Huh?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:58 pm

Just received this email a few minutes ago.
It's actually written fairly well, is this a real-estate scam? Seems to be resolving to Volgagrad, Russia.. Confused

Quote:

Dear xxxxxx, got your email from pearl of Africa guest book and i thought sharing with you this would be a great idea. check this out and let me hear from you.

Greetings all the way from the cold Russian Federation (its -15C today). Am called Kenneth, a Ugandan Architect due to defend my part time PhD by March 2009 Allow me to share this with you – a Case to buy or to build.
Many Ugandans especially in the Diaspora decide to buy property because of such advantages like: it’s Quicker; you avoid the hassle of the entire construction process; you avoid the headache and crossing with your relatives when they are not faithful with the funds you send. However there are also disadvantages like: the probability to be cheated is higher especially if there is too much urgency (as is usually the case) to close the deal that you don’t do a thorough physical and technical assessment of the property; you unwillingly have to buy all the historical problems associated with the property; you pay more, as you pay additional in profit for the seller, the commission for the brokers; sometimes you have to incur additional costs for alterations and additions to make the property what you want – which costs you are not usually aware how much they would be and so you cant make a clear assessment whether you are paying more for that property
than you should. Anyway notwithstanding those disadvantages and also given the poor record of implementers concerning investing for people abroad, buying seems the best option. This option could do best if you are buying your own residence and not an investment.

During my PhD research “Developing an effective mechanism for the management of Construction Investment projects in developing economies – a case study of Uganda”, I have come to appreciate why in Developed countries the construction industry is given such much attention and that strictly regulated. Also I have understood why many things in our industry back home go the way they usually do. I could say that we are somewhere on the growth path and our industry’s future will highly depend on having the knowledge to do things the right way they should be done.

I have practiced as an Architect in Uganda since 2000, worked for several clients to their satisfaction and even had the rare opportunity to supervise some big government projects in the country. However, further studies have opened my eyes to grasp the full extent of handling successfully a construction project investment. For instance most clients in Uganda invest their hard earned savings and sometimes even bank loans without first carrying out an economic assessment of the planned project to understand fully the profitability of the investment. This explains to a large extent the frequent failures to pay back bank loans and their subsequent consequences. One of the reasons for skipping this vital stage is the lack of skilled persons to effectively carry out such an analysis. Another vital thing is the ability to skillfully determine, organize and control all the various construction project parameters (cost, time, quality, personnel,
communications,risks etc) in such a way that an optimum position is achieved which leads to the success of the Project. For instance the time factor if put in monetary terms can have such a great impact on any investment in construction – any delay to finish a project can be extremely disastrous.

These are some of the issues that have driven me to dedicate my future to providing Ugandans both at home and those in the Diaspora a full packaged professional service of Construction Investment Projects Management through my firm Send A Seed Agency International

I have done a quick analysis after researching a lot about foreigners working in the UK and US. A person in say UK working say 40hours a week, doing 2 jobs and earning 4quids an hour will have salary of 160q a week. If he/she spends half and is able to save half for the project, he will save 320q a month and so 3840q a year. But some people off course can earn much more than this especially for the professionals. This is hard earned money, which most times Ugandans back home don’t ever understand! Such a person if he can raise say 100m which is what some offer to buy houses back home, we can get him a fairly well located 25dec plot (100x100ft) – with a clear analysis of how it will suit our planned purpose at say 25m, then design together with you your dream house with your full input, we make you an animation showing how the project will look like, then supervise its construction from start to end.

If we design a 3bedroomed house with (living room 20m2(5x4m), dining 16, kitchen 9, Masterbedroom 18, girls bedroom 12, boys bedroom 12, 2 bathrooms 08, garage 21) that gives total area of 116m2 say 120m2, a house which will comfortably fit on your 25dec and give you a great garden and parking lot. The estimate of cost at say 160q per m2 (inclusive all costs) this could be lower, gives apprx. 20,000q which is about 60m. so if we add the land it gets to 85m – add say 5m Council approval fees and unforeseeable construction costs gives 90m saving 10m or more. The construction of such a house will take in the range of 6-8months. So in other words you would have your dream house by say December 2009.

