I realize the following email may be nothing but a prank; or the work of one of 'em motherfuckers trying to mess your computer;
…or, more unlikely but still reasonable, a mark of something not right.
The following is the questionable email I received. Having too much time on my hands I visited the FBI and Homeland Security websites and reported it - it is, afterall, of a questionable nature. But it shouln’t take ‘too much time’ on one’s hands to report ‘offset’ things - things to have you smack your head later with 20/20 hindsight. Anyway,
Date: 20 Jun 2005 12:40:09 -0000
From: “MARIA STEVENS” maria_stevens1@rediffmail.com Add to Address Book
To: maria_stevens1@rediffmail.com
Subject: PLEASE I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE.
Dear friend,
It is with my utmost sincererity that I am writing this letter. Please do not be offended receiving this email from me as we have not met before, but I am contacting you for you to assist me to put claims on the funds my late director deposited with a private security firm. I
was formerly an accountant with one of former late General Sani Abacha’s company in Lome, Togo. Please you must keep this business confidential to your good self.
During my tenure in office as the accountant to the late former head of state General Sani Abacha, He deposited with my name the sum of Twenty three million, five hundred and fifty thousand United States Dollars
($23,550,000.00) cash with the Global Diplomatic Security Company in
Togo.
Immediately I heard of his death, I quickly took away the Certificate of deposit of the consignment which was issued with my name. I have gone for the money at the security company for claims but I was told by the managing director of the Security Company that I can not collect the money from their company that the money has been transfered to
their offshore office abroad.
It was in this respect I wanted you to collect the money on my behalf from the security company and we can use it for viable investments in your country before I join you in your country as a future business partner. As regarding my present condition of health and financial
position, I will not be in a better position to travel out for now till I have fully recovered from sickness. If you accept this my business proposal to you, I would like you to indicate your interest by sending me the reply via my private e-mail address. Your immediate reply will
facilitate the smooth take off of this business transaction.
In your response, do include the percentage that will be given to you for your assistance in this transaction.
I look forward for your response.
Best regards,
Mrs. Maria Stevens.
Not family; not friends; not even… a professional firm to collect your money in exchange for the same fee you offer a complete stranger. Not someone you trust - rather, someone you hope will trust you.
Very questionable if you ask me. What kind of desperate individual will ever jeopardize his inheritance, if it is rightfully his - even if it means delaying it until your convenient ‘sickness’ goes away; or, having to pay a fee for a trustworthy individual to collect the money for you.
Note the connection of a huge ammount of money to the death of the owner; the individual’s only concern being to desperately getting a hold of said money via desperate means; the request to keep matters confidential; the decision to start a whole new life in a foreign country the individual has most likely not be accepted to enter yet in light of his ‘inheritance’ strangely connected to the death of the owner.
Perhaps a simple prank, perhaps not.