Column: Urgent stories promising cash? Run

Media General News Service

I don’t know exactly what I would do with $22.25 million, which would be “50 percent as (my) share” of the business project offered to me last week.

But my children’s college education would be guaranteed, along with hundreds of their friends. Forget buying one house; we could purchase several neighborhoods. And the hole blown in my 401(k) last
year would be a distant memory. “Old friends” would start crawling out of the woodwork and causes would solicit me to give away wads of cash.

But, wait a minute. If your boss hasn’t talked about a raise for you in years, what stranger sending an e-mail would be “writting” [sic] to you “because I want to ask for your assistance in a business
project worth 44.5 MUSD from my bank”?

In my case, it was Richard Tang from Hong Kong — can’t say I remember him, but it was nice for him to make the offer. I assume the stilted “MUSD” is “million U.S. dollars.”

Mr. Powdered Drink Mix Enjoyed by Astronauts gave me his “private email,” you know, a Yahoo address, to fill me in on all the details. Did you know that making $22.25 million could be so easy?

But before I could respond to this lucrative offer, another solicitation came my way. “PLEASE VIEW ATTACHED LETTER REGARDING LATE DR. EDWARD TATE ESTATE,” the e-mail read. A letter to
the editor, I thought, until I started reading.

The letter was from an apologetically polite writer, who was in trouble. He was Mr. Jelks Mboma, the personal account manager of the late Dr. Tate, “who died of a cardiac arrest a few years ago leaving
behind a large sum of money with a commercial bank in the Island of Seychelles which is a tax free zone, a place were plenty of rich people tend to hide away funds not ready to be used or invested.”

This story had plenty of intrigue — death, unspecified amounts of money, rich people. And where in the heck is the Island of Seychelles? Seychelles is actually 115 islands in the Indian Ocean off the
coast of Madagascar, and yes, I had to look it up.

Mr. Mboma assured me that he had worked to find Dr. Tate’s relatives, but had been unsuccessful.

He reminded me that the “Seychelles national laws” require any account that is dormant for five years to be declared unclaimed and the money would then go “into the government purse.”

Who would want that to happen?

“To avert this negative development my colleagues and i [sic] have decided to look for a reputable person to act as the next of kin to late Dr. Edward Tate. So that the funds could be processed and
released into his account, which is where you come in,” Mboma explains.

Ah, here comes the pitch.

“We shall make arrangements with a qualified and reliable attorney to represent you locally to avoid any inconveniency [sic] of you coming down to claim the funds,” he offers.

How thoughtful. A pile of cash and he’ll hire a local attorney to handle everything. I don’t even have to leave the house.

He will even provide the documents to prove the lineage claim he dreamed up. Apparently he just needs my name and I’ll get some cash.

“Your help will be appreciated with 30% of the total sum which I would disclose in my next email.”

He closes with apologies and a request to keep his solicitation in confidence and disregard it, if I “don’t appreciate this proposition I have offered you.”

Sorry, Mboma, no dice.

The only way these scams are ever going to be reduced or — dare we hope? — be snuffed out, is to expose them. Like I said earlier, if your boss can’t dredge up an annual raise for you and coworkers
are disappearing by lay-off, you can guarantee no stranger is going to drop millions on your doorstep, by e-mail. Even if he sounds polite, and especially not if English is not his strong suit.

Of course, these are newer forms of an old scam, commonly called Nigerian scams or 419 scams. They are basically the same: A wealthy foreigner needs help moving money from his homeland and
promises a large chunk of it for assistance.

If you agree to participate, something will go wrong and the solicitor will need money from you to get the process moving again. They will be happy to wait for you to transfer the funds, or to get it straight
from your bank account if you are foolish enough to provide access. The next thing you know, your bank account is empty and your friendly foreign friend has disappeared.

It seems obvious that these solicitations are scams, but according to a story last week in The Washington Post, Americans are the easiest prey for these offers and are losing hundreds of millions of
dollars a year.

And, as Americans are being squeezed financially, even more victims appear ripe for the taking. The Post reported that the Internet Crime Complaint Center estimates the scam grew by 33 percent last
year.

Unbelievable.

Here are some facts. E-mails insisting on discretion are preying on the power of secrecy. Never give personal information to a stranger, period. And no legitimate financial advisor would try to find you by e-
mail or give you a Yahoo address to respond.

If you get one of these requests, do not reply. You can report it to local law enforcement or to the FBI, which has a Web site that focuses on this fraud: www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm.

Remember that any offer insisting on an urgent response or providing great value for free is a scam.

Protect yourself by refusing to play into it, no matter how friendly or harmless the offer sounds.

Suzanne Tate is the opinion page editor at the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at (276) 645-2534 or state@bristolnews.com.