The Binghamton Police Department has issued an alert to a current scam involving email messages that falsely claim to come from law enforcement.
The emails claim to come from the following agencies:
· FBI Anti- Terrorist and Monitory (sic) Crimes Division (fraudulent agency)
· Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (agency based in Nigeria; several recent scams have falsely claimed affiliation with this agency)
· International Anti-Fraud Division (fraudulent agency)
The scammers promise that a considerable amount of money will be deposited into the target’s bank account, calling the target a “beneficiary.”
The scammers also tell the target that he/she is in danger of being arrested by the FBI for illegal financial transactions, but that if he/she sends cash to the agency via Western Union, he/she will not be arrested and the cash will be transferred back to is/her account.
The scam emails are characterized by misspellings, grammatical errors and convoluted sentence structures. The emails also include photos of FBI Director Robert Mueller and purport to have his authorization.
Those who are targeted by emails of this sort are strongly urged not to respond, and to alert the police immediately.
The FBI asks those who have been targeted also to complete an online report form at www.IC3.gov.
Law enforcement suspects that the scam emails originate overseas, including African countries.
Citizens with questions about this scam are asked to call the Binghamton Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit at 772-7093 or email [email protected]
