fake emails from africa and gangsters?

Question

i keep getting emails from the so-called bank of africa telling me im a millionaire (i wish!) and recieved one today about a girl whos father was murdered by his associates for all his money and shes requesting that i have it (in her dreams even if there was). the second email also enclosed a personal email address. both have asked for personal details wich i havent and wont give, i know never to comply. just was wondering why i have suddenly started recieving these and what can i do to stop them?

i really appreciate everyones kind help, thanks

Answer 1

you didn't say which email service you use so all i can do is asume you are using yahoo. it's rather difficult to block spam in yahoo but try this.

★★ BLOCKING SPAM AT YAHOO! ★★

◙ Below is an email message from Yahoo's Mail Abuse Team showing the correct ways to block spam in Yahoo Mail.

◙ We understand your concerns about receiving unsolicited email, and can certainly empathize with your frustration. Yahoo! Mail offers several tools to help you keep spam out of your Inbox. To find the following tools (except "This Is Spam") click on OPTIONS in your mail account.


◙ 1. "This is Spam" link -- The most effective way to prevent spam from entering your Inbox is to use the "This is Spam" link next to the "From" address in every message you consider spam. By sending examples of spam to Yahoo! for review, it will increase the effectiveness of Spamguard, Yahoo! Mail's filtering system. Yahoo! will use the messages you send to constantly improve the Spamguard technology and help ensure that unwanted messages are delivered to your Bulk Mail Folder rather than your Inbox.

◙ 2. Filters -- Yahoo! Mail offers you the ability to create filters for your account. You can create filters to deliver emails to a special folder, or to the Trash folder that:

* contain specific words or phrases
* are from a sender's domain
* contain other characteristics you find in spam
◙ Learn more about setting up filters at the Help Desk, located at:

☞ http://help.yahoo.com/help/mail/manage/manage-06.html

◙ 3. Block an address -- Use this feature to block email addresses you do not want to receive email from. When an address is blocked, incoming email from these addresses will be automatically disposed of, without bouncing back to the sender. When you remove an address from your Blocked Addresses list, you will once again be able to receive mail
from that address. For directions on how to block an email address, please visit:

☞ http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/read/read-22.html

◙ 4. Report the spam -- If you receive harassing or unwanted mail from what appears to be a "@yahoo.com" address, you can forward the message directly to us for review at:

[e-mail]

◙ Please include an unedited copy of the original message along with the full Internet headers. To learn how to display full headers in Yahoo! Mail, please visit:

☞ http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/config/config-11.html

◙ If you receive unwanted mail from a non-"@yahoo.com" address, you may try contacting the sender's email provider by identifying the sender's domain and contacting the administrator of that domain. Unfortunately, Yahoo! has no control over activities outside its service, and therefore we cannot take action in these situations. The sender's provider should be in a better position to take appropriate action against the sender's account.

◙ If you have any further questions about spam, please see our Online
Support web page at:

☞ http://help.yahoo.com/help/mail/spam/

☞ http://antispam.yahoo.com/tips

◙ Read this great book. It will teach you many ways to get more out of Yahoo.

☞ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/yahoohks/

◙ Yahoo's main menu with links to every part of Yahoo.

☞ http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/family/more/

Answer 2

Good girl!! At least someone has sense!! Not sure why you are suddenly getting them, but it is likely they have only just got your email address! Just ignore them, they will go away eventually!! Maybe mark them as spam too!

I've always wondered how many people a year fall for this such scam! I'm sure there must be few because otherwise they would have given up using this method by now as a means of trying to obtain money from people, or their personal details!!

And by the way this is not phishing as patch said!! Phishing is a term used for people who send out emails disguised as official looking emails from legitimate companies such as PayPal, bank and building societies, and credit card companies!

Answer 3

If you already have this email on the lists you can't stop. But here is how you can stop getting your email on this lists,

--- Create a dummy email for use when you subscribe to all the services and one for all other use.
--- Never list your email address in any website.
If you have to create a bitmap of email address
All the junk senders address lists are created using
automated search bots and they can't search bitmaps.
--- Try getting a auto challenge service for your email
This service maintains all email address for you and
any new address gets a email confirmation.
This will reduce your junk mail considerably.

Answer 4

Like Dr House said, use two email addresses. One for friends and family and the other for general usage on the net.
When you give your 'active' Email address away, you leave yourself open to receiving junk mail as the site to which you gave the address will will probably sell it on. Theres lots of money involved in selling on addresses, whether email or snailmail.

