Code of Ethics .... What's that?

On a daily basis, I must get about 10 to 20 fraud e-mails with all sorts of different stories. Some of the old ones are being combined, such as this one from "Uba Diskman" (It sounds like a Sony, but it isn't)

Uba says he is a manager of the "Bank of the North" in Lagos. He has found an account with a whole pile of Money from James Herbert, who worked as a consultant with (who else?), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Uba says that Mr. Herbert has left over 38 million USD in this account, but unfortunately has died in an accident (no, this time not a plane crash).

Poor Mr. Herbert has no next of Kin and no one has claimed the money up to now. So Uba, honest person he is, is looking for someone to act as heir and has transfered the money to Europe to make sure it is safe. I can tell you now, the money's in Amsterdam, at a security company in a trunk. You can take a look at it there.

So this is where the Ethics come into the story. Uba says that the code of ethics prevents him from owning a foreign account so he can't do the money transfer himself. (I love these stories because they are so logical!)

So this man of ethics, wants you to say you are the heir to the Herbert fortune, go and pick up the money in Amsterdam and share the loot with him.

What he is saying is, let us commit fraud together and profit from this one time opportunity and to hell with the moral aspect.

The problem is, the only one who doesn't profit from this windfall, is you, if you contact him.

Here's the e-mail for you:

Diskman_uba
Victoria Island Branch,
Bank of the North
Lagos, Nigeria.
ATTN: MD/CEO

I am Diskman_uba, Branch Manager with Bank of the North, Victoria Island Branch, Lagos, Nigeria.

I have an urgent and very profitable business proposition for you that should be handled with extreme confidentiality.

On January 6,1998 a Foreign Oil Consultant and contractor with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr. James Herbert by name made a numbered time Fixed Deposit for twelve calendar months valued at US$38.6M (Thirty Eight Million, Six Hundred United States Dollars Only) in my branch.

Upon maturity I sent a routine notification in accordance with the Bank policy to his forwarding address but got no reply.

After a month we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that Mr. James Herbert died from an automobile accident.

On further investigation, we found out that he died without making a Will and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further investigations and discovered that Mr. James Herbert did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.

This sum of US$38.6M has been carefully moved out of my bank to a Security Company in Europe for safekeeping.

No one will ever come forward to claim it and according to Nigerian Law, at the expiration of 5 years the money will revert to the ownership of the Nigerian Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.

This prompted us to contact you.We will like to front you as the next of kin of our late client thereby making you the legal beneficiary of the sum of $38.6 million U.S Dollars that is presently in a Security Company in Europe.

I contacted you because it is against our code of ethics to own and operate foreign accounts and your assistance would be needed to claim the money in the Security Company in Europe.

We have unanimously agreed that 25% of the entire sum would be for you if you agree to take part in this profitable transaction,70% for me and 2 of my colleagues while the remaining 5% would be used to pay back the expenses that may be incurred during the course of the transaction by both parties after the fund has been claimed and lodged in your account.

In the event that you are genuinely interested in the transaction,the following information would be needed from you to expedite action.

1) Your Full Name and Address that would be used to establish you as the next of kin of our late client thereby making you the legal beneficiary of the fund. This would ensure that the Security Company in Europe releases the Consignment/Fund to you.

2) Your Private Mobile,Telphone and Fax numbers where you can be reached at all time because this transaction entails constant communication.

The transaction is 100% risk free as all modalities has been perfected to ensure the hitch free success of the transaction.

If you are interested, send the requested information via email so that we can proceed and after sending it you call me.EMAIL diskson@pakwatan.com

I await your response urgently.
Regards
Diskman_uba
diskman@mail.vu

By the way, Uba is using 3 different freemail accounts: This message was sent through disndman@yahoo.com. His contact account diskson@pakwatan.com is with a Pakistani portal service and diskman@mail.vu is a freemail service from iqmc.com.