South African Deposit Request comes in Snail Mail
I think we've all seen the emails: "My name is Adolph Sotto, Deputy Minister to ....and I have $40,000,000.00 that I want to split with you...." These emails have been around for quite some time and some have even gone so far as to be quite personal and appealing to particular businesses, such as photography. Another email purportes to be from some rich dude coming to America for a wedding and he would like to contract for a wedding photographer, sight unseen, expenses paid, etc. "just send an invoice". I replied to the first one, but never received a response. Maybe it was because I required 1/2 of my fee up front.
Anyway, today I received a letter in the mail. A bona fide, printed letter with a stamp from the Netherlands and a Rotterdam postmark. The envelope has a printed label with my business address and no return address. The letter at the top says, memo style: Request for a business transaction from Mr. Casca Raphela. It's dated 29/12/2005 and starts out "Dear Shipman,". The basic gist of the letter is that a so-called Terry Shipman made an investment in the South African Mining Corporation, in which Mr. Raphela is, as he states in the letter, a "civil servant", a "senior executive" of the South African Mining Corporation, and a "senior colleague working as staff in the accounting department of the Mining Corporation and Remittance Dpartment of the South African Reserve Bank" (there are actually 2 others involved here as well). The said investment, initially made by Terry Shipman in 1977 is now valued at $15,000,000.00. Sadly, Terry Shipman (or Mr. Terry as he is referred to in the letter -- oops) passed away in December 1987 and since then there has been every attempt to locate living relatives of the deceased. Unfortunately, no living relatives were found in the "extensive global attempt" and after consulting "three independent search agencies."
Well, apparently, Mr. Raphela, being a senior executive in the mining company and a senior staff of the accounting department of the local bank has access to "Mr. Terry's information" so they can "claim this money with you." All I need to do is file the claim as proclaiming myself as the actual beneficiary. This is because I "share similar details to the late fellow." The split is 35% for me and 65% for Mr. Raphela and his two friends. Mr. Raphela goes on to explain that he could have had the funds released directly to himself, but that would have "drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit" and we certainly can't have that. So, me, "having the very name as the original depositor would easily pass as the beneficiary with right to claim."
If I give "positive signals" Mr. Raphela will initiate the process "towards a conclusion", but that I should only contact him via email channels (there is a phone # also, by the way, in case I have any questions). His "official lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to assess out level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy". I sure wouldn't want to make a bad mark on their performance record if by chance I turned down his offer on the recorded phone line.
He goes on to remind me (for the first time) that "Please, again, note I am a family man, with responsibility. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients" (like Mr. Terry, I presume) and "Do not betray my confidence".
So I feel kind of bad betraying Mr. Raphela's confidence like this, him being such an honest family man and all. He does sound very wise and I'm sure all his hard work spent finding a secret way to get this money disbursed to him and his friends is not at all resembling a "platter of gold".
I'm probably going to send this to the Postmaster General, although there's probably not much they can do, unless the phone number actually does reach Mr. Raphela Country code 27 is for Niger, which if my geography is correct, isn't very close to South Africa). It's bad enough that I receive these requests via email (which are auto-dumped with my Spam filter, so I never see them anymore), I don't want to be getting paper mail. It's just as easy to get postal information as is it to get an email address, although it costs a bit more to send the letters out. (0.81 Euros for the stamp).
Anyway, today I received a letter in the mail. A bona fide, printed letter with a stamp from the Netherlands and a Rotterdam postmark. The envelope has a printed label with my business address and no return address. The letter at the top says, memo style: Request for a business transaction from Mr. Casca Raphela. It's dated 29/12/2005 and starts out "Dear Shipman,". The basic gist of the letter is that a so-called Terry Shipman made an investment in the South African Mining Corporation, in which Mr. Raphela is, as he states in the letter, a "civil servant", a "senior executive" of the South African Mining Corporation, and a "senior colleague working as staff in the accounting department of the Mining Corporation and Remittance Dpartment of the South African Reserve Bank" (there are actually 2 others involved here as well). The said investment, initially made by Terry Shipman in 1977 is now valued at $15,000,000.00. Sadly, Terry Shipman (or Mr. Terry as he is referred to in the letter -- oops) passed away in December 1987 and since then there has been every attempt to locate living relatives of the deceased. Unfortunately, no living relatives were found in the "extensive global attempt" and after consulting "three independent search agencies."
Well, apparently, Mr. Raphela, being a senior executive in the mining company and a senior staff of the accounting department of the local bank has access to "Mr. Terry's information" so they can "claim this money with you." All I need to do is file the claim as proclaiming myself as the actual beneficiary. This is because I "share similar details to the late fellow." The split is 35% for me and 65% for Mr. Raphela and his two friends. Mr. Raphela goes on to explain that he could have had the funds released directly to himself, but that would have "drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit" and we certainly can't have that. So, me, "having the very name as the original depositor would easily pass as the beneficiary with right to claim."
If I give "positive signals" Mr. Raphela will initiate the process "towards a conclusion", but that I should only contact him via email channels (there is a phone # also, by the way, in case I have any questions). His "official lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to assess out level of customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy". I sure wouldn't want to make a bad mark on their performance record if by chance I turned down his offer on the recorded phone line.
He goes on to remind me (for the first time) that "Please, again, note I am a family man, with responsibility. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients" (like Mr. Terry, I presume) and "Do not betray my confidence".
So I feel kind of bad betraying Mr. Raphela's confidence like this, him being such an honest family man and all. He does sound very wise and I'm sure all his hard work spent finding a secret way to get this money disbursed to him and his friends is not at all resembling a "platter of gold".
I'm probably going to send this to the Postmaster General, although there's probably not much they can do, unless the phone number actually does reach Mr. Raphela Country code 27 is for Niger, which if my geography is correct, isn't very close to South Africa). It's bad enough that I receive these requests via email (which are auto-dumped with my Spam filter, so I never see them anymore), I don't want to be getting paper mail. It's just as easy to get postal information as is it to get an email address, although it costs a bit more to send the letters out. (0.81 Euros for the stamp).
posted by Mike Shipman | 7:38:00 AM
3 Comments:
I received the same letter yesterday. The letter seemed incredulous, but it is not everyday I receive a direct solicitation to criminal activity. I'll send mine through to the Postmaster too. Maybe they can stop this yahoo from poluting mailboxes and forcing wasted thought.
Dear Mr. Shipman,
Got the same letter from Casca Raphela. I am a small business owner and realized if this jerk-face is making money doing this criminal business, it really bugs me.
Anyway, thanks for keeping America aware of these schmucks. And money does not come that easy!
Hey If you guys are sick of this do what I'm currently doing, I responded to him and sent him this webpage to explain to me, didn't hear back from the joker yet, but will keep you informed, I plan to email him alot more.
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