Monday, March 15, 2010

I'm Rich!!!

I have a love/hate relationship with my email. For some reason, I can never seem to get my box to under 50 or so. I hate that. I try and try, but for every email I read, it seems like two more come in. I love the fan mail, the questions and comments from readers, and the people who write to share their stories with me. I even love getting offers from companies to check out their latest products and services. I love getting offers to take tours and trips, and to try out the cool products that are out there. But I hate all the time it takes to read and respond to email. And I hate all the spam I get on a daily basis. Wait, actually that's not entirely accurate. I did hate it until I got the idea to turn it into blog fodder. For example, here are a couple of the more, um, interesting emails I received today...

Dear Friend,
With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose I make this contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to me. My name is Mr Braun Duka from Ouagadougou Republic of BURKINA FASO, West Africa. Presently i work in the Bank as telex manager. I have been searching for your contact since you left our country some years ago .I do not know whether this is your correct email address or not because I only used your name initials to search for your contact in the internet .

OK, so let me get this straight. You're looking for someone who left your country and after searching the Internet for them by using ONLY THEIR INITIALS, you came to the conclusion that this must be the correct email address? Uh huh. I see. Proceed.

In case you are not the person I am supposed to contact , please see this as a confidential message and do not reveal it to another person but if you are not the intended receiver, do let me know whether you can be of assistance regarding my proposal below because it is top secret.

Certainly. What a great idea to send a "top secret" proposal to someone who may possibly be your intended recipient based on an Internet search of THEIR INITIALS! What could go wrong?

I am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new life but I am sceptical to reveal this particular secret to a stranger . You must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because we are not going to suffer again in life.

I'm a little "sceptical" of your spelling skills. Hmmm, I'm beginning to think this might not be legitimate.

It has been 10 years now that most of the greedy African Politicians used our bank to Launder money overseas through the help of their Political advisers.

What's with the random capitalization?

Most of the funds which they transferred out of the shores of Africa was gold and oil money that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent. Their Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transfer to foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the funds hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much was transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being closed after transfer.

Ummm, huh?

I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the politicians and when I discovered that they were using me to succeed in their greedy act, I also cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to control.

Still a little confused here.

They laundered over $5b(five billion) united states Dollars during the process .

Again with the random capitalization?

As I am sending this message to you, I was able to divert One Hundred Million Dollars ($150m)

I have the math skills of a fourth grader and know that doesn't make sense.

to an escrow account belonging to no one in the bank. The bank is anxious now to know who is the beneficiary to the funds because they have made a lot of profits with the funds.

It is Eight years now

Wait a minute. It was ten years a couple paragraphs ago. Let's split the difference and call it nine years, ok?

and most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to transfer funds overseas. The ($150m) Million Dollars has been lying waste but I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring the funds to a foreign account to enable me share the proceeds with the receiver. The money will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you .

Well, that makes perfect sense. When I retire, I intend to transfer my funds to Africa and split them with a randomly selected stranger via the Internet. And what's with the 60/40 split? Tell you what - you give me 70% of your imaginary funds and it's a deal!

There is no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured everything.I only want you to assist me by providing a bank account where the funds can be transferred. You are not to face any difficulties or legal implications as I am going to handle the transfer personally. If you are capable of receiving the funds, do let me know immediately to enable me give you a detailed information on what to do.

Oh, how nice that you're handling everything for me.

For me, I have not stolen the money from anyone because the other people that took the whole money did not face any problems.

Umm, ???

This is my chance also to grab my own but you must keep the details of the funds secret to avoid leakages as no one in the bank knows about the funds.

No one knows about the funds? But a minute ago, you said that the bank was anxious to know who the beneficiary was. I'm confused.

Please supply me the following:
Your current contact address and Telephone Numbers..
I shall intimate you on what to do when I get your confirmation and acceptance. If you are capable of being my trusted associate, do declare your consent to me.
Waiting for your urgent response.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr Braun Duka

Of course, I notified him immediately and gave him all my information. Any day now, I'll be the recipient of $60,000,000. Woo Hoo! I guess I'll be able to take my kids somewhere on spring break after all.

