小心汇款骗局-- be aware of money transfer scams targeting freelancers

Dear wherestip,

How are you today? Please, I want you to patiently read this offer.I Know that this way of communication is not the most secured channel to pass a message of this magnitude/importance, but right now it is the quickest means available to me. Bear with me.Permit me however to briefly introduce myself.

My name is Barrister xxxxxx, an attorney at law based in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. I am contacting you for a very important issue. A deceased client of mine by name Mr.Abel who bears the same last name with you died in November 2004 as a result of heart-related disease.

I am contacting you to assist me in claiming the money left behind by my late client before the money is declared unserviceable by the bank and reversed to government treasury. The deposit value is $5.5 million(Five Million,Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars),Late Mr.Abel has made no next of kin known to the bank during the deposit and therefore has no next of kin for his money and properties he left behind.

The bank has issued me a last notice to contact and present my late clients next of kin for the claim or the money will be reversed to government purse and his account closed. My proposal to you is to seek your consent to present you as my late clients next of kin and beneficiary of the funds because you bear the same last name so that the proceeds of my late client's account will be paid to you into an account that will be provided by you. Then we shall share the amount on a mutually agreed percentage,35% for you 60% for myself and 5% of the total money shall be mapped out for miscellaneous expenses that may likely occur from both sides in the course of transaction. I like to let you know that late Mr.Abel has no next of kin before his sudden death and all efforts i made to trace his family was not fruitful.

All legal documents to back you up for this claim as my real late client's next-of-kin will be provided by me. I require your honest cooperation and transparency during process to enable me see this transaction successfully through.The process and transfer of the funds to your account will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and myself from any breach of the law. Please contact me at once to indicate your interest via email,giving me your telephone number for more efficient communication. When i get your reply, i will send you a detailed explanation. This transaction is risk free, strictly private and must be treated with utmost confidentiality. I have twelve (12) banking days to conclude this transaction on receipt of your response. Your earliest response to this proposal will be appreciated, however if this business proposal offends your moral values, do accept my apology. Contact me at once via my personal email address (xxxxxx.com)

Regards,

xxxxxx Esq.

Complement of the day,
please Note; due to poor internet connectivity in our country, you may receive this proposal in your SPAM folder, kindly forward this proposal into your INBOX folder before responding back to me.
Please listen dear friend, I am contacting you with tears full my eyes, please i know this mail will come to you as a surprise since we haven't discuses it before, but kindly bear with me at this moment.
I have a special reason why i decided to contact you. my situation at hand is miserable but i believe you will be of help to me.
My name is Miss. @@. medical female student i am 22years old girl and i held from republic of sudan, the daughter of Late Mr. Wattam Kuso. the owner of Brisco car dealer company, at the Khartoum in Sudan ,
My late father Mr. Wattam Kuso. was also an contractor importers suppliers with the burkina-faso republic coca cola mineral companies,
He was killed alongside with my beloved mother and our family house burnt down by the rebels during the last crisis in my country Sudan , when Janjaweed militias came to our house,
Saying that my late father eats the money paid to him for contractor constructions roads in our town with out completing the projects

You're a regular online banking customer, someone with a substantial amount of money in your account. You log on one day, have less money in the account than before, maybe a small enough amount that you don't even notice that it's gone, but you've been hacked. That could happen to thousands of Americans this coming spring. A new report by a top digital security firm says some of America's biggest banks, 30 of them, are at risk of a massive cyber attack next spring that could siphon millions of dollars from unsuspecting customers.



Pat Calhoun is senior V.P. and general manager of the antivirus software firm McAfee, which issued the new report. It backs up a similar report a few months ago by the security firm, RSA. McAfee won't name the individual banks, but we know account holders in many of America's large mainstream banks are targeted. McAfee says this attack is from a cyber gang led by a mysterious Russian hacker with the handle "vorVzakone".





Calhoun says the hackers are going after individuals who have a lot of money, are limiting the number of targets, and are only planning to take fractions of cash from each account, so that the account holders and the banks themselves may not even notice it at first. How are they getting in? Calhoun says they start either with a phishing scam: you get an e-mail with an attachment, click on the attachment and the malware infects your computer, or it's downloaded by a malicious web site. Then the computer is controlled by servers operated by the hackers. When a user connects to his or her bank, the hackers can monitor the account, including the passwords. Then they access the money and transfer it out. But if you get targeted, are you on the hook for the money stolen?



Doug Johnson of the American Bankers Association says if you monitor your account, keep in close touch with your bank. 




But for some, it's already too late. The attacks have already started on U.S. targets, Calhoun says, have been carried out sporadically, and some $5 million have already been stolen from some victims. But the major attack, again, originating in Eastern Europe, is expected by next spring. Wolf. 



Wolf Blitzer: That's pretty scary ...

wherestip wrote:

... It almost seems like a good idea to get a dedicated laptop just for online banking purposes - no browsing to any websites other than those of the financial institutions one deals with. But to stick to something like that sure requires a lot of discipline.

Alternatively, I think I'll just wipe my hard drive clean and reinstall the software of my existing iMac one of these days, and start with a system free of malware going into 2013. Not that it's behaving like it has any right now, but it's better safe than sorry.


[Edited at 2012-12-16 12:39 GMT]