|
We plunk down a dollar on a LOTTO ticket which might win us $Millions$ but we are not terribly disappointed when we simply lose the dollar. I am stunned that educated Americans will fall for the old Endowments Selling Scam...
Endowments Selling Scam Suckered Us
by Ted L Glines
Usually, any of my incoming mail gets thrown in the trash if it carries a business address on the envelope. Companies trying to sell me something are wasting their time. If I wanted their product, I would have already found and purchased it. But this one envelope caught my eye. “Anonymous Christian Endowments” with an address in Vancouver, Washington. Below my windowed name and address, in bold red type, it said: “Time Sensitive Document - Check Enclosed.” Really! Probably another marketing gimick, but it got me curious enough to open the envelope.
And there was a check from “Anonymous Christian Endowments”, made out to my name (me?), in the amount of Ten Thousand, Three Hundred, and no/100 Dollars. And it was signed by Albrech Anit, Disbursement Secretary. There was a letter enclosed with the check. The good news was not as good as it had first looked, but, the news was still good. The letter went like this.
“Dear Ted Glines, You have been selected to be the bearer of glad tidings to someone in dire need. You have not been selected at random. We have looked into your profile in depth. You are a member of your New Boston Chamber of Commerce and you are a Deacon at Graceway Baptist Church. You work at the local Best Western and you have no criminal history. You have been married twice and you have two grown sons, Mark and David. We have looked at Mark's Website and his passion is sailing. We know you rather well.”
I was shocked. How could these people know all this stuff about me? But the letter continued.
“We feel we may trust you to follow these simple instructions. Cash the enclosed check. Keep $300 for yourself. Send the remaining $10,000 via Western Union to Marian Harrist in Geddes, NY. Call Ms. Harrist at (315) 457-3895 and inform her that she has an incoming Western Union cash transfer. Do not, under any circumstances, tell her the name of our benevolent fund since our Christian credo mandates that our endowments must remain anonymous for all time. You can tell her that a guardian angel is looking out for her. Please keep this to yourself, but, several years ago, Ms. Harrist had breast cancer and she had a double mastectomy, but the cancer has recently resurfaced in her lungs, and she has no funds to pay for the necessary surgery. At this time, she is very despondent, and you, Mr. Glines, will be saving her life!”
It is almost impossible for me to describe my feelings at that point. This Marian Harrist had already had her female self partially destructed by having her breasts removed. And now she was under sentence of death by lung cancer because she had no money for the surgery. How awful! How unlucky can you get? But I was amazed that a Christian organization like “Anonymous Christian Endowments” existed to deal with needs like those of Ms. Harrist. And I felt very privileged to be a part of that.
When I went to cash this check at my bank, their response was interesting. The girl at the teller window called someone and a suited gentleman quickly appeared. He identified himself as the bank president. I asked him if there was a problem with the check. He said that there did not appear to be a problem, and he asked me if I would not mind receiving the cash in large bills. I had no reason to have a problem with that, so I found myself being handed ten One Thousand Dollar bills and three One Hundred Dollar bills. This was the first time I had ever seen a One Thousand Dollar bill. President Grover Cleveland on the front, looking very stuffy. I am comfortable with $20 bills, and those ten pieces of paper felt like funny-money to me. The three One Hundred Dollar bills felt better, but odd, and they were mine! I felt very happy when I walked out of the bank, like the sun was brighter than usual.
I remember that was mid-morning on a Friday, the nineteenth of October. I was upbeat and bouyant and so pleased with myself. I had three hundred dollars to spend on myself and I was going to be instrumental in saving a young lady's life and making her bubble with happiness! Life does not get better than this.
The funds transfer at Western Union was more tense. They looked at me with big questions in their eyes, and used a special pen to mark those One Thousand Dollar bills, but they finally got the job done and the transfer was sent off to dear Marian. I walked out of there wondering what kind of suspicious stuff those Western Union people dealt with? My bills came directly from the bank. Why would they be suspicious? Of course they were good.
And my $300 felt very good in my pocket. I would have fun with that.
Being my normal (too) curious self, I googled “marian harrist” and found that she was listed all over the front page as a director of a non-profit corporation which mentors prisoners. Wow! In spite of her own problems, this lady was doing good for others. That made me feel even better about my “guardian angel” role.
I called the number for Marian Harrist as soon as I got back home. But I was surprised at the way she responded. She did not seem shocked or even greatly surprised when I told her about the incoming Western Union cash transfer. She simply thanked me and hung up. Her matter-of-fact response put a damper on my feeling of being a hero, but I was assured that she would go to Western Union and receive the essential funds. And she would be able to get her surgery and survive. That was good. I went about my business and had a very good time with the $300 “agent fee.”
It was Monday, October 29th, when I got my wakeup call. A letter/notification from my bank that the $10,300 check was no good, a fraud, and I owed the bank for that amount. Needing help, I googled “Anonymous Christian Endowments” and there was nothing there as a specific benevolent organization by that name. Where had they gone? I needed their help right now. I called the number for Marian Harrist, but there was a disconnect notice.
When you cash a check at your bank, it will be honored and you will receive the cash. That check then goes through their own night audit process. And then the check is sent to their central (clearing house) bank for final processing (this may take from seven to ten business days)
Sometime after nine o'clock the next morning, there came a loud banging on my front door. It was two officers from the New Boston Police Department, saying I had until Monday at Noon to come up with the $10,300 or I was going to be arrested for bank fraud and wire fraud and be sent to prison.
This did not happen to me. But it did happen to a very dear friend of mine (Marian Harrist) in Texarkana, Texas. Even as I write this, my hugs are wrapped all around her to try and keep her from self-destructing. She is looking at the concept of going to prison, losing her cherished Downs Syndrome son, David, and she is crying about killing herself. Her tears rip me to pieces, always. I am tough, a mean killing machine, but Marian's tears reduce me to a puddle. This fictionalized version has been colorized by the stuff of fiction, but this could happen to you.
I never expected that someone close to me, like Marian, would be hit by the Nigerian scams. Even as we write this, a person named Perkins is looking at a $6,000 check, and an $11,000 check, in Ohio. He knows he has been scammed. He is not the brightest lightbulb in the box, but he is really hot! His wife and Marian share one thing in common. They both have a Nigerian contact.
So you open your mail today, and there is a check for $23,400 made out to you, with this set of confidential instructions. What are you going to do?
|
|
