Here we go again doing some more scambaiting.
This time, a guy by the name of Pedro wishes to donate some money to me after his massive
Powerball win.
What can go wrong?
Let’s find out.
The original message came from a one Hernandez Benitez Francisco.
It read,
“$2,000,000 Million Has Been Donated to you By Mr Pedro Hills For More Info Contact
this Email; hillspedro Send Your Response To hillspedro”
It’s interesting he repeated the hillspedro address.
I guess he got too many people replying to the Hernandez Benitez address.
Anyway, I was quite interested in the meaning of $2,000,000 Million, so I replied,
“Hi, I received a message saying that Mr Pedro Hills has donated $2,000,000 Million
to me.
Could you please confirm that this is indeed $2 million million ($2,000,000,000,000), or
is it actually just $2,000,000?
Either way, I'm happy.
I just wanted to make sure that we're on the same page.
Thank you, Bob”
Seven minutes later, Pedro sent me back the obligatory wall of text.
In it, he says his name is Pedro Hills Quezada.
He’s a native of Jarabacoa (Dominica Republic).
“Like you already know i won the Power ball Jackpot of $338 million”.
Actually, I didn’t know that, but thanks for telling me.
He has a humble family — “My family is a very humble family”.
He decided to do God’s work and donate $2 million US dollars to a complete stranger.
Thanks Pedro!
“I believe our father has directed me to you as I prayed and searched nover the internet
for assistance because I saw your profile on a list of registered email addresses provided
to me by Microsoft list from which I picked you.”
And then of course, the mandatory,
“Be assured you stand no risk as this is my money, for source and verification please
see the link below:”
The link was a real link to a news story showing that a one Pedro Quezada did indeed win $338
million on the Powerball.
But he won it back in April 2013.
I wonder why he’s left is so long to donate to me?
Anyway, he also mentioned something about having to move to the UK.
He wrote,
“I decided to elope to United Kingdom with my family because, since i won this lottery
different taxes have been fallen upon me and much are coming, my pastor and my able minister's
of God advice me to move to United-Kingdom with my family rather than paying Tax each
week.”
Sounds reasonable.
That’s what I do when I don’t want to pay tax.
I elope to another country.
He then goes on to request the standard personal information and signs off with Pedro Hills
Quezad.
Before I handed over all my personal details, I just wanted to confirm a few things with
him.
I didn’t want to make it too easy.
I wrote,
“Dear Pedro.
Wow, that's wonderful news!
After the donation arrives, we look forward to visiting you and your family, too!
Just one quick query.
In the news article, it says your name is Pedro Quezada, but on your email, you wrote
Pedro Hills Quezad.
Is Hills your middle name?
Or is it some kind of assumed name that you used while you were in New Jersey?
Also, did you say you now live in the UK?
Please answer these questions first, and then I can send you the information you asked for.
Regards, Bob”
About an hour later, there was still no reply.
So I thought I had probably scared him off.
So I gave it one more try and sent him the following message,
“Hi again Pedro.
I'm looking forward to the $2 million, but my friend told me I just have to be a bit
careful on the internet.
I'm happy to send you my personal information, but I just need to make sure that your name
is actually Pedro Hills Quezada.
Is that correct?
And you now live in the UK, right?
I'm actually staying in Japan at the moment, but I'm from the US originally.
Thanks again, Bob”
I thought I’d just show him that I’m having a few doubts, but trusted him enough to let
him know that I’m living in Japan and originally from the US.
That seemed to do the trick, because six minutes later, he sent a reply,
“Hello.
How are you doing today?
Hope this email meet you in good health? first of all my names are Pedro Hills Quezada and
yes am presently residing in the United Kingdom i do love to travel all over the world, I
will advice you to try to fill out the Application so that we can proceed with the information
i will send to you to contact my Attorney.
Hope to hear form you soon.
Mr Pedro Hills Quezada”
I realised that I probably need to be a bit friendlier to him from here on in so that
I didn’t scare him off anymore.
Scambaiting is a bit like dealing with a little nervous puppy for the first time.
