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Beware of 419 Phishing Scam Spoofing iKobo.com - Fraud Alert
Beware of a new scam that is using the iKobo.com’s name to try and get your personal information. iKobo is a “person to person” money transfer agent or payment processor much like Paypal and they do not send unsolicited emails such as this one asking for you to send information back to them.
Here’s a copy of the phishing email…
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Our Ref: IKG/NGN/ICO Your Ref: Dear Beneficiary, iKobo is a company that specializes in money transfers. With them, you send money to the any countries with your MasterCard or Visa. The recipient gets your transfer put onto a secured Visa debit card which can be used worldwide at ATM locations for cash withdrawals. This debit card, which is reusable, is shipped to the recipient first. As part of our commitment in bringing our services to the world to the world, I wish to announce to you that your email emerged as one of the luck winners to receive a grant of 2.8 Million US Dollars. This fund would be made available to you through your an iKobo Visa card. Your Personal identification Number is 2222. We have concluded plans to deliver this card to your as soon as possible. FULL NAME: We look forward to hearing from you soon. |
Chances are, if you send the minimal required information, these scammers will have somebody contact you and ask for further information or possibly for you to make a deposit in order to claim the supposed grant of 2.8 Million. This is a classic scam where the con artists will try to win your trust until they can get what they want from you.
There are several clues to this email being a scam located in the email headers. To begin with, the email was relayed through a hosting account on siteground.com for the domain wshf.org using the email client “SquirrelMail/1.4.13″ and email account (nochumson@wshf.org) which is possibly forging the email address of somebody named Howard Nochumson, who is listed as the administrative contact for the “Washington Square Health Foundation”, the legit owner of the wshf.org domain. The IP the email originated from (80.255.62.236) seems to have quite a history of spamming and appears to be some sort of satellite service operated by Intelsat Global Service Corporation (intelsat.com) who has a Washington, DC address in their contact information, yet is listing an Atlanta, Georgia (404) area code in their abuse contact information.
Nowhere is there any record of the email being sent from, nor relayed through iKobo’s mail servers, although it is quite strange this type 419 Phishing scheme is usually routed through Nigeria, it’s odd to see all the corresponding IP’s pointing to US locations only.
Nevertheless, do not ever respond to emails such as this which claim you have won a large sum of money and the decision as based on your email address selection alone. These type of emails are always 100% guaranteed scams.
by itrumor
Ikobo just laid off most of their employees and havent told anyone. They even tried to shut down the transaction system by posting a fake “sytem manteinance” issue. Watch out, Rumors are they are closing down..or selling it..
by John at WebsiteBuildingBiz
Hmm its possible that someone with that info is trying to cash in before the ship completely sinks. Then again, maybe its completely unrelated and it really is just a rumor!
Anyway, there’s never a reason to respond to those kind of emails. Even if you do have an account with the company claiming to contact you, just check to make sure they have the necessary info on your secure account login.
by marcia
i got a email from ikobo processing office saying i will recieved a grant 2.8 million dollars all i got to do send 150 dollars for insrance
by Mike
iKobo did go out of business in late 2008. However, in December 2008 the iKobo website went back online apparently under new ownership or management. While I used the old iKobo many times without any problem, I am afraid that the “new” iKobo may be a fraud. I made an internet money transfer and they never shipped the ATM card to the Recipient. It has been nearly a month and no luck. I contacted customer service and they admitted a mistake and promised to correct it. Still nothing.
by Home-Based Business
Phishing scams are all over the internet. So, it is very important to exercise caution in online dealings or leaving important personal information.
by Backgammon paypal
Thanks mate. I was thinking about to use this service and you alert me for phishing about this one.
But now I am taking extra care whenever I open my online bank account or paypal.
Thanks again mate.
by turbo
lol…these guys are so pathetic I’m sick and tired of developing countries taking advantage of the vulnerable email system
by almir
unbelievable how desperate people are trying to feed off peoples mistakes in believing something so pathetic such as that
by Circle Solution
ACCORDING TO A MessageLabs Intelligence report, which focuses on security issues and threats, a popular tactic in 2008 among cybercriminals involved using fictitious accounts on social networking sites to post malicious links, which usually led to phishing sites.
by missy
i just recently received an sms saying i have won 123,000. They told me to send my email address to that number to claim the money, so i did. A day later i received an email from ikobo instructing me how claim the money. gosh, lucky i landed on this site. Silly scams!
by KEITH SIMPSON
I, fortunately, did not lose any money when I tried to send some through IKOBO about 2 years ago.
The transaction, made at about midnight, one night, seemed to go through but about 2 hours later, they requested ‘further security details’ and asked for a PHOTOGRAPH, (yes!) of my passport at the signature page and another PHOTOGRAPH (yes yes!!) of the BACK and FRONT (yes yes yes!!!! I kid you not, dear World!!!!!) of my debit [bank] card…!!!
These photographs, I was to attach to the questionnaire that I was to download from their site and complete and sign.
I immediately smelled a rat.
I wrote to their Atlanta GA address and told them to go and ‘fcuk themselves’ (just rearrange the letters, people..!!)
I was lucky; I did not fall for that one.
MONEYGRAM at the post office or WESTERN UNION is more trustworthy.
Keith SIMPSON
SALFORD
MANCHESTER
U.K.
by Sweetie
Hi,
I received a sms message saying that I had won $123,000 (Australian dollars) and all I had to do was give my email address and then I received an email saying that I had to pay three options of courier postal fee of either $847 , $ 748 or $ 840, in order to clam the money. I am definitely falling for this trap, because I am 100% certain that this is a scam and they are trying to get money from innocent people, who are foolish enough to fall for such frauds.
People out there be warned: Do not respond to such sms text messages asking for your email address, because I did and all they do is send u a long-winded email telling you that u’ve won all this money but u need to pay the courier postal fee whch is ridiculously high, and chances are is that you will not receive your $123,000 or the postal courier fee which u paid!
I am sending this message out of compassion for all the people out there who may fall for such scams. Don’t fall for it!! Think smart, be wise and don’t be the victim!
by Hotelier
Thanks for beware. Now I will know what to do in order not to be phished!