Money help: In need of rates/comments plz - Help.com

Sorry man, I voted but this is most likely a scam.

I think the contest is. It might not be, just don’t get your hopes up and start looking into student loans and Pell grants. (I may have spelled Pell wrong.)

I think the contest is, but I posted it on facebook so good luck.

Ok, good luck.

Yeah, that was supposed to be one comment but I have trouble typing today.

Most of the constests on the inernet that offer “free” money or items to anybody, do it hoping that people sign up for them and they also sign up more people by asking them to “rate” “vote” or “take a survey” so they can collect emails so they can send all kinds of spam or go “phishing” for idiots who love to fall for scams on the internet like the “100 millions dollars stuck in Nigeria” where they only want someone with a checking account with a minimum of $5000 in it so they can transfer the money to it.

It’s a scam!

Citibank Falls for Nigerian Scam
Written by Sue Walsh
gravatarcloseAuthor: Sue Walsh Name: Sue Walsh

citiYes, that’s right. Citibank, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, fell for the old 419 spam. Federal authorities have indicted a Nigerian man for attempting to scam the bank out of over $27 million! Here’s how the scam worked, according to the New York Times:

To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.

The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.

Amos and his crew would have gotten away with it too, had they not unwittingly directed the bank to wire the funds to what turned out to be invalid accounts. Those banks returned the money to Citibank because they could not process the transactions, and thus the scam was revealed. Simply amazing that Citibank could be scammed so easily. They’ve since credited the National Bank of Ethopia and pledge to improve their security procedures so it doesn’t happen again.

Amos, who lives in Singapore but was arrested while trying to enter the U.S. in Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. Officials say he is hoping to make a plea deal with prosecutors.