Answer 5

Nah, a "fake gangsta" (wannabe thug) is usually a white boy (but can be any race, just usually white) from the suburbs or a really rich or white neighborhood who thinks that he go hard. He thinks that by listening to rap (he only know about TV music too) that he is somehow connected to the hood, he thinks growing up ghetto would have been better than being rich or well off, he thinks that he knows struggle (lol) and he thinks that he is just so ... gangsta! He uses black slang but he never does it right, and always sound like a dumbass, and he wears clothes he think black people would wear, but he's wrong and always picks the wrong clothes like FUBU or Southpole or Ecko lol. He tries to stay on the new trends but he fails miserably because the white malls he shops at just don't have the right stuff so he ends up lookin stupid as usual. He may talk like he could hurt somebody but inside he's a pu$$y and even if he aint a pu$$y, a real gangsta would beat the life out of him if he got into a fight with one. He also can switch up from "gangsta" to white when he needs to. When he's around his parents, he talks a totally different way and just snaps right into white mode lol. Oh yeah, another thing: they always try to holla at black girls, with that fake wannabe ghetto talk and think we're going to like it. Ew. They think if they have a black girlfriend it will make them closer to the hood, lol. And yes, they sag their pants lower than anyone from the hood ever would. They may be seen riding around town in an Escalade or some expensive truck their parents bought for them, and if they are lucky, they may be seen around town with a mixed baby lol. The only time you'll ever see them in any hood is when they are buying their drugs, which they think makes them gangsta but they don't know nobody (young) from the hood does drugs (except for weed) but they think doing drugs is gangsta. Other than that you will never see them in the hood, ever, and even certain hoods wont let them buy drugs just for being a wannabe fake azz white boy. I can't stand those fake azz bytches.

Answer 6

Dont worry everybody gets them, just ignore and delete them as they are trying to get money. I got a different kind recently from a female saying she had gone from USA to Nigeria with her boyfriend but he had run off and left her and taken all the money. The hotel has taken her passport as she is unable to pay her bill and would i be able to help her out. If i did this she would make it worth my while both sexually and financially as she has money back in the US. First i've seen like this but all a lot of crap!

Answer 7

Nothing short of changing your email addy will stop them. Somehow they managed to find yours, possibly from you using your primary email on the net. I avoid most spam and unsolicited emails by using 2 accounts. I have my primary provided by my ISP and a secondary web based email to use on the net. This keeps my primary relatively clean. You should be able to log in to your account and change your addy, then just create an account with yahoo to use elsewhere.

Answer 8

it is called phishing emails.

in other words, junk.

good thing you dont give them info, dont even answer, just delete the emails.

you are probably getting them because you signed up for something (like a free razor phone deal, when all you gotta do is sign up, etc), or you were at a store and applied for a $5,000 giveaway, etc..

those people give money away because they sell your email, etc to other companies, those other companies sell it, etc and that is how you end up with spam mail.

Answer 9

This is one of the oldest email scams on the internet, every few months a new "version" of this email gets circulated. You cant stop it, but you can mark it as spam. Whatever you do DO NOT reply to it.

Answer 10

when you get the emails, just go to your email settings and set them as spam then they should either go into the trash can or junk folder. under no circumstances send any info to them they are just scammers, i usually send an email back saying that the relevent authorities have been informed and all emails are being tracke. i dont get em any more

Answer 11

You can download ccleaner for free here: http://bit.ly/1Bk5V5C

First open CCleaner
Go to the Cleaner tab and you will be confronted by a very confusing lineup of checkboxes.
To make this brief, below is my recommended setup:
Under internet explorer check temporary internet files, cookies, and last download location. Most users don't really need this stuff. keep history and bookmarks unchecked, history is a maybe, but you don't want to lose bookmarked sites. You can normally leave Windows Explorer, System, and Advanced alone.
Run CCleaner and it will start deleting files.
afterward it will present you with a list of the files deleted, you really don't need to go through it as it will be several pages long.
The registry cleaner is recommended for slightly more advanced users. Use it after uninstalling programs as they will often leave behind incorrect registry entries.
If you decide to run Registry cleaner then review the items detected and always back up the registry (I keep a folder aside for this)
The Tools tab lets you uninstall programs and set startup programs. Why do you need this if Windows has all of these features? Especially with Vista Home Ed. The windows defender software explorer( startup programs) doesn't pick up some entries (however software explorer is easier to use).
Using CCleaner to uninstall programs and then check for leftover registry entries takes less time.
Under Options you can determine how CCleaner cleans your files. I leave this alone.