I know that many Ugandans have been so disappointed that they can hardly trust anyone else. Yes it is an uphill task for us but we have gotten what it takes to execute our duties – we just have to keep our word and we will become a trusted gateway to get Ugandans in Diaspora invest their hard earned monies back home. I hope to defend and be back in Uganda in March 2009, my telephone contacts will be 0714 442423 or 0772 442423 or 0782 499770.

Kenneth Ssemwogerere, in Russia.
Tel +7 928 176 7449 (it will be great talking to you.)

HEADER wrote:

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.86.30.3 with SMTP id d3cs22826fgd;
Fri, 9 Jan 2009 23:51:54 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.142.156.19 with SMTP id d19mr11103248wfe.190.1231573912690;
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:51:52 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from web34302.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web34302.mail.mud.yahoo.com [66.163.178.134])
by mx.google.com with SMTP id 22si57404397wfi.38.2009.01.09.23.51.50;
Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:51:51 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 66.163.178.134 as permitted sender) client-ip=66.163.178.134;
DomainKey-Status: good (test mode)
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 66.163.178.134 as permitted sender) [email protected]; domainkeys=pass (test mode) [email protected]
Received: (qmail 76487 invoked by uid 60001); 10 Jan 2009 07:51:50 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID;
b=opxItmSLy4Htiw8mfx7jBkG1hcMnRYovmymWhHrOkEH//OnA5KysBE
74Q1THJcaGI7MJ4y5B6Z5QT/FGWuQR7Fq3XCB/jPtBy+VCEX68o/M45PGjo8XB1SOf/NF561+K2Snzl3Pd98vlU9SlIfuw//YZ35m/Nc9WVRCD8qlfJ1k=;
X-YMail-OSG: Zo6NFGMVM1mqeya23p8ly06JOHraGGm9zKHaB8ILVyY_HOyamM4S_Q
TWsisZR96Hj3ALQTrldXTLpQoAsxm54WQZN75Rm2VfPDWJsr1rwHvyD8
UgrqYTA4X54INRfxZ61c1EjpySyOhL0VVFoWxXs5fGKm8U5chNo2VQdA5
zWeDtYyVPcqfzkdlrXLLS
Received: from [217.118.81.50] by web34302.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:51:49 PST
X-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.260.1
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 23:51:49 -0800 (PST)
From: Kenneth Ssemogerere <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: From Russia
To: [email protected]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

It seems too well drafted to be your run-of-the-mill scam, yet it was sent to you un-solicited (unless you really posted on a message board about housing in Uganda). It's also unclear what he wants from you ... at this point.

Why not respond and see what he has to say? Whether it's a scam or legit, it seems headed in the direction of his getting an investment from you.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:29 pm

Quote:

A person in say UK working say 40hours a week, doing 2 jobs and earning 4quids an hour will have salary of 160q a week.

I've never ever seen "quid" abbreviated to "q" before. Or used in a business communication. Lad de-education?

Quote:

a fairly well located 25dec plot

419Eater is my life Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 416

There's a website called Send A Seed

http://www.sendaseedagency.com/index.php

but that doesn't mean it's a genuine business (hard to tell without going blind Shocked

); and even if it is kosher, it doesn't mean this guy has anything to do with it; and even if he has then why is he writing to total strangers?

Of course if he is a scammer you could have months of pleasure getting him to design that dream house for you, building balsa wood models of it, filling in endless forms, etc etc etc. But if it turns out he's just a naive wannabe businessman far from home, that would be a bit harsh.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:40 pm

Yeah I'm kind of baffled as well. He may have grabbed my addy from a guestbook I signed. Surely his original message is a script.
Sent off a reply to him to see what he wants exactly.

me wrote:

Dear Kenneth,

I'm not entirely certain what the purpose of your email was. Could you please paraphrase it a bit and send it back?

