Headlines:

 

       Yes, There Are People in the Leasing Business Stupid Enough to Send Money to Nigeria

        Average Top Credit Card Rate is 14.66%--variable interest, too, plus

           no schedule of principal pay down when comparing to a lease

         Advanta Credit Card Business Earns 2%, They Report

          Baseball Special ( as it appears many will have the time to attend ball games )

           GATX on a Roll----Their Press Release

 

Thursday, April 26, San Francisco, Equipment Leasing Association Luncheon Meeting

 

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   No One In the Leasing Business Is That Stupid---Wrong!!!!!

 

Yes, there are people in the business world, and the leasing industry, who have

fallen for this scam Congo scam.

 

One leasing industry person, who attends many of the conferences, and is well-known,

told me he fell for the Nigeria scam last year.  He put $40,000 into the bank, his

bank, as his requirement, and when the supposed consulate person withdrew $39,500,

he said he needed the money, and might lose the contact if he didn't get another

$10,000. That is all he needed. Just $10,000.  He had to move fast.  Nevertheless, this leasing

industry person only lost $39,500, as he was not going to fall for putting another $10,000

up-front. He reported it to the Department of Justice that was very well aware of

the scheme and its many versions.

 

And several readers sent in e-mails to ask if I was "positive" it was a scam.

They wanted to know if we were "accurate."

 

As another reader wrote, as P.T.Barnum said, " There is a sucker born every minute."

 

To those of you who wrote in and said we in the leasing industry are not that dumb,

how about Advanta, Unicapital, and the many others who bid for plastic card lease

accounts, or deals from the internet that no one knew the vendor or checked out

the vendor or the delivery of equipment. Or who invested in a dot.com that

was $30 million in the hole and still not showing a profit, but could raise

another $10 million because it was "the internet."  Wasn't that dumb, too?

 

        +              +             +

 

I received this email the other day.  It is very similar to the one you

just let us know about in your newsletter.  In addition we have received

phone calls from the so called Prince of Nigeria requesting account

information for wire transfer. If it sounds crazy, it probably is!

 

What will they think of next? How stupid does one have to be?

 

James Hurst

d_williams_11@yahoo.com

Alternative Capital

800-351-2120            Phone

407-522-5373            Fax

 

 

 

Attn:President/Ceo.

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

RE:            TRANSFER OF US$21.5 MILLION (TWENTY ONE MILLION,

            FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS ONLY).

 

I know this email will reach you as a surprise, but need not to worry as

we are using the only secured and confidential medium available to seek

for foreign assistance/partnership in a business transaction which is of

mutual benefit.

I am a member of the Federal Government of Nigeria Contract Award and

Monitoring Committee in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporatio(NNPC)

Sometime ago, a contract was awarded to a foreign firm in NNPC by my

Committee. This contract was over invoiced to the tune of US$21.5M. U.S.

Dollars. This was done deliberately. The over-invoicing was a deal by my

committee to benefit from the project. We now want to transfer this

money which is in a suspense Account with NNPC into any Overseas Account

which we expect you to provide for us.

SHARE: -

For providing the account where we shall remit the money into, you will

be entitled to 30% of the money,60% will be for me and my partners while

10% has been mapped out from the total sum to cover any expenses that

maybe incurred by us during the course of this transfer ,both locally and

international expenses.

I would require the following: -

1.         Your company's name,address,telephone and fax numbers.

2.         Your bank account and address where the money will be remitted.

 

The above information would be used to make formal applications as a

matter of procedure for the release of the money and onward transfer to

your account.  It does not matter whether or not your company does

contract projects of this nature described here. The assumption is that

your company won the major contract and subcontracted it out to other

companies. More often than not,big trading companies or firms of

unrelated fields win major contracts and subcontracts to more

specialized firms for execution of such contracts.

We have strong reliable connections and contacts at the Central Bank of

Nigeria, as well as the Federal Ministry of Finance and we have no doubt

that all the money will be released and transferred if we get the

necessary foreign partner to assist us in this deal.  Therefore,when the

business is successfully concluded we shall through our same connections

withdraw all documents used from all the concerned Government Ministries

for 100% security.

We are ordinary civil servants and we will not want to miss this once in

a lifetime opportunity to get rich.  We want this money to be

transferred to the overseas Accounts for us, before the present

Democratic Government start Auditing all Federal Government owned

Parastatals.

