Cairo at twilight (Wikimedia Commons public domain). \u00a0My current hotel, where I\u2019m typing right now, is the tall one in the upper right of the photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some time ago, I received an email from a friend, a distinguished retired scientist who has, alas, since passed away:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I just got this e-mail from myself in Spain!\u00a0 I may have been hacked, so anyone on my contact list may have received this e-mail!\u00a0 (By the way, if you really want to send the money, don\u2019t send it to Spain, just send it to me here and I\u2019ll use it to pay the rent!)<\/span><\/p>\nSorry,<\/span><\/p>\nXXXXX<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here is the actual email that he had received from himself:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hello,<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSorry to bother you with this but I had to make a sudden trip out of the country to Spain. Am here to see my ill cousin, she is suffering from a critical kidney disease and must undergo surgery to save her life. The surgery is very expensive here, so I want to transfer her back home to have the surgery implemented. I really need to take care of this now but my credit card can\u2019t work here. I traveled with little money due to the short time I had to prepare for this trip and never expected things to be the way it is right now. I need a loan of $1,200\u00a0 from you and I\u2019ll reimburse you at my return. Get back to me asap, I\u2019ll advise on how to transfer it.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBest regards,<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nXXXXX XXXXXXXXX<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This type of story has become distressingly common, I\u2019m afraid. \u00a0Friends of mine routinely find themselves stranded in Europe, desperately needing emergency cash.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Usually, the problem stems from theft of either money or passport or both.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first time I encountered such a crisis came the morning after my wife and I had attended a party at the Provo, Utah, home of a friend. \u00a0We left at about 10:00 PM and, at roughly 7:00 AM the following morning, we received an email from her explaining that she had just been robbed at London\u2019s Heathrow Airport and was in dire need of help.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
My wife and I marveled not only at the speed with which our friend had made her way to the United Kingdom \u2014 the miracles of modern transportation! \u2014 but at the fact that she hadn\u2019t even mentioned that she was leaving her seriously ill husband to fly to Europe and at the calm and unhurried way in which she had presided over, and even helped to clean up after, the party at her house.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since then, several of our other friends have been held up at gunpoint in London, robbed in Paris, and stranded penniless in the Alps.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, I\u2019m not unmoved by their plight. \u00a0Please don\u2019t get me wrong. \u00a0I\u2019m simply not in a position to help at the moment. \u00a0But I\u2019ll be more than willing to contribute when I can, and I think that time is approaching very rapidly. \u00a0Here\u2019s my response to my scientist friend, sent just now:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dear XXXXX:<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m sorry to hear that you\u2019re both in Spain and in Utah. \u00a0I\u2019ve never experienced anything quite like that, but it must be painful.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI can\u2019t send you any money right now, but it seems that, very shortly, I\u2019m going to be so overflowing with cash that I\u2019ll find it difficult to give away. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMore than two score West African dictators and generals have died, and their widows and\/or orphans, hearing of my Christian walk with the Lord and lacking only such details as my name, gender, and bank account number, have decided to transfer their millions to the United States through me. \u00a0Roughly a dozen dying cancer patients have determined that I\u2019m the guy to manage their estates after they\u2019re gone. \u00a0And, as if all that weren\u2019t incredible enough, I\u2019ve recently won several lotteries each in England, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. \u00a0I\u2019m truly blessed.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo, when those sums arrive, you can certainly have two or three million, if it would help.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDan<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Cairo, Egypt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Some time ago, I received an email from a friend, a distinguished retired scientist who has, alas, since passed away: \u00a0 I just got this e-mail from myself in Spain!\u00a0 I may have been hacked, so anyone on my contact list may have received this e-mail!\u00a0 (By the way, if you really want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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