"In the beginning"

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The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I Think This Is Best Described As A Rant.





Wise advice is essential before you make financial decisions but please ask questions if you don't fully understand what you are told.





The oil companies are among our very best friends as we all know.


I don’t usually use this blog as a place to rant, that’s not because I don’t care about things or don’t see injustices, I do, and all to often, occasionally these things stir me to action but the action is not normally a rant here.

What set this one off is that I received an unsolicited letter from a firm of parasitical thieves who obviously thought I was an old and mentally incapacitated investor that they could rob of $13,000, now a part of their assumption was correct, the part about me being old enough to fall into this category, fortunately I am still aware enough not to fall for their pitch.

Let me explain what happened, this letter quite clearly explains that I hold X number of shares in a company, the shares are worth X dollars each and a total market value of X dollars, they then offer to buy these shares from me at a very substantially reduced price with the aforementioned $13,000 loss should I accept their offer.

What they are doing is legal as they don’t apply any pressure for me to accept their offer, what they very obviously rely on is that some people are going to fall for this trickery though a state of dementia or just poor business acumen.

My beef with this is that the unwary and inexperienced who can least afford to be robbed in this way are the ones who are going to be taken in by it…. Please, if you are unsure about any proposition that is put to you get qualified advice about it, if these circumstances apply to your parents or for that matter anyone else you feel might be susceptible advise them strongly never to sign documents they are unsure of without getting advice.

This is up there with the emails I receive almost weekly telling me that I have won vast amounts of money in lotteries, or that their recently deceased father/husband had invested huge ill gotten gains and they just want me to be an agent for them to reclaim this money, and of course I am offered huge sums of money for doing this, the scam comes down the track a little when they ask for your bank details so that they can transfer money to your account… Thus far I have passed up on many millions of dollars… I must be mad???

Then there's the letter supposedly from a bank asking for your account details for whatever BS reason they use, Banks NEVER ask their clients for account details by mail or email!!!!

OK rant over!!!! Have a good one.






11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post, Peter. Folks should know these things happen.

Dave said...

Some people are gullible Peter.... and there are people that prey on gullible people out there, sadly.

kenju said...

Rant all you want, Peter! I just got 3 of those bank emails in the last month or so.

Big Dave T said...

As much as these scams enrage all of us, of course you know that there are fools out there who fall for them too. And they're not necessarily old, demented and senile. Here in Michigan a county treasurer lost thousands of dollars to one of these African investment scams. Oh, and these were taxpayer dollars he lost too. What a moron!

Val said...

Since I've retired, I've missed those amusing scam emails from Nigeria, they were always good for a laugh. I don't know why the university system let them through yet I haven't received one at my home email.

But the situation you describe is much nastier, and I do feel sorry for people who fall for the scam. (I don't think the Nigerian scams are as nasty as the poor language and very ideas of what they propose are so outrageous that I just can't feel sorry for the people who fall for them.)

Hale McKay said...

A legitimate rant indeed, Peter.

Lee said...

The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. I will never understand how they fall for such tricks. For goodness sake...there is enough coverage...all the time about these scams. I don't feel at all sorry for those who fall for them.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

Very good thing to rant about Peter, as I've also received these emails asking me to be their agent in collecting their due fortunes. My delete button comes in handy on these occasions.

I've learned never to give out any information over the phone, snail mail or email and especially when I didn't place the call directly myself.

There are also swindlers who come door to door bilking OLD people out of thousands of dollars, telling the homeowners that they are in need of a new roof or home repairs. They quote a reasonable price, you let them do the work and then they over-charge the dickens out of you. Some just ask for money in advance to buy the needed materials and never return. They simply run off with your cash.

Cliff said...

Well said Peter. I have relatives that would fall for these things. Unbelievable. Good stuff.

LZ Blogger said...

Peter ~ Wow! I am glad to be past that Middle Wife necessity! That sounds a little DANGEROUS... (you know for just making deliveries!) ~ jb///

Pamela said...

you mean like this:

FROM: MOHAMMED WILLIAMS
JOHANNESBURG
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
TEL: +27-78-393-0704
Email: moha_william76@hotmail.com

Dear Sir,

PRIVATE AND HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Greeting! I know you will be surprised to read from me, but please this
letter is a request from a family in dire need of assistance. I am Mr.
Mohammed Williams from Angola.The first and the only son of Brigadier
Chanza
Williams communicating to you from Johannesburg, South Africa.


Yes US$35.8 Million


hoooo welll.... it even said
on the subject line "Family in need of assistance. This is not Spam"

I'll pass it on to you if you want to help his dying father get that money out of his safe deposit box and to a savings account in US.