Symatec researchers have uncovered yet another 419 or advance fee e-mail scam riding on the wave of publicity surrounding the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Purporting to be from the imaginatively named “Fifa Support African Team”, the e-mail informs recipients they have won US$1,950 million in a weekly lottery.
According to the researchers, the latest scam follows the classic 419 scam format in that it informs recipients that they have won a large sum of money and need to contact someone, either by phone or e-mail, in order to claim their winnings.
“They’re also required to provide personal details and, once hooked, the victims will probably be asked for advance fees, such as an ‘admin fee’, ‘release fee’, or ‘international transfer fee’, before the money can be transferred into their accounts,” the researchers say.
This particular scam is worthy of note as it appears to be more “sophisticated” than many others encountered by 2010Netthreat.com. There are fewer spelling mistakes and grammatical errors and authenticity is enhanced by the liberal use of the Fifa and South Africa 2010 logos (see screenshot below).
It also includes the well-known photograph of former South African president, Nelson Mandela holding the World Cup and a shot of South Africa’s Local Organising Committee supremo, Danny Jordaan, shaking hands with Fifa’s Sepp Blatter.
e-Mail users wishing to avoid this type of scam are advised to make use of advanced 419 scam detection solutions that not only detect the suspicious phrases and structures of 419s, but actively hunt for new scams and provide automatic updates.