Dubious Emails

I have received 33 emails today. A third of these were from Facebook and another third were from amigos and amigas greeting me for my birthday.Two emails were from Yangoon, an email from Pantaloons in India, and two emails asking for help. The rest were unworthy to be opened.

Those emails asking for help were actually funny. So I receive one from a doctor friend from Kenya (Peter Mwangi) saying that he went to London, lost his wallet, and now is locked in his hotel. He needs 5,000 pounds and wants to know my address, telephone number and bank details. The other is from a Filipino acquaintance who I met when I was in Vanuatu.She wasn't a friend - she just pushed herself into my life. The first time I received an email from her was a couple of years ago when she said she is selling her house so she can send her 14 years old kid to school. Now she is asking to borrow money because she is in a "transition" period (whatever that means). The weird thing about her email was she mentioned (in the last paragraph) that she will put the money in my bank (if she will pay), and that I should call her if I will make the deposit.

I can hear the scam bells ringing loud and clear, here!

I am very much amazed at the creativity of people who send "help" emails.The probably spend time concocting stories so some vulnerable person would jump and send them money. I mentioned vulnerable and not stupid -- because I actually know of a guy (an intelligent one at that) who sent "help" to Uganda because his friend needs to be taken out of the hotel! Two weeks later he met his friend at a mall in Manila and told his friend if he did received the money sent. The friend, after the confusion has been settled, said thank you BUT he was never in Uganda. What would he be doing there?

Another guy I know from my VSO days became ecstatic when he received an email from one of those African countries specializing in spam mails. The sender is a banker who holds in trust some 200 million dollars and that the real owner died in a plane crash. So if he (my not-so-stupid friend) accept this responsibility, the banker will send him the money proviso ---- (drum rolls) he gives him bank account number, telephone number, etcetera.

And yes, he did sent the nitty gritty details, including his wife's bank account for fear that $200 million will be too much on his account number. I don't know what the ending to his story is. I didn't know if his savings were cleaned or if money was actually deposited. Who knows? All I know that in this day and age, there still are precious innocents!