Dear Editor,
Sometimes you become gullible when you least know it and your gullibility leads to you becoming vulnerable. There are people in this world who are constantly on the prowl looking for those who are gullible and vulnerable and who willingly exploit them, without remorse or trepidation, when presented with the opportunity. This is nothing new, and many earn their living being dishonest. For them, it is a way of life and it is all they know. From time immemorial, man has been able to devise ways to exploit his fellow man.
As people struggle to survive and live in a world steeped in problems of all sorts and as the economic and financial crises deepen and jobs become scarcer, there are those who will prey and feed on the unsuspecting. For them, there is no better job than being an obsessive, specialist, international fraudster. All these devious schemes are underlined by greed. Greed for money and power. ‘Greed’ seems a simple word but it is responsible for most, if not all, the problems which we face in this world today. Whether it is war, famine, global warming, rising sea levels – all these phenomena can be linked to greed.
If only those with the rich talent to deceive and rob innocent citizens of the world, in their quest to satisfy their appetite for greed, could put their skills to use in the furtherance of mankind, this beautiful world would be a much more beautiful place.
What I wrote above has a very close connection to what I recently experienced.
Last Wednesday evening (December 2), happily ensconced at home in Guyana watching television with my son, I answered the phone only to be asked by a government minister, at the other end, if I am aware of a malicious email being circulated in my name over the internet. Shocked, I responded in the negative and he summarized for me what is mentioned in the said email, purportedly originating from my Yahoo! email account.
In summary, the email states that I am in the UK for a presentation, lost my wallet and documents and need “1,200” (it did not specify which currency) to meet hotel expenses and to travel back to Guyana. It went on to say that the Guyana Embassy (not High Commission) was not helpful when approached for assistance.
Subsequent to the minister’s call, a senior member of the government called and advised me similarly about the said wicked email. He disclosed to me that an email to our High Commission in London was about to be sent to provide me with whatever assistance was necessary. However, he had this lingering and uneasy feeling that the email may be a hoax and that my Yahoo! account may have been tampered with and compromised. He knows me well enough to realise that such an email will never come from me. He advised that I check it out and issue a disclaimer.
Both the officials mentioned had received the emails from my Yahoo! account because they are listed among my many business and personal contacts.
I did check, was unable to access my account and recognized that indeed the account was compromised. I have since been unable to access the account using the very information with which I utilized the services of this said account for the past several years. I duly informed Yahoo! and asked that the account be closed and returned to me, the bona fide user. I also issued the disclaimer in the local press, as suggested, as well as advise all those whose email addresses I can remember, about this wicked email. I do travel frequently overseas and have access to cash in any part of the world and cannot be stranded for such a reason.
It would appear that the hacker managed to send emails to most, if not all, of the nearly 300 contacts in my address book, laughably, including my wife and son, requesting financial help.
Among those who received the email is a cousin of mine who lives in London. He spoke to me in Guyana and decided he will try and see what he can do from his end to track the hacker and possibly meet with him, since the hacker indicated that he is “stranded in the UK.” The idea was to eventually get Scotland Yard involved, if it was possible.
My cousin was able to engage in limited communication with the con who disclosed that he was able to get a “temporary ID from the Embassy” and requested that my cousin send the ‘loan’ by Western Union Money Transfer to:
Mahadeo Panchu Whiston, Merseyside, 35 1RZ Liverpool UK
The hacker told him that was where he was located. However, when pressed, the con could not say which hotel he was staying in and he even refused my cousin’s offer to meet with him at a mutually agreed location. At that stage, the hacker ended the communication and my cousin has not heard from him since.
The hacker has since been able to send out more emails to some of my other contacts. I have been receiving calls from far and wide concerning the same email which everyone recognizes to be coming from someone other than me.
In retrospect, about three weeks ago, I received an email, purportedly from Yahoo! requesting I reconfirm my username and password failing which my account will be deleted in 30 days. The email looked very genuine, but mistakenly, I did not check out its authenticity and have only myself to blame for what followed. Not wanting to lose my Yahoo! account, I duly complied with the reconfirmation request and it was then I believe the plan to extort was hatched. It was when I sent that confidential information that my gullibility and vulnerability peaked and were exploited, presumably by someone in a faraway land.
At that time, I failed to understand that Yahoo! would never single me out with such an absurd request, and that if it was indeed a worldwide undertaking by Yahoo! users would have been properly informed. I may not be the lone Guyanese victim of this fraud, as I am also advised that a prominent Lethem businessman fell for the same trap and lost his Yahoo! account. A friend of mine who wrote to me from New York today also disclosed that “only the other day a woman from India, living in New York was scammed of US$300 after receiving an email claiming that her cousin was stranded in London.”
During the past several months, there have been a plethora of emails purportedly coming from genuine people such as bankers and businessmen, mainly from Africa, with money to invest in this part of the world. The emails promise the recipient in Guyana a fair percentage share of the capital to be invested here. We are told that a lot of the monies are lying in banks in Africa and would be transferred here once the individual in Guyana agrees to participate. The monies we are told are from over-priced government contracts or dormant bank accounts where the account holder died and there is no next of kin to whom the monies can be transferred. In one case, someone claiming to be the son of Johnny Paul Koroma, former leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council of Sierra Leone, and in another instance someone purporting to be the Chief-of-Staff to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, circulated emails claiming to have large sums of money to invest in real estate or trade.
There are also the scams with the ‘lottery’ whereby people who never played are told that they have won huge sums. All these lotteries are fake and fraudulent. Once you agree to participate in any of these scams, you will then be expected to send certain banking information including a bank account number, and to pay a fee to assist with the processing and transfer of the funds. The scam lies in the collection of the fees and many people locally are said to have fallen prey.
This world, still a beautiful place, has some very talented people using their skills for all sorts of evil schemes. What is certain is that these scams are only going to get worse. We can expect to see new schemes put in motion to deceive and rob the unsuspecting. All in the name of greed. For me, what is certain is that I will never again be caught. I am no longer the gullible and vulnerable individual.
Yours faithfully,
Mahadeo Panchu
