Scamming Physicists
By Christopher MooreI was almost fooled by a Nigerian scam. The method used is actually interesting and shows how sophisticated scammers have become. I post this here to alert others in a position similar to mine. The summary: if you receive an unsolicited email asking for you to send some item to Africa, then RUN, RUN, RUN away.
Last month, I received the following email:
Dear Mr Chris,
I am very glad for your effeorts on your website.
I am a Head of Science Department in a high school and I need your guidiance on how I can get Video cassetes and CDs in Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Geography) that covers High School syllabus to back up the teachers efforts in the school.
I would be obliged if I can be refered to or assisted in this regards.
My best regard
Dr. George Robinson
H.O.D Sciences
First, I receive these types of emails a few times a month. Generally they come from students but every now and then I get an email from a high school or college teacher. Initially, I thought nothing of the request. However, a few key markers in the email should have tipped me off:
1) Why would the head of a science department at a high school who holds a doctorate have such a terrible grasp of the English language? I assumed “Dr. Robinson” was at a school in the UK, since he was using a UK Yahoo account, which brings us to …
2) Why would he send the request via Yahoo instead of via a school account? And …
3) Why in the world would he be incapable of finding this information on his own. Afterall, he supposedly has a Ph.D. and enough sense to be promoted to the head of a science department.
Anyway, I was in a generous mood. I send the following reply:
Hello George.
I’m sorry to get back to you so late.
I’m afraid I can really only help you with materials for physics.
Paul Hewitt has a really good series of videos:
http://www.arborsci.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=20
I also highly recommend his Conceptual Physics textbook for conceptual courses at the high school level.
Some really good video demonstrations can be found online for free. Specifically, Colorado State University has a good collection:
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/video_demos/
The Wonders of Physics is a good series by Clint Sprott:
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/wop.htm
We are currently developing our own video series for ilovephysics.com, though this project will take about a year.
I would like to point out that out of the three recommendations, two were completely free and available online. This will be important in a minute. Usually, with these types of unsolicited requests my initial response is sufficient for the person doing the requesting. However, over 1 month later I receive the following email:
Dear Mr James, (notice I went from Mr Chris to Mr James)
I have visited the sites recommended to me by you, I am finding it a bit difficult to communicate with them because they have not been responding to series of e-mail sent to the customer care services of their organization. his is neccessary so that I can arrange a money transfer for the payment of the DVDs since I am not residing in the United States and credit card payment is not really reliable from africa countries.
I will like you to please rescue me from this predicament by getting me new or used DVDs in Physics, Chemistry, biology and Mathematics. Please send the bill via e-mail and how I can made that will get to you either through western union or any other way you might prefer. Please help select those you feel deem fit for high school student and maybe earlier part of their university programm. I will also enquire about the cost of shipping by DHL or any other Courier services and include the cash with the payment if you assist me on this.
I need this Dvds to back-up the teachers in their lessons.
I will be obliged if this can be done to assist me.
hank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Dr. G. Robinson
If the red flags weren’t a wavin’ after the first email, they sure as hell were after this one. In the first sentence, “Dr. Robinson” tells me that he could not communicate with the providers. First, I provided three links in my email. Two of those links were to sites that offered completely free online videos. Just for fun, I called Arbor Scientific about the Hewitt videos at their number posted on their contact page. I was speaking with someone within moments.
The second sentence lets me know that “Dr. Robinson” is not from the UK as I thought, but resides in an African country. Again, why would he be using a UK Yahoo account? Why would his school’s credit card be un-reliable? African countries (specifically, Nigeria) are hotbeds for fraud rings. US companies are leery of sending items to these countries without firm payment beforehand. However, credit card payments are the best means of payment in these situations.
And here comes the scam. The rest of the email asks ME to purchase the videos (notice he did not specify which videos), have them shipped to him in Africa, and he will pay me via some easily fraudulent method (such as Western Union). I’ve done sales on E-Bay, so I know that YOU NEVER accepts payment via Western Union from someone you do not know. If you do, you never ship anything until the payment clears. Oh, and you never ship anything to an African country, especially if they want to pay via Western Union.
The hard part is figuring out how he intends on making enough money off of me to make the scam worthwhile. The DVDs would be a few hundred dollars that, at best, he could sell for half their retail cost. My guess is that had I continued, more pieces of the scam would have come out.
Even if I wasn’t sure that this was the set-up for a scam, I wouldn’t do it. If some random physics teacher in Boise, Idaho emailed me asking about such a transaction I would refuse. In fact, I would find the request highly inappropriate from someone who should know better. Young physics students who I have never met ask me for all manner of things via email. But they do not know any better. A grown man with a supposed Ph.D. that heads the science department at a high school should know better.
After this email, I realized I was probably the target of a scam. Of course, “Dr. Robinson” could be real, so I simply responded via email that I found the request highly inappropriate. I received the following response within an hour:
Dear Mr James,
Thank you for your response, I actually got a response today (now precisely).
I believe I could also get more educational materials from you also been an educationalist like me. That is why I decided to also contact you for assistance and I will like to make payment with the method I feel I can rely on and will get to you also. I do not have access to international credit card, hence my decision to seek for your assistance in this regard. And I believe you can help since you are the USA and it will be easier to make purchases within US as I understand.
If the need arrises I will give you a call
Best Regards
Dr. R. George
Now I KNOW that “Dr. Robinson” (or is it Dr. George?) does not exist and that I am the target of a scam. We’ll see if he calls. That should be fun.
The moral of the story: If someone in Africa that you do not know asks you to buy them something, then RUN, RUN, RUN.
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“…a few key markers in the email should have tipped me off…”
Ya think?
This creep successfully appealed to your “physics-teacher ego,” taking advantage of your desire to “assist and inform” to get you to respond to his initial silly-ass eMail. Were the topic anything other than physics, I doubt that you would have even bothered to finish reading that eMail.
Comment by Martin — Wednesday -- July 25th, 2007 @ 4:10 am
Stroke a man’s ego enough and he will go from a competent, intelligent person to a stumbling fool.
I’ve gotten the random “help me recover $20 million dollar” emails before. This was the first that was obviously created just for me. I would have loved to have played along for a while wasting this idiots time. However, considering my employer, office phone number, office address and even my salary are public information and are easily obtainable, I decided against it.
Comment by Chris Moore — Wednesday -- July 25th, 2007 @ 11:11 am
I can’t believe I’m just reading this now. Do you not remember me telling you about the oversees interest when I was selling my motorcycle? Anyway, so how much did he actually get from you? And I thought you were smarter than this. Have fun. Let me know when you are coming up north. Later
Comment by Your Master — Tuesday -- February 12th, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
He got nothing, Pat! I am too smart.
I was in Boston a few months ago. I emailed well beforehand. I heard nothing in reply.
Comment by Christopher Moore — Monday -- February 18th, 2008 @ 12:36 pm