Whether it is the dying, cancer-ridden wife of an ousted despot somewhere in Africa or Sir Thomas Mayer, the President/CEO of “UNIVERSAL IMPORT AND EXPORT EXPORT” (see below)(and wouldn’t exporting exports equal importing?), the stream of e-mail borne scams that range in content from stupid to downright bizarre seems like it will never stop. My question is who gets taken in? Who is so naive and greedy that they can be suckered into get rich quick schemes that are obviously illegal and require them to front their own money?
These “advance fee” scams (otherwise known as the Nigerian Fee scam) have been doing the rounds since before the Internet was around and have been the subject of endless news reports and police investigations. What I don’t understand is why we should care about people who are so greedy and stupid they would get suckered into one of the scams? The cost of police work to investigate is usually far in excess of the amount the “victim” loses and it is rare that the perps get caught. So, why do we bother? ————- PS. Here’s the last scam pitch that I got and referred to above. I only removed some blank lines for space usage reasons otherwise the message is as received: Partially illiterate and totally unbelievable.
—–Original Message—– From: root@siemensgsm.ru [mailto:root@siemensgsm.ru] On Behalf Of Sir Thomas Mayer Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 12:01 PM To: nwcolumn@gibbs.com Subject: COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE REQUIRED URGENTLY{WORK AT YOUR CONVINIENCE} UNIVERSAL IMPORT AND EXPORT EXPORT I hope you receive this message in good health, i am Sir Thomas Mayer, i represent a group of business men in the United Kingdom who deal on raw materials and export into america and canada. We are searching for representatives{part or full time employee} who can help us establish a medium of getting to our customers in america/canada as well as making payments through you to us. Please if you are interested in working and transacting business with us we will be very glad. Please contact our procurement officer, Mr Thomas Gold @ thomasgold_01@yahoo.co.uk for more information Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the opportunity to negotiate your mode of which we will pay for your services as our representative in america/canada. Please if you are interested forward to us your phone number/fax and your full contact addresses. Looking forward to hearing from you. Very Respectfully, Sir Thomas Mayer, President/CEO UNIVERSAL IMPORT AND EXPORT EXPORT Goods for Import / Export & Freight Fwdg. Svcs. Units 3A & 3B, Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park, Aintree Liverpool, L30 1RD, UNITED KINGDOM
