Those damned Nigerian have emigrated!

Russ Kay

Russ Kay

Joined
Dec 19, 2000
Messages
186
Edit: thread title was changed to avoid the appearance of bigotry. 2nd time -- no it wasn't changed; can't figure out how to do that.

Every week for the last many months I have received a half-dozen or so iterations of the notorious Nigerian bank account scam. I've come to expect almost anything, or for the name of the person involved to be anyone -- famous, infamous, unknown.

But I was saddened when this latest iteration arrived:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Please respond to "kailash" <kailashh@mail.com>
To: Russell Kay/Computerworld@Computerworld
cc:
Subject:


CONFIDENTIAL U.K. FAX NUMBER: 44-870-1309342

Dear Sir,

Pardon me for starting this great proposal this way as it might surprise you. My name is Yuvraj Kailash a native of Nepal and attorney to the late king of Nepal who died as a result of loss in
temper caused by an argument between him and his family, as they were against him marrying his fiancée .You were recommended by a close confidant. Who assured us of your capability and reliability to assist us. We seek the assistance of someone who is genuinely interested in entering into a business relationship with long term focus, and willingness of a kind heart to help.

If you are conversant with events in Nepal in May/June last year 2001, (June 1 2001), the media was filled with reports that Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal had shot and killed several members of
the Nepalese Royal Family, among whom were his parents King Birenda and Queen Aiswarya, before trying to kill himself.

Prior to the late kings death (Prince Dipendra), he kept aside a secret amount of money, for his fiancée (Miss Divyani Rana) worth over US$30,000,000.00(Thirty million United States Dollars). This was made in the heat of misunderstanding between him and members of his family. The money was kept away in such a way to prevent any member of his family from having any access or trace to the funds, which was just a part of his wealth, this was like a gift to his fiancée and a further affirmation to her that he was surly going to marry her, even though, his family was against their marriage. We have kept this a secret for sometime now and feel this is the right time to execute this transaction.

The death of my late boss, left us stranded, we have therefore been searching for a genuine and reliable person or company of trust and with whom the Nepalese Royal Family have never had any previous, personal or business relationship with. That person will assist in the transfer and business re-investment of this money. We cannot do it alone due to our present social status. We also intend to give you a reasonable share of the funds for your assistance. These funds have been hidden away, known only to his fiancée and myself. We would want you to safeguard this fund from being clamped down by any body or agencies.

As soon as we receive your letter of acceptance/acknowledgement, I shall give you more highlights on this transaction.

THIS IS A RISK FREE TRANSACTION AND MUST NOT BE REVILED TO ANYONE NOT EVEN YOUR LAWYER, ATTORNEY, FAMILY, FRIENDS ETC. If you are capable and trust worthy and can keep to our instructions to make
the above Proposal a reality. Then CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY ONLY THROUGH OUR CONFIDENTIAL U.K FAX NUMBER: 44-870-1309342 AS
INDICATED ABOVE

DO NOT REPLY US BY EMAIL. Please indicate in your reply your PERSONAL/CONFIDENTIAL TELEPHONE NUMBERS, CELLULAR OR MOBILE NUMBER, CONFIDENTIAL FAX NUMBER AND YOUR CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL ADDRESS
when replying.

ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY BY EMAIL. Your Reply Should be by Fax only to 44-870-1309342 (United kingdom)



GOD BLESS

Yuvraj Kailash


x
 
This seems to be happening all over the Western world. I have had about 15-20 e-mails from those people this summer.

In the e-mails I have recieved they have solely claimed to be from Sierra Leone.
 
you should send am a surprise, tell em you are the finance minister,and will be round shortly to collect with a contingent of ghurkas armed with very sharp khuks. he he he:) :D :) :p
 
Tell them your current employer- Interpol- will not allow you to take outside work.

munk
 
Originally posted by Russ Kay .....Those ****** Nigerian.......
Click to expand...
:) Perhaps you should consider a change in the title.
I almost didn't read the post
& was ready to presume you to be a bigot.

And for all we know, maybe it's another Computerworld
employee actually originating these--from UK or wherever.
Know anyone living above their means? ;)

BTW -
Russ knows,
but some other members might like to know,
a good Email filter program makes such spam disappear.
I use Agent, but there are many others available.
www.tucows.com is a good source of downloads of internet-
related and general utilites: freeware and shareware for
most computer platforms.
 
First one I've seen from Nepal but I've gotten a few other "greed scams) from Nigeria and a couple of other places.
 
Russ,

I was offended at first glance by the Headline "Those Damned Nigerians" It seemed to me to be a very generalized bigoted remark on a whole class of people.

