Email fraud

Fraud has existed perhaps as long or longer than money. Any new sociological change can engender new forms of fraud, or other crime. Almost as soon as email became widely used, it began to be used to defraud people via Email fraud. Email fraud can take the form of a "con game" or scam. Confidence tricks tend to exploit the inherent greed and dishonesty of their victims: the prospect of a 'bargain' or 'something for nothing' can be very tempting. Email fraud, as with other 'bunco schemes' relies on naive individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes such as 'too good to be true' investments or offers to sell popular items at 'impossibly low' prices. Many people have lost their life savings due to fraud.

Forms of email fraud

Spoofing

Email sent from someone pretending to be someone else is known as spoofing. Spoofing may take place in a number of ways. Common to all of them is that the actual sender's name and the origin of the message are concealed or masked from the recipient. Many, if not most, instances of email fraud use at least minimal spoofing, as most frauds are clearly criminal acts. Criminals typically try to avoid easy traceability.

Fishing for data

Some spoof messages purport to be from an existing company, perhaps one with which the intended victim already has a business relationship. The 'bait' in this instance may appear to be a message from 'the fraud department' of , for example, the victim's bank, which asks the customer to: "confirm their information"; "log in to their account"; "create a new password", or similar requests. If the 'fish' takes the 'bait', they are 'hooked' -- their account information is now in the hands of the con man, to do with as they wish. see Phishing

Bogus offers

Email solicitations to purchase goods or services may be instances of attempted fraud. The fraudulent offer typically features a popular item or service, at a drastically reduced price.

Items may be offered in advance of their actual availability, for instance, the latest video game may be offered prior to it's release, but at a similar price to a normal sale. In this case, the 'greed factor' is the desire to get something that nobody else has, and before everyone else can get it, rather than a reduction in price. Of course, the item is never delivered, as it was not a legitimate offer in the first place.

Such an offer may even be no more than an attempt to obtain the victim's credit card information, with the intent of using the information to fraudulently obtain goods or services, paid for by the hapless victim, who may not know they were scammed until their credit card has been "used up".

Requests for help

The 'request for help' type of email fraud takes this form. An email is sent requesting help in some way, but including a 'hook' such as a large amount of money, a treasure, or some artifact of supposedly great value.

This type of scam has existed at least since the Renaissance, as the 'Spanish Prisoner/Turkish Prisoner scam. This scheme , in its original form,has the con man in correspondence with a wealthy person who has been imprisoned under a false identity, and is relying on the confidence artist to raise money to secure his release. The victim is 'allowed' to supply money, expecting a generous reward when the prisoner returns. The confidence artist claims to have chosen the mark, (victim) for their reputation for honesty.

This confidence trick is similar to the face-to-face con, known as the Stranger With a Kind Face which is the likely origin of the [Vaudeville|vaudevillian]] routine known as The Stranger With a Kind Face, a.k.a. "Niagara Falls", a.k.a. "Slowly I turned..."

The modern email version of this scam, known variously as the "Nigerian scam", "Nigerian All-Stars" etc., is an Advance fee fraud-type scam. The following letter is an actual sample of this very common con game. Note the appeal to the greed of the prospective victim, as well as the assurance that the scammer knows the victim to be honest and trustworthy. Note that the victim is offered 30 percent of the proceeds of 24.1 million dollars --yet this is NOT the hook, the hook is the fact that the victim himself will be the one to disburse the money, and a greedy person might see this as an opportunity to keep the entire 24.1 million once it is in the victim's hands.:

FROM MR JOHN ALLEN
FINANCIAL BANK OF BENIN
REPUBLIC OF BENIN.
WEST AFRICA.
Tel:+229 560 891
Dear Friend
 I am Mr.John Allen, the director in charge of auditing and accounting section of 
Financial Bank of Benin cotonou Republic of Benin in West Africa with due respect 
and regard. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be 
very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.
During our investigation and auditing in this bank,my department came across a very
huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died in (beirut-bound charter jet)
plane crash on the 25th December 2003 here in cotonou (replublic of benin) and since
his untimely death the funds has been dormant in his account with this Bank without
any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our
discovery to this development.
(http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html)
 Although personally, I keep this information secret within myself and partners to enable
the whole plans and idea be Profitable and successful during the time of execution. The
said amount was US$24.1M(Twenty Four million One Hundred Thousand united states dollars)
As  it may interest you to know, I got your impressive information in my search of a
viable and capable person to help me champion a business of this magnitude without any
problem .Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put claim over this fund as the bonafide
next of kin to the deceased,get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign
account has been put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to
you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also benefit
yourself to this great business opportunity.
 In fact I could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country
as a civil servant,we are not allowed to operate a foreign account and would eventually
raise an eye brow on my side during the time of transfer because I work in this bank.
This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward
claims as the next of kin to the Bank and also present a foreign account where he will
need the money to be re-transferred into on his request as it may be after due
verification and clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole
money will be remitted from to your own designated bank account.
 May I at this point emphasize that this transaction is 100% risk free as I have made
arrangements for a successful transfer as an insider of the bank before contacting you.
On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 30% of the total sum
as gratification, while 10% will be set aside to take care of expenses that may arise
during the time of transfer and also telephone bills, while 60% will be for me and my
partners.

Please, be adviced to keep this a top secret as we are still in service and intend
to retire from service after we conclude this deal with you.
I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money
in your account and ask us to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the
fund according to percentages previously   indicated and further investment, either in
your country or any country you advice us to invest in.
 All other necessary information will be sent to you on your acceptance to champion
this transaction with me.
 I suggest you get back to me as soon as possible on my personal email address and
telephone +229 560 891 stating your wish in this business.
Regards
Mr John Allen
+229 560 891

In actuality, this scheme is a 3-layer attempt to scam the victim:

first, the victim's name, and banking info are to be obtained "to facilitate transfer" of the funds.
second, once the victim has given their info, a "difficulty arises" requiring the person to advance fees necessary to facilitate the transfer -- hence this is known as Advance fee fraud.
third, the victim may be lured to the foreign country, often using a counterfeit visa, provided by "a helpful official", however, once in the foreign country, the victim may be kidnaped and held for a ransom paid by family and friends of the victim. the family and friends may also be lured to the foreign country, to pay the ransom, and they may also be kidnapped.

Since the victim has already given their banking info, their bank account may be emptied at any time, once all other potential profit is extracted from the victim.

Avoiding email fraud

Email fraud may be avoided by:

keeping one's email address as secret as possible
ignoring unsolicited emails of all types, simply deleting them.
not giving in to greed, since greed is the elemnt that allows one to be 'hooked'.
if you have been defrauded, report it to law enforcement authorities -- many frauds go unreported, due to shame, guilty feelings or embarrassment.