"AND ACCOUNTING OFFICER.
FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT. (BOA) BANK OF AFRICAN,
ACCRA, GHANA.
Dear friend, TOP SECRET RE: TRANSFER OF ($6.5 USD) SIX MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) I want to transfer to overseas the sum of ($6.5 USD) SIX Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from a Prime Bank in Africa . I would like to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve as far as it can receive money. I am DR MARTIN YARO. An accountant and personal confidant to late Mr. George A Roberts who died together with his wife in a plane crash on the October 31st 1999 on their way to attend wedding in Boston, he is an American, a physician and industrialist, he died without having any beneficiary to his assets including his account here in Ghana which he opened as his personal savings for the purpose of expansion and development of his company before his untimely death in 1999. The amount involved is ($6.500.000.00USD) SIX Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars), no other person knows about this account. I am contacting you for us to transfer this funds to your account as the beneficiary, I want to transfer the whole $6,500.000.00 (SIX Million Five Hundred Thousand USD) into a safe account abroad, but I don't know any foreigner. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local person here, without valid international foreign passport, but can only be approved to any foreigner with valid international passport or drivers license and foreign a/c because the money is in US Dollars and the former owner of the a/c late Mr. George A Roberts was a foreigner, and as such the money can only be approved into a foreign a/c. I need your full co-operation to make this work fine because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with the inheritance procedures. At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 40% of the total amount, 55% will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of transferring. You should observe utmost CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECRECY in this transaction, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I will require your assistance to invest my share in your country. You should fill this form below and send to me immediately as soon as you receive this letter:
Your Full Name: ..................................... Your Telephone: .................................Your Age: .............................Sex…………………………..
Marital Status: .......................Nationality……………………..
Receiving Country: .................... Trusting to hear from you immediately.Sincerely DR MARTIN YARO"
Sorry Dr. Yaro, I will pass.
Hey how many of you get this shit in your e-mail boxes every day? These schemes from my cousins in Africa, trying to separate the rich A-merry-cans from their money. Honestly, I think the shit is kind of funny. I like reading them and seeing the different ways they try to pull off the hustle. Of course most of the time the grammar is so fucked up that it's almost laughable to read them.
And still they try. I must get at least thirty of these attempted hustles in my inbox every day. You would think that if my cousins can sit at a computer keyboard all day and type this kind of shit, they would at least try to put their skills to some good use. I mean can't one of these credit card companies hire them to do some customer service work like they do the Indians? I am just saying.
So on and on it goes, and tomorrow there will be more letters from the rich bankers in Africa.
And tomorrow some sucker here in A-merry-ca will bite.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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51 comments:
See what happens you when don't write on Obama? People withhold their comments. Just kidding.
But seriously, yes I see this e-mail constantly and I laugh. Why would I trust a complete stranger with my information anyway?
*Factoid: Lark Voorhies is a Jehovah's Witness.
Do people really fall for that scam?
On a another note, Dennis Brown was one of the greats, but my favorite Reggae singer of all time is Joseph Hill from Culture. His voice was unique and we'll never hear a voice like that again.
You would think they would try another way to scam, since Chris Hansen of "Dateline - Expose Sexual Predators" Fame also did a documentary featuring this rip off.
And it's people from the "motherland" that's doing this. Ugh.
BrotherKomrade, yes, people are still falling for the scam, as was reported on Dateline a year ago.
"BrotherKomrade, yes, people are still falling for the scam, as was reported on Dateline a year ago."
God, what dumb-asses.
On another, 'nother note, I think I'm gonna take all my Slayer off of my mp3 that I put on for the week and replace it with the three albums I have of Culture, add some Peter Tosh and Max Romeo too. Now I want to listen to some Reggae.
never have i seen this before your post or maybe i just deleted it before i finished reading the 1st fused sentence. forget "too good to be true" everything about this reeks of whackness and bogusness.
