GeoffP
10-20-07, 01:07 PM
Dearest Sciforumumers,
It is with the greatest sadness that I received this email from a mercantile agent in South Africa. Please read it and see if you are not moved to tears.
> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:47:24 -0700
> From: zulujeff**@***.***
> Subject: THANKS !!!!
>
> I am a Manager of absa bank in South Africa, I am seeking for your
> Co-operation to present you to my bank as the next of kin/Business
> partner
> beneficiary to my deceased client, before his death, he has a bank
> balance with my bank to the tune of ($14.7m,) Mr. Morris Thompson, a
> businessman
> based in South Africa he died since On the 31st of January 2000 in an
> air crash
> along with his wife in on Alaska Airlines Flight 261 with other
> passengers on board.
> You can confirm this from the website below.
> http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
> No other person knows about this account. The
> Strategy is to use our influence as Managers/directors of the bank to
> Approve the funds to you. So if interested forward to me your full
> names,
> Age,country, Profession, Phone and Fax numbers. This will enable me to
> Contact you for further clarification.
> Regards.
> Mr. Jeffrey Zulu
What a tragic tale. I've checked out the airline link and it seems to be correct: a Mr. Morris Thompson, an did indeed die on Flight 261.
Morris Thompson, 61, of Fairbanks, Alaska. He was one of the state's most prominent Native and business leaders and had been in Mexico for a vacation with his wife, Thelma Thompson, and daughter Sheryl Thompson.
Thompson retired last month as president and chief executive officer of Doyon Ltd., a Native corporation formed in 1971 as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The corporation has 12.5 million acres of land, making it the largest private landowner in the United States.
When Thompson took over Doyon in 1985, it had an operating loss of $28 million. When he retired, it was generating $70.9 million in annual revenues, had 900 employees and 14,000 stockholders.
Thompson was a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Nixon years. He was only 34 when he was appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also was a Cabinet-level officer in Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel's first administration.
A most impressive individual. And how thoughful of his South Africa business partner, Mr. Zulu, to try to liberate Mr. Thompson's invested wealth from the employees of his business and his surviving relatives.
Impressed with the obvious legality and ethical morality of his proposal, I naturally wrote back:
Dear Mr. Zulu,
I was very sorry to hear of the death of your business partner. Seven years of mourning must seem like a long time; I hope you are feeling better now. Are you any relation to Shaka Zulu?
I was very interested in your business proposal. How will my information be useful to you in this endeavour? I feel very nervous giving out my information over email. What if the wrong parties intercepted it? Also, how do I know for sure that you are the only one giving out information about this account? You say that no one else knows about it, but then you say that "The Strategy is to use OUR influence..." Can you assure me that you are the only one who knows? This will be very beneficial to our make business transaction together.
Best,
Geoff P
That was the last I heard of him for some time. Then:
Dear Geoff P,
First, I want to thank you for your prompt response to my email, I really do appreciate your kind of gesture towards this matter and your positive deposition to assist us. But as a matter of fact I want you to also be rest assured that this transaction is real and 100% risk free, consequently there is nothing for you to worry about.
Before we embark on this project, we conducted several investigations to see that we do not jeopardize neither our job nor this transaction Basically, we want your total full co-operation and trust, somebody who we can entrust this funds in his hand before/prior our coming over to have our share of the money. Please bear in mind that, if there is going to be any problem we will never even start or rather embarked on it, considering our position at the bank as managers, our life entitlement (pensions scheme) political careers and our family (wife and children).
This is our lifetime opportunity, which we planned and waited patiently for. So my dear friend do not be worry about any thing we are here in the bank to see that this funds in Questions are approved and transfer to your Nominated Bank Account in your country.
Well that's a relief.
However, I know that you are not related to this deceased but we only need you as foreign partner that we can front as the next of kin, you can as well claim that you are business partners to this deceased.
Hmm. This sounds a little unethical.
Like as I earlier said the whole proceeding is legal, we have the entire Documents (Bio Data) Ed note: ??? of the deceased in question in our hands, definitely we could have done this on our own, but the bottom line is we are directors as well as staff of the bank, so we
cannot come out and have the funds transfer, couple with the fact that the South Africa laws of banking strictly prohibited us from having foreign accounts,
hence our effort to contact you, so that we can front you as the rightful next of kin/beneficiary of the Deceased in question.
