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14 Jan 2008
A new variation of the 419 scam is targeting small non-profit organisations.
Spam messages have been sent to various organisations using the name 'Barbara Moratek', the supposed director of grant programmes for a group called the 'Ivete Foundation'.
The email asks for more information on donors and volunteers, presumably for the purpose of running financial scams, and asks for money as an 'advance' or 'processing' fee.
Security firm Sunbelt Software documented the scam in a company blog. Within hours of making the post, comments poured in from non-profit groups which had received the same message.
"I was disgusted to see all the comments from non-profits that had been targeted by this scam," wrote Sunbelt chief executive Alex Eckelberry. "How sick to target people who are working with no money to help others in need."
The website for the 'Ivete Foundation' is a single 'coming soon' page, while a Google search for 'Barbara Moratek' yields a collection of fake codec malware sites. Sunbelt believes this is an attempt to further monetise the scam.
"It is likely that malware sites are taking advantage of the fact that people will be searching this name to find out more about it," wrote Eckelberry.
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419Scam E-Mails
I have received over 40 such E-mails since Oct 2007. I have diligently reported them to all Law Enforcement Agencies that I have access to. To include the US Gov, scambaiters, and every IP that the perps use for their transmission of the e-mails. Is there an Agency associated with the Law in London,UK that these e-mails also may be forwarded to. Most of E-mails have a London Address reflect in them. Knowingly most are fake, however lately the address havepopped up with a map showing the area in London. My sole purpose it to assist all agencies to prevent these perps from being successful in their endeavors. They belong behind prison bars not in lavish surroundings continuing their scams without revocation. These perps have been too successful in their scams and that is the reason they remain in business. We need to take any lawful method available to advise the public, by educating them how these people perform their scams, and the method of operation, tactics used, and publishing the names of the persons who are committing these scams. Somehow all the free countries of this world need to pool together to catch these perps and put them where they belong-behind prison bars.
Posted by: Richard (Butchrgt) 14 Jan 2008