Email Scams

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From what I gather, this forum is just for posting your pet hates and other things that annoy you (tell me if I'm wrong). As no one else has posted, I'll go first.

I just received and email calming to be from some very ill person from the Netherlands. She has some money that she wants me to move around or something. Of course this is completely untrue and if I was to fall for this trick, I would end up loosing a lot of money to this person.

I think that the people who have the nerve to do this are some of the most heartless people in this world, they are praying on the stupid. People can't help it if they fall for things easily, and these scamers just feed off this.

Anyway, I'll stop blathering on, here is a copy of the email, though:

From:Mrs Caroline Solange Haafkens of Netherlands

I am Mrs Caroline Solange Haafkens from Netherlands. I am married to Dr.Franklyn Haafkens who worked with ChevronTexaco in Nigeria for twenty years before he died in the year 2000.We were married for twenty-seven years without a child. He died during one of the riot in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.He was held hostage and slain to death by protesting youths of the region.

Before his death we were both born again christians.Since his death I
decided not to re-marry . When my late husband was alive he deposited
the sum of (Eight Million six hundred thousand U.S.Dollars)with a bank in the Netherlands .

Presently, this money is still with the bank and the management just
wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to receive the money or
rather issue a letter of authorisation to somebody to receive it on my
behalf if I can not come over.

Presently, I'm with my laptop in a hospital where I have been
undergoing treatment for cancer of the lungs. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live.

It is my last wish to see that this money is invested the proceed at
the end of every year distributed among charity organisation.

I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund
churches,orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to
ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to
understand that Blessed is the hand that giveth.I took this decision because i know that there are alot of poor people suffering from different kind of disease and nobody to come to their aid.

With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I
shall give you the contact of the bank.

I will also issue you a letter of authority that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund.You are to help me invest this funds into real estate and stocks.You will be entitled to 10% of every profit youmake in a year.

Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.

Hoping to hearing from you soon.

waiting for your reply

Yours in Christ,

Mrs Caroline Solange Haafkens

[tokkolo]

This is a scam from somebody who is very sick and who can't even make up a good story. Look at it, she put almost every thinkable bad event possible in it. Look for her name on Google and you will find pages with the same letter and discussions about it.

It just ashame that people actually fall for these kind of scams. Never buy it! It are always scams!

A german man actually replied to the email and got more emails back, untill it couldn't be more obvious that it is a scam and he said that to her. You can read it here. http://blog.jodies.de/?p=84

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That blog is very interesting, thanks tokkolo. The person who wrote those emails has thought up a real sob story.

[microdude431]

i also get lots of emails claiming they are from ebay.

[Randy]

Originally Posted by microdude431

i also get lots of emails claiming they are from ebay.

Me too... also banks, and other fakes like that... good thing Gmail automatically sends them to the Spam folder and adds the note that it isn' from who it appears to be.

[microdude431]

just got this one today:

Dear Friend,

I am Nelson.A.Williams the director in charge of auditing and accounting section of Africa Development Bank, (ADB) Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso in West Africa with due respect and regard. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us a the end of the transaction. During our investigation and auditing in this bank, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died on 31st October 1999 in a plane crash and the fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our discovery to this development.
Although personally,

I keep this information secret within myself to enable the whole plans and idea be Profitable and successful during the time of execution. The said amount was U.S $970.000 (Nine Hundred and Seventy thousand United States Dollars). Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put claim over this fund as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased, get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign account has been put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also benefit your self to this great business opportunity.

In fact I could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country as a civil servant(A Banker),we are not allowed to operate a foreign account and would eventually raise an eye brow on my side during the time of transfer because I work in this bank. This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward claims as the next of kin with affidavit of trust of oath to the Bank and also present a foreign account where he will need the money to be re-transferred into on his request as it may be after due verification and clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole money will be remitted from to your own designation bank account. I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free.

On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 30% of the total sum as gratification, while 5% will be set aside to take care of expenses that may arise during the time of transfer and also telephone bills, while 65% will be for me. Please, you have been adviced to keep "top secret" as I am still in service and intend to retire from service after I conclude this deal with you.

I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment, either in your country or any country you advice us to invest in. All other necessary vital information will be sent to you when I hear from you.

I look forward to receive your email.Or you can call me as soon as you receive this message through my private phone number 00/226/76 69 61 03 .

Yours Faithfully,

MR NELSON APIAH WILLIAMS.

[Justin]

You really should call the bloke, see what he has to say

[Anigma]

jebus. i wonder how many (if any) people actually get scammed by these email. on a side note, i searched "MR NELSON APIAH WILLIAMS" on google and the first thing that poped up was this page. just thought that was kinda interesting.

[RipCurl]

Fresh from my work colleague's inbox

Dear Sir/Madam,

Pardon me for contacting you directly without any previous correspondence. I am Barrister Ubi Telga from Sudan. I wish to request your hand of cooperation in a business deal on behalf of Mrs. Julian Makoko whose husband was brutally murdered in Dafur crises by southern rebels.

Her husband Tigani Makoko was the head of Commission on oil field maintenance in Dafur region before he was killed. After his death, his wife solicited my
assistance in regards to a business project initiated by her husband. She further explained to me that this project involves the sum of US$14.4 million dollars and that her husband through the federal oil revenue secured the money as payment to a foreign contractor. His intension was to transfer the money to a foreign account under a foreign company's name as soon as the project is due for payment. Following his sudden death, his wife confided in me as her husband's personal lawyer to assist her in seeking for a foreigner who can be trusted in a business deal of his nature to receive the payment on her behalf in a foreign account.

I therefore contact you to explore your willingness and capability to assist her in moving this money to your bank account for investment in your country. There is no risk involved in this venture. Everything was perfectly arranged by Late Tigani Makoko during his tenure as the chairman of the commission. A share of 20% from the total amount will be allocated to you for your kind assistance. Kindly give this letter a comprehensive thought and get back to me as soon as possible for further discussions. I wait for your response.

Best Regards.

Ubi Telga.

[Freddy]

From what I've read in this list of postings, most people here would appreciate the experience I had last night trying to get myself a Gmail Invitation via the eBay system. I'll pause here for a second to allow for your laughter at the thought of a newbie being blindly swindled on eBay.

Anyway, I'm not sure how many people here are aware of the fact that eBay is becoming more and more a haven for scammers, especially the type that would think nothing about charging an innocent and naive person like myself $10.50 for one Gmail Invite. The sad part of the story is that after purchasing the Invite and waiting nearly three days for the seller to email me the link, nary an email regarding Gmail arrived in my inbox.

In fact, if you just go to eBay and search for Gmail nearly 2000 entries will show up, most of which are fake. This just goes to show you how such a great concept of Gmail can be exploited so easily by the untethered capitalism that eBay promotes. A disturbing trend in all of this is that most of the sellers of these fake invitations are those with very high eBay customer satisfaction ratings, indicating that even the most reliable (according to eBay) can't even be trusted not to rip you off.

I felt that everyone would appreciate hearing about the situation of the Gmail Invites on eBay, if not as a warning to those thinking about bidding, then just perhaps as a way to amuse everyone at the financial anguish I suffered in the process. The scamming is out of control, so if anyone reading this is still searching for that "elusive" invite then I would advise you to direct your browser to someplace else than www.ebay.com.

Overall I just can't believe how desperate people are to get these Gmail accounts, myself included. You people that already have them should count yourself among the lucky few, for now. Enjoy the privileges and exclusivity. Anyway, to make this long and confusing story short.....avoid eBay Gmail, and treasure the 1GB email account if you have one!

Later everyone,
Freddy