Gmail??!?

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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 6:16 am

I was checking some of my catcher accounts and I have an email that has a scam about the UN awarding a fund, bla bla bla bla bla.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I googled the UN in Benin. I came to this site:

http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/benin/

To my surprise, their official email is GMAIL! I almost thought this was a spoof site, but it appears to be quite authentic.

Gmail.... official mail....... Laughing

Surely they can't be *that* poor.

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 11:15 am

Pretty good site if it is a spoof. Too bad all the pages in French even on the supposedly English side of the site. Don't they know that English is now the language of diplomacy and NOT French.

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 4:30 pm

Quote:

Registrar InfoName GODADDY.COM, LLC
Whois Server whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL http://registrar.godaddy.com
Status clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Important Dates More InfoExpires On February 02, 2020
Registered On February 01, 1995
Updated On May 19, 2013

Name Servers More Infons1.dsredirection.com 204.13.160.143
ns2.dsredirection.com 204.13.161.145

It does sound very unlikely, but i cant see how a page that has been registered since 1995 and is registered for another 7 years can be fake. But they should really stop using the gmail addy.

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 8:46 pm

Quote:

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Benin to the United Nations
125 East 38th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
Telephone: (212) 684-1339
Telefax: (212) 684-2058

It should be possible to get this infor confirmed.

This was also found on a page in the official un.org domain - http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3561benin.pdf

Note the gmail addess in the document.

I think it is legit.

Mr. Kruse wrote:

Surely they can't be *that* poor.

Why waste good money on a mail domain, when they can end up in the pocket of some government official?

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

Well,.so much for us being able to tell victims that real government agencies don't use free webmail. Thanks a lot, Benin!

Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 3:56 pm

It's not just Benin. I have been working in many South-East Asian countries and most of the government officials there have free webmail address. I've even once sent bidding documents for a WB funded project to a Yahoo email. I don't know about Africa but in Asia it's almost an exception for an government official to not have an free webmail address.

Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 11:24 pm

I am a botanist and one of the funders we worked with is UNDP. One of their in country directors was using a Yahoo address about 15 years ago. Considering we got a $35,000 grant from them, and they are swimming in money, they could afford their own domain....