Here is one that we have just received this morning...
From: James Cole
Abidjan,
Cote d'Ivoire.
West Africa.
Dear One,
Permitt me to inform you of my desire to go into business
relationship with you.
I am James Cole, I am 23 years old and I am a citizen of
France by birth but currently residing in Abidjan the
capital city of Ivory Coast here in Africa.
My parents are from the republic of Sierra-Leone, my father
was a wealthy prominent cocoa merchant in our country before
his death.
My father (Chief George Cole) had a ghastly motor
accident two weeks after his arrival from Abidjan Ivory
Coast where he went on an investment negotiation with my
mother in which my mother died on the spot.
My father died four days after in the hospital but before he
finally died, he informed me that he deposited the sum of
US$10.5M in a bank here in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire and that he
intended to invest this money in the opening of a cocoa
processing company here in Cote d'Ivoire with the help of
his Ivorian friend. He gave me the the document
meant for these deposit of the money and that I should seek
for a reliable and God fearing foreign partner who will
assist me to transfer this money out of this country
for investment purpose.
After a three days fasting and prayer, I decided contact you
to solicite for your assistance in transferring this money
out of this country to your account in your country. I have
arrived in Abidjan Ivory Coast with my only sister Jennifer
and located the bank where my late father deposited this
money and confirmed the deposit.
What you have to do now is to provide me a safe and secure
accont where the money will be transferred into so that I
can go and submitt same to the bank over here for them to
transfer the money into.
After the succesful transfer of this money to your account,
I and my sister will come over to meet you as to
continue our education while you will invest this money for
us in any lucrative business in your country.
Let me inform you that this transaction is legal and
100% risk free.
Moreover, I will be giving you the 10% of the total money
after the transfer to your account in your country and you
will still be our investment manager.
Please let me hear what you have to say immediately so that
we can proceed as I do not want us to stay long in this
country due to the present political problem over here.
Thanks and may God bless you and yours as I wait to hear
from you immediately.
Yours Sincerely,
James Cole
Are we alone in suffering these West African 419 email scams or is it very widespread ? Should we just delete them or report ? If so to whom ? Any ideas out there ?