10.11.2007

with love, from nigeria

The wife and I have been trying to sell her car (anyone want a Ford Probe? Comes with snow tires and an upgraded stereo!), and I recently received an email from a friendly chap named James. His English isn't very good, but I have been able to make out that he's very excited about buying the car. So excited, in fact, that he doesn't even want to look at it before making the purchase. All I need to do is give him some of my personal information, then he'll send me a check and have his shipper come pick the car up. I will need to pay the shipper, so James is just going to send me a really big check and have me take out the cost of the car and the shipper, then send the rest back to him. What a nice and trusting guy!

A scam? Well, yeah. Still, I thought I'd write the guy back. Told him I was really excited he was buying the car, because my little sister is sick and we need money so that she can get her medical treatments. Then I just sent him an email a few minutes ago saying that some other nice person who wants to send me a check and have his shipper pick the car up has contacted me and wants to offer more money, so if James still wants the car he'll have to pony up more cash. That doesn't matter to him, of course, since he doesn't plan on giving me any money at all, but it might make him a little worried about the competition.

My wife told me I'm being mean. What is your opinion, dear blog reader? Do I keep playing along, do I fess up, or do I just stop returning his emails? I'm starting to feel a little bad about all this, but at the same time he is trying to scam me and my sick little (non-existent) sister.

I await your decision.

4 Comments:

At 10:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I take the husband's side on this. While I respect the wife's desire to be kind to the world, I really enjoy the fact that the husband has a wicked--and perhaps just--sense of humor. And I'd donate to the cause of his sick sister any day, if he indeed had one.
Hysterical. Right up their with our mutual friend's--the one who lived on the rabbit farm--love for "cross pollenating" junk mail return envelopes and sending them back to one company with another company's advertisements in it. He calls it "recylcing" and claims that this is the only way to make people "pay" for junk mail.

 
At 10:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

AGGGHHHHHH. I used the wrong form of "there"! I meant "there" not "their" The gut-wrenching shame of it all. Take away my prof crudentials.
And I misspelled recycling. No more posts from me.

 
At 9:16 AM, Blogger chelfea said...

I think my lack of nicety has been long- (and well-) established, so it should come as no surprise that I'm all for playing the guy. (Makes for good blog fodder, if no other reason.)

 
At 11:19 AM, Blogger T.M. said...

Well I'm feeling at least a little justified, then.

I got an email from him a few minutes ago saying he is willing to "pay" the increased price, but to please close the deal with him quickly. I responded by telling him that the deal is set with him, and now all I need to do is go talk to the DMV and ask them how to transfer title. I have a sneaking suspicion they are going to want some of his personal information. Of course I won't distribute his personal information and I doubt he'll even send any, but I am curious what his response will be when the tables are turned.

Maybe in the end I'll tell him that I know it's all a scam but that I forgive him and want to understand his side of the story. Then we can sing Kumbaya together and the world will join us in peace and harmony, and the two of us will ride into the sunset on a magical unicorn. And war will end forever. And everyone will have a puppy.

 

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