Here's the text of an email I received recently. I do not know anything about the Congo and I am not interested in researching the subject to see if any of this could be true. All I know is that this is the last thing I want to get mixed-up with!


FROM: COL.BANGI HAMA.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.
Tel No: Your country Intl. access code
+873762692484
Fax No: your country Intl. Access code
+873762692485
[email protected]


Dear Sir/Madam,


SEEKING YOUR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE.

Please Permit me to make your acquaintance in so
informal a manner. This
is necessitated by my urgent need to reach a
dependable and trust wordy
foreign partner. This request may seem strange
and unsolicited but I will
crave your indulgence and pray that you view it
seriously. My name is COL.
BANGI HAMA of the
Democratic Republic of Congo and One of the close
aides to the former
President of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
LAURENT KABILA of blessed
memory, may his soul rest in peace.

During the military campaign of LAURENT KABILA to
force out the rebels in
my country, I and some of my colleagues were
commissioned  by the Late
President Kabila to negotiate the supply of arms
and ammunition from
abroad worth Twenty Million, Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars
only (US$20,500,000.00) to
fight the rebel groups. We were then given this
money privately by
the then President LAURENT KABILA, without the
knowledge of his Cabinet
Members. This was mainly because some of us and
some Cabinet members never
wanted more wars and most of the Cabinet members
were opposed to the
fighting. But when President Kabila was killed in
a bloody shoot-out by
one of his Body Guards a day
before we were schedule to travel out of Congo,
we immediately decided to
put the funds into a private security company
here in Congo for safe
keeping. The security of the said amount is
presently being threatened
here following the arrest and seizure
of properties of Col. Rasheidi Karesava (One of
the Body Guards to Laurent
Kabila) a tribesman, and some other Military
Personnel from our same
tribe, by the new President of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, the son
of late President Laurent Kabila, Joseph Kabila.

(rest of the email in the next post)

scam....

(...and here's the rest of it.)


In view of this, we need a reliable and
trustworthy foreign partner who
can assist us to move this money out of my
country as the beneficiary. WE
have sufficient  ''CONTACTS'' here to move the
fund under Diplomatic Cover
to a security company in Europe in
your name. This is to ensure that the Diplomatic
Baggage is marked
''CONFIDENTIAL'' and it will not pass through
normal custom/airport
screening and clearance.

Our inability to move this money out of Congo all
this while lies on our
lack of trust on our supposed good friends
(western countries) who
suddenly became hostile to those of us who worked
with the late President
Kabila immediately after his son took office.
Though we have neither seen
nor met each other, the information We gathered
from an associate who has
worked in your
country has encouraged and convinced us of your
country and hence with
your sincere assistance, this transaction will be
properly handled with
modesty and honesty to a huge success within two
weeks.

We would please need you to stand on our behalf
as the beneficiary of this
fund in Europe. This is because we are under
restricted movement and watch
and hence we want to be very carefull in other
not to lose this fund which
we have worked so hard for. Thus, if you are
willing to assist us move
this fund out of Congo, you can contact me
through my email address,
Tel/Fax nos. above with your telephone, fax
number and personal
information to enable us discuss the modalities
and what will be your
share (percentage) for assisting us.

Please note that There are no RISKS involved in
this Deal as every ones
Security is Gurranteed as far as we follow the
required guidlines. I will
hence furnish you with further details of this
Deal as soon as I am
assured of your Sincere interest to assist us. We
wish to inform you that
this deal is based on Mutual Trust
as we cannot conclude this deal on our own
without trusting someone. Also,
friends are discovered and friends are made and
we hope to build a lasting
friendship of trust from this deal.

I must use this opportunity and medium to implore
you to exercise the
utmost indulgence to keep this matter
extraordinarily confidential, What
ever your decision, while I await your prompt
response.
Thank you and God Bless.
Best Regards
COL. BANGI HAMA  [[email protected]]


N\B. When you are calling my line, you dial your
country Intl. access
code, then you dial directly, do not include my
country code i.e. (243).
Just dial your country Intl. access code +
873762692484 and my fax number
is your country Intl. Access code + 873762692485

Scam...what amount do they want for deposit?

Yeah it's an old scam, next they will ask for your bank's routing number and your account number so they may transfer they money to you when actually they will suck the account dry.

check Google for "Nigeria Scam"

Long running scam.  Read about it here:

http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm

Good grief!! You guys are all over this. Seven replies in less than ten minutes? Is this a bulletin board or a CHATROOM?? [smoke]

It seems like a unaminous decision for the scam verdict, but I took it for a joke. Maybe I'll reply to the next one just to see what they want to try to get me to do.

