Copyright 2008 SigProductions. All Rights Reserved.
JANUARY 17, 2007
Don't feel sorry for everybody
This e-mail arrived the other day:
“Dear Sir/Madam: My Names are Hassan Anie base in bagdad in iraq son to the late major general head of maintainace and purchase in the past saddam regime. I am contacting you for a little assistance you can render to me. I have a business proposal to offer you but i will explain all to you if you respond to me with the below email address i have in my custody $40 million which i inherited from my late father and i promise you wont regret your concern if rendered. I wait patiently for your urgent response to my personal email.”
I’m sorry to say, Hassan Anie, I’m not falling for your pitiful scam. In fact, I am almost tempted to post your contact information in this column to exploit you just as you are with the problems overseas.
E-mails like this are common these days. With the hopes of having the recipient feel sorry for the sender and send personal contact information in the hopes of, in turn, financial gain. So what happens when you reply?
A message is sent asking for more information and then the “person in need” responds with two requests. One, they need to be sponsored to come to Canada. And two, they need your banking information so they can wire you money to pay for paperwork on their behalf to come to Canada.
“You make me so happy to help me out like this. I never forget what you do for me.”
Call me a skeptic but I sense this is a scam. But it is having my guard up that prevents me from being taken by scam artists trying to steal money or, worse yet, my identity. It’s the innocent and naïve individuals who think they are helping someone in need who can have their lives ruined.
If approached by someone on the street politely asking for our banking information, I almost guarantee that none of us would hand it over. So why if we are contacted on the Internet do we feel that we are free to open up that sort of information?
It’s sick to know that some people will tug at your heartstrings in the hopes of making you feel sorry for them when they really are just heartless people themselves. There’s nothing wrong with helping out a person who genuinely needs assistance. But when I did a bit of research about where Hassan Anie lives, I found the e-mail address belongs to a Canadian living in this country.
The exchange of messages was very timely but when questioned about the legitimacy about the claims, Anie seemed to disappear and move on to find another potential victim.
