Friday, May 9, 2008

I Can't Believe People Still Fall For This

Like just about everyone else with a BlogSpot account, I got this email:

From Mrs Rebecca Williams
No 38 Rue Des Martyrs Cocody
Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire

ATTN:DEAREST ONE OF GOD
I am the above named person from Kuwait. I am married to Mr Benson Williams, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2004. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $2. 5 Million (Two Million Five Hundred U.S. Dollars) in the bank here in Abidjan in suspense account.

Presently, the fund is still with the bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that i have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavour 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 don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my husband’s efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence i know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the Lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.

I don’t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband’s relatives is around me always I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank here in Abidjan. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the Lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.

Contact me on the above e-mail address for more information’s, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church or individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your reply.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs Rebecca Williams.

And of course, you give them access to your bank account so they can deposit the 2.5 million, they take out what you have in it, and your money winds up somewhere in The Ivory Coast.

6 comments:

sandersonmom said...

NOW you tell me...

The Whited Sepulchre said...

It's ok, it's ok.
You were trying to do the right thing.

Just for grins, I put the name "Benson Williams" into Google and found this hilarious email exchange:
http://www.warmfusion.com/nigerian/williams.htm

The guy claimed to be Sam Walton, and kept the scam artist on the hook for DAYS. Funny stuff.

Also, Dear Sandersonmom, there's a related scam where they find online catalogs, call the company, and then make customer service personnel jump through 10,000 hoops quoting freight and calculating discounts to Nigeria.

They get you excited about the SALE OF THE DECADE, and then ask you to UPS them a cell phone, just so they can stay in contact with you better.

People apparently send them cell phones.
One of Cindy W.'s predecessors in the In-House sales postion at our workplace once got furious with me when I refused to quote 3 shipping containers full of oddball stuff with door to door delivery to one of the infamous Nigerian addresses. I even showed her the address on scam alert web pages. Unfortunately, she had already envisioned the commission on this massive, massive sale and refused to believe that it wasn't legit.
I don't know if she UPS'd them a cell phone or not.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the warning. I just opened a email with a different name and first got suspicious when I found it in my SPAM box. They took the amount down to 1.5 million for me. I guess even scam artists operating through Ivory Coast banks feel our economic crunch...I googled that Rue des martyrs cocody address and came up with several similar letters....

karengrace said...

Thank you so much for this information. I almost fell for it. whew! I replied to the email and got another letter. That was when I got suspicious because the letter sender asks for your name and address. Just like that? geez... The scammer this time used the name susan morgan. I googled the address and thank goodness I found light. People these days...tsk tsk tsk...

Renata S Roux said...

Haha what would we do without Google? I just googled the address and ended up in your blog.

Wonder what kind of satisfaction it gives people to come up with this crap.

Anonymous said...

You know I got the exact same email from a different person.. and decided to see if they would reply my emails if i would be 'interested'.
And you know.. they go pretty far in this...
They even send me the name of a person to contact at the bank and an official certificate of the fund.

The only thing that they didnt send me was a copy of their passport.

If your deperate, you get this email and you havent heard of its dangers... its not even that weird people fall for it.