Want to be a Millionaire ?

[Nic]

This is an email that a friend of mine got:

Dear Sir,

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP  STRICTLY
CONFIDENTIAL.

Firstly, I must solicit your strictest confidentiality
in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature
as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. Though
I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make
anyone apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you
that all will be well at the end of the day. We have
decided to contact you first by your email due to the
urgency of this transaction, as we have been reliably
informed that it will take at least two to three weeks
for a normal post to reach you. So we decided it is
best using the email.

Let me start by first introducing myself properly to
you. I am Alh. IDRIS SABO, a director general in
the
Petroleum Ministry and I head a Six-man tender board
in charge of Contracts Awards and payment Approvals. I
came to know of you in my search for a reliable and
reputable person to handle a very confidential
business transaction which involves the transfer of a
huge sum of money to a foreign account requiring
maximum confidence. I and my colleagues are top
officials of the Federal Government Contract Review
Panel. Our duties include evaluation,
vetting, approval for payment of contract jobs done
for the Petroleum Ministry, etc. In order to commence
this business, we solicit for your assistance to
enable us transfer into your account the said funds.

The source of this funds is as follows: During the
last military regime here in Nigeria, this committee
awarded a contract of US$400,000,000.00 (Four Hundred
Million United States Dollars) to five construction
firms on behalf of the Petroleum Ministry for the
supply, construction and installation of Oil Pipeline
from Warri to PortHarcourt. During this process my
colleagues and I decided amongst ourselves to
deliberately over-inflate the total contract sum to
US$421,500,000.00 (Four Hundred and Twenty One Million
Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) with the
main intention of sharing the remaining sum of
US$21,500,000.00 (Twenty One Million Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars) amongst ourselves. The
Federal Government of Nigeria has since approved the
sum of US$421,500,000.00 (Four Hundred and Twenty One
Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars)
for us as the contract sum, and the sum of
US$400,000,000.00 (Four Hundred Million United States
Dollars) has also been paid to the foreign contractors
concerned as contract entitlements for the contract
done, but since each of the companies is entitled to
US$80,000,000.00 only, we are now left with
US$21,500,000.00 balance in the account which we
intend to transfer abroad into a safe and reliable
account to be disbursed amongst ourselves, but by
virtue of our positions as civil servants and members
of this panel, we cannot do this by ourselves, as we
are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil
Service Laws) from opening / operating foreign
accounts in our names, making it impossible for us to
acquire the money in our names. I have, therefore,
been mandated as a matter of trust by my colleagues in
the panel to look for an overseas partner into whose
account we would transfer the sum of US$21,500,000.00
(Twenty One Million Five Hundred Thousand United
States Dollars), hence we are writing you this letter.

My colleagues and I have agreed that if your company
can act as the beneficiary of this funds on our
behalf, you or your company will retain 30% of the
total amount of US$21,500,000.00 (Twenty One Million
Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars), while
60% will be for us (members of this panel) and the
remaining 10% will be used in offsetting all
debts/expenses incurred (both local and foreign) in
the cause of this transfer. Needless to say, the trust
reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return
we demand your complete honesty and trust. You must
however, NOTE that this transaction will be strictly
based on the following terms and conditions as we have
stated below, as we have heard confirmed cases of
business associates running away with funds kept in
their custody when it finally arrive their accounts. A
very good and recent example is the one of Mr. Peter
Hopwood, the President of Mileage Trading and
Investment Company at Number 121, West 55th Street,
21st Floor, New York 10022, and former Chairman of
OMPADEC (Mr. Patrick Opia), who we were reliably
informed that after the agreement between both
partners in which he was to take 15% of the money,
while the remaining 85% for Nigerian Officials. With
all the required documents signed, the money was duly
transferred into his account, only to be disappointed
on their arrival in New York and were informed that
Mr. Peter Hopwood was no longer on that address, while
his telephone and fax numbers have been re-allocated
to somebody else. This was how they lost US$18.5
Million to Mr. Hopwood. This is a very recent story
here in my country and everybody is aware of this,
some of the officials decided to cry out and face the
law, because they felt they had lost too much to a
stranger, while the Chairman of OMPADEC (Mr. Patrick
Opia) is hiding in a foreign country. So right now we
are taking all precautionary measures to guard against
re-occurrence of such act in our case. This is why we
have decided that this transaction will be based
completely on the following:

(a). Our conviction of your transparent honesty and
diligence.

