Liberty reserve scammer wants me to create API to get $1000 prize

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Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday October 17, 2011 at 13:13:21:

It's funny what these scammers are coming up with nowadays. I was initially happy when I received an email from instantgoldng@hotmail.com informing me that I've won $1000. Here is what the email really said:

Subject: You won 1000 USD LR from Instantgoldng
Message: Dear Instantgoldng member,
CONGRATULATIONS! You have won 1000 USD Liberty Reserve from Instantgoldng.
How can you get this money? You must create an API in your LibertyReserve account to we can process your prize.
Step-by-step instructions on how to create the API are provided here:
1) Login to your LibertyReserve account
2) Click on "Merchant Tools"
3) Click on "Create new API"
4) Enter the following details:
API Name: ign
Security Word: ign123
5) Check/Tick ENABLED
6) Check/Tick TRANSFER
7) Check/Tick BALANCE
8) Enter your Master Key and click "SUBMIT"
AFTER DONE PLEASE EMAIL BACK your LR account number to instantgoldng@hotmail.com
If you created corectly this API we can process your 1000 usd prize within 48 hours to your libertyreserve account.
https://instantgoldng.com,admin

Now the email initially looked like it was from admin@instantgoldng.com but when I checked the header it actually came from instantgoldng@hotmail.com. Now that made me a bit sad cause I realized that it was just a scam and I really didn't win any prize. I later just had to confirm it first from instantgoldng to find out the truth. They alerted that It was really a scam and that I should have nothing to do with them. Now, I had already created an API for them according to their setting but I disabled it until I got confirmation from the company.

So two things let the cat out of the bag:
- They tried to falsify email headers
- They asked for my account number and yet they said I won
- They wanted me to create an API that they are aware of. Now that isn't secure.

So I just want to alert those who use Liberty reserve that there are a lot of scammers out there who try to use this method to take money out of your account even without you logging in. So if you really won any prize, the person or awarder certainly already has your liberty account and can pay you directly.

Comments:
Re: Liberty reserve scammer wants me to create API to get $1000 prize Posted by Alawode on Monday July 2, 2012 at 22:53:18:

Yesssooooo. Instant Gold Nigeria never do any promo. Its a scam from the hackers. They never rest