E&E newswire reports today: (h/t to Rob Bradley)
U.N. agency latest front for prize letter scam
Katherine Ling, E&E reporter Published: Wednesday, 8-20-2014
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the “William J. Clinton Foundation” are giving away $900,000 — but first you need to send in your date of birth and marital status to obtain the prize.
The international organizations have become the latest front in a twist on a common email scam where friends in trouble in faraway places plead with colleagues to send funds overseas or Nigerian princes offer riches in exchange for a Social Security number and bank account number. The scam letters are known as the “Nigerian letter” or “419” fraud — the section of .
…
The scam letter says it has only been sent to “18 lucky recipients” and informs the receiver that the UNFCCC is awarding the “yearly award” of $900,000 to celebrate its 18th anniversary — the first contradiction in a series of red flags.
The prizes will be given for the recipient’s “personal business development and enhancement of their educational plans and to create awareness in their community on the dangers posed on our planet by climate change as a result of pollution and Environmental Degradation,” the letter says.
It includes an email code number and batch number to claim the award. The sender must give a full name, country, contact address, telephone number, fax number, marital status, occupation, date of birth, gender and alternative email to receive the prize.
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William Briggs had a report on a variation of the scam back in 2010 involving Clinton and Nelson Mandela:
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=3117
It seems the Clinton foundation is a regular target of such things, as this press release back in 2011 reports: https://www.clintonfoundation.org/main/news-and-media/press-releases-and-statements/press-release-alert-about-fraudulent-solicitations.html
Perhaps the scammers figure Clinton supporters are likely to be more gullible?
The scammers know that Clinton supporters have no common sense.
Eh… sounds about as legit as the real UNFCCC.
Man, these scammers are becoming cheapskates. I remember days where they gave away 500,000,000 USD.
Notice the use of “lucky.” Another tip-off.
Gore is really excited – he won the prize twice!
We have had this problem in the UK for years. They pretend they have money they need to get out of the country and if you send them bank account details and Mother’s maiden name they will give you 20% of £/$ x,000,000.
The gullible and greedy fall for it, which is why this scam perpetuates, any e-mail I receive offering this “benefit” gets sent straight to my Spam folder.
Another one is sending a file that you need to open. Why would somebody zip a file of around 40kb? Because it is a virus or worm which is not detected until unzipped.
Well, a scam within a scam… that’s a new one.
I think we should be well past the point of warning about these scams. I mean, after all these years, falling for e-mail scams should be considered natural selection. It is bad enough falling for the CAGW scam, but an e-mail scam?
@ The Mighty Quinn –
See, that’s where you’re wrong.
ManBearPig is actually the one sending the emails.
Crap, it’s a scam? I thought it was somehow connected to my missing Big Oil checks, who knew.
Do you also have to take the ice bucket challenge as well?
How inept can they get. They should have stated that consensus determined their spot among the 18 recipients and that flat earthers and creationists will take over their school system if they don’t participate soon.
Of all the climate scams, these one seems the most harmless and least expensive.
These scammers are in the wrong business. With their imagination, they should be writing novels or movie scripts.
Last year, I received one from the “”United Nations Payment Dept”.
It said in part, “This compensation is from United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) for humanitarian preparedness and response plan to compensate all the fraudulent victims involves in scams all over theworld.” (sic)
Where do I apply? Do I get the bonus kingdom and steak knives as well?
If you receive one of these email and want ideas on how to have fun, try 419eater.com. It’s a site dedicated to scamming the scammers. Some of the stuff they’ve pulled can be quite funny so worth a read even if you don’t want to mess with the scammers.
There are actually 2 groups of scammers at work here. First we have the amateurs, the Nigerians. Then we have the well seasoned scammers, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. One group is content with say 1million, the other group is not happy with billions a year. I am not kidding you or joking.
It is much too cheap for real CAGW scientists, $900K is just chicken feed to those scammers.
Yet another climate scam.
Is the email address of the sender …@SkS?