Ha, I have a distant relative who apparently died in that same plane crash and it has taken long, hard searching on several occasions for Somebody, Esquire, to find me. Who knew if was so easy to make millions?
To bring this back around to HRC-bashing, do you that a company she and Bill were entwined with (InfoUSA) actually sold consumer information on the elderly--those with Alzheimers, those with gamling problems and those who needed to make money fast--to scam artists who emptied some of these people's bank accounts, with the help of Wachovia? It sounds like a tall tale, but there is entry after entry in a New York Times search. Dr. Yaro should've gotten HRC on his side!
I'm ordering some Dennis Brown on your recommendation.
Speaking of big money. Have you been told about the article in the L.A. Times about Philadelphia ward bosses and the Obama campaign?
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-streetmoney11apr11,0,6553901.story
I always get the ones for the Irish lottery, and I'm not Irish.
was listening to dennis brown too on my mp3 on the way home from work today.. made my journey so sweet..
burning spear come up soon.. cannot wait for the dub to drop in my ears....
it's not the hand on alphonso's head that worries me so much .. is bush giving him a tummy rub to make him smile like that? truly disturbing...
That is what happens when you have people with education but no jobs. At least your letter wasn't from Nigeria.
And I can't believe people here still fall for it.
Laugh all you want now, Field, I got my 6.5 million coming in any day now...
I think there was a year Britain lost about 3 Billion pounds, Something like that, in these scums. They work much better in Europe.
The Philosophy the Nigerian cons go by is, " Before the Europeans came, we had a The Gold Coast(Ghana), they left nothing behind. Now we go to Europe to take back what they took.
Once you listen to them explain their way of thinking, you will understand where they come from and why their scums work.
If you call a cop in the UK over a buglary, Nigerians are the last suspects because it is known that they don't steal small.
These guys have turned their art almost into a science, they even have a bible on how to defraud the systems over there. And ofcourse they keep all this information amongst themselves. They only trust themselves.
You may have to think twice before laughing these scams off.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/20/unigeria120.xml
Police Alert
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm
BBC Detailes report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7027088.stm
Most Nigerians I know hate this type of fraud scheme. They detest that shit and it definitely has become a stereotype associated with Africans.
There's a new variety from Ghana. It's the Love Letter version, where they tell you they love you, send you a picture of some chick, then lay a sob story on you about how they live in a refugee camp and their uncle or father was a banking minister with 3 million in the bank but need a North American to get to it.
That kinda crap is all over the Black internet right now. Don't be a sucker.
These online scams come in waves.
I will receive several a day, then none for weeks, then they start back up again.
My email inbox is always filled with fascinating stuff like Nigerian mail fraud. Sometimes its a notice from my bank alerting me to an attempt to corrupt my account. All I need to do is reply with my name, Social Security number, and DOB, and th security department will investigate the miscreants. Sometimes its a breathless notice from a bank in another part of the country that I have no relationship with. These people are creative, even attaching recognized bank logos to the notice.
I wonder how many people are naive enough to fall for it?
Yes Zack Lark is a JW. Hey that's why opposites attract :)
Burning Spear! Wow you got me there. If Dennis Brown,he could be 1a.bunny Wailer is right there too.
Damn you all got me in a reggae mode now. I will have to redo my shuffle.
Whopps,sorry about that jumbled comment folks.That's what happens when your fingers are too big for your blackberry keys,and you are trying to type while on a speeding train.
My Email box is filled with solicitations for cheap Percocet and Viagra. Talk about a PARTY!
Most of these scam e-messages come from Nigeria and yes I get dozens of them each day along with about a dozen phishing scams. And yes people do fall for these scams.
New Yorker about two years ago did a piece on a born-again Christian minister whose greed got the better of him and he got sucked in big time. And because he was sucked in to passing a very large bogus check HE was indicted and sentenced to two years in prison.
As near as I can tell, these people are almost impossible to apprehend.
For a while, I used to correct the grammar and send the e-mails back signed Alberto Gonzales or Donald Rumsfeld. But then it occurred to me that I have better things to do with my time.
