Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Pondering an imponderable

Schoolwork has picked up dramatically here, so blogging will be even lighter than usual for a while.
In the meantime . . .
Help me understand something, esteemed reader(s):
I am aware that Nigeria is a large oil-producing nation, and so I assume, knowing that, that people who have their thumbs in those particular plum pies usually have the financial resources to deal with just about any difficulty that comes down the pike--oil money being especially effective as a lubricant for such difficulties. But apparently not. I'm so innocent, so ignorant of the ways of the Rich and Powerful. Since about a month ago, a day literally has not gone by when I've not received at least a couple of e-mails from a bewildering number of disenfranchised kings, princes and princesses, brothers/sisters of out-of-favor oil ministers or aforementioned potentates. They all want my help. Mine! They are awash with money . . . well, sort of: their millions/billions are squirrelled away in accounts that only little ol' I (or should that be "i"?), with my little ol' bank account, can help them access. I begin to think, If these people need MY help, it's more than a little clear why these people have become disenfranchised.
Rather than perpetuate these people's troubles still further by ineptly coming to their aid, I politely decline to help them, you'll be pleased to know. But I did want to share this latest request with you because this one comes with a couple of twists, one being that I'd actually have to do some WORK in order to gain access to the money (as opposed to just letting my account serve as an empty/emptied vessel), the other being a metaphysical one. I've left this particular supplicant's particulars in place so that those so inclined can aid him:

FROM:Engr. David Okoh
EMAIL: davidokoh002@terra.es
tel/fax:234-80-38563207


Dear Sir,

I am an administrative staff of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resource Abuja, Nigeria, and I represent a group that is interested in
engaging your services as Manager for investment purpose,of a large
volume of fund.

If this proposal is acceptable to you, please get back to me through
the above email or fax number to enable me give you more details and
work out a remuneration for your participation in the transaction,and
also let me know how i came to select you for this purpose
.

I await your urgent response.

Sincerely Yours,

Engr. David Okoh
[emphasis added]

Hmmm, I say: the e-mail came to me unsolicited; ergo, it would seem that Mr. Okoh would be the one to tell me how HE came to select ME for this purpose. The dynamics of the blogosphere are not entirely understood by me, and so it's possible that I might owe him some sort of explanation and I'm just not aware of that fact. I am ignorant and naive, remember.
I await with bated breath some insight from my legions of readers.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This has to be the weirdest piece of spam/scam I've ever seen!

Anonymous said...

I think you may want to visit 419 Eater.

Anonymous said...

Heh. Yeah that's an unusually specific one. I heard something about these on NPR recently, and I was surprised to learn that they aren't simply scams to get access to your bank account. Apparently, most of these actually do originate from Nigeria, and if you take them up on their offer and actually go to Nigeria (which is what they ask, usually) you end up getting kidnapped or something. That's what f_s' link seems to be about. I just found it odd that these are actual people sending these e-mails.

Jane said...

hmmm... can i smell a novel?? It's perfect material when you think about it. The underbelly... If I were only more creative.