Stringing Along an Estonian Scam Artist Vol. VII
Against all expectations, we actually heard back from our Estonian pen pal Andreas Olev, humanitarian, banker, cancer victim and scam artist.
As we mentioned in our first post, we thought it would be interesting to follow up on an obvious fraud e-mail and see where it lead. In our second post, we learned that Andreas is a finance officer with the Hansa Bank in Tallinn, Estonia, and has come into possession of $30 million. In our third post we discovered Andreas has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and wants our help to set up a foundation for terminally ill children—for which we would receive $6 million. In our fourth post, Andreas sent us some pictures of himself, and informed us we'd have to travel (presumably to Estonia) in order to cash in on our share of the money. In our fifth post, Andreas finally divulged that our $6 million cut would cost us some upfront money, a classic 419 fraud tactic.
In our previous post—which we assumed would be our final installment in the Andreas Olev saga—we informed Andreas that we had called his bank and been told: "We have no Andreas Olev here."
But Andreas is persistent, and since we‘ve been playing along as naively as possible, he undoubtedly figured he had nothing to lose by giving it one last shot to see just how gullible we are. To his credit, he remains unflappable, and offered smooth and somewhat plausible answers to all our questions—barring his laughable English, of course.
You can read his latest email below, as well as our reply, in which we bid farewell to our Estonian friend.
----- Original Message -----
From: Andreas Olev (olevandreas@googlemail.com)
To: consumerwebwatch@cu.consumer.org
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: How are you
Hello Alan,
Yes Hansa bank has been changed to Swedbank, but they still use the old name for now because thay can wipe out the name immediately untill the whole get awareness of the change of the name. i am give you 100% assurance and you will be going to our sister bank that will be handling the payment to sign for the funds release. I believe you will see for yourself.
I was you suprice after all i have to told you to keep this business confidential for my job safety and of the money. regarding your phone call to the bank, Swedbank have a lots brenches all over the country and i will appreciate if you stop calling to avoid red flag.
Well do let me know if you're ready and willing to follow my instruction to carry out the profitable business i good faith and trust or i should find another partner.
I will be waiting to hear from you soon.
Andreas
Here's our (final) reply:
Hello Andreas,
You mentioned in an earlier e-mail that you were based in Tallinn, so I asked the person I spoke with to check every branch in Tallinn and she assured me there was no one named Andreas Olev working at any of them.
So please spare me your clever explanations, because I've lost all faith in you. I am also no longer interested in pursuing what I'm now convinced was a scam all along, because I have discovered proof of your true intentions on the Internet.
I found the e-mail below here:
http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/off-topic-discussion/13600-mods-stop-spamming-me.html
FROM ANDRES OLEV
From: "Mr. Andres Olev" andresolev@live.com
Hello,
I want to ask your attention to receive money on my behalf. The purpose of my contacting you is because I need someone who can receive it for our mutual benefits.
On your response, I will send you the full details and more information about myself and the funds.
Yours sincerely,
Andres Olev
And I found the one below here:
http://www.cn99.com/cgi-bin/getmsg/body?listname=wyyg33b&id=587
Hello,
I am sending you this email with reservations,basically because you may perceive
my intentions wrongly.
The issue I want to reveal to you is a classified and sensitive one. On your
response I will intimate you about this transaction and give you more
information about myself.
Yours sincerely,
Andreas Olev
Do either of these e-mails look familiar? In case you forgot, this last e-mail is identical to the first one you sent me. How many people have you tried to fool with these e-mails? And how many fell for your scam? I may feel foolish, but at least I didn’t lose anything except a little self-respect.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Don't ever write to me again.
Alan
Comments
i received same email from this person today
Posted by: Wdian | June 3, 2009 05:40 AM
I just received an email from him to my work email. thanks for posting this. he is still up to the game and sending mass emails to large and well known businesses.
Posted by: Ann | May 26, 2009 02:07 PM