Cali Hussein Tejano said, "I always get the ones for the Irish lottery, and I'm not Irish."
I get these email for the Irish and British lotteries, and these African ones. One even had someone with my same last name, Womack.
I worry about my mother with these kinda scams. She's a new email/Internet user, so I have to alert her of these scams so she won't get caught up in them. I really honestly could see her and/or my grandmother thinking they are true.
I missed the Dateline doc done on these scams. I would love to have seen their response. Maybe I can find one on YouTube...
What do folks on the Continent really think about African Americans (and a throw Yardies and Trinis and other such arrogant West Indians into that mix, too hahaha)?
I can tell you I feel about some of the folks who've come to the US and are acting crazy. I can go all Armstrong Williams/Archie Bunker and talk about the bad driving, the long lines at Ross buying tons of worthless sh*t to send back home. The aloofness, etc.
Nah. What irks me the most is this bizarre get-over, pirate, haggle mentality that makes everything, even arguing over change for a five dollar bill at McDonalds, a scam. Is that the survival mechanism of having to do this everyday for everyday needs places that suffered 50 years of colonialism and racism and then anoher 50 of corruption and murder by darker hands? OK, I can dig it. But, as with African Americans, it's no longer an excuse. I think American know it--we just don't want to admit it. But some Africans over here, I think they truly believe they are a camp onto themselves and whatever they is cool is the rule.
Harangue me at your leisure. I'm too busy to be offended--papers to grade, a book deadline, arguing with Mike Dyson over why is ass is never on campus yet he's talking mess as pundit to nobody's service but his own.
People do fall for these scams, but I view it as kind of Darwinian -- it separates the stupid, the lazy, and the greedy from their money and maybe reduces their chances of breeding. One can hope.
I used to get zillions of this type of e-mail when I worked a specific government agency. I changed jobs, lost the .gov address, and haven't seen one since.
As for naive little old ladies being taken in by the Nigerian or Ghanian cons, I'd say they're at a much higher risk of being separated from their money by some smooth talking minister preaching the prosperity gospel. Those are the con artists we should be going after -- the hucksters who persuade church members to finance the pastor's Cadillacs and McMansions when those church members themselves are just barely surviving from payday to payday.
CC I don't want to harangue you--those are very salient points. I have this discussion with my hubbie all the time b/c he's African.
The poverty over there is sick. Corruption is a way of life. Stabbing each other in the back is necessary for survival. Women still go through female circumcision in 2008. And I have been a witness to many of his family members bringing their dysfunction with them and saying this is how things go in Africa--at which point I quickly remind them that we are not in Africa!
Nevertheless, my hubbie has been here a long time and so he gets it which is why I married him.
Ah the moral superiority card, “what dumb fuck would fall for this?”
Well probably not the same dumb fuck but equally just as much as a dumb fuck as the dumb fuck who falls for buying two-hundred dollars sneakers for a status symbol. Is dumb scheme inferior to another depending on the schemer? The white man can scheme you out of your cash in the way of materialistic goods and it is all good, the African man tries to scheme you out of your cash and suddenly you are a dumb ass.
Well you were smart enough not to fall for this one, but tell me all you moral superiors how’s that extended credit working out for you? Is that expensive car and wardrobe getting you anywhere. But damn you show look good don’t you.
Thanks, Red. I'm sure Field didn't want this to be a forum for African-African American relations...but this is yet another issue we love to sweep underthe rug. And trust me, if a black man (an African) is going to be the Democratic nominee, we need to "un-sweep" it and be honest, like so many other issues.
Of course I'm not painting all immigrants from the continent with a broad nasty brush, but some of these attitudes and practices are so pervasive and annoying and indeed can be illegal, destructive that one can't help but channel Archie Bunker and say look, act right or back where you came from. Pride in heritage re: food, art, etc is one thing. Just leave the bad/stupid shit behind. That's been the challenge of every immigrant here, from the Irish and Italians to Nigerians to Mexicans and Salvadorans! It just seems to be that Africans are almost outwardly defiant in re-living the bullshit of back home here in the USA.
