Atleast I hope you’re kind people.
Right now I’m scared to even send out my email address.
Received a scam letter. Figured what do I have to lose. Someone wants to give me money. The least I can do is check it out.
Next thing I now I’m being contacted by the FBI (not the real FBI ofcourse) and they say they are holding a large sume of money for me which they believe to be terrorist funds. “Oh my God in heaven, me being investigated as a terrorist.” For “Christ” sake, I’m Jewish. I support Isreal, but I also support my country.
Needless to say, I immediately looked up the FBI-Hawaii, where the letter supposedly originated and sent a copy of the letter to them, with the indication that this was the stupidest letter I ever wrote.
Now I get another letter from the original source, once again with an FBI letterhead, saying “We at the FBI take these matters very seriously and do not indulge in child’s play” (worst grammer I’ve ever witnessed).
This led me to believe that the letter originally sent by a so called FBI director by the name of Frank George, was real. I’m not denying that a Frank George is in fact a director at the FBI in Hawaii. However, there is no doubt that someone else used his name and wrote the letter.
What freightened me was that, I did not respond to the 1st letter I received. It was passed on to the real FBI in Hawaii.
So how could the impostor know I sent this letter and know to respond to it. Was it intercepted? Was it anticipated? Was some unknown entity able to read my e-mails?
Well, I’m ashamed to say, that the letter asked for my identification, and I sent it to them in the form of my driver’s license, my social security card and also my birth certicate (copies of course).
Because the letter said that I only have 48 hours to act or I’d be tracked down like the scervy naive I am (didn’t really say that), I willfully acted without thinking.
Within an hour, I received another threatening e-mail (FBI letterhead) telling me to deposit $250 in a Nigerian Bank.
Letter was ignored.
If I had only pulled up this web page before.
In the mean time, I filled out a police report, talked to two FBI agencies who had personnel who were familiar with this scam, canceled my credit card, filed a report with the FTC, placed a credit alert with the 3 reporting agencies and almost canceled my 2 bank accounts. I was told not to, because no information was ever given out.
All of this has happened during a 72 hour period. All indications were that it was a scam. I’m halfway intellegent, but I fell for this crap.
What’s still freightning me is that I am receiving phone calls for the previous 2 days from an unknown source. During the first call, the caller wanted to verify my address and know if I had a credit or debit card. They wanted to “give me something”. I told them I moved and cancelled my credit card. There is no call back number.
Since then I have answered “0″ calls with no call-back numbers. I have received maybe 5 or 6 of these calls. They leave no messages.
Maybe this is the end of it or just the beginning. Who knows?
I’d love to know about that 2nd FBI e-mail and how they knew I passed on the information to the FBI in Hawaii. I’d also like to know where these calls originated from. I can almost quarentee they won’t be listed on my cellular phone bill, but I will definately check next month.
Any advise, would be well taken. I had no idea this problem was so prevalent. I thought I’d find 1 or 2 web pages on the matter, but there’s a whole bunch. I read some of the stories from people who were so much less fortunate than I was. My heart goes out to them.

G. Gilman
Lake Worth, FL