You've had them, I've had them and hopefully you delete them. I'm talking about those scamming letters from some African dictatorship country pleading for assistance to liberate Millions of dollars from the country. What do you get from it - a percentage (normally about 10%) of the funds. Sounds too good to be true ? Well it is - wake up and smell the coffee.

This email comes to me from Nelson Timothy, and actually came into my main email address.

I'm looking for a phrase or key words to have in this conversation (much like we did for the Solomon one)... Chris Costello wins this time around with the phrase "England expects everyman to do his duty"

I'll give him 5% of my takings from this scam :)

5th October 2003

CONFIDENTIAL

GREETINGS,

IN ORDER TO TRANSFER OUT (USD$126 MILLION DOLLARS) FROM OUR BANK.
I HAVE THE COURAGE TO ASK YOU TO LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND HONEST
PERSON WHO WILL BE CAPABLE FOR THIS IMPORTANT BUSINESS BELIEVING THAT YOU WILL NEVER LET ME DOWN EITHER NOW OR IN FUTURE.

I AM MR. NELSON TIMOTHY. I NEED A TRUST WORTHY INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY
WHO WOULD PROVIDE AN ACCOUNT FOR THE TRANSFER OF A TOTAL OF $126M. FOR INVESTMENT PURPOSES.

I AM CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE OF THE NEED TO INVOLVE A FOREIGNER WITH
A FOREIGN ACCOUNT AND TO BE THE BENEFICIARY. I NEED YOUR CO-OPERATION TO MAKE THIS WORK FINE.

IF YOU ARE CAPABLE TO HANDLE SUCH AMOUNT OF MONEY IN STRICT
CONFIDENCE AND TRUST ACCORDING TO MY INSTRUCTIONS AND ADVICE, CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY.

FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE AND HELP YOU WILL BE GREATLY REWARDED AND THAT
WE WILL DISCUSS WHEN YOU CONTACT ME.

I WILL FURNISH YOU WITH ALL THE DETAILS, INFORMATIONS AND MODALITIES
YOU NEED TO KNOW CONCERNING THIS BUSINESS.

SEND TO ME YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND FAX NUMBERS TO ENABLE ME
CONTACT AND DISCUSS THIS BUSINESS WITH YOU IN IT'S ENTIRETY.

Tel: +874762864163
Fax: +874762864164
Emails: nelsontim@hknetmail.com
Emails: nelsontim1@hknetmail.com

Well he's straight to the point isn't he ?

Am I trustworthy ?

Spot the word Modalities - a typically Nigerian used word.

The source of the email came from 80.61.136.162 which is currently listed as

Stationsstraat 115 (visit address)
P.O. box 1042
3800 BA Amersfoort
The Netherlands
lir@planet.nl

Which you'll find is an ISP in Holland.

The telephone numbers he's listed are Inmarsat telephones so he could be anywhere - but he's going to be in Holland.

October 5th 2003

Nelson,

I read with great interest of your plight and wonder what I can do to
provide some form of assistance.

You may realise that I cannot place ever meeting you, so excuse me while I
ask a relatively direct question - where did you get my email address from ?

Regards
Eddie

This comes from Edward Eagle, commonly known as Eddie the Eagle.

Eddie can be reached on edwardeagle@nanomole.co.uk

He's been employed by Nanomole as the managing director.

Let's see where this one goes.

October 6th 2003

Eddie,

Thank you very much for the conversation we had this morning, I am very happy
speaking with you and I believe that we will have a cordial business relationship in the future.

Send to me your telephone number so that I can call you and discuss this very important business with you or call me on my confidential telephone number +874xxxxxxxxxx

I only contacted you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local bank here, but can only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in us dollars.

we will sign agreement, but be sure that it is real and a genuine business. I only got your contact you with the conviction that your country is a viable place for investment. with believe in god that you will never let me down in this business you are the only person that I have
contacted in this business, I will fly to your country for withdrawal and sharing and
other investments.

I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner with foreign account and foreign
beneficiary. I need your full co-operation to make this work fine. because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you later immediately, if you are able and with capability to handle such amount in strict confidence and trust according to my instructions and advice for our mutual
benefit because this opportunity will never come again in my life. I need truthful person in this business because I don't want to make mistake I need your strong assurance and trust.

With my position now in the office I can transfer this money to any foreigner's reliable account which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing.

You can also come to discuss with me face to face after which I will make this remittance in
your presence and two of us will fly to your country at least two days ahead of the money going into the account.

I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately I hear from you that you are ready to act and receive this fund in your account. I will use my position and influence to effect legal approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and foreign exchange departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of transferring.

Send to me the bank account number of your choice where you want the money to be transferred to as soon as you open the account, the bank name and address, the bank account number and the account holders name. I look forward to hear from you.

Best regards

Nelson Timothy

This one comes from a different IP address ( 212.142.33.101) which is listed as Brain IP access Amsterdam.

He's also changed email accounts.