@inMAGICn says:
August 20, 2014 at 12:21 pm
“Notice the use of “lucky.” Another tip-off.”
Yes, the use of the word ‘lucky’ is one possible give away for the “Nigerian letter scam”.
For climate scams the use of the phrase “the dangers posed on our planet by climate change as a result of pollution and Environmental Degradation” is conclusive evidence of a scam. Along with “please spend lots of tax payers money”
Francisco nails it: Well, a scam within a scam…
Both the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” and the “William J. Clinton Foundation” are scams. The first is designed to convince us we can ‘fix’ the climate if we pay enough in global taxes. The second was set up simply to get Hillary elected President.
Scammers piggybacking on even bigger scammers; now that’s irony.
This scam should be very successful amongst the warmista … they are so gullible for the Cause.
August 20, 2014 at 1:52 pm | Hot under the collar says:
Now there is a great idea, register Nutticelli for his interest!
Why are my simple comments subject to “moderation” ?
Visit 419eater.com for full details.
Reminds of the Apple Powerbook scam on a Nigerian scammer…
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/p-p-p-powerbook
You could get ripped off even more badly. You could find yourself giving money to the real William J Clinton Foundation.
A guy I know has a “very successful investor” pal who lost $750,000 to one of these Nigerian scammers a few years ago. How moronic do you have to be to fall for this?
Yeah, but what about this. I received an email from a cousin in UK, saying he and his family were stranded in Kiev, after being mugged, could I send him some money quick, so he and his family could get home. He’s b……. 90 years old, and his wife’s in a nursing home. Fancy vacating in Kiev right now after the MH17 debacle.
If you will believe in #ManBearPig you will believe in any pseudo-science garbage you see or hear…
P.T. Barnum is proven correct every day.
Seems fair to me.
If one has signed up to combat climate change, you can pretty much guarantee they are on a sucker list.
Now given the damage done and the ever rising costs of the climate change meme, I would not mind having that list.
These folk need scammed into poverty, after all we now know how dangerous they are with a little bit of leisure and wealth.
This could be thought of as redistributive justice.
Well non of us will be donating will they. What goes around, comes around.
Chicken feed compared to what the UN’s doing already.
Along with 419Eater, as mentioned above, http://www.scamwarners.com has a full and detailed library of all known and existing scams.
Also a good team of people able to discuss any scams you or someone you know may have become involved with.
Disclaimer, I’m a member of both.
Nigerian scammers say they’re from Nigerian to weed out the logical minded people. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/428151/why_nigerian_scammers_say_they_re_from_nigeria/
Uh, huh. And if you forward Bill Gates Email 1000 times, you get a new pony!
When I first heard about these Scams, I scoffed because I just KNEW no one was that gullible. Of course that was when I was relatively young and naive.
Well it isn’t as bad as the guy in Australia who returned from overseas to find his unit had been sold by Nigerian scammers who presented false documents showing they owned the unit to a real estate agent, who promptly sold it.
Imagine, coming back from overseas and walking into your unit with someone else living in it. Oh sorry, this is my place….The real estate agent was liable, but the government looked into it and gave him back the money and tightened up documentation procedures. Apparently there have been 6 similar attempts since, but only the one managed to get sold.
Probably not a good idea, since you’ve already failed the Redundant Grammar Challenge. 😉
Don’t open this site unless you have some free time on your hands. Some of the stories are hilarious:
http://www.419eater.com/
Reminds me of the related scam, pay us large sums of money and we will keep the climate just right for you.
MikeUK says:
August 21, 2014 at 7:52 am
“Reminds me of the related scam, pay us large sums of money and we will keep the climate just right for you.”
Oh, this is the typical climate protection racket stuff we have already spent trillions on.
I recently received a Google scam from Malaysia. As the real Google never used my Google email address, it was a dead give away it was a scam.
Well there are some going around asking for money allegedly using genuine email addresses and people. I got one allegedly from my cousin stranded in Kiev. As if, he’s 90. But others have been reported from my Aussie bonsai site from members whose computers have been hacked somehow.