I also got an email from yet another banker in West Africa offering me 40% of the late Michael Colon's 5,500,000. Wow!

Then, as if those two weren't enough, I got notification that I'd won the Australian lottery! Maybe turning forty won't be so bad after all! I mean, I'm going to be a multi-millionaire so I can afford Botox and hair dye, and I can get face lifts until my ears touch!



THE AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY
BOARD
Head Office
6123 Coll Street Road, Queensland Ax34587, Australia.
Dear : Lucky Winner
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY P-BALL WINNING NOTIFICATION

The Australian Lottery Power ball wishes to congratulate you on your success as one of our Ten ( 10 ) Star Australian Lottery Prize Winner in this Years 2010 Lottery that was conducted over the internet with our automated e-mail selecting machine.

An automated email selecting machine! I think that's what Braun Duka used!

You have been declared a Lucky Winner of £500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Pound Sterling) your Serial Number: 7775-325

COOL! Oh, wait a minute. I thought Australians used dollars, not pounds. Hmmm, I wonder how much Vegemite you could buy with 500,000 pounds. I wonder how much you'd have to eat to gain 500,000 pounds.

How to claim your Winning Prize:
Contact the Financial Claims Manager Fr. Beckett Jamie, for verification and payment via his E-mail Address:


The Financial Claims Manager is also a Father? Interesting.

beckettjamie@gmail.com / Phone Number:
+447035954752 with the under listed information as soon as possible.

Interesting. I wonder why I would have to call the code for The United Kingdom to claim my Australian lottery winnings. Even stranger is the fact that I remember that 44 is the code for the UK from like 20 years ago when I had to make a call to the UK for work. Hmmm, I can remember THAT, but I can't remember to take my car in for an oil change.

PERSONAL DATA:
Full Name:
Address:
State:
City:
Zip Code:
Country:
Age:
Sex:
Occupation:
Mobile Phone Number:
Home Phone Number:
Fax Number (If Any):
Batch Number: 7056490900/188
Winning Number: 4750-617-25
Reference Number: GB8701/LPRC
Our Ref : ILP/HW 2314/08

Missbenedit Johnson
Director of Promotions.
Copyright © 2010 AUSTRALIAN LOTTERY POWER BALL

Oh well, if this Australian lottery email seems a little fishy, it's ok because I also won the Canadian lottery today! I wonder what amazing emails and huge wads of cash I'll get tomorrow!

29 comments:

Michelle said...

I live in Australia and it is very fishy email - you are right, we do use dollars and the address is also fishy - our postcodes do not look like that. Sad to think it probably scams some people.
:)

Laura G said...

HI Dawn,
Regarding waking w/ numb hands and creaking knees.... I dealt w/ the same exact thing for almost two years. Thought it was just the near 40 setting in, but after a simple blood test, found out I was severely Vitamin D Deficient. So Get Checked Out and Your problems may End! Ok, a little Random capping fun to annoY you.

Rebecca said...

I think it would be fun to use information from popular and semi-classic songs to fill those out.

Like... 867-5309. :D

Carissa said...

You're so lucky to get these emails. I get emails that I got a job for $75/hr starting tomorrow. You're lucky that you don't have to do any work for your money.

Tina said...

This is the first time I've actually read one of these stupid emails. Thanks, I think! LOL!!

Sarah said...

WOW, that's amazing (and weird and funny all at the same time!)

I've always been afraid that if I open e-mails like that they will 1) spontaneously blow a hole in the universe and/or 2) crash my whole computer! :) Now I know they can be a good source of entertainment!

Thanks for sharing and for starting my day off with a smile. Hope you have a great day! :)

Barb said...

I get those all the time as well and really have to wonder ~ Does ANYONE fall for this?
I just can't imagine. Glad they are finally good for something (bloggie humor!)

Joanne Lendaro said...

haha!! I completely get the "under 50" thing. I attempt to keep mine under 20 and groan when it's more than 50!! BUT I love the emails!! Sounds like a love/hate relationship if ever I heard one!!

Jen@Scrapingirl said...

HAHA!!!!!Care to share the welth with us, your loyal readers?

WarsawMommy said...

Hey!