(b). That you would treat this transaction with
utmost secrecy and confidentiality.

(c). That upon receipt of the funds, you will
promptly release our share (60%) on demand after you
have removed your 30% and all expenses have been
settled.

(d). You must be ready to produce us with enough
information about yourself to put our minds at rest.

Please, note that this transaction is 100% legal and
risk free and we hope to conclude the business in
Seven Bank working days from the date of receipt of
the necessary information and requirement from you.

Please, acknowledge the receipt of this letter using
my email address. I will bring you into the complete
picture of the transaction when I have heard from you.

Your urgent response will be highly appreciated as we
are already behind schedule for this financial
quarter.

Thank you and God bless.

Yours faithfully,
Alhaji IDRIS SABO

Wasn't this cracked by the F.B.I ?

 

It's official...the Nigerian scam gets mentioned on DNF...

Yahoo even has a category for the infamous Nigerian Scam...

Here's a good overview:

http://www.quatloos.com/scams/nigerian.htm


But my favourite is this correspondence...legendary and hilarious...

http://www.savannahsays.com/kizombe.htm


Miles

 

[wwww]

I get loads of that scam...by telefax and by email. Just write them that you are not going to pay any fees and they will shut up. :razz:

 

[alldig]

i got that email too...trashed it in 2 sec

 

[Nic]

some have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in this scam.

 

[ad-lib]

I sent them $5000 and got a check back for $42,500.
You guys should definately check them out!

 

There are too many versions out there. This is the one I just received.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madam


I discovered your contact address during my search for a reliable person that is trustworthy to do business with.


I am Sierra Leone by nationality, a political asylum seeker in the United Kingdom and the Son of the former Director of Finance in the then Sierra Leone Diamond Corporation Tudu Free Town.


During the war in Sierra Leone, he was assassinated by rebel forces, before his untimely death, he revealed to my mother that he had deposited two sealed boxes to a private diplomatic security company in Ghana, and that the security company is unaware of it's contents, as they were deposited as diamond and gold, he also told her of the exact contents of the consignment which is Twenty Million US Dollars.


Sir/Madam; my family need your urgent assistance in receiving this consignment and investing it abroad, (Europe, America or Asia) which was the instruction my Father left before his death, and that it's contents should not be revealed in Africa for security reasons, so your secrecy in this business his highly needed.


Please Sir/Madam, your immediate response to this email will be appreciated. Please contact me at my personal email address tony_campbell@email.com at your earliest convenience.


Yours faithfully



Tony Campbell

 

[wwww]

I just recieved another one, but it's only $ 52 000 000 this time...that's not even worth a reply


_____________________

3/5 RIDER HAGGARD
CLOSE, JO, BORG
SOUTH AFRICA.
Tel no. +27-834377724,
satellite Tel nos.+871-762960310,
+870-762604145.
fax: +874-762960312.
Email;lupens_omora@rediffmail.com



URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL

(RE: TRANSFER OF ($ 152,000.000.00 USD
]ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS

Dear sir,

We want to transfer to overseas ($ 152,000.000.00
USD)
One hundred and
Fifty two million United States Dollars) from a
Prime
Bank in Africa, I want 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 to
receive this money, as long as you will remain
honest
to me till the end for this important business
trusting in you and believing in God that you
will
never let me down either now or in future.

I am MR lupens, the Auditor General of prime
banks in Africa, during the course of our auditing
I
discovered a floating fund in an account opened in
the bank in 1990 and since 1993 nobody has operated
on this account again, after going through some old
files in the records I discovered that the owner of
the account died without a [heir] hence the money
is floating and if I do not
remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited
for
nothing. the owner of this account is Mr. Allan P.
Seaman, a foreigner, and an industrialist, and he
died, since 1993. and no
other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary
and my investigation proved to me as well that Allan
P. Seaman until his death was the manager Diamond
Safari [pty]. SA.