I did read the post and understood your intent, however, I would still say that any such generalized remark about a specific culture is wholly unwarranted, especially in the cantina with such a wide mix of cultures and people. I would suggest my friend that you choose your words just a little more carefully.
 
Funny thing Russ as I knew exactly what you were talking about in the title of the post. I'm so glad I don't get that sort of mail anymore. The program my ISP offered me for $10.00 a year is more than worth it's cost by protecting me from such spam mail as this.
When I was on WebTV I got more than my share of it for some odd reason.

I think one reason so many found offense is the number of trolls we've had on bladeforums.com recently.
When trolls become commonplace then everyone gets a little uncentered. Damn trolls anyway!!!!:mad: :barf:
 
I think one reason so many found offense is the number of trolls we've had on bladeforums.com recently.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I didn't think much of it--(and of course after reading it I totally understood), but then again I've met Russ in person and know that he's one of the good guys.
 
MauiRob, can you or anyone tell me where 'troll' came from currently? I don't mean what it means, or where the word derived, but why at this time and place in our society did we come to use the word, "troll" so much?

It is an apt expression for people with no guts who stir up //::v!! while cruising the internet with immunity.


munk
 
I was told it was because they're "trolling". Like fishing for negative attention with insults for bait. Drop a snide/insulting comment or two, sit back and wait for someone to take the bait. The word "troll" as a noun is also a good description of the kind of people who do this kind of crap.
 
Sorry munk,

I just re-read your post and realized what you were asking. I don't know why there're so many these days. Maybe the anonymity of the internet allows the passive/agressive "troll" types to feel in control of something? With things as they are these days, maybe this is their version of venting? Whatever it is, they need to be reminded that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.
 
You can learn all you need to know about trolls here.

Edit:
Had the old link, it's fixed now.
 
Yvsa, many thanks for the troll info! I needed it much. Now I'll do my best to not to become one of 'em;)
As for the spam mail, I recently got one 'business offer' from South Africa. The story was basically the same.
 
Why not call their bluff. Open a new bank account with some nominal fee in it (just enough to open the account, say £5). Then send the account details to them. The most they could get off you would be the fiver, and who knows. Keep an eye on the account, if anything more than a fiver goes in at any point, grab it and run.


Jeff.
 
I wouldn't dream of answering one of these pleas. People have lost money, and a few stupid types have actually gotten killed because of it (note: that's not first-hand knowledge, but I've been told it by people I trust). The people who pull these scams have no scruples.

On the subject of spam filters, I know they exist but I'm not very encouraged about their utility. A few months back, Computerworld's IT department implemented a server-based filter that quarantined all messages it deemed spam for two weeks in a separate location. Trouble was, some things it thought were spam turned out to be important messages, so in the end I still had to go through and read all the subject lines anyway. If I'm going to do that, I'll just do it in my mail reader instead of having to invoke yet another program.
 
Don't think of responding to this scam, just hope they pass on by and you never hear from them again. They start asking for money to "get things started" or what ever. They'll take as much as people are foolish enough to send them. I recall news reports of a couple of people who lost enough that they became quite concerned and were dumb enough to travel to Africa (guess who paid) to meet the crooks in order to "finalize the transfer". Finalize is right. The poor dupes were apparently transferred to another plane of existence as they were never heard from again. Don't remember what country, but they were less than fully cooperative with US authorities regarding the investigation.
 
Originally posted by Russ Kay ....... spam filters, ...... IT department ...... quarantined ..... spam for two weeks in a separate location. ....some things it thought were spam turned out to be important messages, so in the end I still had to go through and read all the subject lines anyway.
Click to expand...
There are better ways to manage filters.

The 'Agent' Email/Newsreader:
- incorporates a filter mechanism, so no seperate program to manage the filtering.
- can set the filter to file the message
......(I use a folder called Prob Spam then check it at leasure)
... or can set the filter to mark the message Read,
... or 'delete' the file to the Trash folder for later review or true deletion.
- that lets you select a spam message and set the filter for that originator.
- lets you set up generic filters for any Subject or Body Text
......Earn Money At Home, $$$$, viagra, or whatever
-set up folders for manual or automatic filing of Email by any filter criteria
....Family, Business, Shopping, Blades, or Whatever

-fully configurable Newsreader
that is much handier than Outlook
or any of the others I've tried.
....Several news groups RE metal- and wood-working

Filters save me a lot of work,
even though I always read
the title before final deletion.

'Agent' 30-day trial after download & install
'FreeAgent' is always free, but no filters
 
A couple of settings on my browser are (netscape):

Send e-mail address as anonymous FTP password

Accept only cookies that get sent back to the original server (or turn off cookies altogether)

The only unwanted mail I get are chain letters from people I already know and stuff concerning work. :yawn:
 
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