Please contact me immediately through my telephone number whether or not

you are interested in this deal.If you are not,it will enable me scout

for another foreign partner to carry out this deal.  Butwhere you are

interested,send the required documents aforementioned herein through my

above telephone number, or e-mail:petroleum_dev1@yahoo.com as time is of

the essence in this business.  I wait in anticipation of your fullest

co-operation.

                                                Yours faithfully,

                                                Dr.Danladi Williams

 

 

              +                 +                 +

 

 

I am embarrassed to say about 4 years ago I took this seriously and thank god I got to my

senses. I know people who lost between 20-50,000

 

 ( Name With Held )

      +                  +            +

I just received this e-mail today, and it reminded me of the old African

fraud you mentioned earlier this month. Could it be???

Ross

Ross Reida <Ross@aelusa.com

 

 

 

DR JOHN BANKOLE

Tel: 234 1 774 6565,

Fax: 234 1  759 2789

24thApril, 2001.

 

Investment Proposal.

Dear Sir,

 

I hope this mail will reach you in the best of health and business

conditions and receive the most desired attention from you even as we have

not had any previous correspondence before.

I am constrained by insufficient information about you to express in full

the main objectives of this proposal. However, kindly reach me immediately

for details should you agree to its content.

My colleagues and I would like to solicit your kindness in assisting us to

champion the transfer of some fund from our country to yours for safe

keeping. The total amount of fund is $36Million. The source of this fund

will be disclosed to you as soon as your positive response is received to

this effect.

I am a principal accountant to the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the

Chairman to the Federal Tenders' Board in charge of contract award and

monitoring in Nigeria.

Basically, you would be required to nominate a suitable bank account that

will conveniently accommodate the total fund. Account could be a fresh or an

already existing one, and could be individual or corporate account.

On completion of the transaction, you shall have a benefit of 30% of the

fund for your envisaged efforts and assistance rendered. 10% shall be used

to settle any expenses both you and I shall make at the course of this

transaction. Details of this proposal will be sent to you as soon as your

response is received.

Please call me on Telephone No: 234 1 774 6565, or send a Fax to No: 234  1

759 2789 for more details on how we shall commence the whole transaction.

This proposal is strictly confidential, free from any form of risk and does

not depend on any particular field of trade to prosecute. It however

requires your adequate participation and support to enable its

accomplishment on schedule.

Thanks in anticipation and God bless.

Best regards.

DR JOHN BANKOLE

 

 +                +                       +

 

    Subject: Beware this Scam

 

    This is now making the rounds via the internet. For years, it has been in the mail to

businesses. It must work, as the person still is sending it after all the years---evidently

there are people who fall for this scam.

 

         

 

    FROM: DR. AHMED KASSIM

 

    FEDERAL TRADE CENTER

 

    FEDERAL SECRETARIAT COMPLEX (ANNEX)

 

    SUITE#: 1030

 

    IKOYI - LAGOS

 

    ATTN: PRESIDENT/C.E.O

 

    Dear Sir/Madam,

 

    REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

 

    I am a Director in one of the Federal  Ministries here in Nigeria. You were recommended to

us by an associate, who   assured us in Confidence of your ability and capability to prosecute a

 

 

 

 

business transaction of huge magnitude requiring maximum confidence and strict  

confidentiality. Our intention is to introduce this business deal to you that would be mutually

beneficial to both parties.

 

     

 

    We require the assistance of a foreign company   / partner in the transfer of the sum of

US$27,500,000.00 [TWENTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS] which is

presently held in the Industrial Bank here in Nigeria. We intend to use the funds in the

importation of goods into our country, working hand in hand with a foreign partner after the

funds has been successfully transferred to an account  overseas.

 

This business deal will be subject to satisfactory arrangements as to agreed terms and

conditions of partnership.   For the sake of confidentiality, I would not be able to disclose the nature of this transaction for now. However, I would furnish you with the details of the transaction when you get in touch with me on my E-mail address as indicated above.

 

    If you are interested in this business transaction, please contact me on my above E-mail

address, so that I can   forward to you the detailed modalities of this transaction. 

 

    You should please note, that this transaction is meant to be concluded within a certain time frame, hence your prompt response is solicited.     

