Hopefully none of you would fall for this.  Yesterday through "facebook", my charactor "Patsy Hoolahan" received this message. It's the scam where they eventually ask you for your bank and routing number and then clean out your account. What makes this funny to me is that years ago I made a full length movie where Patsy's character inherited a fortune. "Truth is stranger than fiction".  This guy also left a phone number. I'm tempted to have Patsy call.  Might make a fun show.



Godsonbo Sonbo

 3:00am Dec 18


Dear Hoolahan,

I am Barrister Benard Agabi, a solicitor at law, personal attorney to Mr. R.J.Hoolahan, a national of your country, who used to work as a Major Contractor in Accra, Ghana. Here in after shall be referred to as my client.

On the 30th of April 2007, my client, and their only daughter were involved in a car accident along Kotobabe Road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquiries here to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to search through with his name which motivated me to contact you, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the fund valued at US$4,500.000.00 left behind by my client before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Security Finance Firm (bank) where this huge amount were deposited. The said Security Finance Company (Bank) has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have his account confiscated within the next twenty one official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over some years now, I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you. Therefore, on receipt of your positive response to my mail, we shall then discuss the sharing ratio and modalities for transfer. I have all necessary information and legal documents needed to back you up for claim.

All I require from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. I would be willing for us to discuss terms of participation in order to protect our various interests. If you concur with this proposal, kindly get back to me with Your: Full names. Age. Occupation. Address. Direct telephone. Private email address. Kindly get back to me with the above information so that we can discuss proper regarding this transaction.

I want to assure you right away that I have positioned this deal not to last more than two weeks.

Kindly reply to this offer, via my private e-mail

Does anyone even fall for this stuff anymore?  How can this still work?

I hate to make light of this but I did get a pretty good giggle out of it since he obviously did not get the fact that he was addressing a puppet.   It is serious tough and unfortunately even with all the attention to scams of this sort folks do fall for it. You should always be diligent when dealing with the internet. I just received an email yesterday that said my sister had purchased an advent calendar program for me and that I could download and install it via the link provided. Since it was an install of something I first emailed my sister to see if she had indeed purchased something for me. I also goggled the name of the company to see if anything came up.  Now in this case it was legit and my sister had made the purchase for me but always best to be safe. Perhaps I am just paranoid.

No you are not paranoid Shawn. I got one this evening supposedly  from DHL saying I had something that I needed to varify etc. I am not expecting anything  from any Dabu somethingoranother.... I don´t expect to get 4500 dollars via DHL and no I will not send them 95 dollars to formalize the deal, nor will I send them any personal details  or info......action: delete .

Patsy...good material for a further episode I would say.

Patsy HAS to make that call!! Filming it as part of a show would be great fun, try and keep them on the line as long as possible, maybe ask their advice on what to spend the money on, or weather you can buy them a nice plant for their office or something. Rinse the buggers! haha...

Very funny! My puppets have never received a call like that!!

I get one frequently that confirms a booked flight through Air Canada and has a cost attached saying it will be billed to my credit card.  If there is a discrepancy, I'm to follow a link to address it.  The first time I got it I immediately googled 'Air Canada Internet Scam' and sure enough - it was. 

I thought that one was pretty clever though - as identity theft is always a risk we take and this was obviously designed to capitalize on that fear.  I guess the Nigerian Prince figured out we got wise and he switched tactics.

I told them I was in their city cash in hand. Offered to meet at a hotel nearby, Googled the hotels restaurant name.

They went looking for guess who? Mike Hunt for brunch. And yes, I did call first and make a reservation.

Email a day later asking why did I not show. I saw people do all kinds of other things with these scammers but that was enough of a laugh for me and I just deleted / add to spam folder.