Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Scam Letters are Getting More Upscale

I hope you enjoy this scam letter as much as I did. Grammar and phrasing – actually not bad. Punctuation – dead giveaway. Addressing it to “Beneficiary” – just stupid.

Screen shot 2013-10-27 at 3.06.34 PM

Attention Beneficiary,

How are you today? Actually, you may not understand why this message
came to you. We have been having a several meeting and investigations in
Africa base on a series of petitions received from some beneficiaries like
you, which just ended two days ago with the former secretary to the
UNITED NATIONS, Mr. Kofi Ana, European Union, Arab States Rep,
Asian Nations Rep, World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim and with
acknowledgement of USA President Barack Obama. This message is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world because of
contracts, inheritance, award payment execution, This includes people
that may have not yet received their payment or people that had an
unfinished international businesses transaction that failed due to
Government problems, both for People that lost their relative’s in Middle
East War/natural disaster victims also with people that has spent time in
contribution to growth of humanity and less privileged. The United
Nations Compensation Commission Board of Trustees in Affiliation with
World Bank Auditors has agreed to compensate each with the sum of
US$150,000.00 Dollars.

We found your name in the list of those who are to benefit from these
compensation exercise and that is why we are contacting you as an ATM
Cash Card Valued at US$150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand
United States Dollars) has been accredited in your favor, this have been
agreed upon and have been signed. Note, You are advised to contact Mr.
Martins Jonathan Jr. our appointed United Nations Representative in
Africa at the given contact details below: Your Payment file code is: 2125:
Call him now that you received a message from me to contact him for
your ATM CASH CARD.

Contact Person: Mr. Martins Jonathan Jr:

E-mail: martinsjonathan1957@yahoo.es Tel: +234 816 6635108

I apologize on behalf of my organization for any delay you might have
encountered in receiving your fund in the past. Thanks and God bless you
and your family. I look forward to hear from you as soon as you confirm
your ATM CASH CARD. Making the world a better place. We the peoples.
A stronger UN for a better world.

Yours Sincerely.

Screen shot 2013-10-27 at 3.06.07 PM

Mr. Jim Yong Kim
World Bank President
U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon FOR: Auditor General to the Committee USA
WORLD BANK
AUDITORS
SIGN………… DATE……

October 27, 2013 Posted by | Crime, Lies, Scams | Leave a comment

Qatar Congestion Eases (FAIL)

This totally cracked me up; the Qatar Gulf Times publishes an article about how smoothly traffic flowed on the day the Indian schools opened, noting that Arab and Independent schools will open on succeeding days. They published this photo with the article:

2017785c-6323-46aa-bfa1-0a5602c8a70d
Morning rush hour traffic on a Doha street yesterday. PICTURE: Najeer Feroke.

LLLOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

September 12, 2013 Posted by | Doha, Law and Order, Lies, Living Conditions, News, Qatar | Leave a comment

USPS Scam

One tiny word, one great big tip-off. It’s almost always in the prepositions 🙂

From Courier Ethan Reilly ethan_reilly44@malagaserviciotecnico.com

Screen shot 2013-09-05 at 11.44.16 AM

September 5, 2013 Posted by | Financial Issues, Lies, Scams | Leave a comment

Maddening Scam

I keep getting these. It is so annoying. While it says it is from AOL Services, it is really from chuckdeez@aol.com. I never click on the hypertext, but I am willing to bet that he wants my personal information, like my credit card number, etc. These e-mails just frost me.

Dear Customer,

Your E-mail account has exceeded its limit and needs to be verified, If not verified within 24hrs, we shall terminate your account.

Click Here

Thanks,
AOL Mail Privacy Policy | AOL Privacy Policy | Web Beacons in Email

Please do not reply to this message. This is a service email related to your use of aol Mail.

AOL is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

September 3, 2013 Posted by | Crime, Lies, Scams | Leave a comment

FaceBook and Iran TV Media

When I get something like this, my immediate reaction is concern:  “when did I indicate a ‘like’ for Iran TV Media? When did I sign up for this service?”

 

Oh wait. I didn’t!

 

Aha! There is a little barely noticeable option here, “This is SPAM”

Click.

