Scammed, Part II

Good day,

I am very grateful for the interest you have shown in my plight and I want to assure you that you will be greatly rewarded for what you have chosen to do. Although we are just knowing and communicating with each other for the first time but I believe that our heavenly father has directed me to you as I have already prayed and searched over the internet a long time for assistance before I saw your profile on a list of registered email addresses provided from some search engines where I picked you.

Be rest assured that you stand no risk as this is my money. Myself and my late husband labored for it and me being the next of kin has the sole right to do whatever I want with it. I am a born again Christian and take delight only in the things of our savior and Lord Jesus Christ, I have prayed a lot on this already and I believe so much in the manifestation of Christ that I know he will not fail me so I want you to know that you have to be strong in your faith as he {Almighty} will surely strengthen you.

My husband's relatives are pagans and they have used my husband's wealth and properties which he left behind in ways that do not glorify God, they have lavish nearly everything on vain things and as I lay here in my hospital bed they are all around me, they have sold virtually all I have here in Solomon Island that which my husband and I labored for and what they are waiting to hear is that I am dead so that they can finally lay their hands on my wealth here on earth, I now find it difficult to trust anyone around me here, because I do not know who they can use against me, though that does not really bother me because the things of the earth are canal and there is an eternal home for me (John 14: verse 2). I do not want them to know about this particular money that is why I am communicating with you only through email and I am also communicating with the finance firm who also understands my predicament.

All I need is your absolute trust, commitment, confidentiality and honesty because I want to see my late husbands vision fulfilled before I leave this sinful world. My spirit directed me to you as I have already prayed and searched over the internet for someone to help me since I can no longer trust my family members and friends and I do not want this particular deposit to be used for canal things, I want it to be used to the glory of God. I will want you to get back to me, and I want to be sure that you will be absolutely honest in this transaction and you will use this money to the Glory of God.

Also you have to assure me that you will keep this transaction confidential and you will be willing to contact my finance firm which is located in the United Kingdom and finalize all necessary formalities as to the release of the fund to you. I will also want to know a little more about you regarding your life, your spiritual life, what you do for a living so as for me to know that you will be able to complete this. At the moment I cannot write much because of my health and I do not know when my time will be up so I require your urgent response to know if you are trustworthy and willing to help me finalize this transactions, so that I will immediately write to my lawyer to prepare a court injunction/power of attorney to appoint you as the legal beneficiary to my fund, all other documents are with the finance firm as I already sent it to them for safe keeping so that my husband's relative will no longer have access to it due to their canal ways.

To prepare this document I will require your full names and address, with this documents, you will contact the finance firm to arrange the transfer of the fund to you. As soon as you have received the fund then you will help me set up a charity foundation or distribute it to charity organizations and hospitals. God permitting, I pray to be alive when you receive this fund and start this project so that you can visit me here if you wish to.

God bless you.
Mrs. Heather Walker

Once again, the above is an actual email. It was the reply to my reply of her first email which read: I am Heather Walker,This is my Third Email to you,I am at the end of the road, and about to donate a huge amount through you. I promise that your assistance would be rewarded. Please reply back to me for more information. Remain Blessed

This was first email I received from her, not the third. I decided to play along and see how far it get me. I will reply to the longer email regarding the 'plight' of the poor rich woman who can't seem to find a competent lawyer who is able to help. I also wish to know the types of 'canal' things on which she doesn't want the money spent.

Sigh!

Following up on the dating site profiles who emailed me regarding their financial needs (the medical and hotel bill scams), I emailed back and forth a few times with a couple of them who, apparently didn't read my replies, or at least didn't understand them. I flat out called them liars and they wrote back with more affectionate words. Wouldn't a typical response be to get angry? Guess not.

Beginning in June of last year I started receiving calls from somebody (foreign sounding) from the 'U.S. Grant Office' telling me they had a grant for me for $7000. She told me I could use the money for school, car payments, medical bills, but nothing illegal. I'm serious, that's what she told me. I was certainly happy to have that bit clarified because when I heard the amount I could receive, I began wondering how many pounds of marijuana $7000 would buy. (Joke here, don't send the DEA.)

So, I played along. I asked her how I could receive the money and she started in with some questions. First thing she asked me was my zip code. Her information had me living under a New York zip. I told her I wasn't living there and she asked me for the correct one. I told her that if she had all of my information, she should know where I lived. Again, she said her info listed me in New York. Again, I said no and she repeated her request for a correction. Once again, I told her if she had info on me she should already know. And her reply was (and forgive me for using profanity) “F--- you. You hear me? F--- you!” And she hung up.

The next time the automated caller computer called and when the woman answered I managed to get through a few more questions to where she asked me if I had a full or part time job. When I wondered why that was relevant, she hung up. From then on, I did the hanging up. There was a period of several weeks when I was given a break but soon after I moved to Carlisle and was trying to acclimatize to the new job, exhausted for the first week, they began again. I hung up on the first but when they called again, I told the guy that if he ever called again, I would track him down and kick his @$$.

About nine months have passed with no further calls.

The emails and messages keep coming, though I don't mind them and sometimes I just delete them.

One had a separate email address I could contact to be assured that the money was truly real. The contact person was a man of the cloth. I played along for awhile trying for further verification but eventually they stopped replying.

I even had what I assumed was a scam on Craig's list with someone trying to buy my book Alpha. I had it listed on that site and was contacted by someone who I thought wanted to buy it. The problem was he didn't have the money but wanted somebody as a go-between. I didn't understand the scam and finally told him to keep it simple. Send me the money and I send you the book. He never replied back.

A good one was a medical supply company in England. It's a real company (I looked it up on the Internet. lol) but I wondered about their representatives (or purported reps). The scam here was, because of certain international laws, they couldn't receive payment directly from the customer and wanted me as a go between. The customer would pay me, I'd keep a portion, and send the rest onto the company. Didn't quite make sense, but I knew it would involve giving them my bank account.

Scams have been around since the snake chatted up Eve. I wonder, though, how the Nigerian scam worked with people actually living in Africa at the time?

What scams have you encountered and how did you handle them?