Ooooh, Anon 12:11. Bad morning . . .
I love those emails. Although-- after I replied with one of my own (I said I was responsible for a bus load of African orphans whose parents had left 10 million and could the said gentleman help me get the money out of Nigeria.) -- I got no more emails. Which I thought interesting. . . .
I'm shocked. I always thought it was just someone in Montana writing all of those scam mails.
Didn't figure it was actually someone from Nigeria, itself.
Well, I'll be!
Whew!
For a second, I thought it was a Hillary Clinton fundraising letter!
There's a guy who gives out my phone number to all his creditors (and has been for the past 6 years at least) so that when they try to track him down, they get my number instead. I wish I knew who he was and knew a good hacker, because I'd be sending Richard Wheeler's bank acct. and social security number info to every one of these scammers.
I read a statistic the other day that men are far more likely to fall for scams than women.
Hi Field. Thought your readers might be interested in the 419 Eater (http://419eater.com/html/letters.htm), a site devoted to tales of "scambaiting" - scamming the scammers. It is super clever stuff and nice to see the baddies getting theirs. They stress, however, that messing with these guys is not for amateurs - they fight dirty.
I got a free prepaid credit/debit card I use for online poker. I can add any amount on it for a $4.50 charge. I think I might have some fun tonight and see if they'll send it there.
The other thing that is so unbelievable about these scams, is you have to be really greedy, dumb, and desperate to think that somebody who does not know you, let alone know your name, Dear Sir or Madam, etc. is actually going to place this money in your bank account or would really trust a total stranger.
As Field said a few posts back, it must be willing suspension of disbelief.
I have time to participate in this forum because 1) I am not that important, and 2) my book is finished, published, and comes out at the end of the month. :-)
Speaking of stupid people, I nominate the American taxpayer.
Case in point, despite Bill Clinton amassing a $100 million fortune since leaving office in 2000, the American taxpayer foots the costs of providing a lavish lifestyle for the nation’s 42nd president.
His presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.
For example, the price tag for Clinton’s Federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush and $4 million for Jimmy Carter during the same period.
Some of the perks Clinton has received since leaving office include his pension, health benefits, his staff’s salaries, and office supplies.
His $420,000 phone bill and $3.2 million office rent tab both nearly surpassed the totals rung up for those purposes by Bush, Carter and the late Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan combined.
I have no problem with former presidents receiving a pension but all these additional perks paid to a multi-millionaire, former president, needs to stop.
These guys give new meaning to "Coming To America."
I don't mind them "Coming To America" to find their queen;
It's just the "Back to Africa Movement" of my money that I object to.
@Christopher:
"Speaking of stupid people, I nominate the American taxpayer.
I cosign a 100%.
You know that that statement may be considered anti-American, and we open ourselves up to all those nutcases that believe any negative statement about this country is an attack against this country--the merit or accuracy of the statement be damned.
A fleecing is a fleecing is a fleecing.
"Baa, Baa, black sheep have you any wool?"
shonufded,
I just think it's phucked up that we are footing the bill for the Borg Queen's husband's $420,000 phone bill when he and the Mrs. have made $111 million since 2000.
A pension and healthcare is cool with me but a $420,000 phone bill? Please? Who is Billary calling? He needs to switch to Time Warner Digital Phone for $44.00 a month.
@christopher:
A pension and healthcare is cool with me but a $420,000 phone bill?
Didn't I hear somewhere that a large chunk of Bill's perk money is financing Hillary's candidacy?
'Twould explain those phone bills.
I would not give up my bank account info for 40%.. Now if my Afrikan cousin was'nt so greedy and offered 50/50..now we got a deal.
Obviously these brothers take a pretty dim view of the american school system.
sbo's taking some heat for sounding elitist...
