It's The Nigerians

I don't know about all you blogsters out there, but I have been recieving email after email promising large sums of money. They are not so cleverly disguised as legitimate business proposals. They are funny to me, but perhaps ruinous to those that respond. These communications are always rife with misspellings and malapropisms.

The main intent of the message is to get the readers to send bank account information to which the supposed monies will be transferred, many times accompanied with a heart rending tale of family tragedy. The usual epilogue is some reference to the necessity of being discrete and not revealing any details of the business arrangement until after the deal is complete. This is for your protection, of course.

Many of these proposals originate in Africa - "It's the Nigerians". Which reminds me of a tale a co-worker shared with me about his experience with identity theft. This was probably ten years ago, well before this form of crime was popular. He worked for months trying to get his identity back, his credit cleared, etc., etc. In his frequent inquiries to the FBI about his case - it was a federal case - the sum of information he recieved from the bureau was "It's the Nigerians". I think no one was ever charged with the crime, and my friend did the majority of the leg work to get his name back.

I guess the moral of the story is that there is no such thing as money for nothing, and don't let anyone give you the lame "It's the Nigerians" explanation for anything, instead of some really useful information.