Too good to be true, Part 2.

You may have read my other e-mail about “Too good to be true?” where I shared with you an e-mail offer that promised a large chunk of money if I would assist the person in moving some money from a long forgotten bank account out of the country and into my account. Evidently I was not the only one to receive this fabulous offer as some of you let us know that you also saw this same thing. You were smart and decided to check it out before getting caught and taken by that scam. Good for us.

Well I got another e-mail that just looks too darn good to be true. What do you think? Here it is as it came to me. Note the wonderful English and typing skills.

International Certified Bank Draft.
Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:59 AM
From:
"Mr. Jess Williams."
To:
My Dear Friend,

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition.

I am using this opportunity to thank you for your great effort to ourunfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reasonto assist me in transferring those funds despite the fact that it failed us some how.

I have authorized Mr Alan Smith where I deposited my money to issue you an international certified bank draft cashable at your bank. My dear friend I want you to contact Mr.Alan Smith for the collection of this international certified bank draft. The name and contact address of the Mr. Alan Smith is as follows.

CONTACT AGENT Mr. Alan Smith.
EMAIL: mralan_smith@hotmail.co.uk
PHONE: +234 275 008 03

Ask him to send to you the total $500,000 (five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) which I kept for your compensation for all the past efforts andattempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,so feel free and get in touch with Mr. Alan Smith. and instruct him where to send the amount to you.

Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the joy after all the suffering at that time. At the moment, I am very busy here because of the investment projects which I and the new partner are having at hand. Remember that I had forwarded instruction to him on your behalf to receive that money, so get in touch with him and he will send the amount to you without delay.

Finally, my sincere advice to you as a christian is that you should endeavour to pay your tithe to a bible believing church when you get the money.

May God continue to bless and guide us at all times.Cheers.

Sincerely,
Mr. Jess Williams.

Well, there you have it. Doesn’t it just make you want to immediately call or e-mail the given contact point and let them know of their mistake. After all as a good christian that endeavours to pay your tithe to a bible believing church you must be the kind of honest person that would try to clarify that mistake. I don’t recall knowing a Jess Williams or Alan Smith or helping either of them in any business endeavor whatsoever. It just wouldn’t be right for me to ask them to send me $500,000…or would it? I mean maybe they are meant to send me that money. To have that much money they must be very smart men and they must know what they are doing and they did send this e-mail to me personally and besides, I deserve it, I work hard, I do my best to get ahead but can’t seem to quite get there, why shouldn’t I be the one to participate in this easy money. Besides won’t my church be happy when I give them a large check to pay tithes on the money they send. Just think of all the good that will do. What was that number again? Gotcha!

Now they have contact they will find some excuse to hook you in to performing some other act for them. They will just need you to do such and such first, or the bank won’t let us do a cashier check but we can do an electronic funds transfer that will also get the money to you faster, what is your account number and I’ll send it out today? Or they have a service fee to right the cashier check, just send me enough to cover the fee and the money is yours. Some will even go for a second or third ding if they can get anything out of you stringing you along with the ‘we are almost there, we just need a little more to take care of…’ routine. Besides what is a little investment on your part if you have the chance at so much more, then what is a little bit more if you are that close to getting it all, and then ‘I can’t stop now, look how much I have invested, I need to get it back at least.’

What would you do if you got this e-mail, or one of the many floating around out there like it? Maybe you did get this very same e-mail, what did you do? Some of us have been around the block a time or two and recognize the signs but there are others that are seeing some of these things for the first time. That is why these kinds of things continue to appear. There is always someone new, there is always someone greedy and gullible and willing to take a chance that it just might work…this time. Trust me, as the times get tougher we will see many more of these kinds of scams appear. Please be careful out there and help others to be careful too. Bringing these things out into the open is the best course of action. Bad things usually wither and fade away when exposed to the light. Shine on.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.