October 7th 2003

Nelson,

Apologies for not responding sooner, I've had problems with my PC which
resulted in me being unable to gain access to emails for the last day or so.

I've just picked up your two notes.

I don't actually have a telephone number that you can call and talk to me
on - I'm partially deaf and use a special telephone (Minicom) with text
input to communicate with people who also have one (such as suppliers and
organisations). Email is a god-send to me as I can communicate with anyone
and have never had a problem in the past using both email (primarily) and
Minicom (rarely). If you do need to talk to someone, I can get my
colleague here to talk to you on my behalf ?

I'm happy to assist you in what ever capacity I can. I can handle
documents (I have a scanner) and have a valid UK bank account. A question
on the bank account - does it need to be a business bank account or will my
personal account at Coutts suffice ?

Looking forward to progressing this with you.

Regards
Eddie

I'm going for a different tac here as I'm sure as hell not going to spend twenty or so minutes on the phone to an Inmarsat number at about £3-4 per minute.

Eddie the Eagle now has gone deaf !!

For those that don't know Coutts is where the Queen has an account.

October 8th

Edward,

Thank you very much for your reply to my email, you must give this busines proper attention that it deserves so that we can be able to conclude our business and I will proceed to meet you for sharing and for investment.

This business is very confidential and you must follow my instruction and directives until we conclude this business and also you must keep it very confidential between me and you, you must not tell anyone about it to avoid anyone coming to demand percentage from me after the conclusion of the business.

I only contacted you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local bank here, but can only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in us dollars.

Send to me the complete analysis of what you do for a living so that I can decide on the best option for investment in your country.

I need your full co-operation to make this work fine, because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you later immediately, if you are able and with capability to handle such amount in strict confidence and trust according to my instructions and advice for our mutual benefit
because this opportunity will never come again in my life. I need truthful person in this business because I don't want to make mistake I need your strong assurance and trust.

With my position now in the office I can transfer this money to any foreigner's reliable account which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing.

I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately I hear from you that you are ready to act and receive this fund in your account. I will use my position and influence to effect legal approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and foreign exchange departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of transferring.

Send to me the bank account number of your choice where you want the money to be transferred to as soon as you open the account, the bank name and address, the bank account number and the account holders name. The bank account must not be a business bank account any account of your choice that is not dormant will be o.k for our business.

I look forward to hear from you.

Best regards

Nelson Timothy

October 9th

Nelson,

Thank you very much for the information on the background to your enquiry.

As far as my position, I'm the Managing Director and owner of a medium size
technology company that manufactures unique solutions and products to the UK market place. We have approximately 150 people working for us at our location in the UK.
With winter coming we're currently concentrating all our R&D efforts on a
polymer that will make ski's more slippy enabling skiers to get an increase
in speed and also cornering ability.

As far as bank accounts are concerned, I have a personal account that should satisfy your requirements, my only concern is that sometimes in the past, the banks have alerted the UK tax office about substantial amounts entering accounts for short periods of time. Are you likely to transfer all the monies in one go or will there be a phased approach to fund transfer.

What sort of timescale are we looking at here ? One week, two weeks or more ?

If you can provide answers to the above, I'll by return provide the neccesary details on the bank (They're at home and I'll take them in the office tommorow).

Best Regards
Eddie

If I say I'm the managing director do you think the money that they want will be higher or lower ?

October 10th

Edward,

The money will not be transferred in one go, when I send the application to
you, you will find out the modalities for the transfer and then you will be
instructing the transfering athourity on the amount of money to be transferred
into your bank account at any given time.

Send to me the bank account of your choice so that I can send to you the
modalities for the transfer.

Remember that at the conclussion of the transfer, all the documents concerning
the source of the money and the transfer will be made available to you.

So there is nothing to worry about concerning the trasnfer of the money into
your bank account.

I look forward to hear from you.

Best regards

Nelson Timothy

Monday October 13th

Nelson,

Thanks for your note of today. I actually got the note twice !!

Things were just a little bit hectic on Friday so I was unable to reply to
your email before we knocked off for the weekend.

I would plan to use my personal account held at Coutts in London as they
offer the best minicom service for hearing impaired users, but I'm guessing
it would just be an electronic transfer so location is irrelevant.

I was thinking about our arrangement at the weekend and I'm got a niggling
doubt in my head that I normally only do business with people I've met. It's
one of the problems of being deaf I suppose as you don't get the opportunity
of listening to the people on the telephone. I am however I believe a good
judge of character from visual appearances. Given that you're so far away
and it's not really practical to meet face to face at the moment is there
any chance you can send me a photograph of yourself. Call me curious but it
would be great if you could have in the photograph my name. I've been
caught out in the past where people have sent me photographs of someone else
when they were trying to be someone whom they were not.

If you can satisfy this arrangement, I will, by return send a recent
photograph of myself. I'm sure you'll understand that this is a form of
trust building between us.

Hopefully hear from you shortly.

Best regards
Eddie

Tues 14th October

This is my picture, send yours to me as well

Does this look like someone who'd rip you off ?

