If you have discovered a gentleman from Nigeria in your inbox, promising a sum of several million dollars for your help in transferring some money that for n number of good reasons can only be done with your help - you're not alone ;o)
The mail typically starts off like "We write to solicit your assistance in an urgent business transactionwhich we hope to execute under condition of strict confidentiality." or "It is my humble pleasure to write you with this urgent business proposal. I am Dr,Dede Olumide the Chairman senate committee on finance and appropriation". The most unique one I have discovered so far started off like "My name is MR SALIU USENI the eldest son of Rtd General JEREMAIAH. J. T. USENI who was the est. while Minister of the Federal Capital territory Abuja in the late General Sani Abacha’s Regime of 1993-1998."
The essential message is that there is a big pile of money(10-50MM) stashed away in some inaccessible account in Nigeria to which the writer has some kind of a key. You help the guy in getting it transferred out of the country and make a cool 15-30% on the transaction. There is a hint of several modalities that have been worked out that will make the transaction risk free for you - yeah sure - so you suddenly decided to drop down from cyberspace into my inbox to hand over a few million dollars - risk free
I thought that even though the story/junk mail was unique - atleast in terms of the content, I mean it was hilarious to read all the arcane colonial beureaucratic mumbo jumbo, written like a true blooded Nigerian official - it was too far fetched for anyone actually falling for it, just a little harmless fun ..... Boy, was I wrong.
Turns out this is an old scam - going on for over 10-15 years now. The idea is simple - dupe people into believing that they are going to receive several million dollars - and get them to pay some upfront fees - related to attorney charges, bribes, etc to move the non-existent money around. This apparently has about .1% success rate and several people have been cheated of their life's earnings - some of them have been invited to Nigeria and have been held at Ransom - even killed.
There are some good links - if you want to read more about this. Me - I'm just getting tired that everyweek I get yet one more variant from Mr. Mambooza
Link 1 Link 2
What stayed with you?
A line that lingered, a feeling, a disagreement. Great comments are as valuable as the original piece.