There is a con game that's been going on since the early 1980s, which has been named “The Great Nigerian Scam” because it involves not only Nigerians, but various parts of the various governments of Nigeria. It is also sometimes called “The 419 Fraud.”
Here's the E-mail I got. I did not respond to “Dr. Mo,” but I did forward a copy of his E-mail to the United States Treasury Dept., just in case anyone there would like to get in on his great offer.
Subject: VERY URGENT INFORMATION
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 16:39:56
From: "Dr. Moses MAdu" <mosesmadu@lycos.com>
To: rpm@glib.com
Dr. Moses MAdu
Lagos, Nigeria.
Fax: 234 1 7591666
June 9th, 2001
Attention: president/CEO.
Dear Sir,
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP.
Firstly I must solicit your strictest confidence in this subject. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. A member of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (N.E.P.C.) who was part of the federal government delegation to your country during a trade exhibition gave your particulars to me. I have decided to seek a confidential operation with you in the execution of the deal described hereunder for the benefit of all the parties and hope that you keep it top secret because of the nature of the business.
Within the ministry of petroleum resources where I work as a director of engineering and projects, and with the co-operation of four other very top officials, we have under our control as overdue contract payments, bills totaling Thirty One Million United States Dollars, which we want to transfer to a foreign account, with the assistance and co-operation of a foreign company to receive the said funds on our behalf or a reliable foreign individual account to receive the funds.
The source of the fund is as follows: during the last military government here in Nigeria which lasted bout eleven months, government officials set up companies and awarded themselves various contracts which were grossly over-invoiced in various ministries. The present civilian government is not aware of the atrocities committed by their predecessors and as a result, we have a lot of such over invoiced contract payment s pending which we have identified floating at the central bank of Nigeria ready for payment. However by virtue of our position as civil servants, we cannot acquire this money in our names. I was therefore delegated as a matter of urgency by my colleagues to look for an over seas partner into whose account we would transfer the sum of US$31,000,000.00 (THIRTY ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) hence we are writing you this letter.
Since the present civilian government is determined to pay foreign contractors l debts owed so as to maintain an amiable relationship with foreign governments and non-government financial agencies. We have decided to include our bills for approval with the co-operation of some officials of the federal ministry of finance (F.M.F) and the central bank of Nigeria (C.B.N). We are seeking your assistance in providing us with a good company account or any other offshore bank account into which we can remit this money by acting our main partner and trustee or acting as the original contractor. This we can do by swapping of account information and changing of beneficiary and other pertinent information to apply for payment. By this act, we would be using your company information to apply for payment, and prepare letters of claim and job description on behalf of your company. This process would be an internal arrangement with the departments concerned.
I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be willing to assist us in this transaction, your share as compensation will be us$6.2 million (20%), us$21.7 million (70%) for us and us$3.1 (10%) for taxation and miscellaneous expenses.
The business itself is 100% safe, provided you treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Also your area of specialization is not m hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction. I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me.
Please fax your response to my confidential fax number 234 1 7591666 to indicate your willingness in assisting us. I will bring the complete picture of the transaction to your knowledge when I have heard from you.
Thanks for your co-operation,
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Moses Madu