US Financial Quagmire Bringing Out the Scammers

coondoggie contributes this snippet from NetworkWorld: "You could probably see this one coming. With all of the confusion and money involved you knew there would be cyber-vultures out there looking to cash in. Well the Federal Trade Commission today issued a warning that indeed such increased phishing activities are taking place. Specifically the FTC said it was urging user caution regarding e-mails that look as if they come from a financial institution that recently acquired a consumer's bank, savings and loan, or mortgage. In many case such emails are only looking to obtain personal information — account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers — to run up bills or commit other crimes in a consumer's name, the FTC stated."

well ...

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

I've heard Americans are so broke they are now scamming Nigerians

not just phishing mails..

[owlnation]

Also, look out for legitimate emails from banks -- they are probably being sent by scammers too.

Yep.

[Shadow Wrought]

One of the scammers was so brazen he came right to my doorstep! Said he needed a "contribution" so he could "go to Washington" and "fix this mess."
Yeah, right! I fell for that one four years ago!

A solution to the financial crisis

[igny]

Paulson's plan is nothing. Throwing $700bln into the financial system... pfft. I am willing to negotiate my plan with Bush and his administration. All I have to do is to realize my loss, and all the stocks will rally to the sky. It will also solve bankruptcy of several big corporations in which I have big (err, now small) positions. I have done so many times in the past, I single-handedly stopped dot-com collapse, helped to avoid a complete meltdown after 9/11, last fall I helped Dow to regain $14k. Unfortunately I have decided to invest a lot in May 2008 again and doubled down just recently. Now the market awaits for me to close all my positions.

Scammers?

[iminplaya]

Hell, the elections bring 'em out every two years.

Re:well ...

[svnt]

There you are!

Hey guys, he does exist! You betcha!

Bernanke

[areusche]

Dear BENJAMIN BERNANKE,

I am the Chairmen of the Nigerian Treasury. I have recently come into the possession of inheritance from the Esteemed Master Defenestrator . Unfortunately I cannot use take possession of his honorableness's inheritance locally. I therefore must move it into a foreign account. For the sum of 700 (SEVEN HUNDRED) BILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS (USD$) I can deposit this into your banking reserve system. You may keep 15% (fifteen percent) of the total amount for your troubles.

We look forward to your correspondence. Please make your time.

Sincerly,

Chuck Norris

Loving it!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right everyone! Keep pointing the finger and making accusations that you can't back up. The Republicans and Democrats love you keep you small minded fucks bickering and buying into their bullshit. If we could have Photobucket images on here most of these posts would look like campaign posters for dumb and dumber.

Make it an even trillion!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Mr. Norris,

Why don't we make it an even $1,000,000,000,000 (ONE TRILLION) dollars [politico.com]? We can use the extra $300,000,000,000 (THREE HUNDRED BILLION) dollars to buy up mortgages so that taxpayers lose money when the loans default, instead of the banks. My economists are convinced that it's a great way to prove that I'm actually a Socialist who understands the economy so that those loony liberals elect me instead of that one.

I look forward to your reply, my friends.

Sincerely,

John Sidney McCain

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:well ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard Americans are so broke they are now scamming Nigerians

Did you see the latest?

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

DEAR AMERICAN:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am ministry of the treasury of the republic of america. my country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars us. if you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with mr. phil gram, lobbyist for ubs, who will be my replacement as ministry of the treasury in january. as a senator, you may know him as the leader of the american banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. this transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. we need a blank check. we need the funds as quickly as possible. we cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. my family lawyer advised me that i should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, ira and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to [e-mail]
so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. after i receive that information, i will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours faithfully minister of treasury paulson

Re:Of course, it was caused by scammers.

[Konster]

Always a bad move basing a currency upon poorly made Italian cars.

Re:But what about the real scam?

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is that we're hearty lumberjacks that can survive the rough cold wilderness with nothing more than our bare hands, while the U.S. is mostly a bunch of pussies that would assume the fetal position if they missed an episode of American Idol.

Re:*illegal* scammers

[penix1]

Don't forget that it wasn't just the mortgage brokers, but the government requiring banks to loan to people who normally wouldn't qualify for a loan and couldn't afford to pay it back.

Let's make a deal Monte. I won't blame the banks when they actually eat the losses they incurred. So far they haven't. The executives of AIG (not a bank I know but still part of the Golden Parachute Club (TM)) for example went on a spa trip to the tune of half a million dollars right after getting their corporate welfare check.

LOL!!! Truth stranger than scammers.

[danwarne]

"I run a merchant bank that went bankrupt and have recently come into possession of $900 billion in US treasury funds......"

Correlating Gov't announcments and the Market...

[NotQuiteReal]

It seems like the biggest scam does start with line "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Re:But what about the real scam?

[jagdish]

The difference is that we're hearty lumberjacks ...

So you sleep all night and work all day?

Yeah! Teach that Nigerian scammer to write.

[SlashdotTroll]

I would take my hat off to you, but it's stapled to my head because of prior anticipation of a frisky blow from Hurricane Palin.

Re:Cyber-vultures. Brilliant.

[TeknoHog]

Is that an African or a European buzzard?