Fraud and Scam News

Photo by: Fedewild

FBI, in a press release, is warning everyone to watch out for an email scam that promises to pay back all the money they lost to internet scams. Pretending to be a new Government initiative, the scam is flooding online users with phony refund notifications.

Scammers do not spare any of their tricks in trying to make the email look ‘official’. Official logos and names of government agencies are littered liberally on the emails. Wonderfully, it gives the impression that governments are cutting across borders, setting aside pressing problems and finding common ground in helping you get the money you lost to a scam last summer.

For effects, it drops names like the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (old name of IC3), the British Government and the Metropolitan Police (UK) and also throws in some fancy titles.

It expects you to sign a ‘fund release order’ immediately, on receipt of which it promises you to wire the reimbursement straight from the “Bank of England”. However, it will not take ‘no’ for an answer - if you fail to do as you are told, it threatens to place the funds on hold and impose penalties on it.

The FBI has listed in the press release, the trademark signs of a scam that the emails bear:

• Multiple spelling errors
• Poor grammar
• Government agency names
• Signatures of officials and titles to appear authentic
• Warning for failure to comply.

Be alert to the scam.

Do not open unsolicited e-mails. Do not click on links in the e-mails. It may trigger a virus attack or a malware download.

For more information or to lodge a complaint, visit here.

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