Beware of newer, more refined con tricks...

The first email forwarded to me which I opened in 2011, happened to be from Bayi, with the following warning:

Hi,

I want to share with you my recent experience when I was the subject of a well planned and obviously very well organised syndicate. I almost fell for it and fell for the baits along the way.

Please share this with your friends by all means:

About 4 months ago, a lady whom I met through an international social network, started short correspondance with me. After about 2 weeks of short 2-3 liners, she asked me to buy some nyonya curry powder and paste for her; and said that she will send me the $ to cover the purchases and shipping them out in advance. No problem, right? Ok, so I said.

About 2 days later, yes, my bank called me and told me about a wire received for RM1300. It only costs about RM350 for the stuffs I am required to buy and about RM 600 for the shipping. So I bought the stuffs and sent if off by parcel post with a balance of about RM300.

She told me to keep the balance as my service charge - hmm, not bad but this is bait #1.
She then told me that she has businesses in Manila which have branches/reps in Malaysia dealing in commodities. She even asked me to source some commodities such as tea, coffee etc in bulk and if the purchase is successful, they will finance it and pay me generous commission. So far so good. This is bait #2

Then all of a sudden she called me from London (yes, shows a London number indeed on my handphone) and asked me if I mind if she deposits US$680,000 into my account. She said her KL rep office has a big problem and she will be down in about 2-3 weeks but they cannot leave the money with him and they cannot take the money out for the time being. Its ok with me since they are the ones depositing into my account. I did get a bit suspicious but they are depositing into my account. Her uncle will call me the next day.

The next day, my bank called me and said that somebody is trying to deposit US$680,000 into my account. However the bank does not take foreign cash deposits directly. To play safe, I called my bank back and talked to the manager who told me that they will not accept US$ deposit (cash) but they will do so if the money is TT in, or it is in RM cash, but there are paper works involved. The amount is very big but its acceptable for my account as I have been doing "mid 5 figures" biz through them. My London's friend uncle then immediately called my friend in London and asked me to keep the money with me until she comes down in about 2 weeks time - . . US$680,000 -- wow! her uncle told me that she (London friend) is a multi millionaire in Euro $, described as VERY VERY RICH & GENEROUS. She will pay me RM50k just to help her out of this situation.

I do not know what over came me but instintively I said that I am currently in Malacca and will be back only tomorrow. (That's a lie - I was in KL) I would not like the idea of holding so much $ and then got robbed etc. . anyway, he said he will stay in KL and wait for me to take the $ the next day.

I contacted my friend at Special Branch (my father was in SB) and he advised me not to get involved as his theory was that yes, they will pay you the 50k etc but it is probably they wanted a safe haven for COUNTERFEIT US$. His theory is that the fake US$ is being brokered around and once they find a buyer, "she" will come and take the money and pay me the 50k and every body's happy but me like a little sucker, did not know what even happened. Every thing went well, nothing happened. Something goes wrong, I get caught with the fake money, they disappear into thin air only to re surface looking for their next victim in one of the global social network.

Anyway, I told them the next day that they can deposit the money with the hotel store as nobody will even know, and if they want I can arrange for a safe deposit box which they have to sign in to. I told them they can deposit into my account but I will not hold cash. I think they know that I know, so they beat a noble and polite retreat.

They even told me that they will hand over the money to me at the British consulate.

I did not hear from her again but she is still active I know. The numbers are still in use. Just be very careful. My SB friend told me not to report the matter as people like that have vast networks and if they get busted, they know who did it and repercussions will follow.

I have actually given him the numbers etc but they will wait for about a year before moving in as they are trying to trace the roots and not just the end fruit. (Sounds a bit like T Harv Eker !). It seems that this is now quite a standard modus operandi for pushing fake currencies.

Please feel free to circulate this to your friends. There is obviously no copyright attached and if we can just alert and "save" even one person, then we have made this world a slightly better place.

Best regards

Author unknown
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