We will start the first transfer with fifty two
million [$52,000.000] upon successful transaction
without any disappoint from your side, we shall
re-apply for the payment of the remaining rest
amount
to your account,

The amount involved is (USD 152M) One hundred and
Fifty two million United States Dollars, only I want
to first transfer $52,000.000 [fifty two million
United States Dollar from this money into a
safe foreigners account abroad before the rest, 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 Mr. Allan P. Seaman is
a foreigner too, [and the money can only be approved
into a foreign a/c

However, we will sign a binding agreement, to bind
us
together I got your contact address from the Girl
who operates computer, I am revealing this to you
with believe in God that you will never let me down
in
this business, you are the first and the only
person
that I am contacting for this business, so please
reply urgently so that I will inform you the next
step
to take
urgently. Send also your private telephone and fax
number including the full details of the account to
be
used for the deposit.

I want us to meet face to face to build confidence
and
to sign a binding
agreement that will bind us together before
transferring the money to any account of your
choice
where the fund will be safe. Before we fly to your
country for withdrawal, sharing and investments.

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
instruction of a key bank official who is deeply
involved with me in this business.
I need your strong assurance that you will never,
never let me down.

With my influence and the position of the bank
official we can transfer this
money to any foreigner's reliable account which you
can provide with assurance that this money will be
intact pending our physical arrival in your country
for
sharing. The bank official will destroy all
documents
of transaction
immediately we receive this money leaving no trace
to
any place and to build confidence you can come
immediately to discuss with me face to face after
which I will make this remittance in
your presence and three of us will fly to your
country
at least two days ahead of the money going into the
account.

I will apply for annual leave to get visa
immediately
I hear from you that you are ready to act and
receive
this fund in your account. I will use my position
and
influence to obtain all legal approvals for onward
transfer of this money to your account with
appropriate clearance from the relevant ministries
and
foreign exchange departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be
given
35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me, while
5%
will be for expenses both parties might have
incurred
during the process of transferring. I will send you
all my phone and fax
numbers as soon as you indicate interest in this
businesses

I look forward to your earliest reply through my
email address,lupens_omora@rediffmail.com

yours truly,
Mr lupens.

 

[Nic]

 

[fizz]

Wired interviewed a Nigerian student who was involved in the scam business, and his story is here:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,53818,00.html

The link to the correspondence that Namethink posted was great, LOL
http://www.savannahsays.com/kizombe.htm

 

[Nic]

here is another one:

FROM: MRS. MARIAM ABACHA
C/O BARR. ABU WAZIRI
LAGOS - NIGERIA.


ATTN: THE PRESIDENT/C.E.O.

I am Mrs. Mariam Abacha, the widow of the late Gen. Sanni Abacha former
Nigerian Military Head of State who died mysteriously as a result of
Cardiac Arrest. Since after my husband's death my family is under restriction
of movement and that not withstanding, we are being molested, policed
and our Bank Account both here and abroad are being frozen by the Nigerian
Civilian Government.
Furthermore, my elder son is in detention by the Nigerian Government
for more interrogation about my husbands assets and some vital documents.

Following the recent discovery of my husbands Bank Account by the Nigerian
Government with Swiss Bank in which the huge sum of US$700 Million and
DM450 Million was lodged. I therefore decided to contact you in confidence
that I was able to move out the sum of US$28.6 Million Dollars, which
was secretly sealed in Metal Boxes for security reasons.

I therefore personally, appeal to you seriously and religiously for your
urgent assistance to move this money into your country where I believe
it will be safe since I cannot leave the country due to the restriction
of movement imposed on the members of my family by the Nigerian Government.

You can contact me through my family lawyer on the above Address and
my lawyer shall arrange with you for a face to face meeting outside Nigeria
in order to liaise with you toward effective completion of this transactions.

However, arrangements have been put in place to move this money out of
the country in the secret vault through a security company in Europe,
and as soon as you indicate your interest my Lawyer shall send you the
Air-Way Bill of the Luggage and other related documents so that you can
help to claim the Luggage.

Conclusively, we have agreed to offer you 20% of the total sum while
80% is to be held on trust by you until we can decide on a suitable business
investment in
your country subsequent to our free movement by the Nigerian Government.
Please reply urgently and treat with absolute confidentiality and sincerity.

Best Regards.
HAJIA MARIAM ABACHA (MRS).
abuwaziri@hotvoice.com

 

[avs162]

greetings,

can the guy who sent the 5k in send one for me and i promise to pay out of the proceeds. in fact i can send all my mails regarding the 409 scam or whatever its called.

thanks in advance
jk

the fact that people fall for this is similar to the amount of worthless domains dropping daily.

