Characters:
Father Lockheed: A priest of some church you never heard of
Alex Thomas: Dying millionaire
Louis Carlos: The dying millionaire's potty-mouthed lawyer
Kubara Sunday: Nigerian scammer/hacker
This letter had the misfortune to arrive in my email box one morning:
Date: August 8th, 2022
Hello Dearest One,
Greetings to you and your family as This Letter May come to you as a surprise due to the fact That we have not yet met. I have to say That I have no intentions of Causing you any pain. As you read this, I do not want you to feel sorry for me because I believe everyone will die someday. Let me introduce myself to you again, I am Mr Alex Thomas from Switzerland.
I have been Diagnosed with prostate and esophageal cancer That was discovered very late due to my laxity in caring for my health. It has defiled all form of medicine and right now, I have only a few months to live ACCORDING to medical experts. I have lived my life Not particularly so well, as I never really cared for anyone not even myself but my business. Though I am very rich, I was never generous, I was always hostile to people and only focus on my business as That was the only thing I cared for. But now I regret all this as I now know That there is more to life than just wanting To Have or make all the money in the world. I believe When God Gives me a second chance to come to this world I would live my life a different way from how I have lived it. Now that I know my time is near, I have willed and Given Most of my properties and assets to my immediate and extended family members and as well as a few close friends.
I Have Decided to give arms to charity Organizations, as I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth. So far, I have distributed money to some charity Organizations in Africa, Philippines, Switzerland and Ireland. Now that my health has Deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself any more. I once asked members of my family to close one of my accounts and donate the money, Due I have there to charity organization in Bulgaria, They refused and kept the money to themselves. HENCE, I do not trust them anymore, As They seem not to be content with what I have left for them. The last of my money is the huge cash deposit That I have with a financial institute abroad. I will want you to help me collect this deposit and send it to charity Organizations. I am writing this from my laptop computer in my hospital room where I wait for my time to come. That I pray God uses you to support and assist me with good heart, thanks and looking forward to hearing from you. Have a nice day and do get back to me if you can be trusted.
Thanks,
Mr Alex Thomas
Of course we can be trusted! We're a church after all, what do you want us to help you with?
Several mails followed here, during the next two days. Basically, same old story about, "Your church will get my millions, blah blah blah. Finally, we got a new character to talk to.Thomas:
My apologies for my late reply. Our church is organizing our charity project, and I was counting the donations. I am very sorry to hear that you were defrauded by the Bulgarians. Our church was defrauded once as well. Someone from Sierra Leone claimed they were giving away money and stole from us. We have recovered, but it is encouraging to meet a fellow victim, and as such, you can trust me. Perhaps you are a member of our religion as well?
Father Lockheed
August 10th:
Aww. Thanks for the regards Thomas...you slimeball. In any case, off to write the barrister.Hello My Dear: Lockheed,
God bless you and I thank you so much for your words and trust, commitment, and assurance towards the use of these funds to help the less privileged which has always been my dream, I received your mail with your detailed information and I have forwarded the details to my lawyer as the beneficiaries of the funds.
Name: Barrister Louis Carlos (QC)
Contact E-mail Address: [email protected]
Contact Phone Number: ---------------------------
Country of Service: New Delhi, India.
Please kindly contact my lawyer for more guidelines on how you can finally acquire the total funds.
My regards to all the brothers and sisters.
Thanks,
Mr. Alex Thomas
Carlos writes back:Dear Sir:
I am Father Lockheed, of the church of the Holy Lamb. I have contacted you in order to discuss a donation being made to our church by Mr. Alex Thomas. Please write back to me soon.
Father Lockheed
Dear Benefactor: Lockheed,
Barrister Louis Carlos (QC) is a leading international law firm. Especially renowned for our commercial litigation and dispute resolution, as well as Family and Probate Matters, we provide an extensive range of legal services to clients from many different industries across the world,
We were told to contact you by our client Mr Alex Thomas regarding the $2.5 Million USD he wish to release to you for charity purpose. I must confess that you are lucky to have been the one my client Mr Alex Thomas wants to be in charge of the building of the Orphanage home for the less privileged.
For me to reconfirmed complete details which Mr Alex Thomas had already forward to this office in this regards you have to completely fill and forward the below information to this Law Firm for reconfirmation so that we can prepare/procure legal document that will enable you secure the said inherited
funds from the Bank/Financial Institution.
Full Names:.......................................
Nationality:........................................
Country of residence:.......................
