Thursday, January 28, 2010

Are people really this gullible?

I have had my yahoo email address for many years; back to when they first started up on the internet back in 1997. So I get a lot of SPAM coming in everyday. The following is an example of an email which I get about once per month. Of course they always go into my SPAM folder:


Tue, January 26, 2010 4:32:51 PM
From: Mr John Banabaco geobana21@verizon.net
Re: Attention Payment Confirmation

Dear Friend,

Although this proposal might come to you as a surprise, since it is from someone you do not know or have not seen before, but based on recommendation, trust and confidentiality I decided to contact you. First let me introduce myself. My name is Dr. George R. Obanaco, I am the regional bank manager of the Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd. I am 51 years of age and married with 3 lovely kids. It may interest you to hear that I am a man of PEACE and INTEGRITY; I only hope we can assist each other.
I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the regional Auditor General of the Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd.; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end of each year.
On the course of last year 2009 end of year report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made an excess profit of Three Million Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand united states dollars [USd$3.750,000.00] which my head office are not aware of and will never be aware of.I have since placed this fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary. As an officer of the bank I can not be directly connected to this money, this is why I,m contacting you for us to work so that you can assist me and receive this money into your bank account for us to share.
I will offer you 30% of the total amount for your assistance.Note that there are practically no risks involved in this transaction, it will be bank to bank transfer,all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with Takoradi branch so that my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.
I assure you we can achieve it successfully if you can follow my instruction and direction. In your reply, please send the following information as underlined below:
1. Your full names..........
2. Your phone number............
3. Your nationality.............
4. Your Age/Sex................
5. Your occupation..............

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,
Dr. George R. Obanaco.
Tel: +233245731888.



If you Google the names in the letter you can clearly see that this name is associated with a Scam Email. Yet people still send these people money. How do I know this? Well mainly if these scams did not work; scammers would not waste their time sending them out. In a way I do not feel sorry for these people. If they are stupid enough to send money to these crooks, they deserve to lose it. Unfortunately many of the victims in these cases are people that are naive and think that everyone in the world is kind. Many don't realize that although the internet can be a wonderful wealth of knowledge; it can also be a very, very dangerous place. You may never stop this type of scam, but through a little education and getting the word out, you may never become a victim yourself.

Friday, January 1, 2010

The New Year Is Here!

Just like many years, this New Years Eve I had to work. Of course my job at Daffodil Place is not like my job in past years. Daffodil Place is kind of a hostal for cancer patients under going treatment so they are not the type to be having massive parties and drinking large amounts of alcohol. We had a little get together in the Common Room and by 12:20 they were all in bed!

Myself and a few guests watched the fireworks through the lobby window and all I have to say was that it was awesome! You see, it may not look like it from the front, but Daffodil Place is perched high on a piece of ground. From the windows in the back you have a great view of at least half the city.

Besides the fireworks at Quidi Vidi, there were dozens and dozens of fireworks all over the city, from private homes. It was an awesome display, probably the best I had ever seen. It seemed to be a good sign that 2010 may be a great year. Hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve and cheers to 2010!!