A scam from the Ivory Coast?

[soul dreamer]

I am wondering how many of you also received this email.  I think it is from a scammer who says she is dying and wants to will to me her inheritance, and that she obtained my email from this bulletin board...

Rick

Her email to me was:

Hello My Beloved One In Christ.

I greet you with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, It is true that this letter may come to you as a surprise. Nevertheless, I humbly ask you to give me your attention and hear me well.
 
My name is Mrs. Linda Pascal Dikko from Australia. I am married to Dr.Davis Pascal Dikko who worked with our Embassy in Ivory Coast ( Cote D'ivoire ) for a period of 8years before he died . We were married for 9 years without a child before he died after a brief illness. Since his death I decided not to remarry due to my religious belief . When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of US$6.5m(Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United State American dollars ) in a Security Company in Europe. Presently this money is still in the custody of the Security Company in Europe. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next two months due to cancer illness.

Having known my condition I decided to donate this money to churchs, organisation or good person that will utilise this money the way I am going to instruct herein.

I want you to use this money for churchs, Charity organisation, orphanages, widows and other people that are in need. l took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money . Moreover, my husband relatives are not close to me since I devolop a Cancer problem and it had been their wish to see me dead in order to inherit his wealth since we have no Child. These people are not worthy of this inheritance. This is why I am taking this decision.
 
I have prayed concerning this donation for God's guidance befor i got your contact in http://www.assemblyboard.com and if in your heart you geniunely and faithfully desire-to use this fund for the propagation of God's work in any form whether for Charity, Ministry, Gospelmusic, Evangelical work or otherwise in relation to God'swork,do get in-touch with me for further arrangements to give you the contact of the Deposit Company in oversea where the money is deposited.
 
I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my ill-health. As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact of the Security Company where this money is deposited. I will also issue a letter of authorisation to the Security Company that will prove you the present beneficiary of this money. I also want you to always put me in prayer.

Any delay in your reply may give me room to look for another good person for this same purpose.  Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein.

Hoping to receive your response soonest.

Thanks and Remain blessed .
Yours sister in the Lord,

Mrs. Linda Pascal Dikko

[Joe Sperling]

Rick---

Reverend Burt here.

It is definitely a scam.  It is amazing that people will use the Lord and his ministry to
attempt to garner money from people.  I strongly suggest that instead of getting in-
volved with Mrs. Nikko, that you send the funds you would have sent to her to a
ministry that can really use it.  We will put the money to very good use here, and you
will be richly blessed for it.  Please forward money order to:

Reverend Burt O'Leary
P.O. Box 2323
Barstow, Ca., 92233

[soul dreamer]

I do not know about you either Burt.  Only God is reverend (Ps. 111:9).  If you have a wife, or kids, or employees, perphaps they should give you a certain amount of respect, regard, and perhaps even have a certain amount of dread about dipleasing you (Eph. 5:33 for your wife, Heb. 12:9 for your kids, Eph. 6:5 for your employees).  But I do not see where I am to fear any pastor, evangelist, or even an apostle - they are all my brothers.  If you have to have an appellation to your name, call yourself Brother Burt and I just might give you some attention.

[Joe Sperling]

Rick---

Brother Burt here.

It is definitely a scam.  It is amazing that people will use the Lord and his ministry to
attempt to garner money from people.  I strongly suggest that instead of getting in-
volved with Mrs. Nikko, that you send the funds you would have sent to her to a
ministry that can really use it.  We will put the money to very good use here, and you
will be richly blessed for it.  Please forward money order to:

Brother Burt O'Leary
P.O. Box 2323
Barstow, Ca., 92233

[soul dreamer]

Brother Burt,

I don’t have time today to get a money order, but I an thinking about putting a one dollar bill (which I think is more than two mites) in an envelope (with a piece of paper on each side so people at the post office cannot see the money).

Is this a real PO Box?  Will you really get this money?  What will you do with this dollar?  Will you buy some gospel tracts (and pray over them, and maybe even anoint them with oil?), and then go pass them out so someone can get saved?

Thank you.

[Joe Sperling]

Dear Brother Rick----

Thanks for the $1.00 donation you intend to send.  Most likely I will use it to buy
a breakfast croissant at McDonald's.  I get up every day at 4:00 AM and labor in
prayer over gospel tracts, and long lists of souls until around 8:00 AM.  By that time
I am famished with hunger, and your $1.00 will help alleviate the suffering I feel from
the fast I must experience whilst going about the Lord's work.  Thanks so much for
thinking of me in your giving.

Brother Burt

[Joe Sperling]

Rick---

Just kidding with you using my alter ego reverend Burt the charlatan.

The letter you received is definitely a scam though----it sounds exactly like
the Nigerian e-mail scams, accept with a Christian flavor.

--Joe

[soul dreamer]

If bro burt's PO Box does not exist, what is the post office gonna do with my donation?  If they send it back, maybe I should scan it and post the photo here so that others will be wary....





































Just kidding...  I have not yet sent any $ to burt

[outdeep]

I get letters like this all the time.  I have seen documentaries on this type of scam (usually from Nigeria).

The website http://www.419eater.com/ is dedicated to those who "bait" the scammers by acting as if they are interested and then making the scammers do ridiculous things to "prove" they are on the level.  In one "This American Life" story the reverse scam actually went from being rather funny to being cruel (sent the scammer to a dangerous country to "meet a contact" with no provision or means to get back).

Obviously, I can't vouchsafe that this one isn't the one legitimate one out there but for the most part this pattern of letter is a scam to get people to commit personal items, money or information in order to gain this inheritance.

-Dave

[Flora]

I have received the letter below, twice so far. It's a scam as far as I can tell.

The first one was from a Mrs Judith somebody, and she wanted to give me $2 million (US) to be used for "Christian work" - orphanages, Christian schools or spreading the gospel, etc. They said they learned about me through another Christian bulletin board that I post on.

The second one, said they learned about me through this bulletin board. In fact it is an identical letter to the one below. It came about 2 - 3 months after the first one.

The two letters were strickingly similar; but it appears as if they had tried to refine and improve their sales pitch. The names were different, the amount of money increased from 2 million to 6.5 million and my second letter contain a picture of a very ill woman in a hospital, hooked up to medical equipment (with her face turned away from the camera). Everything else is the letters were identical.

How sad, that someone is targeting Christians in this way, trying to catch a very trusting person.

In Christ,

Flora