Telephone Number:.........................
Age:...................................................
Contact Address:..............................
Occupation:..........................................
A scan Copy of your Identity(Either Driver’s License or International Passport:
Your response to this e-mail with the necessary information will enable this Chamber to prepare the inheritance documents from the India Justice Department, which I will forward to the Bank and send you a scan copy as an attached file once I am done so that the funds can be released to you.
Attached to this mail is a copy of my Practiced ID for your view and it should not be used for any illegal Activities or used to commit internet fraud.
(Using an ID to commit fraud? Who would ever dream of doing such?
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
We spent half of August 10th and all of August 11th in a silly fight over passports. As the emails bring everyone's mental wellbeing into question, I am not including them.
Carlos decided to drop the dumb passport scuffle and wrote back Aug.12 like nothing had happened
Five more paragraphs of blather followed. They are useless to this post.Dear Benefactor: Father Lockheed,
How are you doing today? I do regret to let you know that Mr Alex Thomas is dead, he did not survive his operation, he went for his last operation Yesterday as you are told before, but unfortunately he gave up the ghost after two hours of the operation due to his heart could not pump more blood to the body system which lead to low breath according to the doctors report.
Lockheed is crushed. Absolutely crushed.
....you can send the payment directly from your country
via Western Union or MoneyGram Transfer service to the
Court Registrar. Like I said before, if your coming to
India will not be possible then try and send the $348
Dollars in the Court Registrar.
Thanks for your kind understanding, your urgent response
is needed. I will wait to hear from you.
My Dear Barrister Carlos!
This message hit me with a shock! I just came out of a meeting with the Syracuse church leaders, and saw your message. How tragic! This is such a grief. May Thomas's gentle soul rest in Abraham's bosom.
I will make arraignments to come to India. I will also turn the church over to Father Downs while I am gone. He is a capable man and I'm sure he will do the best for my flock while I am away. Please send more info as to which city and airport I travel to in India. I offer you my personal condolences for your loss.
Father Lockheed
I used the STS service and sent that to Carlos. I then excused myself from answering mails by claiming my uncle had a stroke in a faraway land. On August 13th, hilarity ensued, especially due to the fact Lockheed traveled all the time.Dear Benefactor: Father Lockheed,
Your mail noted. It has come to my notice that the court is now aware of the passing away of Mr. Alex Thomas and some other few governmental offices are now aware too so we do not need any delay in obtaining the Release of inheritance Funds Certificate.
Below this mail i am giving you my information to send the amount via western union or moneygram to me so i can do the needful first thing in the morning.
Receiver First Name: LOUIS
Receiver Last Name: CARLOS
Receiver Country/Destination: INDIA
Amount to be Sent: $348 USD.
Make the payment and send me a copy of the payment slip for confirmation so i can proceed to court to obtain the needed document without further delay. But meanwhile you can still come over regarding our conversation of you saying that the church would like to have a new parish here in India. The city is the capital of India which is New Delhi and the International Airport is Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). I look forward to receiving the payment copy from you as soon as possible. Glory be to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth.
Regards, Barrister Louis Carlos.
I ignored him and let the lad shout all he liked. After sending ignored mails until August 16th Carlos writes:
You travelled and you were supposed to reach your destination on Monday All of a sudden you reached overnight on Saturday. Now you have sent Moneygram and sent me the slip and all of a sudden your uncle is not well and you have to visit him not knowing when you will be back. Not knowing when you will be back does not mean you cannot check email and respond. I have never seen where a money transfer will be made via Moneygram and they will give you a phone number to call before you can get the Reference Number, Reference number is supposed to be written on the transfer slip. Now you went incommunicado, WHAT IS GOING ON LOCKHEED!? I look forward to your clarifications.
Finally, I regained interest in harassing Carlos:
Number is not even connecting talk, less of getting a reference number. I have clients abroad and I have never for once seen this mode of payment you are saying you have used to send the money. You said you opted in for a secure method? Please go and collect your money and send it in the way that everybody sends money using moneygram with REFERENCE NUMBER on the payment slip. I have already forwarded the Payment slip to Moneygram and they request your details including your email ID. I guess you are still taking care of your Uncle who is suffering from a stroke?
Not to worry there is nothing God cannot do. He will receive his healings by the mention of the Holy Lamb. Amen!
Praise the Lord for your mail!
I thought you had abandoned us. We haven't written you back in several days.