Gone!

Screen shot 2013-07-14 at 2.18.08 PM

July 14, 2013 Posted by | Lies, Scams | | Leave a comment

Rape Victim Spends Seven Months in Jail, Framed by her Rapist

Jerry Ramrattan raped his ex-girlfriend Seemona Sumasar, and she filed rape charges against him. He tried to encourage her, and to intimidate her into dropping the charges, but she wouldn’t. He then concocted a scheme where three different victims claimed she had robbed them, and she went to jail, losing her time, her house, her company and her daughter for seven months while she tried to prove herself innocent. In the end, one of the supposed robbery victims came forward and told the truth, leading the police to requestion the other two victims. In a very short time, they had the true picture, but meanwhile, Seemona Sumasar spent seven months in jail, innocent of any crime, victim only to Ramattan’s anger at being accused of rape. Now, he has been sentenced to 32 years in prison. Wooo HOOOO.

This is from the New York Times City Blog:

Man Is Sentenced for Raping Ex-Girlfriend and Then Framing Her

By DAN BILEFSKY
DESCRIPTION

Updated 5:42 p.m. | The Queens private detective who raped his ex-girlfriend and then framed her for a series of fictional crimeswas sentenced to the maximum of 32 years in prison on Wednesday, bringing to a close one of the most bizarre cases to grace a courtroom.

Using knowledge he acquired partly from watching crime dramas like “C.S.I.,” the private detective, Jerry Ramrattan, 39, orchestrated what prosecutors in Queens called one of the most elaborate frame-ups in recent history.

Mr. Ramrattan’s ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, 36, had accused him of raping her. After she refused to drop the rape charges, he concocted a schemethat landed her in jail for seven months, making it seem as though Ms. Sumasar was the likely perpetrator of a series of brazen armed robberies, for which she was accused of impersonating a police officer.

At his trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, prosecutors produced evidence that Mr. Ramrattan cajoled and extorted witnesses to falsely testify that she had robbed them. He even staged fake crime scenes, prosecutors said, in which he planted evidence, handcuffing one of Ms. Sumasar’s supposed victims to a pole and planting several bullets at the scene of one of the imaginary crimes.

Before Mr. Ramrattan was sentenced on Wednesday, Ms. Sumasar delivered a stinging victim impact statement, noting that he showed no remorse and was so intent on revenge that he would have stopped at nothing to destroy her. “I don’t have words for you,” she said as as he stared ahead, stone-faced, while she spoke. “You are pure evil. You are a sociopath. You need help.”

“Someone needs to put a stop to your madness,” she added.

During her seven months in jail, awaiting a robbery trial, Ms. Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst, was separated from her young daughter. She lost her business, and her house went into foreclosure. Her bail was set at $1 million, which she could not afford. Mr. Ramrattan, meanwhile, was free until an informant came forward in late 2010 and exposed his plot.

Mr. Ramrattan was convicted in November of a series of charges, including rape, conspiracy and perjury. The nearly monthlong trial offered two opposing plot lines that were seemingly irreconcilable. Prosecutors portrayed Ms. Sumasar as a single mother duped by a wily confidence man intent on malicious vengeance. But the defense characterized her as a dejected lover who had turned on Mr. Ramrattan after he said he was leaving her to return to his wife and family.

Members of the jury said the guilty verdict was predicated on their acceptance of Ms. Sumasar’s account of being bound with duct tape and viciously raped by Mr. Ramrattan, which apparently gave him a motive to create his ruse.

In his plea for leniency, Mr. Ramrattan insisted that he was innocent, saying that he had spent years helping the police solve cases as an informant. “I stand before you with no choice but to accept what is going to happen,” he said. “Think about all the cases I made over the years, the rape victims I assisted. I maintain my innocence.”

Before he was escorted away by police, he added: “There is more to come.” As he spoke, his mother, Shirley Ramrattan, began wailing and was escorted from the courtroom.

His lawyer, Frank Kelly, told the judge that Mr. Ramrattan was not the “monster” he had been made out to be.

But Justice Richard Buchter said Mr. Ramrattan deserved no mercy, calling him a “diabolical conniver and sinister manipulator” who had “shamelessly exploited the criminal justice system.”

