I usually don’t open e-mails sent to me by someone whom I really don’t know. But there was one I opened recently because it asked for my help. “I have written an earlier mail to you but no response,” so goes the message. But hey, I never received previous mail from this guy before.
“In my first mail I mentioned to you about my late client who deposited some fund with a finance company here in United Kingdom before he died in April 2003,” the sender explains. “He bears the same surname with you.” That’s interesting. I never know anyone for a relative for that matter living in Europe, except a friend.
“Since his death, I have received several letters from the said finance company to provide his next of kin or any of his relatives who can make claim to the funds before the end of the year or the company will be left with no option than to confiscate the consignment and turn the money back to the state,” the message goes on. “As it has been marked unclaimed for four years, I have conducted my personal search to see if I can make contact with any of his relatives but without success. It is in the course of my effort that I have to contact you.” Now, how did he learn about me, I really don’t have any idea.
The sender argues, “I have closely checked and since you bear the same surname with my
deceased client it will be better to present you as the next of kin and the right beneficiary of the funds in the account.” At the end of his message, he reiterates, “Do respond quick if you are interested or should you need further clarification because we have no much time left.”
If I have responded to him, I would have been a millionaire by now. The deceased person reportedly left some US$15 million and the man who sent me the message will “provide you with all the necessary legal backing that is required until this money is paid out to you.” However, he wants “a share base on our agreement.”
Remember the famous line, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” This phrase is often credited to American showman P.T. Barnum. It is generally taken to mean there are (and always will be) a lot of gullible people in the world.
Perhaps the first recorded gullible person was the first woman herself, Eve. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit “from the tree that is in the middle of the garden” of Eden. While Adam was sleeping, the crafty serpent told Eve that she “will surely die.” The serpent explained, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The temptation was too strong for her. After all, the fruit was “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” So, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to Adam. The rest is now history.
“O woman, born first to believe us,” American poet and journalist Joaquin Miller writes. “Yea, also born first to forget, born first to betray and deceive us, yet first to repent and regret.” Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus contends, “We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.”
“Human beings will continue to deceive and overpower one another. Basically, everyone exists in the very nature of suffering, so to abuse or mistreat each other is futile,” commented 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the Dalai Lama.
In the Philippines, a lot of people are swindled by so-called pyramid scam. I am not sure if they fall prey because they are naive or greedy. I don’t want to judge but did these people think that making fast money – getting more than double the amount invested in a short span of time – is not usual.
“One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greeds,” wrote Don Robinson. I am reminded of a wealthy businessman telling his partner. “I’m not greedy,” he told him. “All I want is the land next to mine.”
A farmer was passing under a haunted tree when he heard a voice say, “Would you like to have seven jars of gold?” He looked around and saw no one. But his greed was aroused, so he shouted eagerly, “Yes, I certainly would.”
“Then go home at once,” the voice said. “You will find them under your bed.”
The farmer ran all the way home. Sure enough, there were the seven jars under his bed – all full of gold, except for the one that was only half-full. Now, the farmer could not bear the thought of having a jar half-filled.
He had all the jewelry of his family melted into gold coins and poured them into the half-filled jar. But the jar remained as half-filled before. This was exasperating! He saved and skimped and starved himself and his family — to no avail. No matter how much gold he put into the jar, it remained half-filled.
So one day, he begged the king – where he worked – to increase his salary. His salary was doubled. Again, the fight to fill the jar was on. He even took to begging. The jar devoured every gold coin thrown into it and remained stubbornly half-filled.
The king now noticed how miserable and starved the farmer looked. “What is wrong with you?” he asked. “You were so happy and contented when your salary was smaller. Now, that it has been doubled, you are so worn out and dejected. Can it be that you have the seven jars of gold with you?”
The farmer was astonished. “Who told you this, Your Majesty?” he wondered. The king laughed and replied, “These are obviously the symptoms of he person to whom the ghost offers the seven jars. He once offered them to me. I asked if this money could be spent or was merely to be hoarded and he just vanished without a word. The money cannot be spent. It only brings with it the compulsion to hoard it. Go and give it back to the ghost this minute and you will be happy again.”
