E-mails from Africa

I just have to share this series of emails from Africa. I’m really lucky I received an email at work today from the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Here is a bit of the email:

OUR REF: CBN/FGN/CPN/01-5/XA/06

Date: 22nd sept 2006

RE: DIRECTIVES ON IMMEDIATE PAYMENT OF
YOUR OUTSTADING FUND WITH FGN
From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the Federal Government of Nigeria, your name and company was discovered as next on the list of the outstanding Contractors & Will Recipient that has not yet received their payment. I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this important message. We equally discovered that some group of people posing as central bank governor is in contact with you based on this payment as a result of their selfish interest or aim as it will boil down to inability of them doing anything for you based on this circumstance because they are impostors and are working on the official payment data/information’s they cloned from the central bank official payment gazette which made them to contact you. You are hereby advice to stop any further correspondence with them for your security.

You should note that from records in our file, your outstanding contract payment will be paid to you ,Kindly re-confirm the followings details to this office=

1) Your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company name, position and address.
4) Profession, age and marital status.
5) Expecting amount
6) Scan copy of your int'l passport or driving license for the purpose of identification.

As soon as these information’s are received, your payment will be made to you in a certified bank cheque or wired to your nominated bank account by electronic swift transfer directly from Central Bank of Nigeria.

Wow….you can fill in the expecting amount! They don’t even ask for an account number. I guess that must already be in their files. If I hadn’t received that email, I never would have realized that this email I received earlier in the day was a fake.

I hope this mail will not embarrass you since we have not had any previous communication, My name is Mr. Peter Odili,I am the governor of Rivers state in Nigeria. I got your reference from the Nigerian business and proffession promotion council and went further to have it confirmed by your country`s trade department.

I,on behalf of leading council of the Government of Rivers States of Nigeria decided to solicit your assistance as regard to the transfer of theabove stated sum of money into your bank
account.

This fund arose from the state bunkering unit since the Government of the Country does not really compensate our state irrespective of the fact that all the money Nigeria has today is gotten from Rivers State onshore/offshore dichotemy yet we are not well compensated, base on this the council of elders/paramount rulers etc after several delibration resorted that they must be partakers of their God given resources decided to steal this oil and hide them somewhere and sell them to some oil companies in our nearby african countries.

This has been done over and over and the leading council now decided that this funds should be transfered into a foreign account for proper use, it is base on this that I have contacted you, in orderword I am therefore seeking your assistance based on the amount stated above of US$21M
which can be speedily processed and fully be remitted into yournominated bank account.

We will offer you 10% (10 percent) of the total sum for your assistance, 85% will be ours and 5% will be set aside for expenses both parties might make in the course of this transaction.I assure you that this transaction is 100% risk-free,all documents as well as computerized records that
has to do with this fund is in our possession, shall be destroyed immediately after this transaction .We advice you to keep this transaction strictly confidential, we are top Government official and can not afford scandals, you are also adviced to act swifty because we are running out of time.

For security reasons, I gave this letter to a good friend of mine : Dr. Graham Wood, who came to Nigeria on a diplomatic mission, he is back to his base in London, I have ask him to contact you directly and as soon as he gets your reply he will notify me and I will contact you directly, Dr.
Graham Wood is also not happy over the waythe Government is treating this part of the country,I will send you my personal phone and fax numbers as soon as I hear from you,it is important that you include your own phone and fax numbers for easy communication.

I wait in anticipation of your reply.

Here I thought Peter was telling the truth when the email said his offer was 100% risk free. Sheesh! You can’t trust anyone. I hope Peter’s not waiting too long for a reply. And I’m going to get right on sending a copy of my passport to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Is anybody falling for these crazy spam email schemes to get your bank account “informations”!?! I can’t believe people waste their time sending out millions of these emails (and here I am reproducing them).

While those emails are clearly false, what do you think about the email below that I got from a poor kid who lost all his ‘families’ – except for his evil uncle who he now has to live with? What a ‘sadly’ story!! Although he has to beg for food, he’s lucky to have internet access to ask for help. I don’t recall being a business partner in precious metals, but I did see Precious Metal race at Reno. Perhaps when Cana grows up, he could pitch this heart wrenching story to a Hollywood film studio and get his money back.

Good day to you.

I hope this letter meets you well, My name is Cana David, I will be 15 yrs old on October 19, 2006. I come from southern part of Cote D'Voire. A boarding student of Maria Regina college. My father was dealing on precious metals before his death, while my mother was a gospel
musician.

I am contacting you in respect of my parent's inheritance been abandoned before their untimely death during the February's political terrorist attack in my father's compound. I was in school taking my exams when I was informed that a bomb attack was made in my parents compound on early hours of that sadly day. It was unfortunate that all my families were inside the house when such attack was made. I can neither go into details for now nor express fully my intimate feelings about this sad event. Uncontrolable tears are filled up my eyes as of this moment that I am writing.

However,since then I have taking refuge under my uncle's house who has wickedly and forcefully taken posessions of all my father's inheritance and belongings without giving me any conesnt nor care. As I am writing to you now, my uncle has sold all my father's belonging leaving nothing with me to take care of myself but he used the funds to send his family to Netherland, while I
dont have anything doing now nor even go back to school. I only feed myself with the little casual jobs and begging I do on the street.

Recently, My father's personal attorney informed me about a document containing US$4.2 million which was discovered in one of my late father's file. This is why I am contacting you now, so that you will assist me in retrieving the aforementioned inheritance before my wicked uncle get hold of it. I do not want my uncle to know about this funds as I strongly believe that
this is how God wants to answer my prayers and turn my tears into joy.

The family attorney informed me that as a child at this age,there is no way he would release the document to me, he suggested two opinions (A) To submit the document to my uncle who now represents my family or (B) To submit the document to any of my father's business partner. At this stage and from my bitter experiences with my uncle,I wouldnt want my uncle to have it.
I have already informed the attorney that you are my father's business confidential partner, and that such document will be sent to you to enable you assist me in retrieving the inheritance funds.

Therefore I will like you to contact the attorney immediately so that he will release the documents to you so that the funds will be transferred via your bank account, and after that, you will assist me in moving out from here to meet with you for the investment of the funds.
Below is the contact of the attorney:
BARRISTER SOLACE ADRINOUSOU
ADDRESS:102 RUE DU AEROPORTE
COTONOU-BENIN REPUBLIC
E-MAIL: solace_law_chambers@yahoo.com

Because of your willingness in offering this assistance, I promised to offer you some commissions, but I will seek for your opinion if you can accept to take 25% of the total funds from the funds as soon as it is wired into your bank account.

Furtherly, I will also give you power to invest the balance in any lucrative business in your
country. You will also be managing the investment until I am out from school. The dividends of the investment will be sharing equally.

If you accept this conditions, kindly write to the attorney for the release of the document to you.

For your information, my wicked uncle knows the password to this mailbox, therefore do not reply to me via this address, send your response to my personal address: canadavid@myway.com and also do update me when you contact the attorney.
God bless you so much for your kindness. until I hear from you, I still remain yours,
Cana David