The Queens district attorney’s office and the Nassau County district attorney’s office had insisted on Ms. Sumasar’s guilt up until she was freed just weeks before her own robbery trial was set to begin. Ms. Sumasar filed a civil suit in December against the New York City Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department for negligence leading to her wrongful imprisonment..

Justice Buchter railed against the Nassau County police, who had wrongly imprisoned Ms. Sumasar, saying that it did not take “a Sherlock Holmes” to deduce that a 5-foot-2 former Wall Street analyst with no criminal record would not have held people up at gunpoint.

He chastised the police for their egregious handling of the case, saying detectives had “turned a blind eye” to Ms. Sumasar’s protestations that she was innocent and had too easily been taken in by Mr. Ramrattan.

“The police were duped by liars by whom they had a right to be suspicious, and as a result a rape victim was framed by her rapist,” the judge said. “She was victimized by the rapist and then again by the criminal justice system.”

He added: “The defendant is the architect of his own ruin. He deserves no mercy from me, and he won’t get any.”

July 14, 2013 Posted by | Community, Crime, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Law and Order, Lies, Mating Behavior, Relationships, Scams, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | Leave a comment

Korean Air Pilots Mistakenly Identified in TV News Prank: Sum Ting Wong

Someone will lose their job, if it is ever discovered who pranked this totally politically incorrect news broadcast.  This from Reuters via Huffington Post on AOL:

NTSB Intern Mistakenly Confirmed To KTVU Wrong Asiana Names, Statement Says

(Please note offensive language in paragraph 6)

July 12 (Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board apologized on Friday after an intern mistakenly confirmed to a local television station racially offensive fake names for the pilots of an Asiana flight that crashed in San Francisco.

“The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6,” the NTSB said in a statement.

“Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the NTSB said.

The crash of the Boeing 777 plane resulted in the deaths of three teenage girls in a group of students from eastern China who were visiting the United States for a summer camp, one of whom died on Friday in the hospital. Over 180 passengers and crew members were injured.

On Friday, an anchor for Oakland, California, station KTVU read a list of the supposed names of the pilots of the South Korean carrier on its noon broadcast after an employee apparently called the NTSB seeking to verify them.

The names appear to mock the events of the crash. The prank names were: Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow.

 

 

July 13, 2013 Posted by | Communication, Cross Cultural, Cultural, Humor, Joke, Lies, Words | , , , | 4 Comments

Qatar MOI States Employers Will Be forced to Abide by the Rules

It doesn’t matter how enlightened the legislation – if the law is not enforced, the rules on the book are laughable. It gives the illusion of a lawful society, but if citizens know that they will not be penalized for breaking the law, they will scoff at the law and do as they please. People who came to the country expecting to make a fair wage and be treated decently and with dignity find themselves without proper paperwork due to the corruption of their employer or recruiter.

If the MOI in Qatar enforces this law, a terrible situation will be slightly better. This, from The Qatar Gulf Times:

 

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

 

With the Ministry of Interior (MoI) taking a firm stand on ID cards, residents believe that this will safeguard the interests of workers as their employers will now be forced to abide by the rules.

A report in the Tuesday edition of Gulf Times had quoted a senior official as saying that residents should always carry their residence permit ID cards and produce the same whenever asked by the authorities concerned. Those failing to do so would be fined up to QR10,000, the report had said, adding that the MoI could also transfer the sponsorship of expatriates if they proved that they were abused by sponsors under Law No 4/2009.

Welcoming the MoI’s decision, legal expert and rights activist Nizar Kochery said this would make employers more accountable as any long delay or failure on their part to stamp the visas of their staff would invite a hefty fine.

“There have been cases of companies refusing to stamp visas for long periods and workers being picked up by the law-enforcing agencies for failing to produce valid residence proof,” said Kochery, adding that the ministerial reaffirmation would force employers to stamp visas promptly.

Reacting to the report, an Asian diplomat said his country’s mission frequently received complaints from people alleging that their employers had not stamped their visas even months after their arrival in Qatar.

