From : villaran nenita <mrs_villarannenita0@yahoo.fr>
Sent : Thursday, January 19, 2006 7:04 PM
Subject : Hello,Cronus. Am Mrs Villaran Nenita Please Get Back Is Urgent Needed

My Dear,CRONUS

I am Mrs Villaran Nenita-a citizen of philippine,widow and legitimate heir to the late former Minister of finance who was assassinated for been working with the ex-president Joseph Estrada in philippine.

I inherited a total sum of 19.3 million dollars from my late husband, The presure from my decease husband's family for this money has compelled me to leave Manila and have the money which is concealed in a metallic trunk box is deposited with a security and finance company Cote d' ivoire under a secret arrangement as a family treasure.

This means that the security company does not know the content of this box that was shipped from the Philippine to Cote d' ivoire under a diplomatic coverage.

My purpose of asking for your assistance boil down to the fact that I don't want my late husband's family to be aware or name involve. and the deposit statement of the box authorized the company to make this box avaliable for shipment on request only to my foreign bussiness representative, though unname.

Hence I want you to contact the the security company as my bussiness partner, after receiving the prove from me to enable the company release the consigment to you diplomatically, while I join you on the arrival of the box.

I have paid all demurrage ,storage charges and the shipment fee, all you need do is to help me contact the security company and introduce yourself as my bussiness partner, requesting the shipment of the box.

And as soon as Diplomatic shipping agent approved the shipment and tell you the arrival date of the box then I will join you to give you 20% of the money instantly before I go on with the proposed investment in your domain provided is secured and investment friendly.

Please if you are interested and willing to represent me as my bussiness partner kindly write me as soon as possible.

I awaits your urgent response.

Best wishes,

Mrs. Villaran Nenita.

I was more than a little suspicious but I was also kind of intrigued. I decided to see where this was going to go and to see where the scam was going to come out. I must admit I do like to watch a professional at work even if I already know what they are going to do. I sent her this:

Hello,
I am a little suspicious of this as it is a very strange situation. However, if it is legitimate I am willing to help you. Please let me know what it is that you need from me.

So after I bit I waited to see what she was going to write. A little part of me was hoping that this would be for real and all the other scams were taking from this real life story, but that is never the case.

From : villaran nenita <mrs_villarannenita0@yahoo.fr>
Sent : Tuesday, January 24, 2006 7:52 AM
Subject : Yes very very .

Dearest,

This transaction is legitamate, it is what i herit from my late husband.

Therefore i want you to send the listed details of yours so that they will release the consigement in your name.

Thanks
Mrs.Villaran.

Well, if that is all that there was to it and she was not going to ask me for any money then what did I have to loose, right? So, I sent off the following.

Dear Mrs. Veran,
Ok, My name is Cronus
And my address is XXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX
Again, this is a very strange situation but if you need help I am willing to help you. Please let me know if there is anything else that you need.

Now all I had to do was wait and see if the package would come or if she was going to need something else. I was not sure where this was going to go because I had no experience with this scam before but I am a patient person so I waited and received the following email.

From : villaran nenita <mrs_villarannenita0@yahoo.fr>
Sent : Wednesday, January 25, 2006 10:29 AM
Subject : Yes very very .

Brother Cronus,

Thanks for your email and your sincere concert to help me live a new life in your country. I just want to first of all appreciate you for your wonderful response and that has let me know your full

interest and have also given me the assurance to know that you are a very honest person in doing business relationship, inshort i am most greatful for your concern to help me get a better life in your country, again please notting wrong is going to happen to you ,as you are saying listen as an aged woman it will never give me any joy or happiness in leading an innocent person who is helping someone who is in need of help as you are helping me in this project as my associate so that my only remaining inheritance sum will be secured into your proper care in your country.

So my dear brother Cronus, what you have to do right now is to call the security company on phone (22507483116) to tell them that you are my business associate to receive the trunk box in their care and give them your safe residential address where you want them to deliver the box of money today, and below is their full contact:

Company's Name: MAGNUM TRUST SECURITIES INC,ABIDJAN-COTE D'IVOIRE.
Telephone: 22507483116
Fax: 22507597333
Email: infomagnum@diplomats.com
Contact Person: Mr.Yaya Musa Yobe (Director of consigement)

All the informations which you need to prove to the company that you are my business partner are right there in the attached certificate of deposit and the agreement bond. You have to perform quickly to this effect so that we can conclude this business sooner, this transaction will take only two days at most to be concluded after you contact the company with the cetificate of deposit as my business partner. You have to call the company now before anything else so that they can use their diplomatic power to ship the box to your address today.

