Can Nigeria (or any other nation) ever be taken seriously when it allows ludicrous scams to damage what little international reputation it may still have.  Now it seems, other countries may be picking up the concept, possibly the Seychelles and/or Kenya?  See the latest farcical email offer that I have received, below.

Email appeals to greed make me wonder if some people are gullible or plain dim?  How many punters are there on the internet who will sell you the ultimate plan on how to get rich without any effort.  And this infallible plan will only cost you $19 or $29 or similar.  If it is so easy to get super-rich, why would anybody be bothering to sell the scheme for such give-away sums?  Doh!

Today I got an email from someone I have never heard of and would not want to know.  It is a sneaky approach and a new twist on the "millions unclaimed in the bank" fraud.  Clearly the note below has gone to everyone called Haywood that Mr Mboma (if that is his real name) could find.  And probably, suitably amended, to all the Robinsons, the Cartwrights, the Wilkinsons, the Uncle Tom Cobleys etc.

The truly amazing aspect is that anyone could be taken in by such an obvious ruse.  You know the old rule ...

if it sounds too good to be true, then it is. 

Remember also the Nigerian scams.  They were laughably implausible.  Laughable except that one British builder fell for one and spent £30,000 trying to release the supposed millions - "last minute duties, bank fees, transfer costs" etc etc, on and on, as they tried to screw ever more from the dim fellow. 

Laughable it could have been but he not only lost his money.  He was so incensed at being tricked that he booked a flight to Nigeria to try to recover his life savings.  He booked into a hotel and was found dead in the morning.  Murdered with no evidence of who might have committed the crime - or so the police claimed.

Be warned.  If it sounds too good to be true .....................

This is the email that I received today, exactly as I received it.  It is from Jelks Mboma [collijelky07@gmail.com] so someone should be able to trace this and stop this.

Dear Haywood,

I will like to seek your help in a business proposal , which although is sensitive by nature and not what I should discuss with someone I don't know and have not met using a medium such as this but I do not have a choice .

I am Mr. Jelks Mboma, personal account manager of late Dr. Edward Haywood, who died of a cardiac arrest a few years ago leaving behind a large sum of money with a commercial bank in the Island of Seychelles which is a tax free zone, a place where plenty of rich people tend to hide away funds not ready to be used or invested, i am also the Client Service manager of the Kenyan branch. I will not mention the amount of money which runs into several millions in United States

Dollars and name of bank presently until we have agreed to deal. I trust you will understand the need for such precautions.

So far, valuable efforts has been made to get to his people but to no avail, as he had no known relatives more because he left his next of kin column in his account opening forms blank and he has no known relative. Due to this development the bank has been expecting someone to come forward as a close relative to claim the funds otherwise as the Seychelles national laws would have it, any dormant account for five years will be declared unclaimed and then paid into the government purse.

To avert this negative development my colleagues and i have decided to look for a reputable person to act as the next of kin to late Dr. Edward Haywood. So that the funds could be

processed and released into his account, which is where you come in. We shall make arrangements with a qualified and a reliable attorney to represent you locally to avoid any inconveniency of you coming down to claim the funds

All legal documents to aid your claim for this fund and to prove your relationship with the deceased will be provided by us. Your help will be appreciated with 30% of the total sum which

I would disclose in my next email Please accept my apologies, keep my confidence and disregard this letter if you do not appreciate this proposition i have offered you.

I wait anxiously for your response.

Yours Faithfully,

Jelks Mboma