How to identify scams like "Overdue Contract Funds"
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of scam is "Overdue Contract Funds"?
Our analysis has revealed that this email is a scam designed to lure recipients with the promise of a large sum of money, ultimately tricking them into transferring funds or disclosing personal information to fraudsters. It is important to recognize and ignore such emails to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, or other issues.
More about the "Overdue Contract Funds" scam email
This email appears to come from Dr. Abdu Abubakar, who is supposedly the Pay Master General at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It states that the recipient's overdue contract funds, totaling $10 million, are set to be released. The email also mentions Elizabeth Rose Tolson, who allegedly claimed to be the recipient's representative and provided her banking details.
The letter urges the recipient to confirm if the woman is their representative and warns that failure to respond within seven days will result in the payment being processed to her account. The email includes a list of personal information the recipient is instructed to provide.
The requested information includes the first, middle, and last name, address, age, sex, marital status, occupation, copy of the international passport, and other details. Scammers can misuse such information to commit identity theft, sell the obtained details to third parties, blackmail victims, and launch targeted phishing attacks.
Additionally, scammers behind this email can try to extract money from recipients. They may claim that certain fees or payments, such as processing fees or taxes, are required to "release" the promised funds. This is a common tactic in advance-fee scams, where individuals are asked to pay money upfront under the false promise of receiving their "share" later.
Even after the victim pays, they never actually receive the promised funds. Therefore, when emails of this type are encountered, they should be ignored to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, reputational damage, and other issues.
| Name | Overdue Contract Funds Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | The recipient is owed $10 million in overdue contract funds |
| Disguise | Letter from Dr. Abdu Abubakar, the Pay Master General |
| Symptoms | Generic greeting, urgent language, suspicious links, grammatical errors. |
| Distribution methods | Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains. |
| Damage | Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
Conclusion
In conclusion, this email is an example of a popular scam in which scammers promise large sums of money to manipulate recipients into providing sensitive data and (or) making upfront payments. Victims who fall for such schemes can fake problems like identity theft, financial loss, and further exploitation.
It is best to ignore these emails and report them to avoid falling victim to fraudulent activities. Examples of similar scams are "Loan Investment Opportunities For Your Business", "Funds Disbursed By Presidential Administration", and "PROTON LOTTERY". Sometimes, emails of this type can be utilized to trick users into infecting their computers.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Threat actors who aim to deceive users into infecting computers via email send malicious attachments or links. These attachments can include PDFs, Office documents, executables, archives, scripts, and other files. Malware infiltration can occur after opening malicious executables, enabling macros in compromised documents, or performing other actions.
Additionally, deceptive emails can contain links that lead users to compromised or malicious websites, where malware is automatically downloaded, or users are tricked into manually installing the harmful software.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Be extra cautious with emails containing links and attachments, particularly if they seem unexpected, irrelevant, or from unfamiliar senders. Always download programs and files from trusted sources, such as official websites or app stores. Do not use other sources or download pirated software, cracking tools, or key generators.
Avoid clicking ads, pop-ups, buttons, or links encountered on suspicious websites. Never allow questionable pages to send notifications. Keep your operating system and software up to date, and regularly scan your device using a reliable security tool.
If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
The appearance of the scam email (GIF):
Text presented in the "Overdue Contract Funds" email letter:
Subject: Re: Payment instruction to credit your account with the sum of US$10,000,000.00??? 189.8
From: Pay Master General CBN
Telephone No: +234 807 906 4764
Dr. Abdu Abubakar
Debt Reconciliation/Payment,
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Attention: Beneficiary,
Dear. Sir
Re: Payment instruction to credit your account with the sum of US$10,000,000.00???
This is to notify you that your overdue contract funds have been gazetted to be released, via key telex transfer (KTT) direct wire transfer to you by the Senate house committee for foreign overdue fund transfer. Meanwhile, a woman wrote to my office a few days ago with a letter, claiming to be your True representative. All Over due Inheritance/contract Funds winner prize have been recalled to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Both Africa and Asia and USA, Europe.
Here are her information's
BANK: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. - LA1-1908
ADDRESS: 2911 W. 70TH STREET, SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 71108
Account Name:Elizabeth Rose Tolson
ROUTING NO: 065400137
ACCOUNT NO: 752649939
SWIFT CODE: CHASUS33
PERSONAL BANKER: MICHAEL COOPER
Please, do reconfirm to this office, as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you So that the Bank will not be held responsible for paying into the wrong account Name. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been approved and accredited by the Federal Ministry Of Finance and the Senate House committee for foreign overdue fund, to pay all foreign Overdue inheritance funds and contract to respective original beneficiaries this first quarter Payment of the year 2025.Base the meeting held with the Governor and board of directors of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on 10/02/2025
Meanwhile, you are advice to get back to my office immediately with the requested details to enable us have your correct details to wire your fund: Send your reply to this email address (paymastergeneralabdu@gmail.com)
1.Your First/Middle & Last Name:
2.Your Full Office or Residential Address:
3.Your Original Country of Origin:
4.Age/Sex/Marital Status:
5.Position Held in Office:
6.Present Occupation:
7.Office Telephone/Fax:
8.Residential Tel/Fax & Mobile Line:
9.Banking Details:
10. The Official Amount Owed To You:
11. The Country Where you are expecting your claim from:
12.A certified Copy of your international passport or any scanned
However, we shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Elizabeth Rose Tolson, if we do not hear from you within the next seven working days from today.
Your Sincerely,
Dr. Abdu Abubakar
Pay Master General
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Instant automatic malware removal:
Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner
By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.
Quick menu:
- What is Overdue Contract Funds scam?
- Types of malicious emails.
- How to spot a malicious email?
- What to do if you fell for an email scam?
Types of malicious emails:
Phishing Emails
Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.
Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.
After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.
Emails with Malicious Attachments
Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.
In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.
If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.
While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.
Sextortion Emails
This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.
To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.
How to spot a malicious email?
While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:
- Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
- Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
- Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
- Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.
To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
Example of a spam email:
What to do if you fell for an email scam?
- If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
- If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
- If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
- If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
- Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why did I receive this email?
There is a high chance that many other individuals received the same email. Usually, these scam emails are not personalized and are sent to all addresses scammers have obtained through data breaches or other methods.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
Contact the relevant authorities if you have provided your ID card details, banking information, or similar details to scammers.
I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to a fraudulent email, is my computer infected?
Not necessarily. It depends on the type of file that was opened. Malicious executables can infect a computer as soon as they are opened, while other files, such as MS Office documents, typically require further user interaction to activate malware.
I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?
Such transactions are nearly impossible to trace, which means you probably will not be able to recover the funds.
I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?
Emails are typically safe to open, provided that recipients do not click questionable links or open attachments that might contain malware.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate most known malware, but more advanced threats could be hidden deep within the system. To ensure removal, it is advisable to perform a full system scan.
Outstanding!
▼ Show Discussion