Latest Internet Scam

[Wowwie]

Jamie Bulger Email Petition

Update (May 2008):
A new version of the message adds on a photograph that supposedly depicts Venables and Thompson happily posing together

Example:(Submitted, March 2006)
Do you remember February 1993 when a young 3 yr old was taken from Liverpool, United Kingdom,by two 10-year-old boys. Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson.

They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mummy.

Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes and pushed batteries up his anus.

It was actually worse than this . What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's mother was forbidden to identify his body.

They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident.

This week Lady Justice Butler-Slosshas awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities.

They will also leave early this year only serving just over half of their sentence. They are being relocated to Australia to live out the rest of their lives. They disgustingly and violently took Jamie's life away in return they each get a new life.

Please ... if you feel, as we do, that this is a grave miscarriage of justice .. copy the entire email ..then add your name at the end, and send it to everyone you can.

If you are the 500th person to sign, please forward this e-mail to:
[address removed] and attention it to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss.

Then start the list over again and send to your friends and family. The Love-Bug virus took less that 72 hours to reach the world. I hope this one does as well.

We need to protect our family and friends from creatures like Robert and Jon. One day they may be living next door to you and your small children, without your knowledge

Status:
Pointless - Venables and Thompson were released from custody years ago

[hybrid]

I remember this story... Sad as it is, scammers try anything these days and some people fall for these scams.

[Wowwie]

Its is sad indeed,

I had read this update and thought to post it here before I had even checked my email

Well as I checked my email this morning this was in my spam box so it still ineffect

[Wowwie]

Horror in Singapore - Raffles Place Ghost Video

Summary:
Security CCTV footage supposedly shows the ghostly figure of an old lady emerging from behind two men in an office building elevator




Status:
False


Example:(Submitted, May 29,2008)
Subject: FW: Horror in Singapore

Horror in Singapore (True encountered, even in the news)

Look at the bottom right CCTV and you can see something actually in there before those 2 men got in.

WATCH CAREFULLY! … NO JOKE !

then it shows the tube video

YouTube - Ghost Sighting at Raffles Place

[Wowwie]

Molly - Pony With A Prosthetic Leg

Email forward relates the story of the pony Molly, a Hurricane Katrina survivor who was fitted with a prosthetic leg after an injury from a dog attack lead to the amputation of her real leg.
Published: 30th May 2008

Status:
True

Example:(Submitted May 2008)
Subject: A Fantastic Pony


Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana, USA . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn't seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn't overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.

Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there.

'This was the right horse and the right owner,' Moore insists. Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She's tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood (that) she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse.

Molly's story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, her mane felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.

The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly's regular vet, reports. And she asks for it! She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too.' And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. 'It can be pretty bad when you can't catch a three-legged horse', she laughs.

Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people. And she had a good time doing it.

'It's obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life', Moore said, 'She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.' 'She's not back to normal,' Barca concluded, 'but she's going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself.'

[Wowwie]

Yahoo International Lottery Programme Scam
Email purporting to be from Jill Nash, Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo! claims that the recipient has won $500,000 in the 'Yahoo International Lottery programme' (Full commentary below).



Status:
False - Advance Fee Scam

Example:(Submitted, May 2008)
Subject: YAHOO CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER CONGRATULATES YOU



FROM THE DESK OF JILL NASH, THE CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER/MANAGER INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT, YAHOO INCORPORATION USA.

Ref: 475061725
Batch: 7056490902/188
Winning no: GB8701/LPRC

WINNING NOTIFICATION

Congratulations,

I am Jill Nash, the Chief Communications Officer of Yahoo Incooperation . We are delighted to inform you of your prize release on the 5th May, 2008 from the Yahoo International Lottery programme. Which is fully based on an electronic selection of winners using their e-mail addresses from different sites.Your email address was attached to ticket number; 17212, serial number 7741137002.This batch draws the lucky numbers of
and bonus number , which consequently won the lottery in the second category. You hereby have been approved a lump sum pay of USD$500,000 (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in cash credit file Ref: ILP/HW 47509/02 from the total cash prize shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category.

All participant were selected through a computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually. This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by the Yahoo Incooperation World wide as part of their social responsibility to promote the use of internet world wide.

Further more your details (e-mail address) falls within our African representative office as indicated in your play coupon and your prize of USD$500,000 will be released to you from the Payment Center in United Kingdom. We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high stakes for US$1.3 Billion international draw. Your Winning fund of USD$500.000 (FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) has been insured with the Paying Bank in United Kingdom with REF NO: MSW-L/200-26937 and will be released or delivered to you when you are through with the official process involved for the release of your prize.

