So, I got another one of those goofy scam e-mails:
From: Joy Yerima.
Abidjan Cote D'ivoire West Africa.
Home address 74A Cocody.
Reply to this email address : [email protected]
Good Day,
My name is Joy Yerima and my junior brother is Benjamin Yerima we are the only children of late Dr and Mrs Nana Yerima, Before the death of our father he was a big exporter of Cocoa and coffee in Cote D'ivoire. our father was killed by the rebels group in Cote D'ivoire.
He give us a secret concerning a deposit he made in security company in Abidjan Cote d'ivoire West Africa. He deposit the sum of US$20. 5 million dollars in the name of my junior brother Benjamin.
I would love you to come here in person so that we will meet face to face to be able to go together to the security company to move this money out of security company in Cote d'Ivoire.
Our fathers relatives made some attempts on our life in order to inherite our fathers wealth. Due to this attitude of our father's relatives, since our mother was already dead, We decided to run to Abidjan where we are presently living in a hotel.
I am sincerely solicit your assistance to help us move the moeny for investment in your country. Your reward for the assistance your are to render to me is negotiable.
Reply to this email address : [email protected]
Sincerely yours,
Joy Yerima.
So, this time instead of just deleting it, I replied:
Hello Ms Yermina,
I would like to help you in any way possible. If you could provide me with ample instructions perhaps I could be of assistance.
Thank you,
-Alex
And no, my name is not Alex :P
So, I went to bed, and this morning I receive:
Dear Alex,
I thank you for your mail. Meanwhile, We wish to intimate you on our situation and the way we have to handle this project. The role you will play in this transaction is to help us move this money out of the security Company. That you will come here so that we will meet face to face to be able to go together to the security Company.
Please help us and you will never ever regret it.Our late father made this fortune from the sale of exporter of Cocoa and Gold.However I want to intimate you on my situation and the way we have to handle this project,a business that was taking him on trips around the West African sub region. For security reasons and the safety of the funds, he deposited the money with a security Company, and he did not inform the Security Company of the real contents of the consignment he deposited, rather he declared the contents as family valuables.
This money has been with the security company since the 2nd of November 2001, my father deposited it. For our safety and that of the funds, after we had put up a claim at the security company, backed with the documents we have, and the security company have approved our claim as the rightful owners of the consignment, we started atending a church here and thereby study this situation of things because of the rebel activity in the country and know who we can confide in when we will be ready to move this funds outside this country.
I believe we cannot invest in this country because of its political problems all the time which is not conducive for human habitation and investment, and especially so that we will get good education.
It is for this reason we decided to contact you and reveal our situation to you.We will want you to assist us in the following which we have to do in order to move this funds out of here and subsequently invest them.
1) To help us release the box containing the funds from the security company where my father had deposited them.
2)We open a local account here in your name where the money will be paid in first before we will advice the bank to transfer to your account abroad.
3) To provide an account in your country where the funds will be transferred into once the money is freed from the security company.
4) To look for viable and lucrative investment in your Country.
5) To arrange for me and my son to migrate to your Country.
This project will require you to visit here for about 3 days, so that we will go to the security company together to free the money and also the bank for the transfer. The first day on your arrival we will free the money and the next two days will be for the banking transaction. The visit will also create the opportunity for us to meet each other face to face.
please we want you to tell us when you will come here so that we will go to the security company to ask them the exactly ammount we are owing them for the safekeeping charge of the Box.
Please are you maried and how old are you?
What are you doing for a living and did you have a company of your own?
I will send you all the documents related to this deposit as soon as I hear from you.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Remain Blessed.
Joy Yerima.
Also, there was an abrupt text font change after the obvious cut-n-paste header (I have applied bold tags to make it appear as it did in my inbox)
Soooo, just now I replied with this:
Ms Yermina,
I'm not sure how my name was brought into all of this, but I would be glad to help. My name is Alex (I would prefer to keep my last name secure for now). I'm 28 and the head manager for an IT firm in central Ohio.
Please note, however, I don't think it will be possible for me to visit your nation; I am not in any position to travel right now; is there any other way?
Thanks,
-Alex
Heh, so this is really one of those famous scams eh? Pretty exciting!
What all should I do now? :P
~Kujila
ID:184028
 Jan 27 2007, 6:58 am
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Wow, so they wanted to kidnap and/or murder you if you had any assets. Nice.
Just remember that you are potentially dealing with some extremely nasty people. I am not talking about just e-scammer nasty, but like brutal torture and murder nasty. The criminals who engage in these scams are ruthless and often surprisingly sophisticated. I would leave the thing alone for safety reasons. However, if you do get any substantial information, I would recommend you give your local FBI office a call and see if they can use it or pass it on. | |
Jmurph wrote:
However, if you do get any substantial information, I would recommend you give your local FBI office a call and see if they can use it or pass it on. At least you won't be doing the usual, "So I was joining up with these crooks to scam some people, and they cheated me!" The feds are getting tired of saying, "You understand what you are telling us, right?" I read a profile of one of the "victims" in the New Yorker...incredibly, after dealing with this for years and scamming people who trusted him so he could assist in scamming someone else, and then getting thrown in freaking jail over it all, he still believed the scam was real and said he'd still be willing to send them more money if they contacted him. | |
Jonathan Land got here way ahead of you (see The Spam Letters), and with more flair. He said that these ones are always sure to reply because they're truly hoping to get your money.
Lummox JR | |
Jmurph wrote:
I would leave the thing alone for safety reasons. Yeah. These aren't usually the sorts of people who respond well to pranks. It's one thing to make a fool of a cyber criminal, but these guys are dangerous criminals who will take a pie to the face personally. There's only a slight risk that they have the skills and connections needed to actually physically harm you, but why would you risk being brutally murdered for the sake of repeating a joke that's already been done? Not to mention that someone could legitimately fall for this, meaning that someone's life could potentially be saved or lost based on whether you forward this to the authorities straight away. | |
How do these people find your email address? Some site must have an affiliation with these guys or something. Same thing happened to me, but I'm not going to head on down to Africa to get nonexistent money from people I don't even know.
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CaptFalcon33035 wrote:
but I'm not going to head on down to Africa to get nonexistent money from people I don't even know. The real question is: If you knew for a fact the money was real, and you could get half of the 20.5 million dollars, would you go to Africa to risk your life to get it? | |
CaptFalcon33035 wrote:
How do these people find your email address? The same way all spammers do. Writing programs to scan webpages for email addresses, just guessing addresses (the cost of a failed guess is extremely low), even stealing the contents of people's address books using trojans and viruses. There are people that sell lists of email addresses to spammers. They deserve to be shot. | |
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/ 0,,2-7-1442_1641875,00.html