Please, help me to understand if this letter is a scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 5

Hello, everyone. I live in Uzbekistan (Great Silk Road), and my family has some business in Bukhara, and as a respond to one of our advertisement for property I received an email regarding the investment. As English is not my native (I speak Russian), I might miss something. The woman called Margaret Allen offered to invest into our business, and asked for a help to relocate her deposit. In the second letter I received photos of Indian or African family but with European/ American names. And this woman insisted on relocation of her fund. I suspect this is a scam as no verification was required and having a small expeience in business, I don't believe anyone not stupid would give all his money to a stranger. But at the same time I searched her business, it is in internet. Please, help me to evaluate the situation and advice me the further actions. Thank you in advance.

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:05 pm

Hi, and welcome to Eater.

First of all, it does sound like a scam to me, but it is hard to say when you haven't posted the whole mail. If I were you, I would start a new topic in the subforum "Help, Hints and Tips", since it's is behind a login and not accessible from search engines like Google. Start a new topic there, and post the full wording of the mail, including header and the mail address of the sender.

Does your scammer have any of your real life details? If yes, I recommend that you stop replying immediately. You can always restart your bait from a new email account in a false name. Wink

Also, you should read the stickies in the sub-forum called Eater University. There is some very good advice regarding safe baiting.

Again, welcome to Eater!

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:02 pm

/\/\ What The Dane said, but the clue is in the 'relocation' of a fund - this is where you will be charged advance fees , which is where the scam lies.

So yes, 100% definite scam.

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:37 pm

Please post the email(s) at our sister site www.scamwarners.com. Our victim support staff will be glad to help.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 5

Thank you, guys, for advice and information. Smile

I have met several types of scam, but this one looked more faithful for me than others. Yes, I also got suspecious of the word "relocating" and photos look too artificial. She insisted on bank transfer so hardly, and explained me in details why that happened- that was strange... But at the same time an email is individual, directed to me...
I wonder if we can do smth to that person(s) as Margaret Allen is existing in internet, as a businesswoman, and many of enterpreneurs might be victims.
But I used my personal email, how do you think I better to act? To stop emailing and share this information with others?
Thank you once more for hospitality Smile

PS. Here are 3 emails I received, unfortunately I couldn't attach photos here:

(1) FROM property website:
A buyer has shown interest in your business for sale listing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business Title: Sale / Rent - Group Of Buildings By Hotel
Business Details: http://www.globalbx.com/listing.asp?bId=125652
Buyer Name: Mrs Margaret Allen
Buyer Email: [email protected]
Buyer Role: Intermediary
Buyer Type: Private Equity
Buyer Experience: Never bought/sold business
Buyer Message:
I WANT TO DO JOINT INVESTMENT WITH YOU IN YOUR COUNTRY.
PLEASE GET BACK TO ME FOR MORE DETAILS.

Margaret.

(2) FROM Mrs Margaret Allen <[email protected]> Sept 23, 2010

Dear Natalia

Thank you very much for your mail and your explanations. May God bless you for at least responding to my mail, I would have written you earlier than now but I was seriously down and had appointment with my doctors over my high blood pressure and diabetes which keep weighing me down at my age of 52yrs.

Well to be honest with you I have good intention of doing joint investment with you in your country, I want you to assist us in both re-locating this deposit($9Million) for investment in your country as well as assisting my self and children out of this country for our living and investment with this deposit through your advise as we have not being into business before and have no knowledge of any kind of business hence my plea for you to assist us in this regard.

I will equally need your assistance in probably sharing your knowledge and experience in business with my son David so that he can have a better life and better future in your country as my only male child.

For your information I do not have any specific area of investment in mind rather I will solely depend on you for business professional advice because we have never been into any business before, we will solely depend on your advice. It is my desire that you should look inwardly into some good areas of business, anyone, which you consider gainful is acceptable to me. I do not have any experience in business hence, my wish to depend mainly on your experience, guidance and advise for the success of any investment, I shall be going into jointly with you,

Please I will like to know how real estate business in your country is like?

we are interested in going into partnership with you in your business or we can open another company under your management and supervision, but first we want to make sure we find a way to move this deposit ( USD$9M ) from here to your country so that me and my Children will come over to meet you face to face to discuss this partnership.

Why I am trying to explain all these to you is for you to know our present situation and my handicaps at moment which is my major reason for taking this deposit out from here to your country for investment on a mutual terms of agreement that will be agreed upon by both of us during our meeting.

You should henceforth call us directly on cell phone 221-77 6477314, if I am not available during your call my son David will attend to your call accordingly.

We are anxiously awaiting your positive assurance, trustworthiness and response to our mail so that we can further proceed

God bless you.

Mrs. Margaret and son David

(3) FROM Mrs Margaret Allen <[email protected]>, Sept 27, 2010

Dear Natalia

Sorry for my late respond it is because of my sickness.

First of all we thank you so much for your mail.

Be informed that what we really need from you is for you to assist us receive this very deposit on our behalf and for further investment jointly in your business and in other lucrative areas of investment under your management and supervision.

In-fact we will appreciate the idea of joint venture with you and in other areas of investment with absolute trust and sincerity and on mutual understanding.

I have every intention of meeting with you and your family as soon as the money was relocate to your country for you to know me and my children and for you to know the kind of family that approached you for this assistance.

It is my desire that you should look inwardly into some good areas of business, anyone, which you consider gainful is acceptable to me. I do not have any experience in business considering my status, hence, my wish to depend mainly on your experience, guidance and advise for the success of any investment, I shall be going into jointly with you.