I think that Braun Duka also found me online! Oh, wait. No. The guy who found me was a member of the Royal Family of some random African country who was desperate to hide the family's assets in my bank account.

Yeah. Really.

Novia said...

This is hilarious. :))))

Bailey's Leaf said...

Congratulations Ms. Dawn on your great fortune. Now, if you would be able to securely e-mail me your financial information, I have a secret windfall that I would like to share with you from your ancestors. You see, they had left me in charge of their many estates in many countries and now I'm nearing the end of my financial days. You see, I'm 362 years old and have been the keeper of said estates since the beginnings of your family. Please contact me with appropriate bank information so as to transfer your many monies on to you as quickly as possible.

Trushku Hamajska

[Sorry. I had to stick with the
theme.]

Anonymous said...

Bummer...I got Mr. Duka's email too. I thought I was the one he was looking for! Want to split the $$?

Jill

MaBunny said...

hehe, I've gotten similar emails Dawn, wish they were true, but sadly they are a big scam, as you probably figured out, lol.
Keep the laughs coming!

T.M. said...

So wait, does that mean there are not enough people in either Canada or Australia who would enjoy winning money in their own respective countries? They have to go soliciting winners from other countries? Sign me up...if they're that desperate to give away cash, and can't find ANYONE locally to give it to, then by all means, send it my way! :)

Anonymous said...

Sunday SoundOut-

Hey Dawn,

So are you on one income now? How do you manage? Are you getting money from another source like, your blog? Just curious how you do it. You are a great mom btw!

Ashley said...

Hi Dawn,

can we talk dinner's here? How do you do dinners now? Do you cook most nights? Do you ever buy fast-food for your kids? Do you menu plan? What do you fix most nights for 7 people?

Keekee said...

That's hilarious. LOL The spelling and random capitalization is so funny. Capitalizing Dollars but not united states. HAHAHAHA Too funny! So sad that some actually fall for this stuff.

Thanks for the laugh!

Unknown said...

Dawn, you and everyone else will appreciate this story of a guy you received a similar Africa scam email and decided to turn the tables. It's long, but worth the read if you'd like a laugh.

http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm

Sunshine Brown said...

I noticed you changed your "About me" to "I'm a single mom of...." Though it is true, it's also takes a lot of guts to admit it the way you have. Gracefully and with class. Nice job Dawn.

Purple Quilter Queen said...

I FREAKING HATE THOSE EMAILS!!!! I get them all the time! I should have been a millionaire by now had I responded to them too. HOW do they get my email and HOW can I get them to forget it?!!?! Take care - Jenn

Elleah said...

Funny! Apparently I win the UK lottery on a weekly basis. :D

Anonymous said...

Ok Dawn - it's official - you have the best blog!! At the top of your blog, there is an option to click for the next blog - and they are always different for some reason. Anyways, they all stink!! Some people never update, and most have absolutely nothing interesting or funny to say. So cheers to you, girl - you always make me laugh!

Sandy in Illinois said...

The theme of this post should result in some very interesting stats from what people googled to find your blog. i.e. West Africa bank scam; Mr. Braun Duka; I'm rich, etc.

Robin said...

I got the same email from our banking buddy. Are there really people that fall for that? And what makes them think that what that guy is propsoing isn't illegal? Crazy!

Anonymous said...

If you have ever seen the show Intervention on A&E, there was a guy who fell for these scams and was broke :( It was quite sad. They showed him on the phone with a gentleman named George Washington. Unfortunately (and obviously), he had a lot of problems, but amazingly this IS working for these people! Unbelievable!

Marjorie said...

Is it completely juvanile of me to wonder why the guy's name is so similar to Brown Dooky?

Marilyn said...

The sad thing about this is that my 91 YO father in law has been taken in by these types of people. We keep telling him that they are fake, but he continues to answer their mail and he gets tons of phone calls, even after we have changed his number twice!

AiringMyLaundry said...

Ha, I always get e-mails saying that I've won money. People can be such teases!

And a few times I've gotten e-mails about enlarging an appendage that I don't even HAVE. I always want to reply and be all, "Will not be needing this. Am a WOMAN."

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