New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut

For those of you who are blessedly culturally isolated,
one specific brand of email spam in recent years has
involved promises of vast sums of African cash available
to somebody willing to share their bank account numbers
and 'help the person out'. I have mixed feelings about these
messages, since they ARE attempts to defraud -- but I
confess to a grudging admiration of the cleverness and
creativity of many of them, and I figure anybody that
they can delude based on greed and stupidity, probably
isn't near the top of my sympathy list.

Anyhow, here's a delightful NEW scam that involves
human space flight. Enjoy -- and don't fall for it!



Date: Sat Apr 3, 2004 3:20:10 PM US/Eastern
Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home
Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)
Plot 555 Misau Street
PMB 437 Garki, Abuja, FCT
NIGERIA


Dear Mr. Sir,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force
Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made
a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a
later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military
space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when
the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned
to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return
cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him
going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated
flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American
Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and
Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place
a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return
flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will
cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust
fund we need your assistance.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total
amount to your account for subsequent disbursement, since we as civil
servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service
Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is
enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the
transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental
expenses
(internal and external) between the parties in the course of the
transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to
other
accounts in due course.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include
downpayment in this financial quarter.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct
number 234 (0) 9-234-2220 only.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager


http://www.nasrda.gov.ng/

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:09:46 GMT, "JimO"
wrote:

Anyhow, here's a delightful NEW scam that involves
human space flight. Enjoy -- and don't fall for it!

....This one's almost as evil as "Henry Spencer" trying to sell me
penis enlargement drugs last week. Maybe it's time for me to pull one
where I'm trying to collect funds to help Jim buy all of _Omni_
magazine's rights and assets from the now-defunct _Penthouse_ so he
can get the rag back on the stands :-)

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

JimO wrote:


Anyhow, here's a delightful NEW scam that involves
human space flight. Enjoy -- and don't fall for it!


You're right, that is a clever one- and a lot more believable than the
one I got from Mrs. Idi Amin a week or so back.

Pat

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:09:46 GMT, "JimO" wrote:

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force
Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made
a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a
later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military
space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when
the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned
to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return
cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him
going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

Man, this is one patient and good-natured dude

Dale

I say we leave him up there until he becomes at least a little irritated...

"Dale" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:09:46 GMT, "JimO"
wrote:

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force
Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made
a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a
later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military
space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when
the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members
returned
to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return
cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him
going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

Man, this is one patient and good-natured dude

Dale

I say we leave him up there until he becomes at least a little
irritated...

Mmm. Possibly even slightly vexed.

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
the now-defunct _Penthouse_

Defunct? What's bob haller and * gonna do when their copies are too sticky
to handle any more?

In . au,
Neil Gerace spewed:
"Dale" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:09:46 GMT, "JimO"
wrote:

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force
Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made
a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a
later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet
military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there
in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet
crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place
was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez
supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good
humor, but wants to come home.

Man, this is one patient and good-natured dude

Dale

I say we leave him up there until he becomes at least a little
irritated...

Mmm. Possibly even slightly vexed.

Maybe he's the model for the Russian space-station dude in "Armageddon"

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:47:29 +0800, "Neil Gerace" wrote:

I say we leave him up there until he becomes at least a little
irritated...

Mmm. Possibly even slightly vexed.

Yes, slight vexation could be the poor guy's ticket home. It
pays to be assertive

Dale

"JimO" wrote in message
...


Jim, I think you took a hell of a risk posting this here- some of
the gullible idiots on here are probably writing cheques right
now!

It looks worthy of a post to UFO UpDates as well, messrs. Roy
Caesar and Alfred Lemming would probably form a commitee to
campaign for a shuttle mission to free the poor soul!

Joe

"Ned Pike" wrote in message
...

Maybe he's the model for the Russian space-station dude in "Armageddon"


That would explain a lot.