Mature Life Features

. . .around here

haven’t learned that

there’s more to being a motorist

than aiming a car.

If It Sounds too Good to be True . . .

A family member received an e-mail from a sender who identified themselves as an attorney in Lagos, Nigeria. They cited the list of difficulties they had tracking down any relatives of their client, who worked for the “Atlas Dreging company in Nigeria” at the time of the crash that killed him, his
wife, and two children “along sagbama express road.”
After several inquiries to various embassies, the sender decided to try the Internet to locate any
relatives of the deceased family “to assist in repatriating the money and properties left behind by
my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where this huge
deposit were lodged…where the deceased had a deposit valued at about U.S. $5.3 million.”
The sender pointed out quick action was required because he only has six weeks to get back to the
bank with legitimate claimants to the fortune.
“You and I can share the money as follows, 60% shall be for me, while 40% of the funds shall be
retained by you. However, Upon release of the funds to you, My own share shall be held in trust
for me pending when I come over to your country for the disbursement of the funds stated
above,” the message continued.
So how can I go wrong, the victim asks. The money is in my hands and I hold onto it until this
lawyer fellow comes over and gets his share. And 40 percent of $5.3 million isn’t bad.
“Therefore, All I require is absolute trust and your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect
you from any breach of the law. please get in touch with me immediately as I do not have much
time at my disposal.”
It’s a scam. An obvious giveaway in this case is the stilted language, misspelling, and discordant
grammar in the message.
My bank circulated a warning about a resurgence of the Nigerian Advance Fee scheme,
which has been around for decades. But people still fall for it.
This scheme involves receipt of a letter or e-mail claiming to come from someone who works for the
Nigerian Central Bank or some Nigerian government agency.
The recipient is told the senders seek a reputable foreign company or individual into whose
account they can deposit funds to facilitate a large transaction, for which the recipient will be paid
a fee, usually a percentage of the funds being moved. A variation is to require the recipient to pay a good-faith deposit or bond to participate in this transaction.
The goal by the crooks in all these cases is to make the victim believe he or she has had the good
fortune to be singled out for such a munificent amount of money.