When we go to check our email inbox each morning, we may expect to see emails from our work colleagues, perhaps the odd family member who still prefers this method of contact. Possibly an email or two from a company we have an account with advertising their latest product.

We probably wouldn’t expect to see an email waiting from the FBI Director himself, Christopher Wray (at the time of writing.)

And if the prospect of being emailed by the Director of the FBI wasn’t surprising enough, you’d probably be shocked when you read the email and learned that the FBI Director was contacting you to tell you that you had been chosen to receive millions of dollars from a compensation fund.

Now, of course this is a scam. But the cyber crooks are wagering that if you’re going to believe the FBI Director himself is emailing you a grammatical nightmare, out of the blue, about giving you millions of dollars, you also might be naïve enough to be persuaded to cough up some money in order to get your promised millions.

Because that’s where all scams of this ilk ultimately lead. It’s advance fee fraud, also known as Nigerian fraud, or 419 scams. An email out of the blue, offering you a big cash lump sum. But when you respond, it turns out you have to part with your money first. But don’t worry, you’re told. The money you need to pay-up is pocket change when compared to the ultimate pay-off you’ll soon receive.

So you pay, and that ultimate pay-off never comes. The crooks either take your money and run, or worse, they come back with more tall-tales about how something has gone wrong and you need to part with even more of your money.

But pay close attention to this particularly telling sentence towards the end of the scam email above.

We advice you to stop all the communications with everyone regarding your payment as we have short listed to deliver to you and now urge you to comply and
receive your ATM Card funds. Thanks for your understanding as you follow instructions while I wait to hear from you today.

The last thing a scammer wants is you speaking to other people. They know that vulnerable people are more likely to be persuaded out of being scammed if they seek help from others who are perhaps a little more sceptical or well versed in the area of digital malevolence. It’s a tell-tale sign of just how crooked the scammers are, and that they’ll use any trick in the book to get their hands on your money.

There are other tell-tale signs as well. Be sceptical of any emails that you weren’t expecting, especially if they’re offering you a large cash sum and asking for your personal details. Watch out for bad spelling and grammar, and never, ever hand over money to people only met online, even if they claim to be acting in an official capacity. If you get an email claiming you’ve won or inherited millions of dollars, you’re being scammed. It’s that simple.

And finally, no, the FBI Director doesn’t tend to email people using a free web based Yahoo email account.