OK Folks, we all know that the African Phishing scam has been around for years. We all know that you just delete them, don’t reply and move on. So don’t feel the need to add comments to that effect. The difference here is that this e-mail is coming via the Model trains forum e-mail system from a new member that joined 3 days ago. Several members have recieved the message. To my knowledge all that have got it are 5 star members. The alert here is that a scammer has registered and seems to be using the forum member search to send out the e-mail. While the letter is obviously a scam, who knows there may be someone that gives it more credibility because it appears to come from trains.com
Hello simon1966
You received the following message from: norb225 (nbkt11@yahoo.com)
Dear,
With the hope that you are okay and doing fine, this message could be strange but real if you pay some attention to it. I got your contact details through a female missionary from britain ( Mrs Magaret Allan) and i am not compelling you to go against your will but i know that, this transaction will be of great benefit to you and I. I Mr. Norbat Keita, I inherited the sum of USD$16,800,000.00 (Sixteen Million, Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from my late parents. But right now, l am faced with a problem. On one of the banks documents, my late father appended a clause stating that: I the next of kin, must attain the age of 35 years, before taking full control of the bank account; But, in the event of war or natural disasters in Ivory Coast, the bank should honour a transfer request from me which must be is for the safety of the funds; And in this case, I must have a foreign investment manager whom must not be an African, and the money should not be transferred to any African country. I am not yet 35 years of age, and Ivory Coast is not a safe c
Have you ever posted your e-mail address within a forum post? If so, a robot/spider (which crawl the Internet in seach of e-mail addresses to exploit) most likely picked up your e-mail address.
I’ve received no such offer, and I have my primary Trains.com account plus one for home.
In other words, I don’t suspect this is a wide-spread problem and has resulted from someone tapping our system.
This seems new to you? I’ve been getting these for three or four years. I just ignore them and delete them to tra***hen delete the trash. Most come addressed to “Undisclosed Recipient” while about 5% come addressed to my email address and 1-2% come addressed to me personally. My philosophy is, If I didn’t order it or request it, it gets deleted. This includes money offers.
In other words what I got looked just like a forwarded e-mail sent via the Trains.com forum.
By the way, I know these are not new and have been happening for years, but what is different is that this came as if it were sent by a forum member using the forum e-mail links.
It isn’t a big deal. Delete it and go on with life, even though you opened it and could have a virus that is fatal to your computer downloaded on your hard drive now. I wish you the best of luck, though!
I get them from all over. Nigeria, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Canada, even Russia. And I didn’t name all of them. I also get emails telling me I’ve won lotteries in England, Ireland and other places. Heck, I got one the other day telling me I had won $250,000 in the Japanese National lottery.
If they gave you a dollar winning amount in the (nonexistant) Japanese National Lottery, you know it’s phony! The amount is a lot more impressive when stated in Yen.
That’s why there’s a DELETE marker on the toolbar. If the preview shows something questionable, even if it supposedly originated with my sister, the e-mail goes to the delete bin unopened. Then, when I empty the bin, it passes into oblivion.
Other members of the forum are getting this same scam message. (Threads are appearing in classic trains etc) It seems obvious to me that
norb225 (nbkt11@yahoo.com) has registered on the Trains.com forum and is using the member search to send the phishing scan via the model trains e-mail forwarding system. All the members that have reported this so far are 5 star members, so I guess norb225 has started at the top of the list and is working down.