It's a pity he didn't include Eddie Eagle as requested...I'll have to see if I can get him to do that.

Tues 14th October

Nelson,

Thank you for the image you attached, but I'm still none the wiser if this
is actually you, as I've said in my previous note it would be appreciated if
you can send a photograph with my name on it. For instance just holding a
sign with my name - only then can I be guaranteed that you are who you claim
you are.

I've been tied up today with work and expect the same tommorow but will
respond to your email as soon as possible.

Regards
Eddie

Tuesday evening 14th October

Edward,

I am begining to think that you are not willing or interested in doing this
business with me. I told you how quick I want to conclude this business, but
it seems that you are not realy interested.

I sent my Picture to you but you have not sent yours back and you are asking
me to carry a sign and take picture so that you will know that it is me.

Anyway, if you are not interested in this buiness, let me know so that I can
move forward and look for someone else to assist me.

If you do not answer me positively, I will not answer your emails anymore.

Best regards

Nelson Timothy

I received this 5 times. - what a twat

Oooooo Me not interested in doing business, an unlikely story.

Wednesday 15th October

Nelson,

Let me reiterate my original response to you. Yes I am willing to assist you with your business, its just that I'm used to people to whom I deal with in business meeting my requirements whilst I in return will provide the same level of courtesy and response that I recieve.

As I explained previously I had been caught out due to my difficulty in talking on the telephone so the visual feelings I get are very important to me.

No disrespect towards you Nelson, but the image that sent could have been anyone, this is why I need to satisfy my own curiosity.

As a token towards our continuing and successful business transaction, I've attached a recent photograph I had taken for our internal company magazine. If you can reply with a corrected photograph it would be very very much appreciated.

I tried to get my secretary to call you and explain my concerns but we were unable to reach you on telephone. She kept obtaining an message saying that calls to that destination were not allowed. Do you have another number she can reach you on ?

I hope you understand my concerns, a lack of hearing is sometimes a pain to deal with but mostly we can overcome the situation.

Awaiting your reply

Eddie

Wednesday evening (late 23:30)

Eddie,

You want me to send you a picture of me carring my name as proof that it is me
in the picture, but you sent your picture to me without you carring your name
so that I will know that you are the real person.

I have real feeling that you are not interested in assisting me and that you
are just waisting my time for nothing. This will be the last email I am going
to write to you because you are not willing to assist me in this very
important business.

Have a nice day.

Nelson Timothy

Oooo he's playing my trick...

Me, waist (sic) his time. Never.

Sounds like he means it - lets see..

Thursday 16th October

Nelson,

Let me explain to you for the umpteenth time, I am interested in working
with you.

My admin assistant has been trying to reach you all day on the telephone
number you provided without success. - Same result as yesterday.

I've no idea what you are meaning when you mention that I may be upto
something terrible - I'm running a successful business, you come along
looking for some assistance in getting funds into the country, something I
may add I've had success at in the past. Now just because you're unable to
comply with a simple request to build trust you get all shirty and decide
you'll look elsewhere for assistance. As has been said many times before
"England expects every man to do his duty", You requested assistance, I did
my duty and offered it - now you're declining my offer.

If you're interested in continuing this partnership, please either email by
return on contact my admin assistant Brooke Milne on +44 xxxxxxxxx. I'll
then know what status this relationship is in.

Just remember, you contacted me !

Regards
Eddie

Lets see if we can turn this around as it doesn't look hopeful.

Got the phrase in from Chris Costello, it was timed nicely arriving last night.

This will send him to a voicemail box after ringing for a while. It rings my mobile during the day when there are any messages left.

Thurs 16th October

Eddie,

The telephone number you gave me is not working, I tried severaly to call the
number and it did not go through.

Give me a good phone number so that I can call you.

Nelson Timothy

Ooops, I missed a digit off the end of the number.

Thus 16th October

Nelson,

Apologies, my error - there's a x missing from the number. Brooke can be
reached on +44 xxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Regards
Eddie.

Friday 17th October

Nelson,

I spoke to Brooke this morning, it seems you've not called. Brooke has
tried again this morning to reach the number you provided but gets the same
message, where is this phone in as our telephone system maintainer does not
recognise the number.

Do I take it from this that you're no longer interested in progressing our
arrangement ?

Please advise.

Regards
Eddie

It's at this point that it goes all quite...I think perhaps because he's needing to see if I'm desperate enough to dangle the carrot out to him in my greed for the large amount of money.

Let's gradually see how begging I can get then.

Sunday 19th October

Nelson,

I managed to communicate with Brooke yesterday (Saturday) and it seems that nothing was forthcoming from you either on Friday or Saturday.

I'm taking from this that you no longer wish to proceed with our transaction, today is Sunday and I realise that you probably don't work over the weekends but if you are interested in continuing this arrangement please let me know on Monday. I'll be able to commit more time to this than I could over the last couple of weeks.

Hope you had a great weekend

Regards
Eddie

And so ends another scammer tale. His email's been reported to Abuse@hknetmail.com