Well that all makes sense then.
Consequently as a result of the urgency and time being of the essence in this transaction, I will appreciate you forward to us the following information.
1 Your direct confidential telephone and direct fax numbers.
2 Your full names
3 Your Age & marital status
4 House address/company address if any.
5 Occupation/profession.
6 Country of origin.
N/B: As soon as we have this information's from you, we will proceed to contact you within 24hours of receiving your information.
Secondly, I will want to give you the assurance that this project will be complete within 7 to 10 working days if all instructions are followed up religiously.
But you have to assure me that you are going to be trustworthy and honest because human behaviors are funny at times especially when it comes to money issues.
Assuredly.
The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 65% to my colleagues and I, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you 30% of the total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to encounter by the two parties in the course of this transaction. I will be sending you a copy of my international passport for you to know who exactly you are dealing with in respect of this project.
Thank you for your understanding, I hope hearing from you as soon as possible. Please you can reach me on my direct number +27-741-161-119
Best Regard,
Mr. Jeffrey Zulu.
Well.
Having little experience in such, ah, sensitive legal matters, I am entirely unsure how to proceed, and so I decided to post this interesting problem on SciForums to see if I could obtain some "expert help". After all, I wouldn't want to waste Mr. Zulu's time with trivial issues to the point that he was, say, pulling out his hair in frustration or something. At first glance, there are several ways in which one might waste Mr Zulu's time. I fully intend to explore several of them, but if other people have some suggestions as to how Mr Zulu's time might be wasted on trivialities, I would love to hear them. Just to avoid them, of course.
For example: Do I need documents or information from him? Am I curious about what in hell "Bio Data" means? Do I need to be sure he has it all? Does my nation impose strange and unusual conditions on such transfers? Do I want a higher percentage?
Or are there personal issues that haven't been fully explored? How many kids does he have? How many do I have? And what about my personality? Am I a confused American businessman? An Australian crocodile wrestler and dwarf thrower? A cowboy? Do I have some strange religious rites that must be observed for money transfer?
Anyway, I thought I'd post this to the forums and keep you all updated as to how it develops.
[On a side note: my sincerest condolences to Mr. Thompson's family; his quite impressive accomplishments certainly precede him.]
It is with the greatest sadness that I received this email from a mercantile agent in South Africa. Please read it and see if you are not moved to tears.
> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:47:24 -0700
> From: zulujeff**@***.***
> Subject: THANKS !!!!
>
> I am a Manager of absa bank in South Africa, I am seeking for your
> Co-operation to present you to my bank as the next of kin/Business
> partner
> beneficiary to my deceased client, before his death, he has a bank
> balance with my bank to the tune of ($14.7m,) Mr. Morris Thompson, a
> businessman
> based in South Africa he died since On the 31st of January 2000 in an
> air crash
> along with his wife in on Alaska Airlines Flight 261 with other
> passengers on board.
> You can confirm this from the website below.
> http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
> No other person knows about this account. The
> Strategy is to use our influence as Managers/directors of the bank to
> Approve the funds to you. So if interested forward to me your full
> names,
> Age,country, Profession, Phone and Fax numbers. This will enable me to
> Contact you for further clarification.
> Regards.
> Mr. Jeffrey Zulu
What a tragic tale. I've checked out the airline link and it seems to be correct: a Mr. Morris Thompson, an did indeed die on Flight 261.
Morris Thompson, 61, of Fairbanks, Alaska. He was one of the state's most prominent Native and business leaders and had been in Mexico for a vacation with his wife, Thelma Thompson, and daughter Sheryl Thompson.
Thompson retired last month as president and chief executive officer of Doyon Ltd., a Native corporation formed in 1971 as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The corporation has 12.5 million acres of land, making it the largest private landowner in the United States.
When Thompson took over Doyon in 1985, it had an operating loss of $28 million. When he retired, it was generating $70.9 million in annual revenues, had 900 employees and 14,000 stockholders.
Thompson was a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Nixon years. He was only 34 when he was appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also was a Cabinet-level officer in Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel's first administration.
A most impressive individual. And how thoughful of his South Africa business partner, Mr. Zulu, to try to liberate Mr. Thompson's invested wealth from the employees of his business and his surviving relatives.
