How Dumb Do They Think People Are??

Scully

I just received this e-mail AGAIN, to an e-mail address that I rarely use. It's fairly obvious to me that this is a huge scam, but I have to wonder how many people have fallen for it. It must be working for this thing to still be in circulation.....

Love, Scully

Subject: URGENT BUSINESS PROPOSAL (non-spam)
From:Mariam Abacha
Lagos-Nigeria.
Dear Sir,
Following the sudden death of my husband General Sani Abacha the late former head of state of Nigeria in june 1998, I have been thrown into a state of utter confusion, frustration and hopelessness by the present civilian administration, I have been subjected to physical and psychological torture by the security agents in the country. My son was just released from detention two months ago by the Nigerian Government for an offence he did not commit. As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with anybody within the country.
You must have heard over the media reports and the internet on the recovery of various huge sums of money deposited by my husband in different security firms abroad, some companies willingly give up their secrets and disclosed our money confidently lodged there or many outright blackmail. In fact the total sum discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of $700. Million dollars. And they are not relenting to make me poor for life. I got your contacts through my personal research, and out of desperation decided to reach you through this medium.I will give you more information as to this regard as soon as you reply.
I repose great confidence in you hence my approach to you due to security network placed on my day to day affairs I cannot afford to visit the embassy so that is why I decided to contact you and I hope you will not betray my confidence in you. I have deposited the sum of 21.5 million dollars with a security firm abroad whose name is witheld for now until we open communication.I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your account for safe keeping. This arrangement is known to you and my son Ahmed alone, so my son will deal directly with you as security is up my whole being.I am seriously considering to settle down abroad in a friendly atmosphere like yours as soon as this fund get into your account so that I can start all over again if only you wish, but if it is impossible,just help me in diverting this fund into your account which will accrue you 30% of this fund.
Please honesty is the watch word in this transaction.I will require your telephone and fax numbers so that we can commence communication immediately and I will give you a more detailed picture of things. In case you dont accept please do not let me out to the security as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence .I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith. Please expedite action by sending your reply to my son email address below.
Sincerely Yours,
HAJIA MARIAM ABACHA.
PLEASE REPLY VIA THIS EMAIL ADDRESS:
[email protected]

gsx1138

I remember Bill O'Reilly got into some hot water for telling Americans to not do business with anyone in or from Nigeria. It was obviously a blanket statement but the amount of scams coming out of that country are huge.

SpannerintheWorks

I think this has been posted before. A total scam.

For a start off,

Dear Sir,

To Scully...!

Spanner

TR

Yes, I received that email a few months ago and posted it here. What a bunch of Gomers. Anyone who bought it is an even bigger Gomer.

TR- of the former WTS "Gomer" class

Simon

Apparently, they rake in several million using this scam.

There is real money that is sent to you ... but then some serious heavies come to collect it. It's all to do with money laundering by criminals and don't think that you can tell them that you don't want to do it anymore ... if you like your legs the way they are.

RunningMan

I have received the Nigerian letter scam probably around 200 times, beginning with direct mail about 12 years ago. The letters were printed on very unusual looking paper, and actually had Nigerian postage and postmarks.

These Nigerian ones are obviously scams. However, I got one a while ago from Uganda that looks pretty promising...

I usually reply that I don't answer any letters promising less than $50 million. Since yours is a paltry $21.5 million, it's not even worth responding.

Actually, there have been people who have fallen for it. A couple years ago, an accountant in Regina committed suicide after embezzling around $100,000 from his employer to fund the scam. And only a few months ago, a headline in our paper reported that a number of Moose Jaw residents had been scammed out of a total of $1 million.

The way that this particular scam worked, was that the victim was told that a certain amount of up front money was needed to pay for bribes, etc, to release the money. In some cases, a small amount of money was actually returned to them, just to convince them of authenticity.

Edited by - RunningMan on 28 November 2002 14:40:33

Francois

I've received this too. And you know it must be working some percentage of the time or these people wouldn't do it. And we know that P.T. Barnum was right, there really IS one born every second.

As crazy as it sounds you can make BIG money from small percentages of response. Millions are made every year through what we call "junk mail." And if you send out junk mail and get a 3% response, you're making money hand over fist.

Telemarketing also makes BIG money. But there is only something like a 1.5 - 2% positive response rate in telemarketing. That's why they don't care how rude you are to them. Cost of doing business.

JT

I work for a gov agency here in dc and we got a memo a few months back due to the number of federal employees at this agency that deal in investments overseas, etc.

and if i can find it i will post it, bottom line these guys are making BIG BANK it is mainly due to the human side of man that tells us we can get something for nothing/greed

with those 2 compondents at work such scam programs will continue to pull folks in-

in fact almost everyone who has been willing to talk (just too embarrassed) they admit that one side of their brain told them this ain't a good idea and the other side said GO FOR IT FOOL

HOW SAD

Kenneson

Lately I've been receiving a couple of those a week, not the from the same person, but usually originating in Nigeria. I report it as spam, but they just keep changing their names and e-mail addresses. Wish their was a way to stop receiving this stuff!

Mary

Yep, I got one of these a few months ago.........I emailed them back telling them to piss off and then I forwarded the original email to the US government Fraud Department.

How Dumb Do They Think People Are??

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