There has been a rash of Internet frauds perpetrated by offshore Porno websites in Great Britain. Marks are selected from ‘casual encounter’ ads appearing on Craig’s List and a few other sites. This fraud is presented here in detail.

Here’s How These Scammers work:

The fraud begins with a response to an ad on Craig’s List and, at least initially, appears to be a legitimate response from an interested party. The first response looks like this:

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY

** Avoid:  wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home

** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping

** More Info:  http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Hey!  Just checking if the ad is real. I was very interested. Please get back to me as soon as possible.

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This message was re-mailed to you via: pers-5gywq-1438659929@craigslist.org

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If you respond to this ad (NOT RECOMMENDED) Here’s what comes next:

Hi  (your name), glad to hear you’re real! I’m interested in hearing more about you and possibly us, hehe. How does that sound? (your name), it’s Tuesday and I need to find someone quick. I hope you are the one.  I have one concern though. Before we go any further I’d like to make sure you’re at least eighteen. I am a little uneasy about

meeting up  with  someone who I haven’t check’d out. My friends use a

service that verifies that men are ok to meet and are of age.

So (your name), I’m at the site now and they generated a link for me to send to you:

http://www.vernow.com/?=1068

You will be able to see my pic on there too. I have more pics for

you, but only after  you verify your age. Btw, older guys is a

turn-on. As soon as you  do  it,  will  e-mail  u  my  phone  number and we’ll make plans. I

promise… thky  for  understanding.  I hope to be talking on the phone with you soon! Later.  (Some grammar corrected for easier readability).

Now, if you click on the blue link she supplies, you will be taken to a website called:

Vernow.com

Someone you met online has sent you here to verify your age. Vernow.com is a service that helps you verify the age of anyone you come in contact with online, FOR FREE.

Step One – Please Verify Your Information

Please wait while we verify your information.

Click the Submit Button below when you are finished!

Your friend, Jennifer Bensen is online and waiting to receive the confirmation email that we will send once you finish this last step!

Sender’s Details

Note from Sender: Hey, thank you for verifying your age for me. My friend uses this site all the time and says it helps her feel safer. I’ll feel more comfortable talking dirty and sending you my *other* pics once I receive confirmation that you are at least 18. You never know who you’re chatting with online! I’m glad you understand my prediciment and I hope to talk to you soon. I’ll email you once this site sends me the confirmation email that you’ve verified. xoxoxo – Jennifer

Name: Jennifer Bensen Gender: Female Age: 20 – 30 City: N/A State: N/A Zip: N/A Area Code: 562 Request Sent: Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Testimonials (show)

“Vernow.com was so easy to use and kept me safe when chatting with men online. I am confident that I am speaking with an adult every time I use Vernow.com”

Mary G. Saratoga Springs, NY

“These days you can never be too safe. Vernow.com is extremely easy to use. All I have to do is send a link to a guy I’ve met online and Vernow.com takes care of the rest. After he verifies his age, Vernow.com alerts me via email. My potential date and I can be adults and not worry about what we talk about. Thank you Vernow.com!”

Jessica F. Boise, ID

“When I posted a personals ad to Craigslist for the first time I was bombarded with responses. Even guys who sent pictures and claimed to be 18+ didn’t convince me. I use Vernow.com every time!”

Jim M. Cincinnati, OH

“You never know who you’re chatting with online. Age is a huge concern for me that’s why I use Vernow.com.”

George L. Fresco, CA

“The internet is filled minors. You would be stupid not to protect yourself with Vernow.com. It only takes a few minutes of your time and might even save your ass one day!”

Kelly J. Tallahassee, FL

© Vernow.com 2009 | All Rights Reserved

Filling in this simple form and pressing NEXT brings you to a page that

Asks you again to submit your credit/debit card info for age verification purposes only. (DON’T EVEN CONSIDER IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO THROW AWAY SOME HARD EARNED MONEY!!)

Once you do submit that info, you will receive a confirmation telling you that your info has been accepted. It looks like this:

(YourName),

Member ID:      34134089

Cost:           $0.00 (NOTE THIS)

Your membership has been activated.

