HYGEN

New Variation Of The Facebook “Immigration Scam”

September 26th, 2009 | by admin |

You may of recently heard of a series of serious scams causing havoc with Facebook and other social networking site users.  The gist of it is that “hackers” can get into your friends or relatives Facebook accounts -  most likely by exploiting a weak password - then sending fake pleas for help and essentially money to people on the hacked accounts friend list.

Naturally with the average human being stupid, statistically lots of people will fall for this scam.  The obvious thing to do if you receive a message begging for help from a friend or relative is to confirm the authenticity of the situation.  There will even be tell tale give away signs if it is scam such as poor English if your buddy is supposed to be fluent or suspicious circumstances such as a request for an overly large amount of money or imply stories that don’t add up.

Here are a few links to the news stories about scam executed on Facebook:

• http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jl1swzmUCchz3h7vGSDgztx78BdA
• http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_245143932.html

The plot has just thickened as I only just received the following message via a blog post…

Hi Dan

Help, one friend is travelling from UK but transit in KL nad now he is being detained in KLIA by ‘immigration agents’ since Wednesday. They kept his passport and briefcase as the agents suspected him for money laundering for bringing money more than allowed. The agent (MR HAMxxH) asked him to pay 20K MYR for such document of anti money-laundering (certificate). His wife sent the money to the agent named SULxMxx ADxxS via a bank (earlier they asked to send the money via Western Union). Though the money was received, but they still asked for more money to my friend. He is still in KLIA as no more money sent.

Please help to whom am I supposed to contact since I do concern about my friend’s security.

This is a variation of the aforementioned Facebook scams.  The twist is that I don’t even know the person who is asking for my help!  This could be some kind of 3rd party scamming or scamming by proxy or the person contacting me could be the victim of the scam and just incredibly naiive.

What makes this such an obvious scam?  Well firstly the person who is asking for my help used a Singapore IP address - so why can’t the Singaporean just go up to Malaysia to verify matters?  It’s a 4 or 5 hour drive at most.  Secondly the mere mention of Western Union - name one government department that uses Western Union (the most famous payment method of scammers globally) to collect a payment?  Exactly - there are none.  Thirdly, the money supposedly transfered was to an individual person and not an official department.  Finally - and most amusingly - immigration has nothing to do with money - that comes under customs!

Mostly these scams have to be setup in a similar way to have a chance.  Because the crooks are overseas (in this case, as often - in Malaysia) they need to invent an excuse for the money to be sent to the country they are in.  The easiest way is to pretend the “friend” is travelling and then invent dilemas that could require financial asistance.    This could be getting arested, stuck in immigration, having a medical emergency or etc.

Watch out and don’t get scammed - Facebook and social media users should be extra aware!