Dear Friend,
Good day to you and your family. I am happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred under the co-operation of a new partner from Belgium. Presently I am in Belgium for investment projects with my own share of the total sum. Meanwhile, I did not forget your past efforts and attempts you made in getting your winnings sent to your delivery address, despite that it failed us somehow.
Now contact my secretary in Lagos his name is (Mr. Ron Wools)
Ask him to send you the total $550,000.00 (FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND US DOLLARS) which I raised in your favor for your compensation for all the past efforts you have made in receiving your winnings in this matter.
Please do let me know immediately you receive the payment to enable us share the joy after all the distress at that time. Remember that I have forwarded instruction to the secretary on your behalf to receive that money. So feel free to get in touch with him.
It should be noted that I did not attempt to fix the grammar in the above paragraphs. Anyway, I get stuff like this every day here at the office. Most of the time it is the “son of a political prisoner in Africa” who has been discriminated against because of his beliefs. He was killed in a civil war in the Sudan and his son, who has e-mailed me, needs my help to transfer millions of dollars into a U.S. bank account. All I have to do is give him some of my personal information, such as a bank account number, so he can wire the money over. Once it is here, I get to keep a large percentage.
E-mails like this make me wonder just how gullible people are. Obviously these things are working or they would stop sending them and try something else. Like the e-mail I included here, I have never won anything in my life. Why would I believe that I have $550,000 coming to me? It’s ludicrous.
Scams are everywhere and go on every day. I heard a report on WSGS coming in to work last week that over 8 million people have been victim to identity theft in the U.S. alone. Just two weeks ago the Hazard Police Department wisely shut down a portion of Baker Avenue in response to a bomb threat to a local residence. Thankfully the threat was hollow, but you never know, and the police department responded appropriately.
But the fact remains that these people are seemingly everywhere anymore. We can’t drive down the street without worrying if someone will be fingering through our garbage in search of old bills or paycheck stubs. We can’t log on to the internet without worrying about downloading a virus and having someone remotely execute commands on our PCs.
There used to be a time, not too long ago in fact, that identity theft was not even a blip on the horizon. Scams weren’t perpetrated electronically and gas was less than a dollar a gallon and our e-mail inboxes were not filled with poor widowed Europeans seeking a wire transfer of $1 billion with a large percentage going to me. It’s sort of like the modern day Clearing House Sweepstakes, except if you reply back you get your identity stolen.
It seems we should always be wary of what is front of us, and be scared to death of what is behind.
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