Get rich quick!

About once every few days I get an e-mail akin to this:

From: jerry n’ngoran
Subject: JERRY

I don’t believe I know anyone on Yahoo! Canada. I’m pretty certain I don’t know anyone named Jerry.

Fortunately, Outlook Express, for all its sins, can view the source of a message without actually opening the message, which is more than Outlook 2002 can do.

Hello,
With due respect, I have decided to contact you in
this peculiar matter believing that you will not let
down the trust and confidence that I and my colleagues
are about to repose in you.For a brief introduction,I
am Jerry N’Ngoran the Deputy Accountant of the Cote d’Ivoire
Sociiti Ivoirienne de Raffinage (S.I.R) here in Abidjan and also
a member of the contract awarding committee for the rehabilitation
and reconstruction of the country refinery that had a
fire disaster last year October 2001. I was
mandated by my colleagues to look for a reliable
and trustworthily foreigner whos account will be use
to transfer some huge amount of money, a total sum of
US$15,500,000.00 (fifteen million five hundred
thousand united sates dollars) only, out of the
country for our personal use.
This money was realised from over inflated contracts
which the contract awarding committee awarded to some
foreign contractors for the rehabilitation and
reconstruction of the refinery and the network
pipeline.
The contracts was awarded to the contractors to the
tune of US$70,Million, but we used our positions and
over invoiced the amount to the tune of US$85.5
Million.
Now that the project has been concluded and
contractors are now coming for their payments, we now
required a reliable and trustworthily person, whom
will be use as a sub-contractor and claim the over
invoiced amount of US$15.5 Million, which has also
been approved for payment and use his foreign account
transfer this fund from the paying bank here in
Abidjan, this necessitated my contacting you.
Be informed that my colleagues and I have maped out
all the necessary modalities towards the claim of this
fund, but due to our position we do not want to be
noticed.

Hey, cool! They’re ripping people off for millions of dollars, and they want my help to do it! And, of course, I can trust them …

This is actually rather clever. There are a lot of greedy, stupid people out there. Indeed, greed can make you stupid. By proposing something that only greedy people will find attractive, they run a good chance of getting a stupid person attracted to it, too.

A service of an attorney will be use to secure the
registration certificate as your sisters company here
in Abidjan, it will be back dated enable us reflect your
name as one of the contractors, for board to raise a
payment directive covering the fund in your favour.
The contact of the attorney will be forwarded to you
immediately you notify your interest in this proposal,
by sending the name and address of your company and
your bank particulars.

And all they want is my financial information, how to access my bank account, and I’ll be set! I’ll be rich! And they have attorneys doing this, so it must be legal!

Be informed also that your presence will be needed
here in Abidjan., but if you can not make it?. no
problem.
since we are still in service .

Well, maybe a vacation to the Ivory Coast would be nice. But if I can’t get the days off from that cheat of a boss of mine, I don’t have to. Cool. Boy, won’t the boss be ticked off when I’m filthy rich!

We agreed that 5% of the total fund will be given to
you to cover your travelling cost, accommodation and
some other expenses you might incur during the
process of transfer of the fund. also 10% will be given to you for
your assistance. 40% will be used
to go into joint venture investment with you, which
will be supervised by you, of which the yearly
profit will be shared equally by all parties involved,
while the remaining 45% of the total fund will be for
me and three of my colleagues.

Wow! I’m getting 15% right up front, and then I get to supervise the distribution of the rest! Hmmmm. Maybe I can rip them off for the full $15.5MM! What a bunch of suckers!

Be rest assured of this transaction and keep it
confidential, because of our positions in Government
and also our committee is fully in charge of all
contracts verifications, allocation and approval.

Just in case you were worried, we’re the watchdogs here, so there’s no risk. Trust us.

Expecting your immediate response.
call me on this number 22507955967.
Best Regards.
N’Ngoran.J.

This is all, of course, at best a hoax, and, at worse, a scam. The bottom line is, while visions of millions dance in their heads, folks who fall for this will actually be sending their bank account information. to someone they don’t know (or, worse, someone who, to the extent they know them, is known to be a cheat).

And, of course, if the bank information isn’t enough, there will soon come requests for front money, to enable all the transfers …

It all reminds me of the scene at the begining of The Sting …

For some remarkably similar texts, and some further warnings, see here and here. The latter link has a number of parallel constructions, some of which tug on the heart-strings rather than baser instincts. This page talks in more gory detail about these scams and how they work.

The worst, most enticingly dastardly part of this letter, of course, comes at the end:

______________________________________________________________________
Find, Connect, Date! http://personals.yahoo.ca

Now, talk about scans …