18 January 2011 (Tuesday) - Scams and Parrots


This morning I received perhaps the lamest scam email I have ever had. The spelling and grammar give it away from the start, and I *love* the name of the so-called director of the Debt Management office - Mr Abraham Nwankwo:


FORCE HEAD QUARTERS
LOUIS EDET HOUSE
SHEHU SHAGARI WAY
P.M.B 266ABUJA, NIGERIA
EMAIL : info@nigeriapolice.org

MOTTO : TO SERVE AND PROTECT WITH INTEGRITY
FROM THE DESK OF AFIZ RINGIM
NSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
CABLEGRAM: NPFIGMOK
TELEPHONE :+234-816-094-7765

Attn: Honorable Beneficiary,

A REPORT ON YOUR DEALING WITH IMPOSTORS VIA THE INTERNET.

I received a report from the EFCC and the American embassy here in Nigeria concerning your dealings with some impostors who have been contact with you and extorting or trying to extort money from you using the names of cream of the Nigerian society. I am very sorry for any inconvenience that these may have caused you and would like to use these medium to assure you that your fund will be released to you. The EFCC made me to understand that you have been very co-operative, they forwarded to me the e-mails that you sent to them and i must tell you at this point that you should have reported the issue to the Nigeria police before you started complying to the impostors. Be rest assured that We are on top of the situation and those involved in this act will be brought to justice.

Your fund will be released to you via the Debt Management Office of Nigeria (DMO). Mr. Abraham Nwankwo is the present director of the DMO. You would be directed to the DMO for proper verification and clearance as soon as you respond to this email.

Please get back to me with the bellow personal information for verification
purpose:

Full Name................................
Country of Origin....................
Country of residence.............
Age .........................................
Occupation............................
Marital Status.......................
Present contact address........
Direct Telephone number.................
Scanned copy of drivers license...........
Scanned copy of work Id..................

As soon as i receive the above information from you, you will be directed to the DMO director for the release of your fund. Note that the total sum of $8million will be released to you as soon as we make our verification that you are who you say you are and that the information which you gave us is correct.

Yours in service,
Afiz Ringim,
Inspector General Of Police.

For more, contact Abraham Nwankwo via email 
(abrahamnwankwo@consultant.com)


These people really must think I’m stupid. But I suppose enough stupid people fall for the scam to make it worth their while trying it on in the first place.

Meanwhile the parrot’s now been here a fortnight. For the first few days it was fun. After a week I’d rather taken to her, but could see (with my sensible head on) that having her permanently wouldn’t really work. And now after two weeks….
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always wanted a parrot. I am *so* grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to borrow one, rather than having spent out over a thousand pounds on bird and assorted accessories. There’s no denying we all had a good laugh this evening when the parrot climbed off of her cage, marched across to ‘er indoors TM ‘s dinner plate and started helping herself to chips. But on the other hand…

It would be an exaggeration to say that I’m ready to wring the thing’s neck, but she’s messy, noisy, attention-seeking, destructive and craps willy-nilly. Take this evening for example – I gave her a piece of apple to try. She bit lumps off, and threw them across the room in all directions. Added to that whilst she doesn’t actively attack the rest of the family, she doesn’t like them, and she will bite if anyone but me goes near her. Last week she drew blood from “Daddies Little Angel TMAnd she’s not gentle with me when I stroke her. She demands that I fuss her, and when I do she tries to nip. Not nastily, but she is definitely trying to nip.
I’ve not been bitten (yet) but she’ll hold my hand in her beak like she holds the bars of her cage, and then tries to climb about using my hand (held in her beak) for leverage. She’s also very keen to nip at my shirts and to chew my watch. She flatly refuses to go back into her cage at bed-time; ‘er indoors TM has chased the bird round the living room at 1am (for over half an hour) on more than one occasion.
And the noise: the chattering and jabbering is amusing, but the screeches and the shrieks and the machine-gun sound are just far too loud.

I have mentioned before that I am not an animal person. What was once amusing has become an annoyance. These two months can’t pass quick enough.


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