Willed $2.5 Million

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 2/27/2007

For some reason, I get a lot of spam in which the sender is offering to give me a large amount of money. These e-mails are nothing more than a scam that works by convincing greedy and lazy people that they can get something for nothing. Once the person is hooked, the scam artist starts telling them that there are fees that have to be paid in order for them to get the money. The scam artist usually makes the claim that he or she is unable to pay the fees, either because the money is locked away until the fees are paid or because of some other reason. It is an old scam and I am suprised that anyone would be taken in by it, especially since the people running it send out so many variations on it.

A New Twist

A lot of the e-mails I have received of the nature that the widow of an important official who was assassinated now has cancer and she wants to get a large amount of money out of some foreign country. She offers to pay some gullible American a percentage of the money in exchange for doing nothing more than providing an account into which she will transfer the money. I thought it was interesting when I received and e-mail that was a twist on the scam that I hadn't seen. The e-mail I recieve was as follows:

Mrs. Qwin Rafer
Email: [e-mail deleted]
Dear Sir/Madam

My name is Mrs.Qwin Rafer, I am a dying woman who have decided to donate what I have to you/ church. I am 59 years old and I was diagnosed for cancer for about 2 years ago, immediately after the death of my husband, who has left me everything he worked for. I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of God, rather than allow my relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly. Please pray that the good Lord forgive me my sins. I have asked God to forgive me and I believe he has because He is a merciful God. I will be going in for an operation in less than one hour.

I decided to WILL/donate the sum of $2,500,000 (two million five hundred thousand dollars) to you for the good work of the lord, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows.

At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls right now due to the fact that my relatives are around me and my health status. I have adjusted my WILL and my lawyer is aware I have changed my will you and he will arrange the transfer of the funds from my account to you. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others.

Contact my lawyer (Barrister Parker Brown) with this specified email:
[e-mail deleted] and tell him that I have WILLED ($2,500,000.00) to you and I have also notified him that I am WILLING that amount to you for a specific and good work. I know I don't know you but I have been directed to do this. Thanks and God bless.

NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished as I don't want anything that will jeopardize my last wish. And Also I will be contacting with you by email as I don't want my relation or anybody to know because they are always around me.

Regards,
Mrs. Qwin Rafer

Happy moments,praise God.
Difficult moments,seek God.
Quiet moments,worship God.
Painful moments,trust God.
Every moment,thank God.

The thing that makes this e-mail different from what I have seen is that Mrs. Qwin Rafer is claiming to be working through an lawyer. This may be just to explain why it is a man who is on the other end of the line if it becomes necessary to speak over the phone. Also, since she is claiming to be willing the money to me, it would be necessary to work through someone other than her since she will be dead before I would see any money.

Another thing that makes this scheme different from some it that the intended prey are people who are either involved in church or who would be willing to rob a church of funds that were intended for its ministries. For the second group, I couldn't care less if they get taken in by this scam. For the first group, I can only say that I can think of few things worse than trying to rob God by robbing his people.

Problems with the New Twist

Previous versions of the scam had some noticeable problems, but this version seems to have even more. One of the problems with these scams is that the claim is made that it is being offered to one person who was picked either randomly or as in this case, through the leadership of the Lord. While I believe the Lord can direct people to give money to others, I find it hard to believe that God direct someone to pick me out of a list of e-mail addresses.

If the woman really wanted to will the money to me or to my church, there would be no reason for me to do anything at all. If she really wanted me to have the money, she would know my name or at least direct her attorney to learn my name. My name would be included in the will and it would not be my responsibility to contact her attorney to tell him that she has willed me the money. It would be his responsibility to find me and tell me that she as willed me the money.

I have no problem with someone wanting to give me money or for someone to want to give the church money. If someone did that, I can assure you that we could find a good use for the money. There are always projects that we would like to do or would like to do better, but lack the money to do so, but neither I nor the church need money enough to go chasing after it. If Mrs. Qwin Rafer wants to send the church money she can send a cashier's check to the church treasurer or better yet she can show up and drop it in the offering plate, but don't expect us to beg for her money or pay attorney fees to get it. It is God who supplies our needs. If she wants to be used by God to do that then that is good, but there are better uses of our time and money than chasing after a scam artist.