This is a public safety notice for all those of us who use LinkedIn to build and maintain our professional network.
1 month ago, I receive an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, from an unknown individual (lets call him, Fred). Fred and I seemed to share a number of shared connections. Open to new acquaintances, and given Fred’s 20 years in the engineering industry and 300+ contacts, I was happy to connect if only to understand what this persons’ motivations were, and whether there was a mutual benefit to be gained.
In subsequent correspondence from Fred I found that he was an out of work Construction Manager working out of the Philipines. He asked for my help to put his CV in front of my company’s HR department. Before I agreed, I had a good look at the CV deciding whether to aid in his application or not.
The CV was poorly structured, and difficult to read, so I asked Fred to revise it. A request he didn’t have time to aquiest. So I asked him to go onto my company’s website and at least identify which positions he thought he was suitable for. Instead of one, I got a whole list.
At this point, I made the wise decision not to support Fred’s request, instead requested he make the application through the online portal. The message I thought I’d given was “go away”. I thought more about adding people on LinkedIn and whether I needed to re-evaluate the risk, but put my thoughts aside and went back to work.
Less than a month later I got this email from Fred.
“Am sorry for disturbing you, I made an Emergency trip to Madrid for a short business trip with Faulkland oil and Gas production company, I have been a share holder with this company over the years and was invited for their annual convention, and am short of cash right here, I went to the bank to withdraw and was informed that i cant withdraw from my account in some country due network errors, so am wondering if i could get a quick loan of 1,150euro or what ever you can afford immediately so i can quickly clear some little and also take a cab to the airport, as soon as i get back home i will refund the money.”
Obviously I had stumbled into some kind of scam. So I dug a bit deeper. I stripped the originating IP address from the email and found enough information to confirm my suspicions.
Regarding 196.29.210.4, and IP lookup had this to say
Host : 4.210.29.196.client4.directonpc.net (196.29.212.30 )
Country : Nigeria
Already pretty dubius, I decided to investigate further. I responded to Fred telling him I was happy to transfer the cash to which he responded with request for me to remit the funds via Western Union.
It was about this point that I asked Fred how it was he was in madrid but his emails were originating from Nigeria.. and since then.. I havent heard from Fred.
Disclaimer: All names and some information has been deliberately omitted/changed and if you know a guy named Fred, it’s probably not him. Unless your friend is in Nigeria and his real name isn’t Fred, .. then there’s a very small chance it is. Also, Fred may or may not be female.
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