Site name:      Amateur Site HD

Members URL:    http://www.maingateway.com/lockdown/159/

Username:       gg9pbke7u

Password:       hx3mneg3q

Any charges appearing on your credit card statement will be discretely billed as: WEB-FEECHECK.COM

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Have questions? Need help? We are here to help 24/7.

Web Site: http://www.web-feecheck.com

E-mail: help@web-feecheck.com

Toll Free: 888-811-2544

Should you click on the www.maingateway.com link above, you will immediately be taken to a porno website that you probably didn’t expect on their sign-in page. The pictures of videos offered are NOT reproduced here. However, at the very bottom of that page, there is the name and address of the owner in the U.K.:

Perkindale LTD
15 RoseberryTerrace
DH85RT Consett
United Kingdom

By now, the realization that you’ve been had hasn’t settled in quite yet. You may even write to Jennifer again and ask, “what’s up with the porno stuff?” Don’t be shocked. You’ll never hear from her again!! In about an hour, you will discover that your bank account or PayPal account has been charged for $37 +. This lovely-looking lady that was falling all over her e-mail to get with you is nothing but bait—a “shill” for the U.K. folks in Consett. Your only hope now is if you saved copies of all this documentation and file a fraud claim with PayPal. But it will take time.

The moral here is: If something seems too good to be true on the Internet, it undoubtedly is. Your money is now in their pockets and you can’t do anything much about it!

NOTE: These scams abound on the web. They will play on your lust, naivety or anything else they can think of to get you to fill-in that form. DON’T!!

AGE VERIFICATION THAT REQUIRES YOUR FINANCIAL INFO IS ALMOST ALWAYS AN OUT-AND-OUT SCAM!

SCAM ALERT—SCAM ALERT—SCAM ALERT

Here’s a new e-mail scam alert in the name of the International Monetary Fund.

Note how the scammer seeks to obtain your personal information and $175.00 of your hard-earned money (highlighted in RED).  Never reply to an e-mail of this type.

FROM THE DESK OF DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN

PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)

ATTN: BENEFICIARY.

This is to officially inform you that ATM card number: 5428 0500 1100 4432 worth Three Million United States Dollars ($3 Million USD) has been credited in your favor in bid to compensate you on your winning sum since you are next on our compensation file for the second part of this fiscal Year 2009.

Your personal identification is ATM-5379. Contact the verification officer in African Region (Dr. Paul Omego) E-mail: atm.paymentdept2341@gmail.com

Tell: (+234) 1 4315436 with the below details for proper verification and immediate delivery of your prize via ATM CARD:

1) Your full Name…………….

2) Your Delivery Address………

3) Country………………

4) Your Telephone Number………….

5) Age and Occupation…………..

Most importantly, you are also required to send him the sum of $175 fee for your ATM CARD delivery.

NOTE: be aware that US$3,000,000.00 (Three Million United States Dollars Only) was awarded to you as a compensation payment and be also informed that the Fund Approvals and authorization documents have been handed over to DR. PAUL OMEGO.

Best Regards

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN

PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)

This is an attempt to extract your personal information via e-mail. While it seems to be legitimate, Bank of America never request that you send this kind of information via e-mail or sends e-mail notifications of this type. 8/19/2009 7:13 PM

Dear Valued Customer :

We recently have determined that different computers have logged in your Bank of America Online Banking account, and multiple password failures were present before the logons. We now need you to re-confirm your account information to us. If this is not completed by September 1, 2009, we will be forced to suspend your account indefinitely, as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner. In order to confirm your Online Bank records, we may require some specific information from you.

To restore your account, please Sign in to Online Banking.thank you for using Bank Of America Online Service.

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Your account might be place on restricted status. Restricted accounts continue to receive payments, but they are limited in their ability to send or withdraw funds. To lift up this restriction, you need to login into your account (with your username or SSN and your password), then you have to complete our verification process. You must confirm your credit card details and your billing information as well. All restricted accounts have their billing information unconfirmed, meaning that you may no longer send money from your account until you have reactive your billing information on file. Sign in to Online Banking
Thank You.

Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions about the information in this e-Bill, please contact your biller. For all other questions, call us at 800-887-5749.

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender
© 2009 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved

Intelligence Note

Prepared by the Internet Crime

Complaint Center (IC3 )
Work-At-Home Scams
Consumers need to be vigilant when seeking employment on-line.

The IC3 continues to receive numerous complaints from individuals who have fallen

victim to work-at-home scams.

Victims are often hired to “process payments”, “transfer funds” or “reship products.”

These job scams involve the victims receiving and cashing fraudulent checks, transferring

illegally obtained funds for the criminals, or receiving stolen merchandise and

shipping it to the criminals.

Other victims sign up to be a “mystery shopper”, receiving fraudulent checks with

instructions to cash the checks and wire the funds to “test” a company’s services.

Victims are told they will be compensated with a portion of the merchandise or funds.

Work-at-home schemes attract otherwise innocent individuals, causing them to become

part of criminal schemes without realizing they are engaging in illegal behavior.

Job scams often provide criminals the opportunity to commit identity theft when

victims provide their personal information, sometimes even bank account information

to their potential “employer.” The criminal/employer can then use the victim’s information to open credit cards, post on-line auctions, register Web sites, etc., in the victim’s name to commit additional crimes.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at

http://www.IC3.gov.

(Excerpted from the U.S. Dep’t of Justice (DOJ)

“But he that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed.” - Shakespeare, Othello, act iii. Sc. 3.

The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. These Web pages are intended to explain why you need to take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data ­ especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data ­ can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims’ names. In many cases, a victim’s losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.

In one notorious case of identity theft, the criminal, a convicted felon, not only incurred more than $100,000 of credit card debt, obtained a federal home loan, and bought homes, motorcycles, and handguns in the victim’s name, but called his victim to taunt him — saying that he could continue to pose as the victim for as long as he wanted because identity theft was not a federal crime at that time — before filing for bankruptcy, also in the victim’s name. While the victim and his wife spent more than four years and more than $15,000 of their own money to restore their credit and reputation, the criminal served a brief sentence for making a false statement to procure a firearm, but made no restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused. This case, and others like it, prompted Congress in 1998 to create a new federal offense of identity theft.

What Are The Most Common Ways To Commit Identity Theft Or Fraud?

Many people do not realize how easily criminals can obtain our personal data without having to break into our homes. In public places, for example, criminals may engage in “shoulder surfing” ­ watching you from a nearby location as you punch in your telephone calling card number or credit card number ­ or listen in on your conversation if you give your credit-card number over the telephone to a hotel or rental car company.

Even the area near your home or office may not be secure. Some criminals engage in “dumpster diving” ­ going through your garbage cans or a communal dumpster or trash bin — to obtain copies of your checks, credit card or bank statements, or other records that typically bear your name, address, and even your telephone number. These types of records make it easier for criminals to get control over accounts in your name and assume your identity.

If you receive applications for “pre-approved” credit cards in the mail, but discard them without tearing up the enclosed materials, criminals may retrieve them and try to activate the cards for their use without your knowledge. (Some credit card companies, when sending credit cards, have adopted security measures that allow a card recipient to activate the card only from his or her home telephone number but this is not yet a universal practice.) Also, if your mail is delivered to a place where others have ready access to it, criminals may simply intercept and redirect your mail to another location.

In recent years, the Internet has become an appealing place for criminals to obtain identifying data, such as passwords or even banking information. In their haste to explore the exciting features of the Internet, many people respond to “spam” ­ unsolicited E-mail ­ that promises them some benefit but requests identifying data, without realizing that in many cases, the requester has no intention of keeping his promise. In some cases, criminals reportedly have used computer technology to obtain large amounts of personal data.

With enough identifying information about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual’s identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, or obtaining other goods or privileges which the criminal might be denied if he were to use his real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely obtained credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals, are sent to an address other than the victim’s, the victim may not become aware of what is happing until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim’s assets, credit, and reputation.