As I am Nihongo Man (that is, Japanese Man), I decided to take on the role of Bill Murray’s
character from the romantic comedy-drama film Lost in Translation.
I replied,
“Oh, that's great to hear.
I love to travel, so maybe one day we can meet up somewhere?
Anyway, here's the information you asked for: Name: Bob Harris; Country: Japan (Originally
from the United States); State: Tokyo Metropolis (東京都 Tōkyō-to); Age: 53; Sex: Male;
Occupation: Commercial Actor; Phone Number: ; Next
Of King: I guess he means next of kin, but I decided to interpret it as the next King
of England, a one Charles, Prince of Wales, full name: Charles Philip Arthur George”.
Pedro replied,
“Hello.
How are you doing today?
Hope this email meet you in good health?
This is to inform you that i want you to used the information below to contact the Mr Pedro
Hills Quezada Attorney so that he can get all the legal papers to proceed with your
transfer.
Contact name: Bernhard Allerhals Berger; Email: v.fischerlaw; Phone number; As soon you send
Mr Allerhals Berger please make sure you let me know.
God bless you and your family.
Pedro Hills Quezada”
So I sent the lawyer an email,
“Dear Mr Bernhard Allerhals Berger.
I have been asked by Mr Pedro Hills Quezada to contact your regarding the collection of
the necessary legal papers to proceed with a $2 million donation.
Could you please provide me with the correct documentation?
Thank you and kind regards.
Bob Harris”
And, as per Pedro’s request, I sent him a confirmation email,
“Hi Pedro.
Just letting you know that I have sent an email to Mr Bernhard Allerhals Berger.
Regards, Bob Harris”
The next day, neither had replied, so I sent another email making it look like that perhaps
I was a little bit anxious that I had made a mistake or something.
I wrote,
“Hi Pedro.
Could you please confirm that the Attorney's email address is v.fischerlaw?
I sent him an email, but he hasn't responded.
Or maybe the address is fischerlaw (without the 'v' at the start).
Can you please confirm?
Thank you, Bob”
I also did a bit of digging and found that a one Bernhard Berger is an actual attorney
for the Swiss-based law firm Kellerhals Carrard.
Unsurprisingly, his phone number didn’t match the one that Pedro had sent me.
The original phone number has area code 575, which as far as I can tell, is the US state
of New Mexico.
Hmm, seems quite far from Switzerland.
It also turns out that v.Fischer Law is an actual law firm based out of — you guessed
it — Switzerland.
So are these scammers in Switzerland, or New Mexico, or neither?
I guess it’s just one big ruse.
Anyway, I waited some more and they still hadn’t replied.
So I continued to play the impatient victim and sent Pedro another email.
“Do you know when your attorney will be available?”
Finally, I got a bite.
The lawyer sent me a response,
“Attention.
Good Day to you please kindly provide me the follow information in order to print out your
document.
Full Names, Address, Country, State, Identity card.
Await to hear from you”
Doesn’t really sound like a lawyer.
He didn’t even give his name or contact details.
Obviously, the fact that they’re asking for an identity means that this is attempted
identity theft.
They want to use Bob’s identity for some criminal undertaking.
Playing dumb, I replied,
“Thank you for your response.
Here are the details: Full Names: Robert Harris; Address: <some realistic, but fake, Tokyo
address>; Identity card: Driver's License”.
Yes, I just wrote ‘Driver's License’ just to see what they do.
A couple of hours later, Pedro replied,
“Hello.
How are you doing today??
Hope this email meet you in good health?
Yes my Attorney told me that he have sent you all documentation that you needed to sign
and order information which you needed to know try to proceed with him so that you can
get funded as soon as possible.
i will be waiting to hear form you.”
Right on cue, Pedro’s attorney replied apologising “for the late respond due to time”.
He told me that I need to “download the two attachment file” — the ownership certificate,
and the transfer process — and that “after which you are certified you will provide your
banking details”.
Of course, I didn’t want to download the files, so I just took a screenshot from the
email app.
The official-looking ownership certificate from the fake-sounding Pedro Hills Quezada
Foundation had my fake name and details printed on it.
