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ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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 Posted - 05/27/2007 : 09:51:08
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Well, we've all gotten them, but by far, my favourite is this one below, which went around Israel like wildfire just because people forwarded it to their friends.
quote:
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE; SUHA ARAFAT
Dear Friend,
This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the Middle East and Palestine in particular.
I am Mrs. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of YASSER ARAFAT, the Palestinian leader who died recently in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion, humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment.
You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Moslem community has no regards for woman, hence my desire for a foreign assistance.
I have deposited the sum of 20 million dollars with a security firm abroad whose name is withheld for now until we open communication. I shall be grateful if you could receive this fund into your bank account for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity. This arrangement is known to you and my personal Attorney. He might be dealing with you directly for security reasons as the case may be.
In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits, we will have to negotiate on your Percentage share of the $20,000,000 that will be kept in your position for a while and invested in your name for my trust pending when my Daughter, Zahwa, will come off age and take full responsibility of her Family Estate/inheritance.
Please note that this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time and more so, if you are hornet, I am going to entrust more funds in your care as this is one of the legacy we keep for our children.
In case you don't accept please do not let me out to the security and international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith. Please expedite action.
Yours sincerely,
Suha Arafat
Wonderful, isn't it?
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Koli 
"Striving lackadaisically for perfection."
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 10:26:09
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Some of them are wonderfully inventive. I gather that quite a few circulating in Britain emanate from London and they deliberately use broken English to give them an air of authenticity and convince the intended victim that the originator is guileless.
I contacted my local authority's trading standards department about one of these messages, in the hope that they'd be able to get some crack unit to track down the perpetrator and have them banged up but it quickly became apparent that they weren't going to do anything. They referred me to an outfit at Scotland Yard (HQ of the London police with some national responsibilities) but only in a virtual way: here's a link to their site, where you'll be told to ignore the message...
I read an article recently by someone who'd decided to respond to such messages despite knowing they were scams. He made it his business to get them to go 'off-script' and waste time trying to groom him. He said he stopped short of travelling to e.g. Amsterdam to meet the shady characters behind the scams, and insisted that they wouldn't bother to seek retribution when they discovered he was stringing them along. Me being a more cautious soul, I wouldn't even send them an email for fear of (a) having my email address passed on to an even larger number of crooks, and (b) attracting an email laden with viruses or spyware when my cunning plan was discovered.
I'm amazed that there are still people out there who fall for these scams, but I suppose they only need a minute percentage of recipients to take the bait and they're making pots of money. I expect there's a formula: where gullibility and greed quotient exceeds IQ that's fertile ground.  |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 11:32:48
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I heard about that guy who tried to catch them. Perhaps some day someone will. But it still surprises me just how much time and effort these guys go into making them sound as real as possible.
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 13:15:45
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
I heard about that guy who tried to catch them. Perhaps some day someone will. But it still surprises me just how much time and effort these guys go into making them sound as real as possible.
I think they're impossible to catch as they tend to reside in countries that approve of their 'business'. I heard that scams are the third biggest earner of foreign dollars for Nigeria, behind oil and cocoa? I think.
I'd say if the scammers are resident in a Western country then they should be very easy to catch. As soon as money changes hands there's a trail. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 14:16:56
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
I assume you saw the Emmanuel Thoya thread?
http://www.fwfr.com/fourum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4975
Some of it, yes.
quote:
BTW, the Suha Arafat one was funny. If she's got $6.5 billion then no way am I settling for a paltry $20 million! 
BINGO! |
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lemmycaution 
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 17:19:03
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| Yasser, that's my (sugar)baby. |
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Chris C
"Four words, never backwards."
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 22:16:49
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I used to get these all the time. Last winter, when snowed in, I spent a little time baiting them and stringing them along. They seemed to get my hotmail email address from Ebay at one point.
One time one wrote and said that he had written because I had the same name as his unidentified bank customer who had $70 million. I wrote back and asked if that was true, what was my name. No answer.
One I got on my private email (not connected to paypal) I wrote back:
"Sure, I'm very interested in your proposition. In order to prepare on my end, kindly send $20000 USD to my paypal account listed under this address. When I receive confirmation from paypal, in absence of any spam mail attempting to get my paypal personal information, I will send you my pertinent information to complete our deal. I anxiously await confirmation from paypal." No answer.
One got that response and wrote back: "I can see that you are not yet ready for this transaction."
My response was: "Readiness on my part was never the question. The availability of such funds, and your willingness to provide good faith measures was the deal killer."
But this one, I thought, showed the most chutzpah:
FROM: Sgt. Mark Ed
Important Message
I need your utmost attention to this letter
Good day,
My name is Mark Edward, I am an American soldier, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq, As you know we are being attacked by insurgents everyday and car bombs. We managed to move funds belonging to Saddam Hussien's family.
We want to move this money to you, so that you may invest it for us and keep our share in a safety keep. We will take 70%, my partner and I. You take the other 30%. no strings attached, just help us move it out of Iraq, Iraqis a war zone. We plan on using diplomatic courier and shipping the funds outin one silver box, using diplomatic immunity. This Transaction is risk free and has a diplomatic coverage whereby the consignment cannot be checked in port of Entry or Exit.
If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can I trust you? When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone/fax numbers for quick communication also your contact details. This business is risk free.
Respectfully,
Sgt. Mark Ed
You could tell this wasn't written by an American soldier.
Ah well. I grew tired of baiting the baiters and started reporting every one I got to the email host from which it came and to which it referred the receiver. That slowed it down considerably. |
Edited by - w22dheartlivie on 05/27/2007 22:20:08 |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 05/27/2007 : 23:42:34
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| Yes, go to the thread cited above for my all-time favorite "rebuttal" to the Nigerian scam. As you'll read in the thread, it's become some kind of vicious sport by now, but as long as it remains harmless, as long as the sole purpose is to keep the greedy scammer as busy as possible trying in vain to hook the fish [and thus utterly wasting his time], I'm all for it. |
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"Nigerian" Scams
