AN OPEN LETTER TO A NIGERIAN CON MAN

QUIT USING MY REPUTATION.
I’M PRAYING FOR YOU AND NOT OPPOSED TO PUTTING MY HANDS ON YOU WHEN WE MEET FACE TO FACE

(THOUGH I AM 44 AND HAVE HAD 4 BACK SURGERIES I CAN STILL MOVE PRETTY QUICK AND LIFT A CHUNK OF WEIGHT. BESIDES THAT I HAVE THREE SONS, TWO BROTHERS, FOUR NEPHEWS, A GROWLY DAD, AND MORE FRIENDS AND COUSINS THAN I CAN COUNT. SOMEONE I KNOW CAN GET THE BEST OF YOU.)

THERE IS A FINAL JUDGMENT COMING IF WE DON’T MEET IN THIS LIFE

USING RELIGION TO RUN A CON IS ONE OF THE MOST MORALLY BANKRUPT SCAMS IN THE WORLD. MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE THIRD COMMANDMENT IS YOU SHOULD GET RIGHT WITH GOD AND MAN SOON.

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Innocent Apartment Hunter:

Hi Dave,

I just wanted to make sure that this is you, but I recently responded to a craigslist ad for an apartment in Brooklyn—a two bedroom renting out for $900 in Prospect Heights. There was back and forth, and I would appreciate if you can confirm if this is you or not (in the email I received, it stated this website to make it legit that I was corresponding to a pastor who works in Nigeria). I don’t think it’s you, but wanted to let you know. Let me know, thanks.

Nigerian Con Man:

Hello,

Thanks for filling the application form and getting back to me regarding renting my apartment and wanting to take great care of it as if it were yours'. I discussed with my wife regarding renting the apartment to you and we have both agreed to rent our apartment to you. The rent fee is $900 while the security deposit fee is $600. The apartment is unfurnished and i am as certain as can be that you would really love it there.

Therefore after going through your mail and accessing your profile, we strongly believe that you are a respectable and responsible person, I am sure you would be able to take great care of the property. It would be appreciated if you can make the deposit payment ASAP so that i can file you as my new tenant and also send you the House Keys and House Documents. Also, Pets are allowed.

Please once again, we are giving you this on trust and do not disappoint us and we promise you that you will love the house and the peaceful serene environment. The Documents and Keys to the apartment are with me here and would be sent to you via UPS. I would also like to know if you are ready to make the deposit payment.

Here are the documents with me which I would be sending to you:

1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2) Paper/Permanent house form (Containing your reference details)
3) Agreement Form which you would sign and send back to me.
4) The House Documentary file.
5) Payment Receipt.
6) Full address and description of the house
7) Authorization Letter signed by me which you would show to the Doorman and Super of the building to let you into the building.
8) Lease Agreement

I am very glad that you are taking the apartment. I would arrange with UPS to ship the House Keys and Documents over to you. My wife and i has sort out a means which we can conclude the Lease arrangement to make it secure for both you and myself. Like i explained to you in my first email, i am currently in Africa and the keys would be shipped to you from here.

The payment should be deposited with Western Union. Now, in Western Union, there's a Security Test Question and a Security Test Answer, which without it we cannot collect the payment here. You can send the security deposit with your own different Test Question and Test Answer but you would not give us the Test Question and Test Answer until you receive the house keys and house documents. All you need to send to me is the MTCN Number so i can confirm from Western Union that the said amount was sent. And after you receive the House Keys and Documents, you would give the Security Test Question and Answer so that i can receive the payment.

The details to send the payment are found below:

RECEIVER'S NAME: DAVE JENKINS
ADDRESS: JOS GENERAL MEDICAL CENTER
CITY: JOS
COUNTRY: NIGERIA

After you have sent out the payment, send me the MTCN number so that i can confirm that the payment has been sent and after you receive the House Keys and Documents and you are satisfied with the apartment, you can release the Security Test Question and Answer to me so that i can pick up the funds here but if you do not like the apartment, then you can go to the Western Union location where you sent the funds from and request for a refund of your money and send the keys back to me through UPS as i have a shipper's account with UPS.
I am very glad that you are taking the apartment. I would arrange with UPS to ship the House Keys and Documents over to you. My wife and i has sort out a means which we can conclude the Lease arrangement to make it secure for both you and myself. Like i explained to you in my first email, i am currently in Africa and the keys would be shipped to you from here.

