Where are you Don Quixote?
Will the birth of a new nation in Africa lead to a fresh avalanche of ‘investment opportunities’ offers that don’t seem to cease coming from the strife-ridden regions of the continent?
Syed Neaz Ahmad takes a light-hearted look at this genre of fraud.
IF I were to believe the kind of e-mails I have received over the last few days it must be one of the most profitable weeks! They say if wishes had wings men (that includes women too) would fly. Two e-mails suggested—or offered—rich pickings.
A lady in Senegal desperate to invest $13.2 million in my company, and a national lotto rollover with a chance of scooping $16.2 million.
Not half bad I thought—this would ensure an early retirement and a cosy lifestyle in southern France. With all this money I could perhaps do some good work for the less fortunate people of the world—a hospital, a school, an orphanage, a hospice, the list was endless! However, you soon realise the lady is taking you for a rough ride!
‘Good Day. Syed Neaz Ahmad’, runs the letter, ‘I know this mail will come to you as a surprise. Nevertheless I am Mrs. Lydia Anatoljevitch, aged 59 years, the wife of Major Viktor Anatoljevitch, Chief Security Officer and aide-de-camp to the exiled president Charles Tailor of Liberia.
‘As a result of the on going problem in my country, I am saddled with problems of my ill-health of protracted diabetes and high blood pressure which is getting of increase in the recent times, more importantly getting a trustworthy individual abroad to receive the sum of US$13.2 million on our behalf which I intend to invest in your company.
‘Due to this crisis presently in Monrovia our hometown, I managed to sneak with my son David 23 years of age and four of my daughters out of Monrovia to Dakar, Senegal for safety. We were sneaked into Senegal through the land border by the help of some government militant group. After the killing of my husband by the rebels, we decided to come down to Dakar to secure this amount deposited here by my husband and to look for a trustworthy individual abroad to receive the deposit which was deposited here in Dakar Senegal before he was killed by the heartless rebels.
‘I feel confident therefore to introduce myself to you based on this problem and our present condition as all our foreign contacts and connections got lost during this crisis, all properties burnt by the rebels. I am desperately in need to move and re-locate this huge deposit to your country for safekeeping as this is the only wealth remaining for the future survival and well being of my large family. For your assistance, a negotiable percentage will be discussed as soon as I receive your response based on this plea for your assistance as our lives are in danger due to this problem. I pray and plead for your help. Please email me back for further clarifications over this issue.
‘God bless you as you respond to my plea for assistance. My phone [number deleted to protect the innocent] will be open for your call any time but if I am unavailable when you call, my son David will respond to you accordingly. Sincerely yours. Mrs. Lydia Anatoljevitch.’
God bless you Mrs Anatolijevitch—with a suggestion and name like that you must be a ‘lady and a scholar’. How sad I don’t own a company where you could invest your hard-earned $13.2 million. To tell you the ‘truth’ I was indeed foxed by the offer and thought for a moment that you wanted to spend your millions in my company!
I know mine is not the only e-mail address on the hit list of would-be investors keen to get their wealth out of their strife-ridden countries to safer shores. A media man who was in the region tells me that e-mail addresses are scooped up from hotel reservations, publishing houses and off the newspapers and magazines and sold to ‘prospective investors’.
A few years ago I had received an e-mail from someone trying to sell his plastic toy-gun factory located in the vicinity of Baghdad airport. The factory—it was claimed—was owned by Uday but since he had disappeared the manager was the de facto owner. To settle the outstanding debts and collect his accumulated salary he was hard pressed to sell. With several acres of land it was a bargain at $10,000.
The gentleman suggested the site could be used for anything like a 5-star hotel or a down-to-earth prison facility for the entertainment of US trainee prison officers. Not amused I ignored this offer of a lifetime! As Don Quixote says: Facts are the enemies of truth.
Syed Neaz Ahmad takes a light-hearted look at this genre of fraud.
IF I were to believe the kind of e-mails I have received over the last few days it must be one of the most profitable weeks! They say if wishes had wings men (that includes women too) would fly. Two e-mails suggested—or offered—rich pickings.
A lady in Senegal desperate to invest $13.2 million in my company, and a national lotto rollover with a chance of scooping $16.2 million.
Not half bad I thought—this would ensure an early retirement and a cosy lifestyle in southern France. With all this money I could perhaps do some good work for the less fortunate people of the world—a hospital, a school, an orphanage, a hospice, the list was endless! However, you soon realise the lady is taking you for a rough ride!
‘Good Day. Syed Neaz Ahmad’, runs the letter, ‘I know this mail will come to you as a surprise. Nevertheless I am Mrs. Lydia Anatoljevitch, aged 59 years, the wife of Major Viktor Anatoljevitch, Chief Security Officer and aide-de-camp to the exiled president Charles Tailor of Liberia.
‘As a result of the on going problem in my country, I am saddled with problems of my ill-health of protracted diabetes and high blood pressure which is getting of increase in the recent times, more importantly getting a trustworthy individual abroad to receive the sum of US$13.2 million on our behalf which I intend to invest in your company.
‘Due to this crisis presently in Monrovia our hometown, I managed to sneak with my son David 23 years of age and four of my daughters out of Monrovia to Dakar, Senegal for safety. We were sneaked into Senegal through the land border by the help of some government militant group. After the killing of my husband by the rebels, we decided to come down to Dakar to secure this amount deposited here by my husband and to look for a trustworthy individual abroad to receive the deposit which was deposited here in Dakar Senegal before he was killed by the heartless rebels.
‘I feel confident therefore to introduce myself to you based on this problem and our present condition as all our foreign contacts and connections got lost during this crisis, all properties burnt by the rebels. I am desperately in need to move and re-locate this huge deposit to your country for safekeeping as this is the only wealth remaining for the future survival and well being of my large family. For your assistance, a negotiable percentage will be discussed as soon as I receive your response based on this plea for your assistance as our lives are in danger due to this problem. I pray and plead for your help. Please email me back for further clarifications over this issue.
‘God bless you as you respond to my plea for assistance. My phone [number deleted to protect the innocent] will be open for your call any time but if I am unavailable when you call, my son David will respond to you accordingly. Sincerely yours. Mrs. Lydia Anatoljevitch.’
God bless you Mrs Anatolijevitch—with a suggestion and name like that you must be a ‘lady and a scholar’. How sad I don’t own a company where you could invest your hard-earned $13.2 million. To tell you the ‘truth’ I was indeed foxed by the offer and thought for a moment that you wanted to spend your millions in my company!
I know mine is not the only e-mail address on the hit list of would-be investors keen to get their wealth out of their strife-ridden countries to safer shores. A media man who was in the region tells me that e-mail addresses are scooped up from hotel reservations, publishing houses and off the newspapers and magazines and sold to ‘prospective investors’.
A few years ago I had received an e-mail from someone trying to sell his plastic toy-gun factory located in the vicinity of Baghdad airport. The factory—it was claimed—was owned by Uday but since he had disappeared the manager was the de facto owner. To settle the outstanding debts and collect his accumulated salary he was hard pressed to sell. With several acres of land it was a bargain at $10,000.
The gentleman suggested the site could be used for anything like a 5-star hotel or a down-to-earth prison facility for the entertainment of US trainee prison officers. Not amused I ignored this offer of a lifetime! As Don Quixote says: Facts are the enemies of truth.
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