It's an old adage: if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.
We are reminded of that once again after a reader brought in an old friend: the Nigerian scam letter. It can come in many forms (this one from Spain) but it always seek the same thing — your cash, in exchange for an amazing promise of riches. It can be hand-delivered or arrive in the e-mail inbox. In all cases, no matter the wording, it’s simply the same scam.
The writer promises to share riches with you, in exchange for a small fee and — this is the clincher that the deal is complete BS — to keep the whole thing on the hush hush.
As soon as you read this request for confidentiality, chuck the entire letter out. It’s obviously a scam. If it’s legit., why keep it a secret?
And don’t bother to respond — even to tear them a new one. You’re just confirming your address is legit. Now it can be sold in a mailing list.
There are pitfalls everywhere when it comes to scams and scammers, so the best policy is to let the police know you got one (so they can track the incidents) and then ignore it. Toss it out.
Then, if talk of such cash winnings have only whetted your appetite for quick and easy cash, go play the lottery. The rest of us could sure use that infusion of gaming grants.
• I was just so sure the FightHST folks came up with a question for the current HST question. Perhaps I was thinking simply that it’s their fault we’re voting yet again. In any case, I stand corrected. It was Elections BC that formed the question, based on HST referendum legislation, created after the FightHST folks ran a successful petition to have the tax subject to a referendum. — editorial by Steven Heywood