New Danger in the Mail

For some time now, e-mails belonging to subscribers of different Internet networks are being bombarded with messages known as the "Nigerian Letter". Confidential data regarding the banking account are requested by the mail message. It looks like the Romanians didn’t give such information on the Internet.

Two years ago, a new kind of cheating appeared on the Internet. Known as the "Nigerian Letter", the sender was requesting data regarding the banking accounts, the pin code of the credit card or simply receiver’s help in opening a foreign currency banking account.

DAMAGE

Some of the businessmen have believed it, and short time after that found they had suffered a huge damage. The banking accounts had been emptied. After a quiet period of time, the "Nigerian Letter" returns in big style, Romanians’ mails, and not only, being bombarded with such messages. What’s worse is the fact that the "nailers" use data and signs of banks and broker firms in order to become more trustworthy. Romanian policemen say that until now, this year, there has never been a complaint about such a fraud or the "nailed" ones were so ashamed of what happened to them that they didn’t want to complain. "Last year, we have registered only one complaint belonging to a Romanian businessman who was cheated with 100,000 USD", says an officer from the Organized Crime and Drug Fighting.

"Some messages ask for help in order to open foreign currency banking accounts that should receive an important sum of money (tens of thousands USD), and the person who opens the account would receive an important percentage.

PRETEXT

The sender says he is from an African country in which a civil war is highly to occur. This is why he needs help for transferring the money. The sender asks the receiver to open a foreign currency account and to be secretly about this transfer. To open an account, any bank asks for some important sums of money, usually minimum 1,000 euros. Then the data regarding the account are sent to the "solicitant" together with the password and other secret data. With this step, the recently opened account with 1,000 euros registered empties immediately, and you get yourself a pretty nice "nail"", says the Drug Fighting officer. "It looks like there have been people around the world who lost millions of dollars this way", he added.