WARNING: A Newly Revised Scam Targeting Runescape Gamers

(5) Body of the Message Part 1 - - Awkward choice of wording. While the originator of this scam version did an amazing job at applying the spell-checker -- or rather the app that generated the email message did an amazing job at not spelling words incorrectly -- the choice of word and some of the sentence structure in the message still retains the awkwardness typical of a person who is writing in a language that is not their native tongue.

This tends to result in the use of words that, while they are technically correct, are not structurally correct in terms of idea and message flow.

Tip-offs like “indisputably banning your account” and “accusing you in a court of law” are prime examples.

First, no game studio fires warning shots - if they have caught you red-handed they don't play slap-the-wrist, they outfight ban your account(s). Second, in America there are no alternate courts, whereas the region in which the criminals who created this scam attempt live does have alternate courts.

The host system for the server that is rented by the perpetrators is located in Somoa, which is a parliamentary democracy with a unicameral legislative assembly. Samoa’s court system primarily consists of two District courts and a Supreme Court, an Appeals Court, and separate Land and Titles Courts that handle matters relating to customary land ownership and ‘matai’ (chief) titles.

In addition to the above “courts of law” because Somoa's system is a Westminster legal system based on the English legal system there are alternate venues for specific types of cases, which might easily explain why the person writing the message would feel it proper to distinguish this.

Of course it is also possible that the servers in Somoa are simply rented servers and the perpetrators are elsewhere in the world. The structure and their choice of language suggests that they might be from the Middle East or one of the better educated countries in Africa. If we had to bet on this, we speculate that these scammers are likely either from Zimbabwe, Tunisia, or much more likely, from Nigeria -- all of which share the distinction of having alternate courts.

(6) Body of the Message Part 2 -- Incorrect Statues and Laws. It really is a pity, considering that they went to significant pains to properly edit the message (for the most part) that they ended up simply picking laws out of a hat -- or at least that is what we suspect that they did -- either way we can't be sure but clearly as what they chose is so far removed from the threat they're making it seems most likely!

For example here is what the laws they list actually cover:

17 U.S.C. 1306(a)(1) -- Title 17 - Copyrights Chapter 13 - Protection of Original Designs

Sec. 1306 - Design Notice: covering the circumstances under which a design notice must be used and the effect that omission of a design notice may have on the satisfaction of the requirements for the same under the law.

19 U.S.C. 1307(c)(3) -- 19 U.S. Code § 1307 Convict-made goods; importation prohibited.

Our dissection continues on the next page...