On Wednesday, Feb. 19,2003, I received an email from a man who called himself “Augustine Okocha." In the subject line was written “KINGDOM INVESTMENT" Here is the email exactly at it was written, misspellings and all:
Calvary greetings to you in the precious name of our lord Jesus christ.First I want to appreciate you and your ministry for the work God has done through you,may the lord continue to strenthen you more and more as you continue to fight the good fight of faith. Please allow me introduce my self.I am Augustine (Jayjay) Okocha, I am a full time Nigerian international footballer.I started my football career wayback in the 80's (1984)to be precise,with a local club here in Nigeria. I played proffessional football between 1985-1988 in Nigeria before I finally moved abroad to play in a foreign football club.I have enjoyed the unlimited grace of God all through my football career as i have played in numerous European 1st class leageues and high graded tournaments ,such as UEFA champions league,and cup winers cup,including the English FA cup finals and also the USA 94 wold cup,Atlanta 96 olympics games which my country (NIGERIA) took the Gold medal.This is but to mentioned a few But I have come to a point of realization in my life that God has other plans for me,here comes the fulfillment of this scripture"there are many devices in a mans heart nevertheless the counsell of the lord shall stand".I must tell you that the counsell of the lord has always stood for me and it has been the most fulfilling part of my life. I have been grately blessed above and beyond my widest immagination, I realise God's calling upon my life and I know I have been called to propagate the the gospel and this i intend to do with the wealth God has blessed me with. Recently a prophecy was given on my behalf to sow a seed for a need,which actully has made me wait upon the lord a long while and it was revealed to me to sow into your ministry the sum of $6 million and this money has been sent to a security company in Europe,so all you need to do is to contact the security company and this money will be sent to your ministry at my instruction to the firm. I must advice you to use this money judicously to the glory of God and to the down fall of satan. I want you to assist me with all the needed information to process this payment,information like your telephone number and your fax number.Once again I want to say thank you for the good work as we await the return of our king Jesus Christ. Please reply this mail immediately to confirm that you received my mail, Thank you and God bless you Augustine (Jayjay) Okocha
Immediately red warning lights start to flash in my head. Looked up the man on the internet and found that there is indeed a soccer player in Nigeria by the name of Augustine Okocha. I looked at the email header and found the IP address of 217.78.73.161 and looked up this address with "Karen's WhoIs" program and found that it is indeed from Nigeria!
After that I went to a good web site on Internet hoaxes: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ but did not find any thing resembling the “KINGDOM INVESTMENT" there. So I replied to the man asking him how he found me and why he was interested in me personally. I did not give him my phone number or any other contact information.
I wrote an email to a Christian brother asking his advice and he warned me to be careful.
The next day I received the following reply from Nigeria:
DEAR BROTHER JAMES, GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I WANT TO ASSURE YOU THAT THE LORD WILL NOT ALLOW HIS CHILDREN FALL INTO THE HANDS OF EVIL DOERS. BELOVE,I GOT YOUR ADDRESS ON A WEB SEARCH I CARRIED OUT ON A RALIABLE AND TRUST WORTHY PERSON FOR THIS GODLY AND KINDLY GESTURE. BELOVE,WHAT THE LORD HAS BEEN DOING IN MY LIFE IS ONIMMAGINABLE BECOS I HAVE BEEN BLESSED IN DIFFERENT WAYS PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY IN THE PAST MONTH'S,THAT WAS WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT THIS PROJECT. THE LORD STARTED SOMETHING IN MY LIFE THROUGH MY PASTOR PAUL ENECHE WHOM I WILL WANT YOU TO CALL ON THIS NUMBER +234-8033534881 FOR MORE COUNCEL. PLEASE BELOVE,AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS MAIL,FURNISH ME WITH THE NECCESSARY INFORMATION AS IN YOUR PHONE NUMBER FAX NUMBER AND CONTACT ADDRESS TO ENABLE ME GO AHEAD TO PREPARE THE AIRWAY BILL AND SEND IT TO YOU FOR YOU TO CARRY IT TO THE SECURITY COMPANY AND CLAIM THE FUNDS. I REMAIN YOUR BELOVE. BROTHER AUSTIN OKOCHA
So now I am getting a bit excited. I was thinking: “Maybe it's legit! He used my name in his reply! He gave me a phone number. Maybe I could give a quick call on our cheap Yahoo BB phone to PAUL ENECHE and find out if it's for real or not." But I prayed and the Lord showed me to investigate the Internet a bit further and to ask some more advise from my friends. I did not call the number nor reply to that email. Thank God I didn't!!
So I went to my favorite search engine of yahoo.com and searched for web sites on scams and found the following:
http://www.straightistheway.com/email/nigerian2.htmHere is the first paragraph of that page:
WARNING: The following is a Nigerian email scam. The scam sends a phone number for you to call after you reply to their first email. Never respond to such a number, because many scammers use numbers which automatically charge a fee that is deposited into their account and charged to your phone bill, much like the U.S. 900 toll numbers. Toll free numbers may be rigged to capture your caller information - this may be very sophisticated and could even allow the scammer to "take control" of your cell phone number, thereby allowing the scammer to make calls using YOUR phone number REMOTELY. This particular scam is almost identical to Pastor Emmanuel Tofih's email scam, and is exactly the same as the Deacon John Ngozi scam - including the substandard spelling.I also found this site: http://www.nigerianscams.org/ltropln.htm
The first paragraph is:
When your letter starts with a line or lines similar to the ones below, chances are 99 and 1/2 % that you are dealing with a scamsters/gangster. (Spelling errors, courtesy of our "Nigerian Lads")And so from the above information it is pretty clear who had been writing me! Please be warned not to respond to offers by email that seem too good to be true. I don't consider myself easily fooled by internet hoaxes, and I am not tricked into opening mails that contain email worms / viruses, but I nearly fell for this one by thinking to call the telephone number listed. Thank God that He spared my family of what might have been a whopping big telephone bill!! So please be warned and share this with your young people so that you don't become the Nigerian gang's next victim!
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