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Beware of these dream merchants

Syed Ashraf Ali | Published: November 08, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

My good old neighbour, Alec Talukder suffered a setback in the share market where, he lamented, bad people took away his money through manipulation of share prices. He recently again came very close to be hooked --well, almost -- by a fly-by-night character who specialises in selling dreams. This merchant of dreams is not much different from his genre immortalised by Shakespeare in 'Merchant of Venice'.
We have plenty of these merchants of Bangladesh vintage. Our media brings out horrendous accounts of the exploits of these con artists -- some sporting fancy names like Hall Mark, Destiny 2000 and Unipay, while some decorate their façades with titles like Bismillah Group and Islamic finance company to exploit the overused religious sentiments to amass wealth and power.
Talukder, with whom I began the story, called on me last evening in a jovial mood, his dreamy eyes exuding an aura of contentment superimposed on a hint of happiness.
" What's the good news," I asked.
"By the grace of Allah", he confessed the reason for his elation. "My bad days are over. Fortunes have finally smiled on me".  
It transpired that a letter from an unknown well wisher had reached his mail box from Nigeria with an offer to send sixty million American dollar to Talukder's bank account. To set his doubt at rest, the Nigerian explained that the money was received as kickback from a project in his country. For this service, the Nigerian dream merchant explained, Talukder would get twenty million American dollar as his share of the booty. He reached for his calculator and ended up with a number that stirred his adrenaline to run haywire.        
Another guy with a mysterious glow shifting from one to the other end of his face came to me last week to share a secret. He cupped his palms and leaned precariously close to my ear to whisper some words that I could barely decipher.
"Did you say battery," I thought I had heard him whisper this word.
He whispered again, this time a little louder, "No, it's not battery but lottery--UK Coca Cola Lottery. My prize is worth five hundred thousand pound sterling. Do you know how much is that in our own currency?"
"Lots of money; it's more than six crores taka at the current rate of exchange." I couldn't hold back my surprise, "But when did you buy the ticket of Coca Cola lottery?"
It turned out that he did not buy any ticket but last evening received this message through his email account.
"Your E-mail ID was selected for 500,000.00 GBP UK Coca Cola Lottery."
Noticing his disoriented look and the dishevelled hair dancing across his receding hairline, I conjectured, "You must have missed your sleep last night to make plans for using the money".
He confessed he indeed did, and added that he had a heated argument too with his wife over the use of the yet unseen money.
Welcome to the world of dream merchants. The wares of these 'merchants' come in all shapes and colours. The most popular one is, of course, lottery prize from all imaginable sources. I had this one in the inbox of my email.
"Congratulations, your email address has won ($1,000,000.00USD) in the on going Publishers Clearing House lotto draw that was held today…"
 Some of these dream merchants try to build a credible story of why they want to send you so much of money without asking. One guy signed his name as Mr Alin with the date line of Burkina Fuso in Africa and claimed to be an employee of  African Development Bank.  He tells that "a customer of our bank (an international billionaire French businessman) who was killed with his entire family by PLANE-CRASH in Central England almost 5 years ago"' had a sum of $9.3 million lying in his account. Mr Alin wants me to masquerade as next of kin of the deceased customer to claim the money to share with him. My share of the booty, he said, would be 39 per cent.
Another guy claiming to be an accountant of that bank sent a mail seeking my assistance to withdraw $15 million from the account of a client who also died without leaving a will. He did not tell the reason for the customer's death but increased my share a little higher to 40 per cent. These African guys, it seems, are generous enough to set your share large enough to keep any lesser mortal sleepless for a couple of nights. The European and American con artists peddle a little subtler wares; some break in with the good news of your winning a fabulous sum in the latest draw of a lottery that never existed, while others offer you anything from 100 to 500 million dollars as loans on unbelievably easy terms.  
The advent of the internet has opened a whole new window of opportunities for the swindlers. The inboxes of the targeted 'customers' are mercilessly cluttered by them. Irritating as these unwanted mails are, they, nonetheless, make fascinating reading. The last one in my inbox is from an Audit Manager, Mr Axel Brice (fake, no doubt) from what he claims as an international bank with an offer of $15.2m million. Where did he get this money? Here is an extract, without correction, from his mail:
"3 years ago, most of the African politicians used our bank to launder money overseas through the help of their political advisers, Base on the fact that fund been deposited in our bank was much for the Politicians to control, as they are transferring the fund to overseas, I was able to divert ($15.2M) to an escrow account that belong to unknown person. I will give you full details of this transaction as soon as you confirm your readiness to assist me transfer the fund into your account."
An eighty year old 'kind' widow from Britain claiming that she had inherited twenty million pound sterling from her 'beloved' husband sent a passionately worded email with a promise to give the money to me for charitable works in my country.
These stories, bizarre as they may sound, plays out in many homes and offices across the country and, indeed, the world over. Where these lures lead to is another story.  Not much is known from the victims in Bangladesh who would naturally not like to share the story of their
tupidity.  
If you thought that only simple folks of Bangladesh are hooked by these fraudsters, you have not seen the last of human follies. The God, in His infinite wisdom, has evenly distributed people with peanut size brains in all parts of this planet. Greed and temptations are the common traits that transcend boundaries.  While browsing the web sites I bumped into an article in a New Zealand news paper.
A recent survey of money-remittance agencies, the article says, suggested that "New Zealanders were sending more than $100 million a year to 'high risk' countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and the Ukraine".
 "One person had recently reported a fraud, where he paid $17,000 to 'release' supposed lottery winnings," the article added. The police also identified nine other victims who had also sent $250,000 to the same overseas scammers.
"The scams come in several guises including love online, release of lottery-type winnings, employment opportunities, 'overpayment' and 'refund' requests, or assistance to 'new friends' by allowing a victim's account to be used to receive stolen funds," the paper quoted a statement from the NZ police.
I am prompted to write this piece is to warn the readers not to touch, even by a long stick, these lures even when they look fantastic  
The bottom line is, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
The writer is a former Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank.
saali40@yahoo.com.

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