Greed overcoming intelligence

no such thing a free lunch

people have lost over 199k to that scam



sean

 

[fizz]

This quote from the Wired article gives a good insight into the minds of the scammers:

"You would (be) shock(ed) at how many wad (rich people) want something more for nothing," Taiwo's uncle, who asked to be identified only as "Guy No Name," said in a telephone interview. "Greed carry their head(s) and turn them foolish."

 

[devolution]

And here is one I received this morning:

I am Mr. Funsho Williams, a member of the Federal Government of Nigeria contract
review
panel of the National Gas Company (NGC).

Some-time ago, a contract was awarded to a conglomerate of foreign firms in the
NGC by
my committee. This contract was over invoiced to the tune of 24.5 million US
dollars.
This over invoicing was done deliberately.
The over-invoicing was a deal by my committee to benefit from the
project. We now desire to transfer this money which is presently in a suspense
account
of the NGC in the Debt Reconciliation Committee (DRC) into an account which we
expect
you to kindly provide for us, this we believe will not be so much of a burden to
you.


Benefits:
For providing the account where we shall remit the money, you will be entitled
to 25% of the
money, 70% will be for me and my partners while 5% has been mapped out from the
total sum to
cover any expenses that may be incurred by us during the course of this
transaction, both local
and international expenses, these also include taxes that may arise.

The money will be yours for providing the account where we shall remit the
money. 5% has been
mapped out from the total sum to cover any expenses that may be incurred by us
during the course
of this transfer, both local and international expenses. It may interest you to
know that similar
transaction was carried out with one Mr. Partrice Miller, president of Crane
International Trading
Corp. of 153 east 57th St, 28th floor, NY 10022, telephone: 212-3087788 and
telex: 6731689. The
deal was concluded and all covering documents were forwarded to Mr. Miller to
authenticate the claim.
Once the funds were transfered,Mr. Miller presented his bank with all the legal
documents and remitted
the whole funds to another bank account and disappeared completely. My
colleagues were shattered,
since such opportunities are not easy to come by.

I would require:
A. Name and address of company/beneficiary
B. Your bank account number, bank address and other information relevant to the
project at hand.
C. It is not necessary that the account you are providing should have money in
it, what matters
is that it should had been in existence for a while (accounts dynamics) and you
should have a 100%
control over it.

The above information would be used to make formal applications as a matter of
procedure for the
release of the money for onward transfer to your account. It does not matter
whether or not your
company or you performed contract projects of the nature described here, the
assumption is that
you won a major contract and sub-contracted it out to other companies. More
ofter than not, big
trading companies or individuals of unrelated field win major contrats and
sub-contracts it out
to more specialised firms for execution of such contracts. We have strong and
reliable connections
and contacts at the Debt Reconciliation Committee (DRC) and the Federal Ministry
of Finance (FMF)
and we have no doubts that all this money will be released and transferred if we
get the necessary
foreign partner in this transaction. Therefore, when the business is
successfully concluded, we
shall through our same connections withdraw all documents used from all the
concerned government
ministries for 100% security.

Please, contact me immediately through fax (234 1 7590371) or e-mail to
ascertain your interest in
doing us this favour, so that if you are not, it will enable me scout for
another foreign partner
to carry out this transaction. Fortunately, if you are interested in assisting
me, please send the
reqyuired information mentioned through my direct fax number: (234 1 7590371) or
email at any time
of the day. For more details on this transaction, send me a fax or email me.

If you will be of assistance, I will surely appreciate and thank you for your
kindness in giving
me this assistance.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Mr. Funsho Williams

Funnily enough, this: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-validator/2001Aug/0084.html has something similar.

 

[Nic]

It would be a good idea to let the FBI know about the collections we have accumulated here.

 

[namedancer]

I used to get those by regular mail in tissue-thin envelopes with interesting stamps, but now I just get them by email like everyone else.

 

[wwww]

My dad still gets them by telefax...like the way it was about 8 years ago, when he started recieving that crap

 

DEAR SIR,.

I WRITE TELEPHONE CORRESPONDENCE MAY NOT BE AN IDEAL MEDIUM TO
CONTACT YOU ON THIS MATTER.
FIRSTLY, I WOULD LIKE TO MR.FRANCIS EJOR,A SENIOR ACCOUNTANT WITH THE OFFICE OF THE HONOURABLE
GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF
NIGERIA, HEADED BY MY BOSS, THE GOVERNOR - DR. JOSEPH
SANUSI.

