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Need 1 Million ?


sardaukar

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Hello, people.

 

I have received a funny letter. As far as I realise I am supposed to gain some 1 million $. Furthermore, I am the only "person to be trusted" although I know noone from Africa ;)

In other words - sometimes flood is just funny (unlike boring one about replicas of Rolex, ciallis, **** and xxx).

 

 

"FROM MRS AMINA.

My name is Hajia Amina Shettima Mohammed Bulama the eldest wife of Shettima Mohammed Bulama who was the est.while managing director of the Bank of the North Nig,Plc.I am contacting you in a benevolent spirit; utmost confidence and trust to enable us provide a solution to a money transfer of $12M that is presentlt the last resort of my family.

My husband has just been retired from office and has also been placed under survelience of which he can not travel out of the country for now due to allegations levelled against him while in office as the Managing director of the bank of the north Nig.Plc of which he is facing litigations right now. You may be quite surprised at my sudden contact to you but do not despair,I got your contact from a business site on the internet and following the i formation I gathered about you,I was convinced that you could be of assistance to me.So,decided to contact you at once due to the urgency required for us to immediately transfer the said funds out of the country.During the time my husband was with the bank he made several loans to various oil firms and inreturn he was given various sums as gratifications.The prominent amongst the deals was monies that emanated from funds set aside for the importation of various ballot equipmemts for the just concluded april general elections.If you are conversant with world news,you would understand better.

During this period my husband was able to make some good money for himself and kept in a private security finance accounts here as persopnal effects.Out of the money my husband made,he left the sum of US$12M (Twelve Mllion United States Dollars) which was kept in a Private security firm here in Nigeria and he kept it in the vaults of this firm as personal effects.The reason is because no names were used to lodge in the consignment containing the funds. Instead, he used PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS (PIN)and declared the contents as Bearer Bonds and Treasury Bills. Also the firm issued him with a certificate of deposit of the consignment.

Note that I have these information in my custody.Right now, my husband has asked me to negotiate with a foreigner who would assist us lay claim to the consignment,as the eldest wife of my husband,I believe that I owe the entire family an obligation to ensure that the US$12M is successfully transferred abroad for investment purposes.With the present situation,I cannot do it all by myself.It is based on this that I am making this contact with you.I have done a thorough homework and fine-tuned the best way to create you as the beneficiary to the consignment containing the funds and effect the transfer of the consignment accordingly.It is rest assured that the modalities I have resolved to finalize the entire project guarantees our safety and the successful transfer of the funds.So,you will be absolutely right when you say that this project is risk free and viable.If you are capable and willing to assist,contact me at once via this email for more details.

Believe me, there is no one else we can trust again.All my husband's friends have deserted us after exploiting us on the pretence of trying to help my husband.As it is said,it is at the time of problems that you know your true friends.So long as you keep everything to yourself,we would definitely have no problems. For your assistance,I am ready to give you as much as 25% of the total funds after confirmation in your possession and invest a reasonable percentage into any viable business you may suggest.Please,i need your assistance to make this happen and please do not undermine it because it will also be a source of up liftment to you also. You have absolutely nothing to loose in assisting us instead,you have so much to gain.

I will appreciate if you can contact me at my private email:baminashettima@outgun.com

Awaiting your urgent and positive response.

Thanks and Allah be with you.

Hajia (Mrs) Amina Shettima Bulama."

 

:P

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It's officially called 419 scams, after the Nigerian legal code that forbids them. There's an entire, very intricate industry around them that includes not only scams like these but fake cashier check scams (popular on ebay and other auction sites) and relationship scams (money is needed for the plane ticket or visa... only the person never shows up).

 

Unfortunately, people do believe them, and end up losing thousands of dollars. In extreme cases, people have been killed in events related to 419 scams. Google "419 scam" and read around a bit. And you might be surprised at how normal and intelligent the people who get sucked in to these scams are.

 

Sorry to dampen the fun. Although the letters are often funny in a preposterous way, and it's hard to imagine anyone will fall for them, once you know the victims and the consequences its much less funny.

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Yes I get about two a day, sometimes mulitple copies of the same email. Funny that they never answer the emails I send them asking why they still live in said country when it must be a dangerous place to live given how many people die there. I also ask them why are so many people there poor when there are all these millions floating around unclaimed as the owners are dead.

 

There is a website dedicated to getting revenge on these people and in some cases money from them. You reply to them claiming to be willing to help then explain how your religion forbids you from taking money from people not of your religion. Then you ask them to convert and take pictures of them with a fish on their head to prove it.

 

Personally I just report them to both the ISP they sent it from and the free email provider they always use to receive the emails sent back.

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There are entire groups online dedicated to baiting scammers (trying to get scammers to waste time with someone who KNOWS its a scam and will never send them money-- any time spent working with a baiter is time NOT spent working with a victim). The results of these baitings are things like the fish church, or the church of the painted breast, or the bread and wine church--all very funny stories, but with a serious purpose. Baiting for money used to be popular but is discouraged now because you risk giving the scammers your identity (always a bad idea) and you end up committing fraud (equally bad, as it's illegal).

 

This work has actually had positive effects-- fake bank sites that might have fooled victims are forced offline, a few arrests have been made, and when the scammers goof up and do something stupid like CC their entire email list insted of BCC it, all the email addresses on that list can be contacted and alerted to the scam.

 

The funny stories are just an added benefit--but I agree, some of them are very well done. Take a look at 419eater.com for a collection of some of the best.

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And you might be surprised at how normal and intelligent the people who get sucked in to these scams are.

 

Sorry, but to fall for something as obvious as these e-mails, you are, by definition, not very intelligent. ;) Well written or not, they play on people's greed and lack of common sense.

 

My favorite is the 3rd Annual Nigerian Email Conference. :lol2:

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The conference is a riot.

 

Plenty of intelligent people lack common sense. But I'll agree with you on the fact that the letters work when common sense gets overruled--doesn't matter how smart a person actually is, if they WANT to believe it's true, they'll swallow anything.

 

Hey, if the scammers sent me an email promising I would end up marrying a certain actor 100% risky free at the end of the deal, I might fall for it. I have no shame in certain areas. :lol2:

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Unfortunately there are thousands who fall for this. I hear many stories about 67 year old grandmothers being arrested because they embezzeled $2M from their companies thinking that they will pay it back with interest as a favor to the boss, etc.

 

The bad thing is that these are more than scams. The US Secret Service has a department set up just for this stuff. The problem is that as the scam goes along and they eventually get the mark to travel to their country they often end up kidnapping the sucker and holding them for ransom and/or killing them if they don't go along and cough up their last penny. One guy was killed, burned and dumped in front of the "touristy" hotel for not paying once they captured him.

 

I don't think even the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men nowadays.

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