[Central] urgent request

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Cool!  The Central Regional List just got one of the incarnations of
the classic "Nigerian Scam" / "4-1-9 Scam"!  (It's migrating to more
places, not just West Africa either.)

    http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm
has a good explanation:

    Should you agree to participate in this international bail-out,
    something will go wrong.  Paperwork will be delayed.  Questions
    will be asked.  Money from you -- an insignificant sum, really, in
    light of the windfall about to land in your lap -- will be
    required to get things back on track. You pay, you wait for the
    transfer ... and you never hear from these Nigerians again.

    Who would fall for something this obvious? According to a 1997
    newspaper article about the scam:

          "We have confirmed losses just in the United States of over
          $100 million in the last 15 months," said Special Agent
          James Caldwell, of the Secret Service financial crimes
          division. "And that's just the ones we know of. We figure a
          lot of people don't report them."

    ... The Nigerian Scam has been scooping out the pockets of victims
    since at least 1990. Things got so out of hand, in fact, that in
    1991 the Nigerian government felt compelled to issue a statement
    disavowing its participation in this scheme ...

There's no such thing as "free money", and you can wonder about a
scheme where a Foreign Ministry gives a "contact" to the entire
Central Regional list.

For more information:
* US Secret Service alter at http://www.treas.gov/usss/alert419.htm
  (with more details)
* Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbb.org/ (can't get thru right
  now)
* National Fraud Information Centre at
  http://www.fraud.org/welcome.htm (search function broken)

(From Googling about, I don't know whether Robert Guei has children or
not, nor do I know if he's even under arrest.  He did mastermind a
coup in Cote d'Ivoire in 1999, the country's first, and when he
attempted to steal the presidential election in 2000, he was forced
out of power.)

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
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