As soon as the box leaves the security company in (Abidjan-Cote d'Ivoire) immediately you get the confirmation from the company about the arrival date and time of the box to your address, i will give you the secrete access opening code of the box for you to open the box and send me some amount of money to enable me buy my air ticket to come over to your country to meet up the arrival of the box with you. My dear brother, you have to keep this transaction a top secrete from your friends and family so that my life and the money will be safe when i come to meet you and you must not show any one my document for the safety of the transaction.

Please also take proper note of this point : do not make any mistake to tell anyone in the company that the box contains money because my husband deposited the box with a code as family treasure so that there will be no evil eye brow attracted the box of money while in the care of the security company, so should in case they ask you just tell them that the box contains family treasure and that is all.

Download the document to call the security company now to tell them that you are my business partner and that you want them to ship the trunk box to your address today. the security company is working 24 to 24 hours every day so you can always get them on line.

Awaiting to hear from you after reaching the company for the delivery of our trunk box to your address as my associate, Again i am looking forward to meet you soon and to have all the information which i requested from you in my last mail.

Best regard,

Madam Nenita Villaran.

After receiving this email I was more than intrigued. I had that surreal sense of wonder. I could not believe that this woman had actually sent me this extremely private personal and valuable information. Oh, wait.....it's actually worthless. I decided that I would explore this a little further and do a couple of google searches. The first one I did was for Magnum Trust Securities Inc. I came up with a few things that were close in name but nothing matching exactly. The next search I ran was for Mrs. Nenita Villaran. I was hoping her name would pop up with her husbands and it would talk about their life stories in the Philippines and all would be good, but no such luck. On the top search was a listing for 419.bittenus.com. I clicked on the website and found that dear sweet Mrs. Villaran had been telling other people a very similar story as she was telling me. I felt so betrayed! I read through the information and decided not to contact Magnum Trust Securities since I could gather the information of what they would be telling me from the 419.bittenus.com website. So, I sent off the following email.

Dearest Mrs. Villaran,
I have contacted the trust company and they said that everything is in order. They said that they would fax me the diplomatic shipment forms once they received the $500 shipping and processing fee. I now just need for you to western union me $500 to Cronus in the United States. Once I receive the money I will contact you and send you money to come over. If you can't afford the total $500 I can cover $200 of it. So, once I receive the money I will send it off and get the trunk shipped here. I will contact you once it arrives. I will talk to you soon.

I thought that was a very nice email and if she were for real she could have sent me the money and being the honest person that I am I would have sent it off, however all she sent back was the following.

From : villaran nenita <mrs_villarannenita0@yahoo.fr>
Sent : Thursday, January 26, 2006 1:58 PM
Subject : Yes very very .

Brother Cronus,

Thanks alot for your update but i want you to understand my condition first so that you can still not to think that i can be able to rsie any amount from muy side due the fact that i do not have any money in my hand if you can be able to rise this money and pay them, i will pay you back after the shippment.

Thanks

Mrs Villaran Nenita.

So now all of my hopes and dreams are stamped out. This sweet little old lady was trying to scam me! I was so disappointed in the Filipino elderly. I did want to give her a second chance to redeem herself and maybe she was just not really mentally with it and needed some coaxing. I sent off the following email trying to persuade her to send ME some money.

Dearest Mrs, Villaran,
I understand that this shipment is very important to you and I don't want to hold up the shipment of your personal holdings on account of my financial state. It would be difficult for me to come up with the money for a few weeks as I have bills due. I'm sure that there is someone there that knows your situation that can loan you the money if you just ask them. As soon as the package arrives I will send you the money and you can pay back your friend. If you can come up just $300 I can cover the rest for the shipment. I hope to hear from you soon.

I waited a day and did not hear anything. I think she was becoming suspicious since I was asking her for money. For some reason people don't like it when people they don't know ask them for money. At this point it gets a little unclear of who was trying to scam who. I sent off this email trying to be very concerned but with people like this I just wanted to drag it out and make them look stupid.

Dearest sister Villaran,
I have not heard from you and I know that time is ticking away. I am worried that something has happend to you as I have not received word about how you are coming along with the money. I need for you to help me to help you. Please respond soon and let me know where the money is. If you explain your situation to your family or friends I'm sure that they will be willing to help you. I have tried to raise the money here but no one seems to know who you are so they are unwilling to lend me the money to help you. This is something that can change both of our lives and I pray that you are coming up with the money so that you can start your new life here in the United States. Best regards and I hope to hear from you soon.

I received one more email from her that I lost in the email shuffle. She asked that if I was not ready to help her then to stop toying with her. She said that she had no money and could not send any. I sent her back one more email telling her to get a job.