Chennai, January 31
A big Internet financial scam related to oil in Iraq and targeted at gullible Indians is in operation.
Many people are receiving e-mails from David Woods, claiming to be the Branch Manager of Citibank in London, offering a part of $29,500,000 lying unclaimed in his branch after the death of an Iraqi oil consultant-cum-contractor.
The e-mail runs like this: “I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On June 6, 1997, an Iraqi Foreign Oil consultant/contractor with the British Petroleum Corporation, Mr Haffez Al Sadique, made a fixed deposit for 36 months, valued at $29,500,000 in my branch.
“Upon maturity in 2000, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and discovered from his contract employers, the British Petroleum Corporation, that Mr Sadique died as a result of torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein during one of his trips to Iraq. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a will and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.
“I, therefore, made further investigation and discovered that Sadique did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his bank deposit paperwork in my bank,” he wrote.
He asks for telephone and fax numbers but upon a reply to his e-mail, he responded, saying that, “As the manager of this bank, I have all information and also know what to do for the money to be approved and remitted to your account as soon as possible. First of all you need to send your personal profile and any of your bank account information where you will like the money to be transferred. We need the account information to apply to the ministry of finance to obtain foreign payment control approvals for the transfer to be certified to be made to your account, if you don’t have, it then means that you need to open a new one.
“Another option of having this amount under your control is for me to work in line with a security company in a diplomatic mode to transfer the money as a consignment with your name in any of the following country the Netherlands, Greece, Spain and India.
“This mode will be the fastest means of getting this money under your control because of no too much protocols and it will not require so many documents. It’s all about me taking the risk to pull out the money from the bank and depositing it to the security company and they will package it in their own special way and send it to the any of the countries mentioned above.
You’re now to choose the option you will prefer best for us to carry out this transaction. We have no time in regards to this business before the eye of the British Financial Control takes it to the purse of the government.
“I will be coming to your country or sending a representative to come and get my own share from you after your confirmation that the money is under your control,” Woods said.
According to international Internet scam watchers, the moment a gullible person gives out his profile and bank account information not only his account will be wiped out by these scamstars but based on his profile they would withdraw huge sums as overdraft and also misuse his credit and debit cards if he has any.