“We’re all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy,” Mignon McLaughlin once reminded.
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
“In my first mail I mentioned to you about my late client who deposited some fund with a finance company here in United Kingdom before he died in April 2003,” the sender explains. “He bears the same surname with you.” That’s interesting. I never know anyone for a relative for that matter living in Europe, except a friend.
“Since his death, I have received several letters from the said finance company to provide his next of kin or any of his relatives who can make claim to the funds before the end of the year or the company will be left with no option than to confiscate the consignment and turn the money back to the state,” the message goes on. “As it has been marked unclaimed for four years, I have conducted my personal search to see if I can make contact with any of his relatives but without success. It is in the course of my effort that I have to contact you.” Now, how did he learn about me, I really don’t have any idea.
The sender argues, “I have closely checked and since you bear the same surname with my
deceased client it will be better to present you as the next of kin and the right beneficiary of the funds in the account.” At the end of his message, he reiterates, “Do respond quick if you are interested or should you need further clarification because we have no much time left.”
If I have responded to him, I would have been a millionaire by now. The deceased person reportedly left some US$15 million and the man who sent me the message will “provide you with all the necessary legal backing that is required until this money is paid out to you.” However, he wants “a share base on our agreement.”
Remember the famous line, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” This phrase is often credited to American showman P.T. Barnum. It is generally taken to mean there are (and always will be) a lot of gullible people in the world.
Perhaps the first recorded gullible person was the first woman herself, Eve. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit “from the tree that is in the middle of the garden” of Eden. While Adam was sleeping, the crafty serpent told Eve that she “will surely die.” The serpent explained, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The temptation was too strong for her. After all, the fruit was “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” So, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to Adam. The rest is now history.
“O woman, born first to believe us,” American poet and journalist Joaquin Miller writes. “Yea, also born first to forget, born first to betray and deceive us, yet first to repent and regret.” Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus contends, “We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.”
“Human beings will continue to deceive and overpower one another. Basically, everyone exists in the very nature of suffering, so to abuse or mistreat each other is futile,” commented 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the Dalai Lama.
In the Philippines, a lot of people are swindled by so-called pyramid scam. I am not sure if they fall prey because they are naive or greedy. I don’t want to judge but did these people think that making fast money – getting more than double the amount invested in a short span of time – is not usual.
“One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greeds,” wrote Don Robinson. I am reminded of a wealthy businessman telling his partner. “I’m not greedy,” he told him. “All I want is the land next to mine.”
A farmer was passing under a haunted tree when he heard a voice say, “Would you like to have seven jars of gold?” He looked around and saw no one. But his greed was aroused, so he shouted eagerly, “Yes, I certainly would.”
“Then go home at once,” the voice said. “You will find them under your bed.”
The farmer ran all the way home. Sure enough, there were the seven jars under his bed – all full of gold, except for the one that was only half-full. Now, the farmer could not bear the thought of having a jar half-filled.
He had all the jewelry of his family melted into gold coins and poured them into the half-filled jar. But the jar remained as half-filled before. This was exasperating! He saved and skimped and starved himself and his family — to no avail. No matter how much gold he put into the jar, it remained half-filled.
So one day, he begged the king – where he worked – to increase his salary. His salary was doubled. Again, the fight to fill the jar was on. He even took to begging. The jar devoured every gold coin thrown into it and remained stubbornly half-filled.
The king now noticed how miserable and starved the farmer looked. “What is wrong with you?” he asked. “You were so happy and contented when your salary was smaller. Now, that it has been doubled, you are so worn out and dejected. Can it be that you have the seven jars of gold with you?”
The farmer was astonished. “Who told you this, Your Majesty?” he wondered. The king laughed and replied, “These are obviously the symptoms of he person to whom the ghost offers the seven jars. He once offered them to me. I asked if this money could be spent or was merely to be hoarded and he just vanished without a word. The money cannot be spent. It only brings with it the compulsion to hoard it. Go and give it back to the ghost this minute and you will be happy again.”
“We’re all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy,” Mignon McLaughlin once reminded.
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
