While scam emails keep invading our inboxes many a times, finding a really innovative one is rare. With many internet users being able to spot a fishy email at the first glance, the fraudsters are hoping to ensnare a few gullible victims with the weirdest of ideas. The email about a Nigerian astronaut being lost in space have been around for a few years but it is still one of the funniest email scams that swept the internet.
The email describes the misfortune of an Air Force Major Abacha Tunde who has been trapped on the long-deorbited Soviet Salyut 6 space station since 1990. The mail has been written by Dr. Bakare Tunde who is marked as the Astronautic Projects Manager of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and a cousin brother of Abacha Tunde
Apparently, Major Abacha Tunde was the first African in space and he boarded a Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, other astronauts returned to earth but his space was taken by return cargo. The mail claims that since then he has been supplied through Progrez supply flights that has kept him going for so many years, but being homesick, he now wants to return to earth.
But the good news is that the salary of the major has accumulated in the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association and after so many years, it amounts to USD 15,000,000. This can be used to pay the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth and the cost required for the mission will be USD 3,000,000.
The email goes on to seek assistance from the receivers while offering them an attractive sum in return. In return for the help in setting up this rescue fund, Dr. Tunde and his colleagues are willing to “transfer the total amount to your account or subsequent disbursement.” He is also ready to offer “20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses.”
While such emails are designed to trap the innocent victims, this one is perhaps too innovative to hit the mark. Whether this is a genuine scam or created by a creative netizen as a parody of a scam is not clear. So even if you not ready to offer any help to the helpless Major Abacha Tunde you can always appreciate the effort as one of the most innovative scam emails of this decade.
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