Won a BMW recently?

I remember my first week at work. It was boring. And because my boss did not turn up in office until my 3rd week at work, it was doubly boring. Fortunately, someone came to my rescue. Sister Mary Joseph from the St Jude Catholic Church of London wrote me an urgent email saying that Rev-Father Joe-Bono had passed away recently and in his will, I was made a beneficiary of an inheritance worth £300,000. Cue shock, awe, gasp and all.

It seems that the late Father Bono made a random sampling of three email address with the help of *jeng jeng jeng* Microsoft International, and my email was drawn. How did Microsoft manage to draw out a Gmail address is rather beyond me. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have ignored the mail. Unfortunately, at the time, I was a man with an ounce of common sense, and a tonne of boredom – so, I replied the mail.

Emails were bounced back and forth, with even a purported representative of none other than England’s Barclays Bank, contacting me on email as well. Eventually, the bombshell came, and I was required to send to them, via Western Union, a sum of £1,500 as a processing fee. After informing them that I don’t have that kind of money to pay, they then concocted a tale saying the church has raised £900 to help me pay a part of the said fees. (What’s this? A scam discount?) Eventually, I recall the amount being reduced to £400, but by then, I was already bored with them.

In my Gmail spam box, and found tons upon tons of such emails, all proclaiming that I have won or inherited some fortune or another. The latest scam I heard no longer involves money, but rather a car, a BMW, to be precise. I found announcements in Auto Bavaria’s website warning users of a couple of scams. I wonder what’s next.