Help the Nigerian astronaut return home

[Claude]

Dr. Bakare Tunde (National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA))

To: xxxxx@xxxxx.de

From: anonymous@remailer.hastio.org

Date: 15 Apr 2004 09:05:43 -0000

Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home

Dr. Bakare Tunde

Astronautics Project Manager

National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)

Plot 555 Misau Street

PMB 437 Garki, Abuja, FCT

NIGERIA

Dear Sir,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust fund we need your assistance.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account for subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to other accounts in due course.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include downpayment in this financial quarter.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct number 234 (0) 9-234-2220 only.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Bakare Tunde

Astronautics Project Manager

mailto:tip@nasrda.gov.ng

http://www.nasrda.gov.ng/

From this collection of 700 Nigerian scam letters: http://www.nigeria-connection.de/

Edited April 22, 2004 by Claude

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Yeah, I got a different Nigerian scam letter the other day...they certainly are #1 when it comes to running scams. My question is this: the site you posted is a German one....soooooooo, are the Nigerians sending similar scam e-mails out in French, German, Polish, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, whatever? ......or are we talking english language operations only? Maybe you could pick up a little extra pocket money for SACDs Claude and offer to translate their stuff into French?

Edited April 22, 2004 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Rooster_Ties]

Nigerian Astronaut, stranded in space...

[Dan Gould]

Yeah, I gotta believe this is a spoof of the scam letters.

Otherwise, I tell you what, forget NASA, get yourself into the Nigerian Space Program-they pay GOOD! 20 million US dollars accumulated in flight pay and interest? And anyway, he hasn't made any of his flights since he was stranded up there, right?

The scary thing is, there are dumb asses who will fall for this, just as they fall for the more believable oil-profit-skimming-civil servant stories.

[PHILLYQ]

This guy's been in space for 14 years- isn't he tired of eating out of tubes and being wieghtless?

[Dan Gould]

And wouldn't NASA be fascinated to study him to learn more about the long-term implications of space flight?

The truly frightening this is that people WILL believe this and get sucked into the scam.

[Claude]

Ï don't think this is a "serious" scam letter either. The funnyest thing is the "accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000". This must be inspired by a Futurama episode where Fry becomes rich by getting 1000 years interests on his tiny savings.

@Weizen: Those letters are sent out in English only AFAIK. But the page speaks about two german victims of such Nigerian scams:

In 2002, the welfare office of an unnamed city in Westfalen agreed to advance 285.000 DM (about $150.000) to an unemployed man who convinced them he was in a deal with a Nigerian bank. He would make a fortune and give 500.000 DM back to the city. Of course both the man and the city never got any money back. I have my doubt about this story though

A german car dealer agreed on such a proposal and traveled to Nigeria, where he was kidnapped and freed only after paiement of a large sum.

Edited April 22, 2004 by Claude

[Dan Gould]

I can just imagine the conversation the Soviet cosmonauts had with the poor guy before they left him behind:

"Please to be waiting patiently, comrade African cosmonaut. Now is the

glorious time for you in the socialist struggle, for which we all sacrifice. Please

to not drink the vodka. Dos Vidanya."

[Dan Gould]

Or maybe,

"Not to be crying, dispensable third-world brother in the great revolution. We are being sure you understand how important is the return of the empty socialist space crates to Moscow in order to serve the people. Your waiting will be brief, our Marxist leadership collective is saying. In the meantime, please to enjoy this copy of degenerate western filth -- is Playboy for you! 1964 pet of year!"

[The Mule]

A guy I know got one of these Nigerian scam letters about six months ago via e-mail and, just for giggles, strung the scammer along for MONTHS. He intially pretended it sounded like the financial opportunity of a lifetime and promised to give the guy his bank account number, but then made up these increasingly outrageous excuses as to why there was a delay in providing the scammer with the information. Then, at one point, he insisted on flying to Nigeria to meet the scammer and that was another hilarious exchange as the scammer kept making excuses why they couldn't meet. It just went on and on until the scammer got so frustrated he gave up. When it was all over, this guy printed out the scores of e-mails that flew between them and it is a HILARIOUS read. He should publish it.

I got an e-mail recently telling me a distant relative I'd never heard of was killed in a car crash in Brazil and had left me his fortune which I could only claim if I provided my bank account number. That was a new one.

Edited April 22, 2004 by The Mule

[mikeweil]

Now how dumb do they think we are?!

[RainyDay]

I once dated a Nigerian I'd like to send to the moon.

[Rooster_Ties]

I once dated a Nigerian I'd like to send to the moon.

[Chuck Nessa]

After reading this thread I think I understand why I'm broke and why my wife is mad at me.

I didn't know.

[Larry Kart]

My Dad -- age 92, once a very sharp lawyer and still pretty sharp on most days -- got one of those (Nigerian in origin) "You've won the Spanish lottery" letters a month ago and fortunately called me to share his joy before he took the steps in response that eventually would have cost him a fair-sized amount of money. A few minutes spent rooting around the Internet, and I was able to gather enough info to convince him that it was the scam it is. What's typical, I think, is that even before I looked I asked him wether he'd entered this or any lottery, and he said, No, but couldn't quite see why that meant he couldn't have won anyhow. After all, they'd sent him a letter saying that he had. This scam takes in thousands of people every year.