Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

This is the third one from a "supposedly" third different emailer. I imagine I got on some sort of mailing list, but don't know how or why. Lord knows I've never visited sites that deal with this sort of thing. Has anyone else received something like this? Don't worry, I'm not even seriously considering this, but would like to know if it's just some sort of bad internet joke or some sort of illegal thingie connected to terrorism or even some sort of sting operation. You know, see if a random person will bite:

Dear friend,

Greetings and compliments to you.

I am writing you this mail with a great hope that you will consider the message contained in it and respond accordingly.Before I proceed I will like to introduce myself :

I am Barr.Hans Dragsnes,a norwegian by nationality and a praticing barrister of over 3 decades.I am a personal lawyer to a very prominent and renown personality in Asia and the world at large who is presently in detention.

I am contacting you for a hand of partnership in a business worth $58million(fifty eight million US dollars).I got your contact through a personal search on the internet.I beleive that though we have not met before,with mutual cooperation we would be able to establish the necessary trust needed for the execution of this project.I decided to with hold some informations in this mail for security reasons. I will give you just a brief details of this transaction now but as soon as we have been able to establish some trust,I will give you the complete Informations that is relevant to this transaction.

A while ago,my client got me acquainted with his plans to establish an ultra modern movie production facility with state-of-the-art equipments and facilities for movie production.This he intended to do when he retires from public service.For this purpose he set aside the sum of $58million(fifty eight million US dollars).He seperated this funds in two parts and deposited them in two different security companies in two different locations in the world.On one of my visits to my client in prison recently,my client confided
in me to assist his family to withdraw these funds and secure a secret way to relocate them from his country to a safe place where they can be free from political oppression and death threats.

The political oppression on his family has grown so bad now that they now live in fear and misery.All their known monetary and landed assets have been confiscated and all their local as well as international bank account frozen by the government.His family have been placed under a travelling embargo which prevents them from travellling out of their country.I was as well placed under a travelling embargo but I had to secure a way to escape to a safe place where I am presently. I did this to enable me have a conducive atmosphere to execute our plans effectively and smoothly.As soon as we have been able to retrieve the funds I shall go back to move my client's family to a safe country where they can settle down in peace and as well invest the funds in a very viable business venture.If you can guarantee our safety then we can consider your country for this purpose.

We have the intention of retrieving one of the monies to enable us finalise our plans.This is why i contacted you.I want you to be my partner who will assist us in transfering this funds into a foreign account.I assure you that you will not encounter any problem with the execution process of this transaction as i will appriopriately direct you on what to do from time to time as we progress.

Also be assured that this transaction does not involve any thing illegal neither does it involve any form of risk .It is absolutely risk free.If you give me yourcooperation we shall have a successful completion of this transaction.

we shall negotiate what shall be your commision in this transaction.I just want you to be rest assured that you will be handsomely rewarded upon its completion.Please if you are interested do send me a reply.

Please also note that this must be kept in absolute confidentiality for security reasons even if you are not interested.

I await your response to this mail.

Pls do reply to my confidential email via
([email protected])

Best Regards

Barr.Hans Dragsnes
(London,Uk)

[Atlas]

I get about one of those every week.

They want your bank account number.

One tip off is that these millionaires are all from Nigeria. It varies, sometimes it's a death, sometimes it's a lottery, but the recurring theme is that there is this huge amount of money that needs "protecting" from local red tape so they want to transfer it to your bank account, for a hefty reward to you.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE THEM ANYTHING!

Consider one simple question: if you have $58 million, and you want to protect it, would you pick some random email address to do it? Couldn't you just hire a financial expert or accountant who could set up an offshore account in the Bahamas? Those are anonymous accounts. This is operating on a bulk mailing strategy which indicates a pyramid-type scheme; the people send out masses of emails like this one, but rather than include the "mark" in the pyramid they simpy wipe out their bank account. I guarantee you could not find this person if you went looking for them!

[ShapeSphere]

Kev,

As you know it's a fake email to obtain money, and was probably sent to millions of people via 'harvesting' of email addresses. Your email address was picked up somewhere - be it when you registered for a newspaper, etc.

Maybe there is a sucker somewhere who will fall for such an email. I feel sorry for them and their genes.

It's best to have two accounts - my Yahoo is for friends and family. My Hotmail I use when registering for newspapers, jobs, etc. It works well as all junk mail goes to my Hotmail junk folder and is disregarded.

You could use this site: http://www.bugmenot.com/

It's a Bypass Compulsory Web Registration site.

[Captain Yossarian]

Hi Kevin,

This is a variation of the classic Nigerian 419 Scam (419 being a part of the criminal code in Nigeria). I am amazed that you have been fortunate enough never to have received one before! They appeared in written form in the '80s but flourished in 1995 and 1996 when millions of people signed up for their first Hotmail and Yahoo accounts. Huge numbers of people have fallen for such scams (amazingly) and police forces take the threat very seriously. Here, for example, is the link to the Met's (London police) pages on 419 scams. http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm

If you search on Google you will find vigilantes who dedicate their time to trying to catch the scammers and, if they are really good, to successfully scam the scammers!

[merlin]

There was also a story about this on BBC about a year ago.

The basics are they ask you to do something that's illegal in return for a considerable percentage of a considerable sum of money. Although there are also others that deal with borderline leagal issues like offshore accounts/tax havens and things like that.

If you nibble at the bait they slowly reel you in. They start by asking you for small comittments of time and/or money. I know one company that had to draft up a report to get a certificate that would guarantee a loan for 1,000,000 USD. They had put considerable effort into making the report and then were asked to fly to LA and put up 40,000 as a comission to get a piece of paper that they could then bring to a bank and borrow the million. They got to LA and didn't read the contract very carefully, which stated that they already had a bank that would give them a loan. They didn't but since they were already in LA they signed and turned over 40,000. They'd worked to hard to back out, you see. Well, I read over this contract with my student and we had a good laugh at how many loopholes this company had agreed to. Funny thing, the guy who signed it can't speak English well. His company is now in bankruptcy proceedings.

This is very relevant to people wanting to teach abroad because the tactics are very similar - they ask applicants to do something small, then increase the inconvenience step by step until the applicant arrives at a point of no return. They may have quit their job, sent their original diplomas, paid a large fee for a TEFL course, arrived in a forieng country without a proper visa, whatever. They've invested too much to back out. They end up as a the horror story Dave can't allow to even be printed.

Advice:
Don't nibble at dodgey-looking bait
Don't even think about employment with a school that aske you to do something illegal/borderline illegal/stupid (like flying to meet Mr. Kwang at some airport halfay across the world at your expense).

[Echo]

For a laugh, have a look at:

http://www.419eater.com

It's a scambaiters website composed by people who oppose these frauds.

[WYSIWYG]

I get these stupid spam emails all the time. Just this morning I won 5mil in some lottery.

[little horsey]

Hey babies,

Check this out: http://www.zefrank.com/request/

Love,

little horsey