Sunday, February 26, 2006

A new variation of the Nigerian letter scam?

From: "Peter Grant"
To: burgess@byronik.com
Subject: PARTNERSHIP
Dear sir
I am Mr. Peter Grant and I represent Mr. Mikhail Khordokovsky the former C.E.O of Yukos Oil Company in Russia. I have a very sensitive and confidential brief from this top (oligarch) to ask for your partnership in re-profiling funds over US$6.5 million to your account. I will give you the details, but in summary, the funds are coming via a WoolWich Bank in United.Kingdom. Please Note that this is a legitimate transaction. You will be paid 20% for your "management fees".
If you are interested, please write back by email: peter8grant@yahoo.co.uk and provide me with your confidential telephone number, fax number and email address and I will provide further details and instructions as we proceed. Your response is highly needed so as to stop further contact.
All correspondence must be by my private e-mail to secure privacy. Please keep this matter confidential because we cannot afford more political problems.
Finally, please note that this must be concluded within two weeks. Please write back promptly.
You can visit this website for a complete report on this incidence. http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2003/11/13/51215.html
Expect to hear frrom you. I look forward to it.
Regards
Peter Grant

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If it sounds too good to be true…

As corny as it sounds, people are fooled by this ruse.

A close friend of mine, who has since asked her name be withheld, actually fell for this scam. She met the guy in an Internet chat room and he wrote to her for two weeks before asking for the money.

He sent her checks that he claimed he couldn’t cash himself because of odd circumstances and requested she cash it for him. He offered her a cut of the money for her troubles for completing the transaction. The motivational lures are an appeal for help combined with excitement of easy money (my friend has since denied she was ever motivated by money ­ yeah right).

She did in fact get the money he promised ­thousands of dollars — when her bank didn’t seem to red flag the strange checks she was cashing. Problem was, they ended up being counterfeit checks. The bank was pissed and zinged it to her, demanded she pay all the money back plus extravagant penalty fees. (This almost makes me believe the banks want this to happen since they are the ones who benefit from the situation).

Though her father is a retired Secret Service agent with the U.S. Department of Treasury and she regularly corresponds with an agent in Homeland Security, they could not do anything about it except take note of it and perhaps tell her what an idiot she was.

Most people love the excitement of easy money — that discovery of a secret pirated chest of gold or the winning-the-lottery feeling. And when you fake yourself out into believing you’re actually helping somebody in the process, it might overwhelm rational thinking.

To repeat a cliché: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

J.D. Hawk
Chula Vista,
California

www.jdhawk.com