IS IT the era of the scam or are there just more gullible people around? Perhaps the gullible are more accessible than they've ever been and the scammers can hit more targets with their scamming scatterguns.
Whatever the reason, we seem to be seeing the work of more con artiststhan ever before. Our email inboxes are receiving more messages from "banks" thanking us for our custom and offering a reward - just click on the link and answer some questions - and a lot more Nigerian millionaires need our help in exchange for lots of money.
A friend recently received a letter, purportedly from MMH Attorneys in Johannesburg, filled with lots of big words, bad grammar and capital letters. The writer, supposedly Mr Michael Hendricks Mabena, says he is looking for the legal beneficiary of the estate of a rich gentleman, recently deceased. According to the letter he was a Diamond magnet (I assume he attracted diamonds), "a national of your Country", and he and his family were killed in a robbery, leaving US$14,700,000.
Although his surname is not mentioned (how convenient), it is, according to Mr Mabena, the same as that of the letter's recipient and therefore they must be related.
Not only must they be related, but my friend must be the next of kin and heir to the fortune. But no, not heir to the whole fortune; Mr Mabena suggests they split the inheritance equally and all he asks "is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing the deal through".
No doubt this letter went to a number of addresses in more than one country to people of many different names, which is why the deceased's surname and nationality do not appear in the letter.
Did you get one of these letters? Did you believe it? Will you respond and add to the statistics of the silly?