You will be glad to hear that my uncle is recovering from his stroke. You are right about the credit going to God. Only He can do such gracious deeds! I shall be returning to New York tomorrow.
Moneygram wants my email? Here it is: ------------------------------------
Also, you really ought to call them today at the number on the receipt. I'm not all that good at these things. You will need to get the MTCN for me to reverse the payment, and the only way to that is to call the MoneyGram line. Call them at ------------------------, so that you can get the MTCN for me to reverse the money. Email me back when you have the number.
Father Lockheed
Ah. Carlos knows how to use Google Maps, nicely done catching that fake address buddy!How can I abandon you? You are supposed to contact me to know how things are going. I said the number you wrote on the supposed moneygram payment receipt is not going through. So you can go back to the barber shop address written on the money gram receipt that claims it is moneygram address and take back your money and resend it back through the normal method everybody uses to send money via moneygram. I have never come across where a payment will be made through moneygram and they request the sender to call a phone number to get the reference number, And the so called phone number is not a number that is connecting. All this baffles me with your apparent kind sincerity in the mix. I don't know what is going on here.
Several emails went back and forth as I wasted Carlos's time arguing whether or not a barber shop can do transfers. Finally, Carlos broke down and called the MG line. Recordings are here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sKuWDOnMeG
Yikes! After cooling off he wrote back:
So we haggled and fought some more over Western Union. This scammer had the patience of a saint, that was the one thing I liked about him. We argued until August 20th. Finally, Carlos checked the MTCN online, and temporarily outfoxed me.
Thank you for your mail in which the content is very well noted. Please do recall the moneygram payment and send it through western union where you will be given MTCN and not to call a so-called auto robot answering machine to get the reference number. And you have to do this today because if things are not done from now till Friday then the funds will be transferred into the Indian Treasury Board Account as unclaimed inheritance funds. I look forward to receiving the Western Union payment slip from you
This is the status of the fake mtcn number sent to me from you. Check the screenshot and tell me if the number is not the same as the number you sent me.
That is curious. Perhaps the money was picked up and the tracking number is out of there system. I told you someone has been picking up my payments and then the payments suddenly appear again for me to take back. There must be someone trying to scam you. You'd better go to WU in person and complain until they help you.
Why would i go to the office in person? There is nothing for me there. Look at the screenshot, you can see that it is fake mtcn number. Why should I go to the western union office?
My last mail being slightly sarcastic, I didn't expect him to go anywhere or even email me back. When he finally did write back, I decided to drop him. I had a more promising lad in the works, and Carlos was becoming a parasite
Sir, I was hoping that maybe you'd get a better response if you told those people whatfor. You need that money, and you should go over there and do whatever you can to get it. Insult them if need be! But please insult them while loving them in good Christ-likeness.
Carlos wrote back (sigh)Dear Louis Carlos:
After meeting with the church board, we have decided that your services in this matter are no longer needed. The representative from MG was kind enough to turn over the recordings of the phone call at the request of Fr. Downs. and we are sorry that you have decided to let anger control you and that you slandered an innocent man in this fashion.
We wish you to do one thing. Please find us another individual who is qualified to help us fulfill the last wishes of Mr. Thomas. If you cannot find any, then we ask you to apologize for your foul language in a fitting manner. Please get back to us soon with your decision. Thank you, and be blessed.
Father Lockheed for Fr. Downs, Fr. Bestermind, Fr. Gatley, Fr. Okon, Fr. McCoy, and Fr. Kaufman
Then came the beautiful part of this bait:I never talked to anybody in a foul manner, So i don't understand where all this is coming from. I have wronged no one sir because I am innocent of whatever accusations. But if it could be one of my staff knowing and unknowingly then I kindly apologise on their behalf.
I replied that I was innocent, and asked Carlos how much he'd spent on gas, maybe I could reimburse him. For some reason, he took this as an insult and craziness ensued. All of August 24th was taken up with Carlos threatening to do all sorts of things to Lockheed, including the letter in my signature line. Realizing I could lose Carlos any minute, I decided to try one last trick. Remember, Carlos wants $340.00. I wrote:
I have been driven to Western Union so much and it all in a waste of petrol. I have been there four times in the whole week and have gotten nowhere with those people.