The payment should be deposited with Western Union. Now, in Western Union, there's a Security Test Question and a Security Test Answer, which without it we cannot collect the payment here. You can send the security deposit with your own different Test Question and Test Answer but you would not give us the Test Question and Test Answer until you receive the house keys and house documents. All you need to send to me is the MTCN Number so i can confirm from Western Union that the said amount was sent. And after you receive the House Keys and Documents, you would give the Security Test Question and Answer so that i can receive the payment.

The details to send the payment are found below:

RECEIVER'S NAME: DAVE JENKINS
ADDRESS: JOS GENERAL MEDICAL CENTER
CITY: JOS
COUNTRY: NIGERIA

After you have sent out the payment, send me the MTCN number so that i can confirm that the payment has been sent and after you receive the House Keys and Documents and you are satisfied with the apartment, you can release the Security Test Question and Answer to me so that i can pick up the funds here but if you do not like the apartment, then you can go to the Western Union location where you sent the funds from and request for a refund of your money and send the keys back to me through UPS as i have a shipper's account with UPS.

Hope to hear from you asap.

Good Day,

My apartment is still available for rent. But i want you to know that i am renting my apartment out at a low price because i am only interested in you taking great care of the apartment and not the financial aspect of it.


I am currently in Africa on an assignment by my church and i am currently being transferred to Nigeria from Rwanda where i have been serving for a while now. I wanted to sell the apartment before but my wife and i have decided that renting it out would be better for us. I want you to know that you can stay in the apartment as long as you would like to stay as we are not planning on moving back into the apartment when we return to the states. But we would be checking up on you once in a while to ensure that the apartment is well taken cared of.


You can check out my blog page and read about myself, my family and the work i do here at: http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/

Dr. Williams Elphicks


Me:

I have absolutely no idea about anything is this dialogue. I am in Kigali, Rwanda. We've been here for a little over 5 years and were in Uganda 11 years previous. My wife was born in Cameroon after her parents evacuated from Nigeria in 1968 due to the Biafra War. That's about all I know about Nigeria.

Have we met before? My memory is not what it should be.

Dave

Innocent Apartment Seeker:

Hi Dave,

No, we have not met, I found a rental on craigslist with cheap rent and great photos and after this, I googled, and apparently, there’s a bunch of scam artists in Nigeria that put up false ads on craigslist asking for money to be transferred to them on Western Union. Oftentimes, they pose as missionaries, so I would be weary of your blog, because it looks like there’s a scam artist in Nigeria posing as yourself. Be careful! And all the best with your missions work. I fell for it because I am also a Christian, and I thought, wow, the rent sounds too good to be true, but maybe this is a little real estate miracle from God!

All the best,
P.S. Also, just as an idea, you may want to state somewhere in your blog even that your blog has been a victim of scammers and that you are in no way soliciting any money for rentals/western union money transfers etc, just in case…
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Innocent Apartment Seeker:

Hello Pastor Jenkins,

I am writing to you about the apartment listing that you put on craigslist. I see that you have emailed me from another email that I have replied to with private information. I just wanted to make sure that you are the one I am speaking to and not someone else posing to be you by making another email and trying to get private information on people. I would really appreciate it if you could respond asap.

Thank You,

Me:

I think you are being scammed. I've received 3 e-mails in the last week from someone asking me about renting a home. One of the e-mails has Nigeria contacts and I've noticed my blog is getting some hits from Nigeria. I hope I don't sound too prejudiced towards Nigeria as we have good Nigerian friends and my wife was born just next door in Cameroon after her parents evacuated from Nigeria in 1968 due to the Biafra War.

I live in Kigali Rwanda and have lots of roots in this region of the world. If I can help in any way please feel free to let me know.

Dave