I guess almost every week, I receive emails from Nigerian scammers who promise me to transfer $10 million for nothing. Everyone knows about this scam and no one believes them. Well, you know that there some exceptional people in every place and they are foolish and greedy. So, this is the story of 2 Bhutanese men who actually fell for this foolish scam. They lost US$14,000 and got nothing and in the end ended up in prison for carrying fake currency. Thus greed brought disaster for these two men. One of them is a businessman and the other works in Bhutan Power Corporation. I am quoting from a report of Kuensel Online:
The two men had paid US$14,000 to the fraudsters as handling charges when they met the fraudsters in a hotel in Malaysia. While in Malaysia, the fraudsters had presented suitcases containing US$ notes, but the notes were coloured black. “They were told that the notes were coated with a special substance in order to smuggle it out of the country,” a police report stated. “The fraudsters demonstrated cleaning the notes with a liquid and made the victims exchange the notes to convince themselves."
Believe me, $14,000 is quite a fortune in Bhutan and with this money you can manage your expenses for many months. So, you can easily understand that these two men are too much greedy. Personally, I feel hardly any sympathy for them. If they were ordinary people, I could think that they were confused but they were businessman and government employee. So, they should have known that only fake money is colored black.
Now, Bhutanese government is trying to create awareness among people about the fraudulent emails coming from Nigeria and other countries. I know some people will still fall for these emails.
Crazy that those men would actually follow through with the scam. Thanks, Razib!
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | August 22, 2006 6:14 PM | Permalink to Comment