How did scammers get my personal email address?

I received two emails from scammers...I never visited any weird website


One was from:








INTERNATIONAL POLICE UNITED STATES SECTION


Region No. 2 New York City


P.O. Box 804 Knickerbockers Station


New York City, New -York 10002-0804 U.S.A.








Attn: Beneficiary





The office of the international police (INTERPOL) hereby write to inform you that we caught a diplomatic lady called Mrs. Dorothy Wallace at (John F. Kennedy International Airport) here in New -York with parcel box filed with united state dollars.





Meanwhile, base on our interview to the diplomat (Mrs. Dorothy Wallace) she said that the parcel box belongs to you, that she was sent by Alh. Ahmadu Giade of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Nigeria to deliver the parcel box to your doorstep, not knowing that the content of the parcel box is money. The diplomat also said that her first transit in the states was at Cincinnati Northern, Kentucky International Airport Ohio.





Now, the diplomat is under detention in the office of (INTERPOL) security, and we cannot release her until we carry out our proper investigation on how this huge amount of money managed to be yours before we will release her with the box. So, in this regard, you are to re-assure and prove to us that the money you are about to receive is legal by sending us the Award Ownership Certificate showing that the money is not illegal.





Note that the Award Ownership Certificate must to be secured from the office of the Senate president in Nigeria, because that is the only office that will issue you the original Award Ownership Certificate of these funds.





You are advised to forward immediately the Award Ownership Certificate if you have it with you, but if you do not have it, we will urge you as a matter of urgency to contact back the sender of the diplomat to help you secure the Award Ownership Certificate if at all you did not have it.





Below is the contact information of the person that sent the diplomat.





Name: Alh. Ahmadu Giade


Email: ahmadugiadeprivatemail@mail.mn


Direct telephone no: +234-8120672033.





Furthermore, we are giving you only but 5 working business days to forward the requested Award Ownership Certificate.





Please note that we shall get back to you after the 5 working business days, if you didn't come up with the certificate we shall confiscate the funds into World Bank account then charge you for money laundry, but if you forward the Award Ownership Certificate then we will release the diplomat with your parcel box and also gives you every back up till the money arrives your doorstep.





(continues)...........


Yours Truly,


I.P.A REGION NO: 2


THANKS.DOCTOR DOUGLAS H. KING.


Committee of Police Societies, NYPD.


CC: Alhaji Ahmadu Giade.





THE 2ND SCAMMER:





GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR


FOREIGN %26amp; DOMESTIC OPERATIONS


HSBC BANK


44 Feildway Dahgnam


Essex Rm82be United Kingdom


bedwell.acct@w.cn


TEL: +44-702-403-5568





Dear Sir/Madam,





I am Hon. Allan Bedwell, Director of operations from the (HSBC BANK,)


London Branch. My office monitors and controls the affairs concerned


with foreign claim payments.





I am the final signatory to any transfer of huge funds moving out of our


Bank to another Bank, both local and International levels in line with


foreign claim settlement. I have before me list of funds which has been


declared unclaimed deposits and over-invoiced sum, which could not be


transferred to some nominated accounts as these accounts have been


identified dormant.





I am contacting you because I want this fund to be transferred into their


account as the beneficiary of the said funds, on this note; I wish to have


a deal with you as regards to your unpaid funds. I have all the necessary


documents required in the file to make this transaction a smooth and


successful transaction.





As it is, my duty to recommend the transfer of these surplus funds to the


Federal Government Treasury and Reserve Accounts as unclaimed deposits, I


have the opportunity to write you based on the instructions I received two


days ago from the Foreign Debts reconciliation dept. to submit the List of


payment reports/ expenditures and audited reports, I have decided to remit


total of $25,000,000.00to your account if we can have a deal/agreement.





My conditions are:





1. The sum of USD$25.7M only will be transfer into your account after the


processing of all relevant legal documents on your name as the bona-fide


beneficiary; the funds will be released to you only by. Certified


International Bank Draft or Telegraphic wire Transfer (T/T), confirmable


in your account within 7 working days.





2. The transaction will be highly confidential for security reasons and


all correspondence will be strictly by email / telephone, for security


purposes.





(continues)


................


===========================


I just hope that those people won't hack my e-mail!!! Do I need to worry about this?|||There are plenty of ways they get your email address


1 - you signed up for a website that sold their membership list


2 - you signed up for some mailing list that sold their mailing list


3 - you have a stupid friend who forwarded a chain email to you - those chain mails are all just a a way for spammers to gather new email addresses


4 - you have your email address posted on a social networking site (facebook, linkedin, myspace, etc)


5 - you signed some online petition that makes all email signatures public


6 - you bought from a website that sold their customer list





DO NOT ever open an email from anyone you don't know. Unfortunately now that you opened this, the sender knows that your account is active and you'll only get more spam. Once you start getting spam it's impossible to stop it as these email lists keep getting resold - sometimes to legitimate marketers but also to scammers





All you can do is ignore any emails from anyone you do not know or any company you did not specifically give your email address to. Just mark as Spam without opening the message|||I think you can report this as a spam %26amp; you won't receive any emails from them again!