Do you have the answer?

I don’t…

Of one thing I’m VERY sure… I will not fall for it.

Here are a copy of an email I got from a Mr Musa Camara. Let’s read it and then we take it apart, just to show how easy it is to recognize a scam.

From:     Mr Musa Camara (m03usa_camara@yahoo.co.nz)

Mr, Musa Camara.
15 kolughu naba av.
Age:45 years old.
Marital status: married with 4 children.
Occupation: banker.
Country: Burkina Faso.
City: Ouagadougou.

I am  Mr, Musa Camara, working at the auditing and accounting department,  BANK OF AFRICA  (B .O. A) Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso  West Africa with due  respects and regard. I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.  During an annual auditing of Account’s in this bank, my department came  across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died in a tragic plane crash on the Lenana Peak, Mount Kenya, Saturday, the 19th day of July, 2003 together with his wife Jean, three of their children and their spouses, and four grandchildren, since then his fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before discovery to this development.

The said amount was U.S $8.2M (Eight million, two hundred thousand United  States dollars).Infact I could have done this transaction alone but because  of my position in the country as a civil servant (A Banker), we are not allowed to operate a foreign account and would eventually raise an eye brow  on my side during the time of transfer because I work in this bank.  This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward claims as the next of kin with affidavits of trust of oath to the Bank and also present a foreign account where you will need the money to  be transferred into on your request as it may be after due verification and  clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole money  will be remitted from, to your own designation bank account.

I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free. The total sum will be shared as follows: 60% for me, 40% for you and expenses incidental occur during the transfer will be incur by both of us. Please, you have been advised to keep “top secret” as I  am still in service and intend to retire from service after I have concluded this transaction with you.  I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for  subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment, either in your country or any country you advice me  to invest in. All ther necessary, vital information will be sent to you when  I hear from you.

The transfer is risk free on both sides hence you are going to follow my instruction till the fund transfer to your account. More details information with the text of application form will be forwarded to you to breakdown explaining comprehensively what require of you. I look forward to receive your reply urgently. Show your readiness to assist me in this transaction by replying this proposal as early as possible and I want you to assure me of your capability of handling this transfer with trust by giving me the following information’s about yourself:

Your Full Name………………………..
Your Sex…………………………….
Your Age…………………………….
Your Country…………………………
Passport / driving license…….
Marital Status…………………..
Your Occupation………………………
Your Personal Mobile Number………………..
Your Personal Fax Number…………………..

I  will tell you how you can apply to the bank as soon as i receive your response towards this mail.  Extend my greetings to your family and you should please try and have trust  on me in this transaction so that we shall achieve our aim together.  Do not take this very transaction as a joke, I am betting you right now that this is just nothing but reality, so you reply and ask me how you can apply for the text of  application form of claim of the deceased fund from the  bank. It is the foreign remittance departments that are responsible for  transference of fund into your account over there.

KINDLY CONTACT ME THROUGH MY NUMBER OR VIA E-MAIL ADDRESS SO THAT WE CAN TALK MORE ABOUT THIS TRANSACTION. 00226 78147131(musa000000@voila.fr).

Thanks from,
Mr, Musa Camara.

Thank you Mr. Camara, BUT UNFORTUNATELY I MUST DECLINE.

Let’s take (tear)  this email apart.

Firstly:

From:     Mr Musa Camara (m03usa_camara@yahoo.co.nz)

KINDLY CONTACT ME THROUGH MY NUMBER OR VIA E-MAIL ADDRESS SO THAT WE CAN TALK MORE ABOUT THIS TRANSACTION. 00226 78147131(musa000000@voila.fr).

The first email address is the one from which the mail was sent. The second is the one he wants me to mail my details to.

Yahoo.co.nz is legit, voila.fr is a disposable email.

Secondly:

Mr, Musa Camara.
15 kolughu naba av.
Age:45 years old.
Marital status: married with 4 children.
Occupation: banker.
Country: Burkina Faso.
City: Ouagadougou.

Why would a banker feel the need to give me details such as these. I don’t need to know how old he/she is, I don’t need to know his/her marital status or even how many children they have. Why do he/she give me the residential address?.

Thirdly:

Your Full Name………………………..
Your Sex…………………………….
Your Age…………………………….
Your Country…………………………
Passport / driving license…….
Marital Status…………………..
Your Occupation………………………
Your Personal Mobile Number………………..
Your Personal Fax Number…………………..

These are my personal details he want. Sorry Mr. Camara, these are a bit confidential, I’m not giving it to you. These are the kind of details that will enable anyone to make fake ID documents (I wonder why anyone would need these??). With this information it is easy to get more information, like banking details (I don’t have much in my bank account, But I’m definitely not letting you have it).

Finally:

During an annual auditing of Account’s in this bank, my department came  across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died in a tragic plane crash on the Lenana Peak, Mount Kenya, Saturday, the 19th day of July, 2003 together with his wife Jean, three of their children and their spouses, and four grandchildren, since then his fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before discovery to this development.

Why are you giving me this information?

In fact I could have done this transaction alone but because  of my position in the country as a civil servant (A Banker), we are not allowed to operate a foreign account and would eventually raise an eye brow  on my side during the time of transfer because I work in this bank.

So you are corrupt, Mr. Camara. IS THAT YOUR REAL NAME ??.

This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward claims as the next of kin with affidavits of trust of oath to the Bank and also present a foreign account where you will need the money to  be transferred into on your request as it may be after due verification and  clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole money  will be remitted from, to your own designation bank account.

More proof of your corruption, Mr. Camara.

I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free. The total sum will be shared as follows: 60% for me, 40% for you and expenses incidental occur during the transfer will be incur by both of us. Please, you have been advised to keep “top secret” as I  am still in service and intend to retire from service after I have concluded this transaction with you.

You mean 100% risk to me, you corrupt ba@#$%$rd.

you should please try and have trust  on me in this transaction so that we shall achieve our aim together.  Do not take this very transaction as a joke, I am betting you right now that this is just nothing but reality, so you reply and ask me how you can apply for the text of  application form of claim of the deceased fund from the  bank.

Trust is earned, Mr. Camara. You have not given me ANY reason whatsoever to put my trust in you. This transaction as you call it, is a joke from the time you first decided to email it to me. By the way, WHERE DID YOU GET MY PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS ?????.

Now that we have teared this email apart, how easy will it be for people to see these scams for what they are.

Unfortunately, some people are VERY gullible.

My warning to people.

Never give your email address to people you don’t know, even then make sure the people you give you email address to, can be trusted.

Never, EVER, give your private details to ANYONE.

Open your eyes and see these scams for what they are.

As an owner of an online marketing company one of the questions I get a lot about autoresponder software is how do you maximize deliver-ability to clients and customers. There are several things to consider. The number one step when using autoresponder software is to confirm that the people who ask for your information have actually asked to be on your list. When marketing by email you should be using a process called confirmed opt-in to send a link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link and confirm that they are the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their primary email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. Our email campaign software automatically does this for you but some systems require you do it manually. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

When using email campaign software make sure to set HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be challenging. A 2004 study shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message body.

Website Links: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their link appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be removed.

Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when crafting a message. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, loans, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, dont attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you will just make your messages appear more spam like.

No Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading through the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It is better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size. The service I use as well as some others provide this as part of the email marketing system.

Relationships & White listing: Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific white listing programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Remeber when marketing by email deliver-ability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

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