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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/ |
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
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 |
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
"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 |
#4
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
Addendum -- the email was saved from the oblivion of 'deleted items' in
Keith Cowing's in-box, at www.nasawatch.com, when he spotted it, shared it, and gave us all the opportunity to enjoy it. Thanks, Keith! Good eye! |
#5
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
14 years on a Salyut. The mind boggles.
-- Regards, Mike Combs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We should ask, critically and with appeal to the numbers, whether the best site for a growing advancing industrial society is Earth, the Moon, Mars, some other planet, or somewhere else entirely. Surprisingly, the answer will be inescapable - the best site is "somewhere else entirely." Gerard O'Neill - "The High Frontier" |
#6
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
"JimO" wrote in message ...
Addendum -- the email was saved from the oblivion of 'deleted items' in Keith Cowing's in-box, at www.nasawatch.com, when he spotted it, shared it, and gave us all the opportunity to enjoy it. Thanks, Keith! Good eye! I was wondering. I'm sure there are ones almost as funny in my junk mail box. Perhaps the spam filters should be trained to allow through original humour. |
#7
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
At this point snort could he actually safely return to gravity?????
Kim "Mike Combs" wrote in message ... 14 years on a Salyut. The mind boggles. -- Regards, Mike Combs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We should ask, critically and with appeal to the numbers, whether the best site for a growing advancing industrial society is Earth, the Moon, Mars, some other planet, or somewhere else entirely. Surprisingly, the answer will be inescapable - the best site is "somewhere else entirely." Gerard O'Neill - "The High Frontier" |
#8
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
"JimO" wrote in message
... 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. When I was in college I was a part-time bank teller. We were specifically warned (as part of our official orientation, this wasn't urban-legend stuff) to be *very* cautious when dealing with anyone with an African-sounding voice and/or name, and to flat-out refuse to help anybody who showed a Nigerian passport if they "forgot" their account number or something.. Seems they are specifically trained in how to do scams like this before coming to the U.S. of A.. I've also got a Chinese office-mate who tried to install VPN on his personal laptop. The tech support guy told him that three big reasons why it wasn't working was because 1) he had a pirated version of Windows, 2) he wasn't running any kind of antivirus or personal firewall software, and 3) all the hardcore porn sites he still had in his recent items list were prime places to pick up a virus. This is a guy with a MS-IT from Chapel Hill and whose wife is getting her Ph.D in IT. Now you kow why Terrell has never done much with his International Business degree. Not worth the hassle. -- Terrell Miller "It's one thing to burn down the **** house and another thing entirely to install plumbing" -PJ O'Rourke |
#9
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New Nigerian Spam Scam -- Stranded Astronaut
Maybe he's the one making those mysterious noises on the ISS?
Deep Space 419? |
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