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
he was speaking @ a fundraiser in san francisco when he made the comments.
"Of course I'm not painting all immigrants from the continent with a broad nasty brush, but some of these attitudes and practices are so pervasive and annoying and indeed can be illegal, destructive that one can't help but channel Archie Bunker and say look, act right or back where you came from. Pride in heritage re: food, art, etc is one thing. Just leave the bad/stupid shit behind. That's been the challenge of every immigrant here, from the Irish and Italians to Nigerians to Mexicans and Salvadorans! It just seems to be that Africans are almost outwardly defiant in re-living the bullshit of back home here in the USA".
WOW! Interesting coming from an African American. and this sounds awfully too familiar.
Judging by how long it has taken African Americans to assimilate, how long do you think it will take the Africans?
And what is the big difference between Africans and the other immigrants you mentioned?
Was the Mafia introduced in America by Africans?
"but some of these attitudes and practices are so pervasive and annoying and indeed can be illegal, destructive..."
Also, are practises that are pervasive, illegal, destructive just being brought into America by these new African immigrants?
Are we witnessing the beginning of choosing the next scape goat?
So much for the Civil Rights struggle.
So anon 12:11PM, I get it, we should just let our African brothers rip us off because, well, they are our brothers from Africa.
Yes buying $200 sneakers is dumb, but so is sitting at a computer all day and trying to rip off people. I don't care where the f**k you are from.
"These guys give new meaning to "Coming To America."
I don't mind them "Coming To America" to find their queen;
It's just the "Back to Africa Movement" of my money that I object to."
Dude you are too funny! You need to be writing for a sitcom on T.V. :)
I only get email for Viagara myself. I have no interest in trying it. I just might hurt myself if I did.
When I joined EHarmony last year, I got hit by a Ghanian scam artist. Hell, EHarmony deleted his account and sent apology letters to all his "matches!" There were other African scam artists on there as well, but they paled in comparison to the Black American scam artists I encountered on that site!
The number of thuggish Black men pretending to be doctors on that site were astounding! And how you gonna try and scam me, pretending you a doctor? My dads a doctor. Two of my grandfathers were doctors (I have 3). Hell, once I even thought of becoming a doctor! So trying to impress me by saying that you love to "cure cancer" is a no-win situation.
When I cancelled my membership to that site, I told them about the many scam artists they paired me with. Im not going back to that site. they DE-Harmonized me!
L
"I get it, we should just let our African brothers rip us off because, well, they are our brothers from Africa."
Field,
These brohers know that you as Black American are smart enough not fall for it. They are driven to defraud the Western establishment. They send out emails enmass. You are the last one on their list of targets. If you are dumb enough to bite, then too bad.
I just blogged about this to show how these people think.
Educate yourselves about Africa!
Especially the Americans of African descent, it will do you a world of good, and open your minds beyond your cushy credit card, silicone boobed and mc donalds filled world!
I receive at least two a week...a while ago, I decided to correspond with one person, but I said my name was Britney Spears...after about 10 emails, I had to stop b/c they were buying my ridiculous story...
Have you ever seen the Dilbert cartoon with Ratbert receiving one of these? And he write back and says, "My bank is a sock full of change behind the dryer."
The funniest/saddest one I ever got was from someone who informed me that he had been part of Charles Taylor's staff in Liberia and was now in exile in another country. Apparently, the person was banking on the fact that I would be a typical "A-merry-can" white girl with no clue of West African history.
As it turns out, however, my former pastor is a Liberian man (who has since returned to Liberia) and so I actually know a bit of history . . . and am well aware that Charles Taylor was, shall we say, NOT a nice man . . .
although . . . my co-workers who have lived in Nigeria have said, "A scammer in Nigeria is nothing new . . . it's just that now they have the technology to do it differently." Reminds me of that commercial (if anybody else has seen it?) where they show a person on the bus trying to pull the same thing. The punch line is something like, "yeah, this doesn't really work as well in person."
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