 

    We look forward to doing this business with you.

   

 

    Thanks,

 

     

 

    Yours Faithfully,

    DR. AHMED KASSIM

 

    Ag.Director

 

    Budget and Planning

 

    ------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

      ( Now if this were an ATM machine for a Chiropractor's office, new in business,

      in a major shopping center in North Dakota, guaranteed by his brother who

      is a dentist, and the bankruptcy was only five years ago, and the vendor

      from Burgoine, Mississippi, said if you do this deal, he'll send

      you all his ATM business, now that is another matter. editor )                

                   

Coda---

 

This is not targeting the leasing industry - these guys are targeting every

man, woman, child in the country, maybe the world!  When I was at the NACM

Loss Prevention Dept (I left 4 years ago), we had hundreds of these - they

were ALL different, but all of the same general concept...I s/w someone from

FBI headquarters and he said that they had they had - don't quote me on this

- I think it was TEN'S of thousands of them out of Nigeria, and they couldn't

detect any pattern. In other words, there was no 'mastermind' that could be

linked to them (which would have made it easier to stop).

 

Nonetheless, I think it's a good thing to continue to warn people. Keep it

up!

 

Rob Lawson

CrToday@aol.com

Credit Today

301-421-4402

 

 

__________________________________________

     

      Thursday, San Francisco, Equipment Leasing Association Luncheon Meeting

 

San Francisco, CA

Renaissance Parc 54

55 Cyril Magnin Street

San Francisco, CA.

Tel (415) 392-8000

Complete Electronic Lease Transaction

Legal Update on Digital Signatures

Presenters:

Chuck Nabit

Matt Shieman

Mark Schreiber

Cooper White & Cooper

11:30am Registration

12 Noon Luncheon and presentation

2pm Conclude

 

If you would like further information on these Metros please call Jeanne Lund at (703) 516-8366,

 

 

 

or email her at jlund@elamail.com

 

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How interest-rate cut will affect your credit cards, variable loans

Jane Bryant Quinn

 

 

With general interest rates coming down, when can you expect rates on your own loans to drop?

Variable-rate loans will drop on a schedule written into your lending agreement (which you may not have read). Loans with fixed rates normally don't change, but might in some cases. Here's what to expect:

 

-- CREDIT CARDS. Nearly half of all cards currently carry variable rates, says Robert McKinley, president of CardWeb.com, which keeps track of the industry. They are often tied to the bank prime lending rate, which dropped again last week -- the third decline this year.

The prime rate currently stands at 7.5 percent. Variable-rate cards are charging an average of 14.66 percent on unpaid balances, McKinley says.

The majority of banks adjust their card rates monthly, so many customers will already have seen a cut.

 

The remaining banks generally adjust quarterly, and April starts a new quarter. This month, virtually all consumers with variable-rate cards should be on track to lower rates. Watch for it in your next billing cycle.

 

So-called "fixed-rate" cards are another story. When you sign up, you probably assume that "fixed" carries its normal English meaning -- that is, a rate that won't change. Poor you. The meaning is far more slippery than that.

 

As an example, take a recent offer from Fleet Bank for a card with a "revolutionary low, fixed rate" of just 7.99 percent. The mailing said that this wasn't a mere "introductory rate" that would rise after "only a few short months," but a real, fixed rate.

The reader who showed me this mailing signed up for the card. Six months later, her "fixed" rate rose by about 2.5 percentage points.

 

And yes, that's legal. Fleet spokeswoman Deborah Pulver says it's "well recognized" that credit-card terms can be "modified," at the will of the bank.

Oh? Well recognized by whom?

 

You should probably expect any super-low "fixed" rate to be "modified" upward. The fine print in credit-card agreements gives the bank the right to change the rate at will, as long as you are notified at least 15 days in advance.

 

For top credit risks, fixed rates today range from around 9.9 percent to 12. 99 percent. The average fixed rate: 16.04 percent. If interest rates keep on going down, some fixed-rate cards might be forced to cut rates to keep people from switching to something better.

If your card issuer is offering lower rates to new customers, call and ask for that rate yourself. That usually works for people in good credit standing. "Banks offer lots of rates," McKinley told my associate, Dori Perrucci. "They'll offer a lower rate to retain you."

 

-- MORTGAGES. Payments on a one-year adjustable-rate