“On behalf of the Committee, I wish to congratulate you once more for emerging”.
Why thank you!
I like to emerge.
It also had a pretty poor explanation as to how my “email address was randomly picked
by an automated program from the internet”.
If I was going to give away $2 million, that’s how I would do it.
There was also a “Mileage Statement” (maybe they mean an Odometer Disclosure Statement?),
which stated,
“I hereby declare that this donation should serve as a means of empowerment to the locality
and state at large the certificate stands as prove that you are the rightfully owner
of this Donation amount this can be showed or submitted in any given time”
Perfectly worded and exactly what I’d expect from the The Quezada Team.
The transfer process document was also pretty badly written.
It had yet another address on it, this time of some real lawyers in Milwaukee.
You can even see where they’ve copied and pasted in my fake details.
The corner of Carrard is missing.
One sentence that I particularly liked,
“Am your lawyer Barrister Bernhard Berger Kellerhals Carrard I was asigned to you to
guard you through this process till you finally get your donation in 3 working days”
The document continues explaining about “new regulations enforced by the world bank Central
bank Department of Homeland Security”; “Anything over $10,000 to $50,000 requires a clearance
certificate”; “The cost for this certificate is $1800”; But hang on!
“The world Central bank GOVERNMENT IS NOW SHUT DOWN.
ALL MONEY TRANSFERS HAVE BEEN WITH HELD”.
Oh dear!
Whatever shall we do?
“So we decide that you only pay a little of the ownership certification and the clearance
certificate which we be just little of 401 dollars”.
There’s also some ridiculous ‘Promising’ statement talking about splitting the $2 million
into smaller payments to speed up the transfer.
The letter goes on,
“I apologies for this inconvenience.
If the Government is functioning normally, you will not make this request”;
Won't I?
“Even as I write this, try and support orphan kids with this funds.
Old people who have nothing to look up to”; “I am eternally happy for you on this unexpected
miracle”; “I shall advice you on how to pay obtain ownership certificate and the clearance
with 679 US dollars”.
So I replied,
“Dear Bernhard.
I'm a bit confused.
Are you based in Switzerland, or are you currently living in Milwaukee?
Or is it New Mexico?
Anyway, I've downloaded the documents and from what I understand, I need to pay a $679
clearance fee?
How do I pay this?
Do you have an online payment system?
Thank you for your assistance, Bob”
Now that money is in the picture, a reply didn’t take too long.
As you can see, the grammar and punctuation are extremely poor.
“Your donation payout will begins from the moment you make the deposit”; “use the
below account information to pay the needed amount which $679”; “send me prove of
payment deposit slip your ID”; “its will be split into 4 stage till you get the complete
amount of the 2,000.000.00 dollars”.
He then gave some actual bank details.
Standard Bank is a real bank in South Africa.
The swift code, branch code, and address all check out.
He’s given his account name as Oiboh Gilbert.
I don’t know if that is the scammer’s real name, but I will assume it is not.
Anyway, even my fictional character Bob is not stupid enough to send money to South Africa
to someone named Oiboh Gilbert on behalf of an American/Swiss attorney, so I replied,
“I don't understand.
Who is Oiboh Gilbert?
Why do I need to send money to South Africa?
Wouldn't it be easier if I send the money to your office in Milwaukee?
My nephew lives just nearby your Milwaukee office.
He can come and meet you.”
Believe it or not, they didn’t give up.
They replied with a fairly feeble excuse and some new banking details!
I decided that this was a good time to end the scambaiting.
They had already given me two sets of banking details from two different countries, so now
was the time to scare them.
I replied,
“Good day gentlemen.
It appears that your scamming days are numbered.
I have reported the bank account details of Minlin Chang to Capital One Bank (see the
attached screenshots).
I have also reported the bank account details of Oiboh Gilbert to Standard Bank in South
Africa (also attached).
Your email history has also been forwarded to them.
If you do manage to avoid jail, maybe this is a good time to give up your scamming ways
and get an honest job.
Kind regards, Bob Harris”
Whether or not this will actually scare them or not, I don’t know.
But certainly, it just might make them scramble.
Thanks for watching.