serious topic

[nature boy]

hey guys, recently a new guy at my church came up to me asking for help. he told me this story about some girl in africa and how he has to send her money and so forth, anyway it's an obvious scam. he was promised millions of dollars in return for his help, but it seems like he's more concerned about helping the girl (he has a heart of gold). he asked me to help him with some money to help her, but of course i wasn't going to. anyway, i told him that i wanted to see some documentation from this overseas "lawyer" that has been helping him through this process. this is the email i got from that "lawyer":

Sir,

RE: ON-HOLD FUND TRANSFER BELONGING DR. *********

On the instruction of Dr. *********, I here by introduce myself as Barrister Victor Poul of Victor & Ocana Avocados, Madrid Spain. I am his Legal Representative here in respect of a huge sum of money amounting to millions and which is also currently on hold pending the presentation of an Insurance Policy Certificate from any of the Government Accredited Agencies and in this case AXA SEGUROS for minimum of 3 months coverage.

The above-stated requirement is in line with LEY 1704/08 of the Spanish Financial Regulatory laws since the sum in question is very large. All pre-approval regularities as per confirmation and verification of source of fund have been established beyond every reasonable doubt and so upon clearance of the outstanding insurance obligation, the transfer of the entire funds on hold will be carried out by the Banco de España.

So this is an appeal for clemency on behalf of Dr. *********, considering the fact that only 3,800 euros only is standing between him and receiving the overdue transfer value into his nominated account.

Thanking you for your anticipated cooperation

Faithfully yours,

Sr. Victor Poul Esq
Madrid, 23/11/2009

so all i want to do now is to help this acquaintance of mine realise that this is a hoax, he seems to really believe that it's true. is there any way i can prove to him that this is fake? apparently he's already sent them money. i'm just looking for maybe a similar documented case, a conflict in names, proof that this organisation doesn't exist, etc. i'm just asking around for any tips on how to help this guy. thanks.

[se7entse7en]

dunno...
how about the spelling and grammatical errors?
here by -> hereby
missing commas: All pre-approval regularities as per confirmation and verification of source of fund have been ...
...the fact that only 3,800 euros only ...

Or how about that, "Victor & Ocana Avocados" doesn't seem to show up on Google.

[bryface]

nat,

wikipedia is your friend.

[nature boy]

thanks guys. i'm trying to set up a meeting with him this week. hopefully it'll be in time (his next payment is due next week).

[jeSteR]

All Legal entities are listed in the HG.org directory. If they practice any form of Law, they would be listed in this world wide database

http://www.hg.org/lawfirms.html

You can filter the search down from continent down to the municipality.

Here's the filter for Madrid. There are three pages of registered law firms in Madrid

http://www.hg.org/lawfirms.asp?action=s ... ain&page=1

Victor & Ocana Asociados doesn't exist in there, or ANYWHERE else in the world for that matter.

And notice my PROPER spanish spelling of Associates. Yes the word was supposed to be associates... NOT avocados. I HATE scammers that prey on the kindness of others.

[geForce]

Aside from the wiki page thing on the Spanish Prisoner specifically, here's a case study on this type of scam in general so people can look out for variations of it. It's called a "419 Scam" based on the original Nigerian scam.

http://www.caslon.com.au/419scamnote.htm

[nature boy]

thanks guys. i'm meeting with him tomorrow morning. hopefully he'll listen.
his last message to me was "My goals and plans are still UNDAUNTED, work to my last breach of ounce of energy!"
he really believes in this.

[supersuk]

[nature boy]

[geForce]

Keian's been a changed man since he came back from his trip to Asia.

[jeSteR]

Hope you made progress today...

Dunno how much you can or should share on a semi public forum though.

[se7entse7en]

Kinda fits in with our study of Proverbs, don't you think?

[nature boy]

i'm meeting him at 2:30 this afternoon. we'll see how it goes. he's pretty committed.

[nature boy]

ok he just left. it sounds like the situation is resolved, he understood that he was duped but at the same time it's hard for him to let go. apparently, he's been involved in this for the past FOUR years, i don't even know how much money has been lost. hopefully this will be the end of it.

what concerns me is that he kept assuring me that he's not going to commit suicide when i didn't even bring it up. i hope and pray (and i'll be following up) that he's able to deal with this and move on.

[geForce]