It will be processed on your behalf by our Claims Officer in charge of African zone (BARRISTER JOHN AKROMA). Your E-mail address should be used in all correspondence with your claims officer, you are to contact your claims officer via email and phone call as we are promoting the use of E-mail. Also you have the right to call him to confirm your winning Details. Please note that we have instructed that you will receive your prize money in full of USD$500,000. Therefore you should make sure that you follow all the rules accordingly for the processing and release of your prize to you without any delay.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE:
Simply contact our African Claims Officer
Barrister John Akroma
Email: j_akroma@yahoo.com

Please make sure that you quote your reference, batch and winning numbers which can be found on the top left corner of this notification as well as your full name, address and telephone number to help locate your file easily. For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Note, all winnings MUST be claimed within 30 days from the date of this notification. Unclaimed funds will be returned to the national treasury for our next draw.

Congratulations once again on your winning!!!

Best Regards.

Jill Nash (Chief Communications Officer)

Blake Jorgensen (Chief Financial Officer), Michael J. Callahan (General Secretary and Counsel), Michael Murray (Chief Accounting Officer), Mrs. Sandra Becker (President), Mr. David Filo (Executive), Mr.Jerry Yang (Chairman)






Commentary:
This "prize notification" email purports to originate directly from Yahoo! Chief Communications Officer Jill Nash. According to the message, the "lucky" recipient has won 500,000 USD in the "Yahoo International Lottery programme" after his or her email address was randomly selected from a list of addresses collected online. However, the message was not sent by Jill Nash or anybody else at Yahoo! and the supposed prize is nothing more than the bait used to hook Internet users into falling for a typical advance fee scam.

The message instructs recipients to contact the "Claims Officer" to confirm the prize and begin processing of the claim. However, those who do make contact will soon be asked to submit various fees in order to allow the release of the "prize money". Supposedly, the requested payments are to cover insurance or legal costs or any other imaginary fees dreamed up by the criminals running the scam. The scammers will claim that the "winner" must pay these fees in advance or risk forfeiting their prize-money. Moreover, they will insist that the fees cannot be paid out of the prize money itself.

If a victim does comply and sends the requested fees, other fee requests are likely to follow. Of course, the victim will never receive a cent of the supposed lottery prize, which is entirely imaginary. After the scammers have tricked their victim into submitting the requested fees, they will simply disappear. The victim is quite unlikely to get back any of the money that he or she has been tricked into submitting.

And, as well as being left out of pocket, the victim might also have his or her identity stolen. During the course of the scam, the bogus "Claims Agent" may ask the victim to provide a large amount of personal and financial information which might subsequently be used for identity theft.

Jill Nash really is Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo! Inc, but she has nothing whatsoever to do with this scam email. The scammers have fraudulently used her name and position in order to make their bogus claims seem more believable. They have also included a photograph of Nash in the email that was apparently stolen from her biography on the Yahoo! Press Room website. In a rather lame attempt to further enhance the credibility of their message, the scammers have included the Yahoo! Press Room logo along with animated spinning globes and other text decorations. Yahoo haswarned its users about such scam emails in its online help files.

Advance fee scammers often use the names of high-profile companies or organizations in order to fool more victims into believing their bogus claims. There are a great many variations on the same basic lottery scam. Internet users should be cautious of any unsolicited emails that claims that they have won money or prizes in a lottery that they have never explicitly entered. Lottery organizations do not randomly select winners from lists of email addresses or names collected on the Internet. Any message that makes such a claim is quite likely to be a scam. If you receive a scam message like the one above, do not contact the sender. Do not click on any links in such messages or open any attachments that they may carry.

[Wowwie]

Chinese Hair Bands Made From Used Condoms

Email warns that cheap rubber hair bands from China may have been made from used condoms.
6th June 2008

Status:
True

Example:(Submitted, June 2008)
Subject: FW: Chinese Hair Band - Condom

Grosssssssssssssssssssssssss

Just try to be careful when you are buying hair bands... who knows what it is made from.



These hair bands were made from used condoms and threads.







Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday.

In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.

[roxiehart]

ewww for that one
and thanks for the warning

[hybrid]

That's bad... Talkabout cheap labour and recycled products - it's gross.

[roxiehart]

and they're hosting the olympics this year so what about protecting all the visitors!