Spam: Aleksei Ivanov - broken Mercedes Benz in Kaluga, Russia

I received the following email about a troubled car owner in Russia. Out of curiosity I replied and received a follow-up message.

Both e-mails were bulk-mailed to many recipients. The first email was sent from an IP address in Sweden (90.228.233.71), the second one from an IP address in the Netherlands (82.156.118.141). It seems very unlikely that the sender lives in two countries. Perhaps the emails were sent through hijacked third-party computers in those countries to obscure the real sender.

The second mail mentions that the car owner lives in Kaluga, 160 km from Moscow. This immediately reminded me of another series of spam emails (see here on Snopes.com) sent by a scammer in that same city, who has been sending out thousands of emails to deceive people all over the world for many years.

The phone number listed in the second mail (+7-960-5145083) is a (non-geographic) mobile phone number, so the person could be anywhere in Russia (or even outside of Russia with global roaming).

If you have received these same e-mails and have replied, I would advise that you use utmost caution!

Initial email:

Guten Tag!

One year ago my Russian friend has bought the used car Mercedes-Benz ML270CDI, 2002 year, from the car-dealer Bielefeld Automobile in Delmenhorst, Germany (www.bielefeld-automobile.de).

A few months later, the car started to constantly break and the numerous repairs of the car took away already more money than the price of the car.

Now the brake and the ESP system in his car does not work correctly. The car suddenly put the brakes on and the stop signals shine all the time while driving. He does not use the car since several months because it is very dangerous.

The owner decided to sell this car for spare parts and now he is looking for a buyer, because he is not able to continue repairing its continiously breakages.

He is very grieved that he has bought the car with Mercedes-Benz brand. His neighbour uses an old Opel car and he never had any problems like this.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Aleksey Ivanov.

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In-Reply-To: <370401c78184$dfc58b00$eeeea8c0@local>
References: <auto-00000465086564@fe3.cluster1.aol.com>
 <001301c5ee2f$6abd556d80$54c5fea9@t-online.de>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:16:15 +0300
From: "Aleksey Ivanov" <a.ivanov@laposte.ru>
Subject: AW: Mercedes-Benz - ACHTUNG
To: <a.ivanov@laposte.ru>

Second e-mail:

Friends!

One year ago my friend from Russia has bought the used car Mercedes-Benz ML270CDI, 2002 year of manufacture, from the car-dealer Bielefeld Automobile in Delmenhorst, Germany.

When the car arrived to Russia, it started to constantly break and the numerous repairs of the car took away more money than the cost of the car.

Now the brake in the car does not work correctly. The car suddenly put the brakes on and the stop signals shine all the time while driving. He does not use the car since several months because it is very dangerous.

The repairing works at the Mercedes-Benz centers in Russia are extemely expensive and it is several times more expensive than in your country. Besides, there is no any Mercedes-Benz center in the region where he lives.

Therefore my friend is looking for a specialist from your country who could arrive in Russia (160km south from Moscow), check the car and solve the techical problem. He will pay for the freight tickets and repairing services, he will be pleased to provide you with accomodation at no charge and he will show you all the beautiful places of his region.

Recently Volkswagen AG has built a great manufacture of cars in the region where he lives. Many specialists came to this manufacture from Germany. They are very kind, intelligent and friendly. They have build the children play-grounds in the city, planted many trees and made many other beautiful things for Kaluga city. The citizens of Kaluga are very happy, because the local authorities could not do it for many years.

My friend is very grieved that he has bought the Mercedes-Benz car. Once the car will be repaired, he wants to immediately sell it and buy the Volkswagen car. His neighbour uses an old Volkswagen Golf car for the last ten years and he never had any problems like this.

If you can come to Russia and repair the car, please contact his relations by phone at +7-960-5145083. They speak Russian.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Aleksei.

P.S. I would be very grateful to you if you could translate this message to the German language and send this translation to my second email a.ivanov@laposte.ru

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References: <auto-00000465086564@fe3.cluster1.daimler.com>
 <001301c5ee2f$6abd556d80$54c5fea9@gmx.de>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:11:47 +0300
From: "Aleksei" <aleksei111@nextmail.ru>
Subject: AW: Mercedes-Benz
To: <aleksei111@nextmail.ru>