# Scam Alert



## Njaco (Jul 11, 2007)

Just recieved this in an email. This may have been discussed before but if anyone knows who to contact would love to. Someone suggested a site that does a reverse scam. Love to do it.

heading: I need your attention

_Dear Sir,

Greetings to you. With due respect, I am Barrister Thomas Kona, the legal director here at the Ministry of Works Abidjan Ivory Coast. I have contacted you to seek your assistance for the transfer of an unclaimed contract funds which accrued from a deliberate over invoicing of some contracts awarded to a now deceased foreign contractor by the ministry of works during the defunct military regime of the late Gen. Robert Guei.

By virtue of my position here in the ministry, I have access to some contract approval information concerning a contract which was executed by this contractor attached to the Ministry of Works. This contract has long been executed and commissioned, but this over invoiced payment is still outstanding and unclaimed due to circumstances which I will explain to you in the course of our correspondence. This matter requires utmost attention as the current political situation in our country since the intervention of the united nations who brokered a peace deal between the government and the new forces rebels has now presented an opportunity for the money to be transferred out of the country as the previous financial embargo has been lifted.

Owing to the demise of the contractor and by virtue of my position here at the ministry of works, I have decided to use all the resources within my power to retrieve this outstanding contract payment since the contractor whose name was used to process the contract payment approval has long died and no relatives has ever came forward for the claims of the outstanding payment. We have made several attempts to possibly trace any of the late contractors's relatives who will assume the responsibility of coming forward for the claims of this outstanding payment.

It is never my desire to see the above matter treated that way hence I conducted a search that will assist me in first and foremost trace any relative of the deceased and also ensure the safety of the funds.I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by the late contractor because if a relative is not found within six weeks then the Public Trustee will move and liquidate the entire estate of the late contractor including this unpaid contract amounts on the account of having been unserviceable for a long period of time.

I look forward to your co operation and your extreme discretion in this matter. Until such a time this matter is settled, I will continue to work with you in any way possible to see that the outstanding payment is released and transferred inyour name as a bona fide next of kin to the late contractor as I shall be presenting you to the ministry of works. We shall within the course of the next few days plan and execute how best to pursue this matter of mutual interest with a view to cost effectiveness.

I have all the necessary legal documents that will be used to back up any claim we may make. All I require is your honest co operation to enable us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect us from any breach of law.If interested please respond and do not be destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career even if you do not approve of my proposal. If you are interested, please get in touch with me in my email to enable us discuss this further.

Respectfully,
Thomas B. Kona, Esq. _


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 11, 2007)

There are about a million different versions of this email. I get a different one every day. Just dont open and reply to it. I delete it without even reading it.


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## Njaco (Jul 11, 2007)

Thanks, did that. This stuff just p*sses me off a bit.


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## Lucky13 (Jul 11, 2007)

Tell me about it....


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jul 11, 2007)

Yeah its pretty pathetic. I think weasles like this should be locked up forever. They are just out to hurt people.


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## Lucky13 (Jul 11, 2007)

Karma and all that stuff Adler, what goes around comes around.....or as Buddah said, "Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely".


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## timshatz (Jul 11, 2007)

They're called "419 Schemes" or Scams. Come out of Nigeria. I saw the first one back in the late 80s. Back then, it was done via the mail. Pretty early in the scam too. The guy who tried to scam us, sent us a letter that was something like 48 lines long with one period and one comma. It was hysterical. 

They've gotten a lot more polished since then but the scam is always the same. They are designed to catch people who are crooked.


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## evangilder (Jul 11, 2007)

If there are so many millions of dollars in Africa, why are they all starving?  I swear, there is only one semi-literate retard in Africa that writes all of these. Sometimes I play with them and make them think I am going along. They eventually get bored and go away. If you respond with something totally outrageous, they either don't reply, or tell me I am "disturbed" LOL


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## Njaco (Jul 11, 2007)

Like they've got the credentials to call other people names!


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## mkloby (Jul 11, 2007)

evangilder said:


> If there are so many millions of dollars in Africa, why are they all starving?  I swear, there is only one semi-literate retard in Africa that writes all of these. Sometimes I play with them and make them think I am going along. They eventually get bored and go away. If you respond with something totally outrageous, they either don't reply, or tell me I am "disturbed" LOL



Even the giraffes in Africa are starving. On tv the other day I saw a relocation operation that was attempting to drug and relocate 20 giraffes because the 2 trees in Nimibia (I think) could not feed all of them.

I think that email set the record for the most usage of the base word "contract" in less than 1000 words.


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## Njaco (Jul 11, 2007)

> I think that email set the record for the most usage of the base word "contract" in less than 1000 words.



 

and probably doesn't know the meaning of the word!

Thanks everyone. I thought I was off my rocker when I got this and it turns out to be exactly what I thought. I've never experienced this before except over the phone. Love to play with those people!


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## Graeme (Jul 11, 2007)

A recently aired '60 Minutes' episode, in Australia, explored the workings behind the Nigerian scammers. Their investigations eventually led to arrests, but civilian mobs attacked the 60 Minutes team because the exposure meant a loss of money to the community! Equally amazing (or stupid), they interviewed one Australian who had been giving these people money for *20yrs* and of course, now bankrupt. But when shown the film and their operations explained, and asked if had money would he continue giving it to them, he paused briefly and sheepishly replied "yes."


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## k9kiwi (Jul 11, 2007)

> briefly and sheepishly



Was his last name Baarbaarella ?


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## timshatz (Jul 12, 2007)

There is another scam running around here. Guys call saying they are from "Disabled Fire Fighters" or "Police Disabled League" and ask for money. Very pushy on it too. Turns out some of these guys are (technically) charities. They did investigation on one in Chester County, Pa. These guys took in 2 million in something like an 12 month period and paid out $8,000 to the disabled. Used the rest for "Administrative Expenses" or have not dispersed it "yet".

Pretty slick and not illegal. Technically anyway. The Chester County DA got them back by publishing the results of his inquest. The only thing he could do.


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## Njaco (Jul 12, 2007)

Got hit with that too, Tim and I'll tell ya what the deal is. My organization looked into this.

You're part of a non-profit seeking fundraising. Telemarketing firm says we'll do it. For a fee. For every $ gained, tele's take 60 to 85% and the nonprofit takes the rest. Some are even higher. 

Its a free market.


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## timshatz (Jul 12, 2007)

Thanks for the head's up Njaco. Good to have a line on it. Jeez, 60 to 85% profit! Not bad for a few phone calls. Makes sense on why all the calls are coming in. 

Got hit by a guy at 8:15 am on the Fourth. Couldn't believe it. Said to him, "Dude, you just woke me up at 8:15 on the 4th of July". Guy tried to blow past it, hit him again with the same line. He apologized and said he would call back. A**hole.


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## Njaco (Jul 12, 2007)

My pre-wife thinks I'm nuts. When I answer I like to play with their head. Sometimes I answer every question with the word "Apple" but different tones, like a question, surprise, etc. They finally give up. I think in another thread was an audio from a guy's phone machine where he pretended he was a cop at a murder scene and started asking the tele mark all kinds of questions. Hilarious!

And I don't mind telemarks so much. Its the stinking inconvient times they call for stupid crap. So I have my fun.


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## lastwarrior (Jul 13, 2007)

I also receive some of those scams. Thanks for sharing Njaco.


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## Gnomey (Jul 13, 2007)

I get about 4 of those a day and delete them straight away. Got back from a week in Brittany today and checked my inbox and I had 300 emails of which 290 were spam (either these or Viagra).


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