Sincerely

Guess we'll see.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:51 pm

If he is a wannabe businessman, he hasn't done his research very well.

Quote:

I have done a quick analysis after researching a lot about foreigners working in the UK and US. A person in say UK working say 40hours a week, doing 2 jobs and earning 4quids an hour

The minimum wage in the UK is £5.73 per hour (or getting on for 6q if you prefer), and one full-time job would usually be about 35-40 hours a week, so two of them would double that.

He also seems to be unaware that most people earning that amount would not be able to save half of it, due to their mortgage or rent payments, and that's before we get onto the other high expenses of ordinary living.

But maybe he is best left unenlightened?

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:17 pm

Quote:

Send A Seed Agency International
Kenneth Ssemwogerere,

Apparently connected to http://www.sendaseedagency.com/index.php although the phone numbers don't match up.

Quote:

Creation Date: 02-feb-2008
Expiration Date: 02-feb-2009

Spam rather than scam possibly.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:19 pm

Branwen said

Quote:

and that's before we get onto the other high expenses of ordinary living

Ah yes .....Beer! (and to a lesser extent... women)

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:22 pm

A bit odd. It has kind of piqued my curiosity though.

If he responds back I'll post it here for analysis.

*edit*

Here's the response I just received from this guy. Am still not certain what he wants from me, seeing as I'm not from Uganda.

Quote:

Dear xxxxx, thanks for your kind email. My apologises for the long email. I was just introducing to you my firm that works for Ugandans living abroad to help them invest back home their harderaned monies so that when time comes to return home it does not turn out to be a nightmare. Check out our website www.sendaseedagency.com
Thanks again
kenneth

His response email grammar is noticeably worse.
Confused

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:06 pm

Ok, I sent him this.

Quote:

Dear Kenneth,

I appreciate your informative email, but I am actually a citizen of the United States and have never even been to Uganda.

I wish you luck in your work to create a better future for your fellow countrymen.

Sincerely

And he sent me back this.

Quote:

Thanks again xxxxx, i truly appreciate your time. Wishing you a great 2009 and that the US and the world will pull through this tough economic crisis.
thanks

Guess he was doing something legitimate after all.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:26 pm

Just spam then. Some legit businesses do regard spam as acceptable, or are suckered into buying lists of "opt-in" addresses which are nothing of the sort.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:43 pm

Still not sure, from contact page

Quote:

United States of America
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Kayiwa Mularira
5173 S.Utica Avenue Apt 2
Tulsa Ok 74105.
P.O Box 700622
Tulsa, Ok 74170 USA .
Phone: +918 743 3391
Email: [email protected]

Information on phone number range +91 8743 XXXXXX
Number billable as geographic number
Country or destination India
City or exchange location Bhadrachalam, Khammam
Original network provider*

The page that should explain it all http://www.sendaseedagency.com/authenticity.php doesn't load, most of it's pictures are computer generated, but the rest is not traceable.
Website runs out 2-2-2009 No web presence although operating since 2002.

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:05 pm

@bill

Whats your analysis? Fake site?

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:19 pm

Can't tell for sure either way, hoping a smart person will come by and help us out here. That India number could be a phone service company too, so it has some missing pages/pictures, but that doesn't make it a fraud yet.
We'll see, for now hands off I would say.

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:27 am

Just flying by here, but wanted to mention this:

The phone number here:

bill2 wrote:

Still not sure, from contact page

Quote:

United States of America
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Kayiwa Mularira
5173 S.Utica Avenue Apt 2
Tulsa Ok 74105.
P.O Box 700622
Tulsa, Ok 74170 USA .
Phone: +918 743 3391
Email: [email protected]

It actually matches up. It isn't an India number. If you add a 1 in front, you get:

Quote:

Information on phone number range +1 918 743XXXX

Number billable as geographic number
Country or destination United States
City or exchange location Tulsa, OK
Original network provider* Southwestern Bell

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:32 am

See some people here actually use their brain Laughing

Thanks Dora
Now we have only a few pictures that don't load, so I guess the site is okay until proven different.