It is very important I explain to you whom we are for you to know us better. I have five female daughters and one son. My first daughter is called Suzanne 27 years of age and was in her fourth year in the university of Monrovia studding medicine, the second daughter is named Nana 25 years of age, she was in her second year studding banking and finance. The third is my only son David 23 years of age, who is equally the heir apparent of the family, he was also in the university studding Bio-Chemistry and he plan to do medicine as well. The next is Juliet and Julian my twin daughters 21 years of age, they were in their final year in Secondary school, then my last daughter Margaret 18 years also in class five in secondary school.

They all stopped schooling the moment their father was assassinated , since then they have been with me here in Dakar Senegal, hoping to further their education the moment we are through in re-locating this deposit.

Why I am trying to explain to you in detail without any reservation is for you to know my desperation to re-locate this deposit without further delay as this is the only hope for our future survival at the moment due to our present miserable situation, and I will urge you to be by my side in this pursuit, as I will take every precautionary measure to ensure that everything regarding this relocation is smoothly and perfectly attended with God Almighty by our side.

Today I meet with the director of the holding company to enquirer on the best possible way to achieve the safe relocation of this deposit to your country, then he said that when ever we are ready, that we should come and effect the retrieval of the deposit as they have certified that the deposit belong to us, he also told us to submit our partners details to them for the change of ownership on the deposit, the first page of your international passport and your address, or the name as appeared in your passport, So please send all this to us so that we can submit it to them by Tomorrow morning for the change of the ownership.

Because when we arrived here we went to the company and introduced ourselves to them based on our intention to retrieve the deposit as because we came here without the necessary documents of the deposit and after series of explanation, introduction and investigation of our good selves about what happened to my late husband they felt very sorry and pity for us, they were satisfied though my late husband registered my son David as the heir apparent and next of kin to the family of which this was verified and ascertained, this gave us the right to effect claim of our deposit in their custody though they do not know actually the content of what my husband deposited for safe keeping. My late husband registered it as family treasure of which the company does not know the actual content of the deposited box; this is the reason why we do not want to expose this to the staff of the company to avoid sabotage and confiscation.

Already I have made him to know that we have partner as well as a caretaker that will assist us hence I am not strong enough to follow up the program alongside with my son David towards the retrieval of this deposit from their custody, he said it is a good idea and asked us to come back by Tomorrow morning so that we can discuss further on this.

I am also having an appointment with one bank manager of a local bank to enquirer the possibility of transferring the fund through their bank to your account in your country after retrieval and I will give you further information in this respect as soon as we conclude.

Meanwhile last night I have a discussion with my children over your percentage we came to conclusion that we are going to give you 10% if you will help us transfer this money to your country for this partnership, and also for the investment we are going to give you 20% from any profit we make from the investment capital. we also decided that we will draft an agreement with you on how the joint investment will be carry out.

I am stopping so far so that I can meet up my appointment with my doctor in the hospital this Morning.

Am attaching my family pictures to you so that you can see the family that approach you for help.

My special regards to your family.

Mrs. Margaret and son David.

Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 6:10 am

Definitely a scam. Your best course of action is to stop all contact with the scammer. They will move on to the next person on their list. To help other potential victims out it would be helpful if you could post the scammers details and his initial email to you over at our sister site www.scamwarners.com. That way anyone else getting a such a mail will be able to find out that its a scam very quickly.

Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:27 am

Privet cnjb - And welcome

Googling the term"Monrovia studding medicine" gives two hits, one of them is:
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1159246

Not the exact same script, but there are quite a few similarities Confused

I just wonder if anyone knows - Could the lads have started trying to avoid google by "morphing" their scripts Question

Luckily, this one has got this fabulous spelling error Smile

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 5

Privet, Chuda, the killer cat,

this is a good lesson for me ))) but you are wrong when you said that your example is little bit different- there is almost no difference. Exclamation

I wonder if I am the only stupid person in this world )) Very Happy

Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:09 am

^^^ The name of my avatar should sound a bit familiar to you Smile

When you get something that looks like a new scam then try to find an unusual passage in the mail and google it in citation marks like i did:
"Monrovia studding medicine"

That will make google look for the exact phrase - In most cases that is.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 5

Instead of fully quoting the post above yours, use "^^" to make reading easier -ghost

чудо?? )) Smile

I guess, we both are talking about Russian language?

You gave me really valuable advice! I had never been thinking about googling the phrases. I had been searching for name, confirmed surname, addresses, other contacts, read articles about the interesting company, but this action never came to my mind. I can imagine how many honest people had been cheated by scammers Sad

I live in a country where not everyone is using internet and technologies are not widely spread, so, thank you again, your advice is helpful.

Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:50 pm

^^^ Looks right to me, if it means Miracle

I forgot little detail - Quite often you don't find a phrase as unique as the one here. In that case you would try to google the mail address like this:
[email protected] scam

Just enter it like above then you should get hits where the mail address as well as the word scam appear.

Please stick around and have fun - Get a mentor, read the stickies while waiting for your mentor.

You may very well be able to add value here as we sometimes get Russian scammers hooked. So you might be able to provide useful info in those baits.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 5

Yes, it's a Miracle Smile

I'd be happy to have a mentor and help other people )) but, unfortunately, I have limited time online as have work and study. But true, I can make some translation from/into Russian and find hints to define scammers Smile

So, don't hesistate to ask me if anything related to Russian is requred.

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