“Nokia World Bounty”

A few nights ago, as a I was about to retire to the comfort of my bed, I received an SMS with the following details; Sender: +971-558571138 (looks like a Dubai phone number), Message “you have been awarded BSP 850,000 (about US$1,358,000) in the 2011 edition Nokia World Bounty promo. Payment Number NK115V, Email nokiaworldwide@live.co.uk”. I have never entered into any Nokia Promotion and haven’t owned a Nokia in six years, how on earth would Nokia recognize me after all? Alarm Bells began ringing in my mind. First of all, how on earth was the message sent from Dubai if it was a UK Nokia Promo? Who was the sender? Many questions raced through my mind. Alas, I had seen so many such scams where people lost money ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousands. I wasn’t in any way ready to be conned! As the English saying goes, “you cannot harvest where you did not sow”, if you keep that at the back of your mind, the chances of being conned will drastically be reduced to near zero! Several times I have encountered a number of people who desperately wanted to grow rich from nowhere, no investment whatsoever but wanting a profit! Of course, the masterminds of such hoaxes know very well that so many people are desperately praying and wishing their way to riches and hence, they come out to exploit such vulnerabilities. As the Kinyarwanda saying goes, “ibuye ryagaragaye ntiryicya isuka” (loosely translated as, a visible stone does not damage a hoe), beware of so many fraudsters out there, they could get you pants down (no offence intended)! When I got the above SMS or is it SMSs (they were 5 in number), I thought it was someone in Dubai who knew me and maybe wanted some assistance but on reading the contents, I realized what it was. In my mind, I told the senders that, they had sent to a wrong number! Much as I may be a villager, the village in me has almost evaporated and conning me can be an uphill if not an up-mountain task! The Chain-keeper came and grabbed my phone. Maybe she thought that someone was trying to encroach on her domain. On reading the message, her face lit up and she shouted out, “Imana iradusubije” (God has answered our prayers)! I suppose, these are the characters the senders were targeting! She was so excited that, I nearly lost my cool, how on earth did she believe such crap? Prayers or no prayers, I wasn’t ready to be conned. I tried convincing her that it was a scam but she could not hear any of my nonsense as she argued that, “a fortune in the hands of a fool was a great misfortune”; maybe time will tell whose hands belong to a fool! She hardly slept that night; in the morning she woke up early to go and consult her Pastor on the God-sent wealth that her “foolish” husband was about to lay to waste. An hour or two after she had left, she returned with a sombre face, she had seen the light; the good pastor had educated her on the scams. It is really annoying as to why the so called “your better half”, cannot trust you and instead she has to go to a third party to get the same answer! My warning is that, “never expect to harvest where you have not sown”; the wish to grow rich from no effort could drive one to a very big loss! As for the above scam, I went ahead to contact Nokia and Nokia denied having anything to do with the so called Promo, there you are! Mfashumwana@fastmail.fm