This is a variant of the "Nigerian Letter" fraud. In this little ploy they
ask people to help get out tens of MILLIONS out of Africa, the reward for
which you (the sucker) will get 5 million or so. It is brilliantly
organised to the level of false offices in different countries, fake money,
etc etc. I am friendly with a cop who does nothing else but these scams
and he says murder is not uncommon. It appeals to the greedy! The
estimate of such "business" is in the billions and North America is the
favourite hunting ground. I regularly get them - they are quite funny and
it is amazes me that people actually fall for it.
By the way do not bother to elicit help from African Governments - they are
in it too!!
At 07:52 PM 1/15/2003 -0500, Scott H. wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>
>Here's a scam that I feel all of you need to be aware of......
>
>My boss has been trying to sell his son's Pontiac Fiero through the local
>newspaper and regional photo ad magazine for several months. He wasn't
>getting anywhere with those two sources, so he decided to place an ad with a
>Fiero club in the Detroit area that has a classified section on their web
>site. He recently received an e-mail message from a person in Africa who
>wanted to buy the car, and then have it transported to himself in Africa. The
>prospective buyer then told him that he had an associate that he does business
>with in the United States who owes him $6000. His plan was to have his
>associate send my boss a money order in the amount of $6000 that he could
>deposit immediately. Soon after that he would send someone to pick the car
>up. At that time, my boss would hand him a check for $2500, and was told to
>keep $500 for his troubles. Instead of $3000, he would now have $3500. Sound
>good so far?
>
>Meanwhile, the person would have the car and the $2500 check. Within a
>month's time the certified check would bounce, the car would end up at a hack
>shop somewhere, and my boss would be a very sad man without the car, and the
>$2500. A certified or bank check can take up to a month to clear, or if it
>doesn't the bank will come looking for you. But by then it will be too late.
>Fortunately my boss was smart enough to catch on, but I hate to think of how
>many people get the wrong end of the deal with this scam.
>
>So far I haven't heard stories like this among British car owners, but you do
>need to use extreme caution when dealing with the unknown.
>
>Just something to share with my British car friends,
>
>Thanks,
>
>Scott Helms
>http://users.arczip.com/zntech/britishcarweek.html
Regards
Barrie
Barrie Robinson
barrier@bconnex.net
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