A person claiming to represent IMF Company sent me an email offering me 5 Million US Dollars!

My first reaction was – who in his right mind would call IMF or International Monitory Fund as IMF Company? That in itself got my phishing antenna whirring.

On top of that the email was addressed to undisclosed-recipients and the reply to email was different from the email used to send the message – two classic red herrings that indicate the email to be a phishing email.

Anyway, who am I to complaint? I love such emails. Given below is my communication with Jonathan Brown, the sender who claimed to be IMF Manager.. My comments are as usual in red.

Email from Jonathan Brown of IMG Company

From: IMF Company <oluwafunkeagbeko@gmail.com> Sent: 14 January 2023 01:16
To: undisclosed-recipients: (Undisclosed recepients? Seriously??  It is screaming that I am a phishing email)
Subject: Attention dear…….

Attention dear…….

My name is Jonathan Brown from lMF company USA..
I would like you to know that you have a package in my
company here,
The package was sent to my office by lMF company compensation,
The package contained funds worth sum of $5
million dollars USD and a car.. (Car? This is the first. Seriously. I have never heard of a car being part of the package for delivery)

NOTED:: All you need do now is to forward us your info correctly to
prevent wrong delivery,

The delivery is ready now and you will receive
your package within 24hours if you follow my instruction all the
instruction

given..Therefore you need to contact as soon as you
receive this message,

Fill out below information:

(1) Full names —(names? I have only one name. What should I do now? It is these mistakes that must raise our antenna)
(2)Phone line —
(3) Country —–
(4) Age/sex —–
(6)Home address:–

(imfcompany345@gmail.com)
Be regards
Jonathan Brown
lMF Manager

I am sure you'll agree that a sum of $5
million dollars USD and a car are not something to be sneezed at.  What could I do but write back? 

My email to IMF Company Manager

My Assumed name <ajncjsbcjdnsbcjd@gmail.com>
21:43 (0 minutes ago)
to imfcompany345 (reply to email is different)

Dear Jonathan

Thank you bery much for your email I am obligated.
I am happy to find that you got 5 million US dollar and a car for me. What car is it? I am quite old to drive a car. But I am sure my grandson will jump at joy knowing there is car coming. (I have tried to have some fun here)

My details are given below. I live now in India. My daughter married an Indian. Children don't listen to olders

(1) Full names — My assumed name
(2)Phone line — 1234567890
(3) Country —– India
(4) Age/sex —–Male
(6)Home address:– xx-ygfgh, Basant Koonj, New Delhi, India

Send me noney fast. I want to go Canada Back

Bye

My assumed name

I'd like to add here that there is a Fraud Alert issued by IMF on their websiet just as the United Nations has one their website. You can read the IMF Fraud Alert here.

I received the following reply from the IMF Company Manager.

IMF Company <imfcompany345@gmail.com>
15 Jan 2023, 21:48
to me

Mr aksjdwcnnc$%@ how are you doing
All the necessary arrangements concerning how to proceed with your delivery has been done but what is holding us here is the delivery fee being $150 once the payment is made we proceed immediately (Ah! Cheap fellow. Asking for just $150. But imagine, if he can dupe just one person a day, that is $4500 free money a month. And I am sure it must all be automated)

Best regards
Jonathan Brown
lMF Manager

A couple of hours later he sent another email

IMF Company <imfcompany345@gmail.com>
15 Jan 2023, 23:42
to me

Are you there?

What the hell. He expected me to be so excited about 5 Million dollars that I'd be be waiting in front of the computer to receive his email and reply immediately.

Well, I am sorry to have disappointed him.

My reply to Johnathan of IMF Company

My Assumed Name
21:11 (4 minutes ago)
to IMF

Dear Jonathan

Sorry, for the late reply. I was unwell. Got flu. Now I am fine. I did not see email all these days. I did not want other people to know that I am getting so much money.

I do not have bank account here. My bank account is in Canada. So cannot send 150 dollars. You deduct that from my funds and send me the rest. Or when I get the money I'll send you 1500 dollars. As my thank you. Also how will you send the car?

I am yours

My Assumed Name

The email was addressed to undisclosed-recipients and the reply to email was different from the email used to send the message – two classic red herrings that indicate the email to be a phishing email.

Given below is my communication with Felicia Howard. My comments are as usual in red.