Tell them you would like $10,000 as a "good faith" deposit.

Av.

Ya! Cool!
I got the Nigerian email over a year ago, recognized it as a variance on an old confidence scam, and I tried to run a reverse racket on them.

No go. [:(]

From: [b] Princewill Clemence[/b]
Tel/Fax: 234-9-2721404


HELLO,

I am writing you this letter on a personal basis as
the Chairman of the Technical Committee has on the
Award and Review of Contracts in the Federal Ministry
of Transport.

This Committee has been mandated to pay all authentic
outstanding debts owes both local and foreign
contractors who rendered goods and services to the
Defunct National Shipping Carrier- THE NIGERIA
NATIONAL SHIPPING LINE (NNSL).
I have discovered that s foreign company owed huge
debts of money for some contractual services between
1986 - 1989, have failed to turn in all necessary
document that will faciliate the payment of this debts
which amount to the total sum of US$20,500.000
(Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State
Dollars only). After several reminders through the
last known contact address in our official record,
this Committee has now assumed the company no longer
exists.

The Federal Ministry of Transport has advised this
Committee to delete the name of the companies who fail
to turn up or show evidence of actually executing any
contract from the list of beneficiaries.  Hence, with your
sincere co-operation and support, I now intend to use
your company as the foreign based company who actually
executed the contract and therefore be considered for
full payment of the amount stated above.

As the Chairman of this Committee, I will influence
the prompt payment of this money. And I also want to
assure you that there is NO RISK involved that will
tarnish the good image of your company and yourself,
neither will I risk putting my civil service career
spanning over thirty years on what will tarnish my
image and reputation.

If you are seriously and genuinely interested in my
plan and aspiration, kindly let me know immediately
you receive this proposal so that I will give you the
necessary modalities for a successful execution of
this business.  Also, you should send as urgent your company's
information to be used as the beneficiary upon receipt of this mail.

Thanks and God bless.

Princewill Clemence
(Chairman of the Technical Committee -F.M.T)

[b]Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud
"OPERATION 4-1-9"[/b]
The perpetrators of Advance Fee Fraud are often very creative and innovative. This fraud is called "4-1-9" fraud after the section of the Nigerian penal code that addresses fraud schemes. Nigerian nationals, purporting to be officials of their government or banking institutions, will fax or mail letters to individuals and businesses in the United States and other countries. The correspondence will inform the recipient that a reputable foreign company or individual is needed for the deposit of an overpayment on a procurement contract. The letter will claim that the Nigerian government overpaid anywhere from $10 to $60 million on these contracts. There is the perception that no one would enter such an obviously suspicious relationship; however, many victims have been enticed into believing they can share in such windfall profits.

Individuals are asked to provide funds to cover various fees and for personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and other similar data. Once this information is received, the victims find that they have lost large sums of money. It is hard to pinpoint how much has been lost in these scams since many victims do not report their losses to authorities due to fear or embarrassment.

In response to this growing epidemic, the Secret Service established "Operation 4-1-9" to target Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud on an international basis. Indications are that losses attributed to Advance Fee Fraud are in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Agents on temporary assignment to the American Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, in conjunction with the Regional Security Office, supplied information in the form of investigative leads to the Federal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (FIIB) of the Nigerian National Police. This project was designed to provide Nigerian law enforcement officials with investigative leads to enable them to enforce their own jurisdictional violations.

On July 2, 1996, officials of the FIIB, accompanied by Secret Service agents in an observer/advisor role, executed search warrants on 16 location in Lagos that resulted in the arrests of 43 Nigerian nationals. Evidence seized included telephones and facsimile machines, government and Central Bank of Nigeria letterhead, international business directories, scam letters, and addressed envelopes, and files containing correspondence from victims throughout the world.


[url]http://www.secretservice.gov/financial_crimes.shtml#Nigerian[/url]

Just a variation on the African bank scam....


Scott

I got one of these letters, from Nigeria I think.  Yours is virtually identical.  I was joking about it with an accountant aquantance, and he said several people in the area had bought into it and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I guess they lead you along for a while, and then say they need $20 for a wiring fee, and then its $350 to grease the wheels at the ministry, and then $1,000 to open an account, etc.

Contact the mailers ISP.

when i first saw it, i was tempted to open an account with $5, invite them to make a deposit, then suck it dry. but then i decided to keep my 5.

OLD SCAM