E-mail Scam Involving Advance-fee Fraud Hit Cayman Islands Residents

An e-mail fraud has attacked residents of Cayman Islands, report security officials.

Pretending to be a communication from an Interpol inspector, the scam e-mail tries to tell the recipient that he is one among those people whom a phishing scam from a certain West-African country has victimized.

In detail, the e-mail says that the recipient came to believe the miscreants who told him good, sweet stories, while he remained unaware that they were actually scammers. The message further states that the Interpol has seized scammers' properties which have been submitted to the government for auction so that the Interpol can recover the recipient's lost money.

The fraudulent e-mail also mentions a name and telephone number and directs the recipient to call at the earliest, a trick that makes the e-mail sound legitimate.

Deborah Denis, Press Officer of Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, said in the current incident, it is possible that following a few e-mail exchanges, the scammers will say that some processing fees is needed for releasing the funds, as reported by caycompass on July 8, 2009.

However, as soon as the payment is made, the person will not likely receive more e-mails from the fraudster.

Continuing further, Denis said that the current scam was called the 'advance-fee fraud' that involved an e-mail sender persuading the recipient to wire money so that a considerably larger amount could be realized. Often, the working of such scams would not become clear immediately, but if the e-mail recipient interacted with the con-man, it would hardly take long when everything would become obvious, Denis added.

Hence, officials urged users to avoid such e-mails. They advised them to be suspicious of businesses that run via e-mail only and do not have a mailing address. They should check e-mails for loopholes such as weak English. Similarly, e-mails whose senders claim to be government officials should be instantly suspected. Moreover, if a recipient doesn't comprehend the business terms fully, he should consult a knowledgeable attorney. Finally, it is important that users protect their account information from all kinds of fraudulent e-mails.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 7/22/2009