Impressed with the obvious legality and ethical morality of his proposal, I naturally wrote back:
Dear Mr. Zulu,
I was very sorry to hear of the death of your business partner. Seven years of mourning must seem like a long time; I hope you are feeling better now. Are you any relation to Shaka Zulu?
I was very interested in your business proposal. How will my information be useful to you in this endeavour? I feel very nervous giving out my information over email. What if the wrong parties intercepted it? Also, how do I know for sure that you are the only one giving out information about this account? You say that no one else knows about it, but then you say that "The Strategy is to use OUR influence..." Can you assure me that you are the only one who knows? This will be very beneficial to our make business transaction together.
Best,
Geoff P
That was the last I heard of him for some time. Then:
Dear Geoff P,
First, I want to thank you for your prompt response to my email, I really do appreciate your kind of gesture towards this matter and your positive deposition to assist us. But as a matter of fact I want you to also be rest assured that this transaction is real and 100% risk free, consequently there is nothing for you to worry about.
Before we embark on this project, we conducted several investigations to see that we do not jeopardize neither our job nor this transaction Basically, we want your total full co-operation and trust, somebody who we can entrust this funds in his hand before/prior our coming over to have our share of the money. Please bear in mind that, if there is going to be any problem we will never even start or rather embarked on it, considering our position at the bank as managers, our life entitlement (pensions scheme) political careers and our family (wife and children).
This is our lifetime opportunity, which we planned and waited patiently for. So my dear friend do not be worry about any thing we are here in the bank to see that this funds in Questions are approved and transfer to your Nominated Bank Account in your country.
Well that's a relief.
However, I know that you are not related to this deceased but we only need you as foreign partner that we can front as the next of kin, you can as well claim that you are business partners to this deceased.
Hmm. This sounds a little unethical.
Like as I earlier said the whole proceeding is legal, we have the entire Documents (Bio Data) Ed note: ??? of the deceased in question in our hands, definitely we could have done this on our own, but the bottom line is we are directors as well as staff of the bank, so we
cannot come out and have the funds transfer, couple with the fact that the South Africa laws of banking strictly prohibited us from having foreign accounts,
hence our effort to contact you, so that we can front you as the rightful next of kin/beneficiary of the Deceased in question.
Well that all makes sense then.
Consequently as a result of the urgency and time being of the essence in this transaction, I will appreciate you forward to us the following information.
1 Your direct confidential telephone and direct fax numbers.
2 Your full names
3 Your Age & marital status
4 House address/company address if any.
5 Occupation/profession.
6 Country of origin.
N/B: As soon as we have this information's from you, we will proceed to contact you within 24hours of receiving your information.
Secondly, I will want to give you the assurance that this project will be complete within 7 to 10 working days if all instructions are followed up religiously.
But you have to assure me that you are going to be trustworthy and honest because human behaviors are funny at times especially when it comes to money issues.
Assuredly.
The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 65% to my colleagues and I, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you 30% of the total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to encounter by the two parties in the course of this transaction. I will be sending you a copy of my international passport for you to know who exactly you are dealing with in respect of this project.
Thank you for your understanding, I hope hearing from you as soon as possible. Please you can reach me on my direct number +27-741-161-119
Best Regard,
Mr. Jeffrey Zulu.
Well.
Having little experience in such, ah, sensitive legal matters, I am entirely unsure how to proceed, and so I decided to post this interesting problem on SciForums to see if I could obtain some "expert help". After all, I wouldn't want to waste Mr. Zulu's time with trivial issues to the point that he was, say, pulling out his hair in frustration or something. At first glance, there are several ways in which one might waste Mr Zulu's time. I fully intend to explore several of them, but if other people have some suggestions as to how Mr Zulu's time might be wasted on trivialities, I would love to hear them. Just to avoid them, of course.
For example: Do I need documents or information from him? Am I curious about what in hell "Bio Data" means? Do I need to be sure he has it all? Does my nation impose strange and unusual conditions on such transfers? Do I want a higher percentage?
Or are there personal issues that haven't been fully explored? How many kids does he have? How many do I have? And what about my personality? Am I a confused American businessman? An Australian crocodile wrestler and dwarf thrower? A cowboy? Do I have some strange religious rites that must be observed for money transfer?
Anyway, I thought I'd post this to the forums and keep you all updated as to how it develops.
[On a side note: my sincerest condolences to Mr. Thompson's family; his quite impressive accomplishments certainly precede him.]