some guy emailed this to me. i've heard about the same exact things on the news. obviously identity theft. sheesh.

  FROM THE DESK OF MR CALEB UMANA,
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA ( BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.WEST AFRICA

Dear Friend,

I am , The Bank Manager of Bank Of Africa Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.I
have
urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On 31 July,
2000,Mr. Andreas Schranner a British Oil consultant/contractor with the

Chinese Solid Minerals Corporation, Made a numbered time (Fixed)
Deposit for
twelve calendar months, valued at US$7,400.000.00 (Seven million Four
hundred thausand us Dollars) in my bank.

Upon maturity,I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address
but
got no reply.
After a month, I sent a reminder,and finally I discovered from his
contract
employers, the Chinese Solid Minerals Corporation that,the bank
customer ,Mr
Andreas Schranner, perished in the Air France concorde New York bound
flight
with family; please click here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a
WILL,
and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that he declare
his
wife the next of kin to the fund deposited in all his official
documents,
including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.

This sum of US$7.400.000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the
interest is
being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year.
No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to Laws of the
Burkina
Faso, at the expiration of 7(seven) years, the money will revert to the

ownership of the Burkina Faso Government if nobody applies as the next
of
kin to claim the fund.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to
stand in
as the next of kin to the fund,and so that the fund of this deceased
bank
customer will not get into the hands of some corrupt government
officials.

This is simple, I will like you to apply as the next of kin to this
fund
through writing to the bank, your full informations shall be needed so
that
the bank can accord you the next of kin.I will feed you with the
iformations
that will put you in place as the next of kin.
A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide will then

facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of
kin.
The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio
of 60%
for me and 30% for you and 10% for the expence.
There is no risk at all, as all the information for this transaction
will be
giving by me, and my position as the Manager guarantees the successful
execution of this transaction. If you are interested, please reply
immediately .

Upon your acceptance, I shall then provide you with the application
letter
and more details  that will help you understand the transaction. Please
send
me your confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication.
Please, observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this
transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall
require
your assistance to invest my share in your country.

Awaiting your urgent reply.
MR.CALEB UMANA.

___________________

Dear Friend,


Any email that starts with this line or some similarly generic crap like "Dear Beloved" is 110% of the time spam.

I've replied to a few of these emails, telling my "friend" on the other end to please kill themselves in the most painful, embarassing, slow, expensive and public manner that they can. I usually don't get any more replies from them.  ::)

Ant

The fact that you even opened the e-mail already puts you at risk for possible viruses.  Never open any e-mails that you do not recognize

I used to get these on my old work e-mail.

Do not believe a word of it.

It is not really identity theft, they are just after your money.

how about this one? just got it.

  Salam Aleikum

I am pleased to introduce a business opportunity to transfer to your overseas account the sum of (10.5M USD)Ten million five hundred thousand United States Dollars from one of the Prime Banks here in Dakar Senegal.

I am Mr Desmond  Koffi (Bsc,Msc) the Auditor General of one of the prime banks here in Dakar Senegal , during the course of our auditing , I discovered a floating funds in an account opened in our bank since 1982 and till date no body has operated on the account and after going through old files in the records, I discovered that the owner of the account died long ago in a plane crash along with his family without leaving a, hence the floating of the funds and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.

The owner of the account was a foreigner who died along with his wife and only daughter in a plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31 January, 2000. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this site http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ The owner of this account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great industrialist and a resident of Alaska.

Therefore, with a personal conviction of trust and confidence, I wish to contact  you as a foreigner, to stand as a relative, thus I can work out the release of the funds , No other person in the office knows about the account, please be assured of the risk free,  I'm the one that will work it out , all I need is your cooperation because the account content can not be approved to an indigen here as his next of kin .

At the conclusion of this project , I propose a joint investment of an equal partnership to you or we may share it in a ratio of 45% for you and 55% for me.

One more thing please; I beg you don't consider this against moral justification , they are many other aspects of life we may contribute with this funds to help the less privileged and the needy in a society than having it shared as an unclaimed bill among Government PLEASE .

I look forward to your earliest response
Yours Truly

Mr Desmond  Koffi.