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/

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

"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

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!

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"

"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.

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"

"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