Initially an e-mail came to the student apparently from an institution called Global Watch Institute, asking him for being present in dual seminars on the topic: Racism and Human Rights the Institute was holding one each in Madrid and New York.

The student stated that the first message came to him on December 17, 2010. And, according to him, since his field of study had a connection with the topic, he responded stating he was interested. Hindustantimes.com reported this.

The e-mail also promised about bearing the entire cost of the student's trip. However, over time the fraudsters started asking for money from him to take care of certain expenditures such as booking his hotel at Madrid along with health insurance asserting that they'd all be refunded when he'd arrive in New York.

The student, believing the e-mail, wired the money, but neither heard of any seminar nor a trip abroad, he stated. Indeed, all the things written inside the electronic mail was false.

Worryingly, the above mentioned e-mail fraud, according to security specialists, is an edition of the 419 scam, which's also called Advance-fee Fraud.

They (specialists) outline that the method of operation in these malicious e-mail campaigns involves duping a victim with fake pledges about certain huge reward to such an extent that he acquiesces to remit money. For example, in the current instance, the scammers tricked the student into transferring cash after promising falsely about arranging his presence at the seminars abroad.

The specialists observe that whereas the majority of people recognize the scams and even ignore them, some individuals simply are hooked who eventually stand forgoing large amounts of money.

Besides, these malicious e-mail campaigns are growing and becoming more widespread as cyber-crime perpetrators tend to get more advanced while also spread their schemes beyond the conventional target nations (US and Western Europe) to other nations like India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and China, which are also witnessing increased Internet connectivity.