You have done nothing to help the soul of Alex Thomas.As per the completion of Late Mr. Alex Thomas wishes, I am his personal power of attorney and the only person that can guide who he has trusted to complete his last deed on earth which is you. All i am saying is that Stop proceeding further if you cannot meet up with the requirements because the amount requested to obtain the NEXT OF KIN AFFIDAVIT has not even been paid by you and you keep providing me with fake Reference numbers and am tired of looking like fool four times in one week. So if you are not serious about making the payment then automatically the work cannot be done so stop further communications and let the Government of India credit the funds to the India Government Treasury Board Account as an Unclaimed Inheritance Funds. Please, if you are ready to continue, kindly get back to me with the original payment details. If not i will not reply to any mail from you further. I have a lot of work on my table to do for the now.
Glory be to the Holy Lamb.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the WORLD.
I thought I was supposed to be paying $8,500, right? I'm positive that sum is not below $2,000. Please do explain.
Lol....Who asked you for 8500? Are you suffering from dimensional
mental misturbation? Don't write me again.
Problem is, there is no Barrister Oliver. I introduced him to make Carlos think another scammer was in the mix. It worked, and Carlos wrote several emails warning me to avoid talking to any scammers! I set up an email for "Barrister Oliver" - real name Kubara Sunday, and sent emails like this one to the Lockheed account:My son, I thought that the amount needed to cover everything amounted to $8,500. This is what we discussed in our previous messages, and what your agent, Barrister Oliver, told me. Don't you remember him telling us both about the amount?
Finally, I messaged Carlos myself, in pidgin. The following mail is translated from pidgin. Translations graciously provided by GCV:Refuse any threats Barrister carlos sends you. He very drunk right now and has an angry mood because his girlfriend left him. No woman wants to be with him any more poor boy.
Carlos took the bait, and to my surprise, he wasn''t an Indian scammer, he's a Nigerian scammer:You're probably wondering who I am. I'm Barrister Oliver, and I'm real. Get back to me soon.
A few messages passed between us, during which Kubara insulted Carlos, calling him a windbag and saying he'd never be able to rob anyone with the harsh things he told Lockheed. Carlos:
WHAT KIND OF A MAN IS THIS? TWICE HE SENT ME FAKE PAYMENT SLIP. FIRST MONEY GRAM SECOND WESTERN UNION. BUT HE WOULD NOT GIVE ME REFERENCE NUMBER OR MTCN. WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS THAT? HE IS NOT EVEN OLD YET HE LIKE DOING STUPID THINGS. OR ARE YOU THE ONE WASTING MY TIME?
I tried to negotiate a deal with Carlos which fell through multiple times. Sometimes Carlos would be nice, sometimes he would say the oddest things. Finally, on August 28th, he hung up on Kubara:HOW COME YOU HAVE ALL MY EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS WITH HIM? AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW ME, YOU RUSHED INTO CONCLUSIONS AND START INSULTING ME. YOU SAID I CANNOT GET MONEY FROM A CLIENT BECAUSE OF THE WAY I TALK? BROTHER, LET ME SEND TO YOU SOME CONFIRMATION PAYMENT SLIP I COLLECTED LAST WEEK. THIS CLIENT ACTS LIKE A FOOL THAT IS WHY I TALK TO HIM ANY WAY I WANT, BECAUSE HE IS NOT A SERIOUS PERSON. WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS CLIENT, SO THAT I CAN GO AHEAD AND INSTRUCT HIM TO PAY YOU THE US$8,500 OR WHAT? OPEN UP TO ME BROTHER LET US DEAL. THANKS
Results: Wasted scammer time from August 8th - August 30th, and got a unique insight into how scammers work with and talk to each other, and sent the fool running around town chasing a nonexistent payment. All in all, a pretty good bait.
PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE. I HAVE TOLD HIM TO CONTACT YOU. BUT YOU WENT AHEAD TO TELL THE CLIENT THAT I AM A DRUNKARD. OK TELL ME THIS: WHO IS NOW THE FOOL BETWEEN THE TWO OF US? PLEASE DO NOT WRITE ME AGAIN, MIND YOUR CLIENT AND LET ME MIND MINE. HOW MUCH HAVE YOU COLLECTED FROM YOUR CLIENTS? I STARTED FRAUD BUSINESS IN 2003, SO WHAT I HAVE GOTTEN FROM THIS BUSINESS, I DON’T THINK YOU HAVE SEEN HALF OF IT, SO STOP RUNNING YOUR MOUTH. GO ON WITH YOUR CLIENT, LET ME GO AHEAD WITH MINE. I HAVE LEFT THAT USELESS CLIENT THAT IS BRAINLESS FOR YOU. THE END.