the last verse of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas‘, Please feel free to sing along, yes and that means you in the back - stop hiding I can see you:

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve phishers phishing,
Eleven carders carding,
Ten data stealers,
Nine e-mail worms,
Eight pirates a-pirating,
Seven spammers spamming,
Six password stealers,
Five 419 scams,
Four new exploits,
Three bot-nets,
Two Trojan horses,
And a scam from e-Bay!

And if anyone can do better, and I’m sure you can, then please post them as comments. The same goes for any other Christmas carol you feel you can be creative with; the only rule is you must use computer security and malware terms.

Links to other screenshots:

• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery3.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery4.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery5.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery6.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery7.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery8.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery9.jpg
• http://arachnid.homeip.net/images/419-lottery10.jpg