Email from Felicia howard

—–Original Message—–
From: Felicia Howard <Felicia@hypernet.lt> (Email sent from a service provider in Lithuania)
Sent: 30 December 2022 00:45
To: undisclosed-recipients: (This indicates a possible phishing email when coming from  an unknown person)

Subject: Hello Dear

Dear Sir/Ma, (surely she does not mean mother. She either meant mam or madam. Spelling mistakes such as these are red herrings)

I am contacting you to know if you have any profitable business/project in your region that we could invest into through you as our partner.

I have a partner who has a serious client, who is looking to invest in your country as your reputable profile (My reputable profile? Has reached the dark net?) will give me the impression that you are suitable for this partnership, Please indicate your interest for additional information. (“will give me the impression?” I thought my reputable profile HAS already given you the impression that I am a good investment and hence this email)

Kindly send me details about your project via this email:

felicia.howard1914@citromail.hu

Sincerely,

Felicia Howard.

At my age when someone offers to invest in my business, I jump at it. So I wrote back to her.

My email to Felicia Howard

My Name <myname@abcdefgh.com>

to felicia.howard1914@citromail.hu (Note that the reply to email is different. Clear sign of phishing email.)

Hello Dear Felicia,

Thank you for your email and the offer of investment in my business opportunity.

I am interested to know the details of your offer. Please share.

Also I have some proposals. I will share once I get details from you about your offer. Also how much money can you invest? I will share my business ideas that fall within your budget.

best regards

Collins

I received a very quick reply from Felicia Howard to my email. As if she was sitting on her computer just waiting for me to write back.

Reply from Felicia Howard

Felicia Howard
15:30 (1 hour ago)
to me

Dear Collins Nanabijou,

My name is Mrs. Felicia Howard, Lead Consultant and Capital Manager at Optimax Trading Limited; I wish to apologize for any inconveniences as your contact details were obtained courtesy of the British chamber of commerce and industry.

As my job position clearly describes, I have direct contact with virtually all the private investors with Optimax Trading Limited. Having said that, an investor within our firm who goes by the name Igor Ivanovich Sechin who is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and “de facto deputy” of Vladimir Putin. As we all know, so many prominent Russian Millionaires and Billionaires have had their investments and accounts restricted due to the current sanctions.

Optimax as an investment firm in the UK has placed no restrictions on investors' accounts but our partner's bank “CASH BANK UK” has followed suit in suspending all accounts held by Russian citizens and as such affected all our Russia's investors as they are not able to withdraw their investment again.

With the sanctions growing by the day, there is a fear that Optimax might be subjected to following suit in placing Restrictions on Russia's investment accounts. With that said, the investor Mr. Igor Sechin has requested that I broker an investment partnership deal with a trusted and business oriented individual to invest the funds on his behalf.

Thank you,
Felicia Howard
Optimax Trading Limited

Citromail.hu levelezõ rendszerbõl küldve
Lépj be vagy regisztrálj

Thank you for the information.Thank you for your response.Thank you for your mail.

Today, I received an email from a person who claimed to be Kennedy Ozuoka of United Bank of Africa. The email was as usual offering me money that I had been scammed off. I could immediately see that it was a scam email. There were many red herrings in the email. Given below is my communication with Mr. Kennedy Ozuoka. My comments are as usual in red.

Email from “Kennedy Ozuoka” of United Bank of Africa

From: Mr Kennedy Ozuoka <eduardo@world-soccer-academy.com> What is a Director of United Bank of Africa doing with an email with domain world-soccer-academy.com? And who is eduardo? Kennedy Ozuoka's pet name?? This is Red Herring One.
Sent: 23 November 2022 19:14 Email sent after office hours. Woking overtime, eh?
Subject: United bank for Africa. (U.B.A )

UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA –
AFRICA'S GLOBAL BANK
HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS UBA HOUSE

I Am Mr Kennedy Ozuoka the director cash processing united bank for
African the international monetary fund (I.M.F.) in conjunction with
Organization of African Unity (O.A.U) is compensating all the scam
victims with $1.500.000.00USD (Bad English, bad formatting and bad grammer. My antenna was screaming – scam, scam, scam…)

and your email address was found in the scam victim's, the united bank
for African and Federal Reserve Bank has been mandated by the (I.M.F)
to pay your compensation ($1.500, 000.00USD) in cash through means of
diplomatic courier service hand delivery, (More bad English)

Take note that Three thousand united states dollars (usd$3,000) have
been mapped out for all expenses in taxes and other documents that
matters.
Therefore, do forward your home address, direct phone number to this email,
mrkennedyozuokapersonal@gmail.com (another indication that it is a scam email. Note that the email address is different from the email address used to send the message)