“The embassy receives such complaints from expatriates every week though there has been a drastic fall in their numbers in recent times due to strict enforcement of the rules by the local authorities,” he added.

Kochery said there should also be stringent implementation of the rules pertaining to expatriates’ passports. “Though the ministry issued guidelines more than three years ago on the issue of custody of passports, complaints of violation of this norm continue,” the legal expert said.

The ministry had instructed employers to hand over the passports of employees after the completion of formalities. However, there have been cases of some employers retaining the passports in violation of the local rules.

“A similar fine (like the one for not carrying IDs) should be imposed on erring employers for illegally keeping their workers’ passports,” he said.

A few years ago, this newspaper had reported about a theft in a manpower company’s office in Musheireb. More than 150 passports of workers, which the firm had kept in its custody in violation of rules, went missing in the incident. Meanwhile,  residents have also said similar penalties were required to curb violations regarding exit permits as well. A social activist in the Indian community said there have been complaints of employers failing to arrange exit permits for their workers on time even during emergencies.

There have also been reports of residents, mainly drivers, lodging complaints with embassies, alleging that their sponsors take away their licences when they go on vacation.

“The MoI should consider imposing hefty fines on such employers as well. Like a passport, a driving licence is not only the property of an individual, but is also a proof of identification under the local rules,” said Kochery.

July 11, 2013 Posted by | Bureaucracy, ExPat Life, Interconnected, Kuwait, Law and Order, Leadership, Lies, Living Conditions, Pet Peeves, Qatar, Relationships, Scams, Social Issues, Transparency, Work Related Issues | , , , | Leave a comment

Why Did He Choose Me?

I do admit I admire the creativity of the people who send these out. This one isn’t at all creative, very straight forward, but neither is there a hook, unless, oh yeah, free money. Do the words “too-good-go-be-true” ring a bell?

Grammar, sentence structure and phrasing:  Sparse, but not bad

Content: Weak. Bank of France – in what country? Why transfer out these funds? Why did you choose me?

Appeal: None

 


 Please reply me with this email: c_noyer@yahoo.fr

Hello Friend,

I need your assistance in transferring a deceased client fund worth of 
$18,500,000.00 Million US Dollars out of my Bank here in French central bank 
(Banque de France).

If interested, kindly respond back to me immediately for further details on my 
proposed transaction.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Christian Noyer

Governor, French central bank (Banque de France)

Once again please reply me with this email: c_noyer@yahoo.fr
 

June 28, 2013 Posted by | Crime, Lies, Scams | Leave a comment

“We’re Moving On . . . ” at Pensacola Beach

Night before last, night a man was shot at the beach at 3:45 in the morning. According to the (very sketchy) details in the Pensacola News Journal, he had been having a fight with his girlfriend, had finished his fight and was then shot three times by a man he doesn’t know and who has no relationship to him. (This is what I understand from reading the paper; it doesn’t make sense to me, but it also says alcohol was involved.)

I only knew about the shooting because I saw a tiny little article about it on the AOL Local news section. When I went to look at it, it was gone.

In this morning’s paper, there is this sketchy description, and then – in several different sections – local are people quoted as saying “we’re moving on.”

OK I get it. We’re a beach community, and this is peak tourist season as folks pour in here from all the Southern states and other countries to enjoy our fabulous sugar-white sand beaches.

Before the tourists had hit the beach, the crime scene tape was down and a beach excavator had carted off the bloody sand.

I do get it. I really do. The season is short and we don’t want to be known as a beautiful beach where people can get shot. It’s a marketing problem.

There is something, however, that sticks in my craw about the swiftness of the moving on, and the barely there press coverage. A man was killed. Maybe he had been drinking. Maybe he had a fight with his girlfriend. Maybe he was at the beach very late (or very early) in the morning. None of these things seem to have anything to do with him having been shot, other than maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the wrong person had a gun and shot him. It seems a little disrespectful, to me, to move on quite so swiftly. A man lost his life. We don’t know why. Maybe we could just take a little time to figure out what happened and to acknowledge his loss?

June 19, 2013 Posted by | Circle of Life and Death, Community, Crime, Financial Issues, Leadership, Lies, Living Conditions, Marketing, Pensacola | 2 Comments