His email:

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Dear Friend,

My name is Mr Michael Eneh.I am the chief accountant of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),by my position, I was privileged to over invoice a contract in excess of Forty five million,five hundred thousand U.S. Dollars,what I need now is a reliable and trust worthy Foreigner whom I will work in contact with, to pull out this excess money ($45,500,000).I am not a greedy person by nature and as such we shall share the windfall on equal ratio.

I will handle all the documentation of the deal, which is risk free, while you will provide me with your company or private account where to transfer the money into. I am so connected, and the deal will take only two banking days to be concluded. This is a secret and confidential deal and must be treated as such, when you confirm your interest I will tell you the next step. Please include your private telephone/fax numbers in your reply.

Regards,
Mr Michael Eneh.

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My reply:

You, by your own admission INTENTIONALLY over-invoiced a client by 45-million dollars, and now you want a "TRUSTWORTHY" contact to help you move the money as a scape-goat. And how are you to prove your own self trust worthy, when you've already readily and openly admitted lying and stealing from your own clients.

Good day.

Since I and the firm I work for do a considerable amount of work in Africa, including Nigeria, we get "you too can share in my good fortune" letters all the time. Some are pretty clever.

Some of the 419s are actually reasonably well thought out - but this one - openly admitting to swindling a contract on a business deal, and then in the same sentence asking someone else to go into a business deal with him on good faith - is just too much for me ...

Wow - very poorly thought out.

On the contrary, confidence scams typically depend on the target victim being greedy, unethical, and believing that you can get something for nothing, or at least that you can only profit if there is something about the deal that is in some way illegal.

In this regard, the pitch that "I've cheated someone out of a lot of money, and now I need your help to cash in" is a compelling one to a certain type of target (opening scene in the movie "The Sting"). The pitch that you sometimes see of "help me do this good and charitable thing and you will be rewarded for your generosity" is designed to appeal to kindly old grannies with a few thousand dollars in life savings and is always best executed in person rather than though mail or media.

I receive the Nigerian letters from time to time and find them immensly entertaining, in fact to the point that I sometimes write enthusiastic but fanciful replies to them. Disappointingly, my replies are never answered.

I just thought of something fun ...

Next time you get one of these, go to the interpol website and write down one of their contact names and phone numbers for their 419 division and reply with that


http://www.usdoj.gov/usncb/usncborg/contactusncb.htm