I GOT YOUR CONTACT THROUGH A SECRET ENQUIRY I MADE
FROM YOUR COUNTRY'S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DOWN HERE.
THOUGH, DURING MY ENQUIRY I DID NOT MAKE
MY INTENTION KNOWN TO HIM SO THAT IT WOULD REMAIN
CONFIDENTIAL. TO BE EXPLICIT, RECENTLY, IN THE COURSE
OF AN INDEPTH VERIFICATION EXERCISE
INSTITUTED, I MADE A DISCOVERY THAT PROMPTED THIS
PRIVATE OMMUNICATION.WHILE CONDUCTING OUR USUAL VERIFICATION EXERCISE
BEFORE WE AUTHORISED OUR OVERSEAS CORRESPONDENCE IN
THE UNITED STATES/EUROPE TO EFFECT
PAYMENT TO OUR DESREVING CONTRACTORS
.
WE DISCOVERED
THAT ONE OF OUR DESRVING BENEFICIARIES MR. JOHN EBANKS
WHOSE PAYMENT HAS BEEN APPROVED AND WAS
TO BENEFIT FROM THIS QUARTER'S PAYMENT, DIED
SOMETIMES AGO AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS.PRESENTLY, ALL EFFORT TO
LOCATE ANY OF HIS BENEFACTORS HAS PROVED
ABORTIVE, AS THEY NO LONGER RESIDE AT THEIR FORMER
HOME/OFFICE ADDRESS. CONSEQUENTLY, I AM SOLICITING FOR YOUR HAND IN COLLABORATION
TO DIVERT THESE FUNDS ALREADY WITH OUR OFFSHORE CORRESPONDENCE.
ALL I REQUIRE OF YOU IS TO ACCEPT TO ASSIST ME SINCE I
AM NOT A FOREIGNER AND AS SUCH CANNOT STAND AS ONE OF THE BENEFACTORS
OF LATE MR.EBANKS. UPON MY RECIEPT
OF YOUR LETTER OF INTENT I WILL IMMEDIATELY ALTER
EVERY INFORMATION IN THE PAYMENT FILE WITH AN AFFIDAVIT TOGETHER WITH
MY COLLEAGUES AND POSITION OF OFFICE, TO INSTATE YOU AS THE SUB-CONTRACTOR
AND THE BENEFACTOR TO THE PAYMENT OF US$32M (THIRTY-TWO MILLION U.S DOLLARS)
ALREADY APPROVED
FOR PAYMENT IN OUR OFFSHORE PAYMENT CENTER.
UPONE YOUR RESPONSE I WILL
COMMENCESE ON TRANSFERRING
ALL RIGHTS T YOUR NAME IN FAVOUR OF YOUR COMPANY, IN
ANTICIPATION OF YOUR FAVOURABLE REPLY. YOU AND I WILL
DISCUSS ON THE MODE OF SHARING THIS MONEY AFTER I
RECEIVE YOUR POSITIVE RESPONSE.


FINALLY, AFTER PROPER AND PEFECTED
DOCUMENTATION I
SHALL SENT YOU THE PAYMENT REALEASE CODE TO ENABLE YOU
RECEIVE THE PAYMENT. I WILL POINT OUT THAT YOU WILL BE
REQUIRED TO PREPARE FOR A TRIP TO THE POINT OF
PAYMENT TO RECEIVE THESE
FUNDS IN OUR FAVOUR. WE
WOULD HAVE A DELEGATE ON STANDBY TO ASSIST YOU IN
EVERY WAY TO GUARRANTEE COMPLETE SUCCESS.
NOTE THAT THIS TRASACTION IS 100% RISK-FREE, HENCE WE
ARE HERE TO PERFECT THE ENTIRE PROCESS.
THIS IS A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY
BEFORE US AND WE WOULD
NOT LIKE TO SEEIT GO TO BY. I AM SINCERELY COUNTING ON
YOUR SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.
I AWAIT YOUR URGENT RESPONSE. YOURS SINCERELY,

MR FRANCIS EJOR.


NOTE: IF I RECEIVE YOUR CONFIRMATION TO GO ON, THE
ENTIRE TRANSACTION WILL LAST FOR 7 (SEVEN) WORKING DAYS.