Scammers, Schemers, Spammers, Phishers

Today, I received a strange email from a friend's old email account. In it, he claims to be in Nigeria for the "Tinapa Opening Ceremony". The email continued that his money was stolen at the hotel by some armed robbers and that he had no money left. He asked the recipients of the email to please send him $2,500 for his mounting hotel bills that he will repay once he's back home from his travel.

Armed robbers supposedly stormed his hotel room and yet the hotel still charges him his daily hotel stay? I just laughed because it sounded ludicrous aside from the fact that in the Philippines, Tinapa is a kind of dried fish. Either he was sending a practical joke email or his email was hijacked by a Nigerian scammer. Hours later, he sends an email from his newer email address warning us that his old email address was hacked.

A few days ago, another friend looking for an apartment via Craigslist.org called me asking for advice. He said that a Pastor and his wife were subletting their apartment for only $600 while they were outside the country. It was such a good deal that my friend actually called the number in West Africa and spoke to this "Pastor". He had a heavy accent and was supposedly in West Africa (read Nigeria) with his wife on a prolonged stay. In the Craigslist posting, he said his wife was in Canada. Anyway, he couldn't show my friend the place because they were both out of the country but would send him the keys after he sends the money for the deposit and rent. This one smelled as bad as the "Tinapa Opening ceremony". I told him to continue looking and stop wasting his time with this "Pastor".

A few months back when Hubby posted something to sell on Ebay, he was contacted by someone who supposedly wanted to buy his item but would send him an international money order for an amount bigger than what he was asking for, but asked that Hubby give himself a big tip and return the balance to the supposed buyer via another international money order. The tone of the email had the same kind of writing that usually came with the original Nigerian email scam promising millions of dollars in a secret European account of a dead relative to a person who can pay for the processing fees to have it released. It has just evolved into many other forms.

These scams are now widely publicized, and have even been exposed by NBC Dateline. They even got a few of these scammers to come and meet them in London and Amsterdam for the "hand-off" of fees in exchange for part of the hidden millions. Everything was filmed via hidden cameras. Amazingly, a lot of people still fall for it - those hoping for a windfall of some sort.

Who doesn't want to get rich? I definitely wouldn't mind it. But if a business transaction sounds too good to be true, chances are, it is!

Who Am I? (Tagged!)

I was tagged by Charl. I think this is the first time I've ever been tagged or responded to a tag. I've added a couple of things, as well.

Here goes...

I AM … thinking of what the heck to write in this post.

I WANT … to pay off my debt.

I HAVE … the most talented friends in the whole wide world!

I WISH … to go to Bermuda.

I ENJOY … humourous banter.

I LIKE … quiet wit.

I HATE … arrogant people.

I FEAR … not fulfilling what God put me on this earth for.

I SEARCH … for my niche in life.

I WONDER … if gas prices are ever going down.

I REGRET … the ungodly choices I've made in life.

I LOVE … buffalo chicken wings.

I ALWAYS … try to look at the bright side of things.

I AM NOT … the same person I was 20 years ago.

I DANCE … to keep my muscles loose.

I SING … to get away from reality.

I CRY … at a drop of a hat.

I WRITE … to help me sort my thoughts out.

I WON … my husband's heart by being a goofball.

I AM CONFUSED … by people who don't think they can learn from others.

I NEED … to be surrounded by people who I can learn from and make me think.

I SHOULD … really moisturize. *scratch scratch*

THE LAST THOUGHT I GO TO SLEEP WITH IS … "Thank you, Lord."

That's it. I now tag Gigi Posadas, Ralph Pena, and Ariel Reonal. You're it, guys!