Here is a scam
message that I received today. Many of you have already seen a
message like this and know how to spot one, but for you that haven’t
I will go through and point out things that make it a scam. I will
put my comments in brackets and red. This scam I believe is very
obvious, but there are some written in a similar way that are not as
obvious and are easily believed. Note, the typing errors are from
the original message, they may be because the person does not write
English as a first language or they are trying to look like they
don’t to make their story more believable.
Hello My Dear
How are you doing today, i hope you are
doing fine. I hope and i know that this email [this was not an email
it was sent on a social networking site] that i am sending to you
would be reaching you in good health?with me just here hoping and
praying that you can find a place in your heart to help me save my
mothers life [The person is trying to get my
heart to feel for their story and make me more likely to respond to
them because of emotion not logic],, I want to tell you
something very important, though i am not suppose to tell you now
because we haven’t met before but i know that you would be of good
help to me, but i think i need to tell you this, because i think you
may be a nice person because when i sending these mail,i felt you are
a nice and caring person. And i think i can trust you in this too,
this is why i am telling you this. All i want you to do is to keep
this as a top secret between us [They don't
want me to tell anyone else because someone else might know it is a
scam and tell me not to listen to them]. and also promise me
that no other person will hear this okay. Right now am really going
through hard and terrible life with my mother. [Trying
to make me feel bad for not helping]
Actually it happened when i lost my
dad, my dad is dead and i am left with my mum. so after the death of
my father, his family member came to the house and collected
everything my dad left behind for us. and they ask me and my mum to
leave the compound and they sold the house. We could not able to find
them again because of the war that happened in my country Liberia, so
just last week my mum show to me some documents which my dad use to
deposit $19Million US dollars in a bank here in Ghana and also a
picture of my dad at the time of sign the agreement letter with the
bank and he use my name as the next of kin to the funds. So when my
mum show to me the documents, i was so happy so i travel to Ghana
with my mum. When we get to the bank and we presented all the legal
documents that was given to my father at the time of depositing the
fund with the bank, we were told that the money is still with the
bank, but they cannot transfer the money to us here in Africa,
because my dad went into an agreement with them at the time of
depositing the fund that the fund should be transferred on express
transfer to leave Africa. I never knew my dad was planning of opening a
company abroad. so on our way out of the bank, one of the staff of
the bank advice us to look for a trust worthy foreign partner to help
us receive the funds from the bank. So i want you to help us contact
the bank, so that the bank can transfer the money of my late father
to you, so that i and my mum can come over to your country and meet
you so we all can start a better and happy life again.
Please, i want you to understand that I
trust you and I know you can help me and my family because we are
passing through hard moments here in Ghana, I am a beautiful girl and
so when people see me they don’t know the condition that i am
undergoing due the reason that I don’t want people to know the stress
and pains we are passing here in Ghana, and then we meet and live
life to the fullest, and i feel we can be together if it is meant to
be, that is why am telling you this top secret because am sacred and
this is all we have left in this world. i believe you can understand
my present situation. I trust you that is why I am telling you this
[She doesn't know me, how can she trust me?].
as am
writing you this mail, my eyes is full
of tears because my mum is seriously sick and we don’t know any body
here in Ghana. so we are living with an old lady called Mrs. Vida
[Last name removed in case it is a real
person], she is working as a security officer close to us, but
she is very old and she will stop work very soon, so try your best
and help me and my mum. We really need your help. Life is so hard and
terrible for me and my mum right now in Ghana because we don’t have
any helper. i think I’ve truly been blessed by finding you and I ‘ll
never let you go away from my life. I will want you to understand
that we are going to sign an agreement before the bank will transfer
the fund of my late father to you because we have not met before now
and the Agreement is for the security reason of the funds too. so i
will like you to provide this information so that i and my mum can
get the Agreement done from a lawyer [How are they paying for a
lawyer?] here in Ghana, and send you a copy of it to sign. So please
reply me with your, Full name, Age, Occupation and address. My mum
promise to give to you 20% percent if you can help us get the money
from the bank. [If I did this they would most
likely send me a check to cash and ask me to keep 20% and send the
rest to them. After I have sent the money the
check would not clear and I would be stuck with having to pay back
the money that I sent to them because of the contract that I signed.]
I will send you a picture of my mum, my
late father at the time of depositing the fund with the bank here in
Ghana and a picture of my late father casket during burial ceremony,
and i will also send to you a picture of myself. When i receive a
reply from you. Please try and get back to me so that i can send to
you the legal documents that was given to my father at the time of
depositing the fund with the
bank.
Please take care of your self,
i hope to hear from you soon. God bless
you.
Yours Obediently,
From Nelly and mother
please send a reply to [removed
just because I think it should be]@yahoo.com
If you receive a
message or phone call similar to this one DO NOT! listen to it, you
could have a huge financial problem on your hands if you do. Always
be suspicious of anyone asking for money especially if they ask for
personal information.