Please reply/direct to this email:
mrkennedyozuokapersonal@gmail.com
Mr Kennedy Ozuoka
Managing Director
United bank for Africa. (U.B.A

Whenever I get such emails, I always Google to see if there are similar emails going around. This time my search for Kennedy Ozuoka took me to a Facebook post by the real Kennedy Ozuoka. He states in the post – It has come to my attention that people claiming to be Mr. Kennedy Uzoka send scam mails to innocent individuals urging them to part with their monies or other…

See the post here

As I have mentioned in one of my earlier articles, I like to understand how the mind of the scammer works. What does he desire? What will he ask for? So I communicate with them.

My reply to “Kennedy Ozuoka” of
United bank for Africa

Sanjeev Sharma 
to mrkennedyozuokapersonal

Dear Mr Kennedy Ozuoka

Many thankyou for your email telling me about the money that is going to be given by you to me because of the scam that I went through. (I have tried to be bad with my English too!)

I thank you and also the MOnetary Fund of the World and the United Bank of Africa for this wonderful thing.

What is this thing about 3000 US dollars that mapped for expenses? You will deduct that money from my payment? That is fine with me.

My address is: (Here the address and phone number have be anonymised)

XX-1234
Locality in Delhi
New Delhi
INdia

My phone number is 123456789

I look forward to receiving the money. Then I'll give you a big party.😍

best regards

Sanjeev Sharma

I now await reply from Mr. Kennedy Ozuoka. Will keep you posted

Last year, sometime in January I received an email from a person claiming to be Ms. Rose George. She said that she would like to give me $750,000 for some help that I gave her! I do not remember helping any Rose George. But, I guess I have Alzheimer's or Dementia! Frankly I don't remember that as well! Any way, jokes apart, my email communication with her is reproduced below. My comments on her email are in red.

Email from Rose George

From: Ms. Rose George <no-reply@elearnlanguage.com>
Sent: 11 January 2021 12:23
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam]Your bank Check. Merry Christmas !!! (ah! Advantages of an anti-virus. It marks the email as spam – see the Norton AntiSpam in the subject line? Invest in a good anti-virus)

Hello friend,

Did you receive my last email which i sent to you from Thailand? Anyway, the message was to inform you that I have successfully moved the funds to Paris, France. I am using this opportunity to thank you for your great effort, time and concern you showed to help me out, even though we did not succeed following one reason or the other best known to you. (Yes, I know. It is because there was no such effort. At least I don't remember) It was with the help of a French business tycoon who was capable of assisting me in this great venture via a diplomatic means.

For your effort, sincerity, and trustworthiness, you showed at the beginning of the transaction, I have decided to compensate you and show my gratitude with the sum of $750,000. (Wow! If only every sincere  person was shown gratitude of scuh magnitude! The world would be full of good samaratins only) I have authorized my new lawyer who is now also my legal adviser in Bangkok, Thailand to issue you an International certified bank cashiers check which I signed in your favor before leaving Thailand for Paris. I will like you to contact the lawyer for the collection procedure of this international certified bank check, and below is the contact information's of the lawyer:.

(Mr): Richard Morgan
Email: info.richardmorgan28893904@gmail.com

At the moment, I'm very busy here because of the investment projects which I and my new partner are having at hand in Paris France. Finally, remember that I have forwarded instruction to the Lawyer on your behalf to send the bank Check to you as soon as you contact him without delay.

Please I will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is from the bottom of my heart. I wish you a strong and successful new year.

Thanks and God bless you and your family.

Regards,

Ms. Rose George

My reply to Rose George

Re: Your bank Check. Merry Christmas !!!

Richard Harris <rh@gmail.com>
Wed, 28 Sept, 23:13 
to info.richardmorgan28893904</rh@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. Richard Morgan,

I received an email from Ms. Rose George (God bless her) last year. I was very ill. Practically on my death bed, so to speak because of this stupid Coron virus. But I am a stubborn old man and I am not so easy to kill for a virus. That originated in China. Even quality of their virus is so bad. Huh!

She said that she is giving me some money. I am really thanksfull Ms Rose for her gesture.

So tell me, when are you going to send me the money.

Yours sincerly

Richard Harris

Email to new lawyer of Rose George was sent very late

As you can see, I had sent the email very late. I have so far not received any reply. Maybe they have moved on to new email address.Anyway, whatever happens I'll keep you posted about the Rose George saga.