Emily

OK-here is how it went down. I wake up EARLY on Sunday, cause I can't sleep-and there is a request on my computer screen from a John Belling to be added to my IM contacts. OK, I guess-didn't think I knew the guy, but I meet a ton of people, and am not the best with names. After a polite good morning, etc, I asked him if I knew him? He said no, he found my name on the OBRA website while doing some online marketing research. We chatted a bit, and then I asked once again why he contacted me. He said he wanted to discuss some business with me. He mentioned that he worked in Ghana with a company that sold African Prints, textiles, etc and was looking to expand their overseas sales. The problems was the cash flow, and the inability to use Paypal, online payments, checks, etc with customers in other countries such as the US. He mentioned that he was looking for someone to accept the payments for him as a middle person, and that person would also receive a percentage of a pa
yment as a bonus.
When I asked him what other OBRA members he had contacted and was willing to listen to his proposition he mentioned I was the first-how flattering.
He asked if I was still following him, and if I was further interested. I mentioned what was upseting me the most at that time was the fact the took my email address from a BIKE chat website for this purpose, and that I was sure I wouldn't be the only one upset about this. When I mentioned that I would need to get some legal advice before proceeding further (cause I knew it was a scam) he disappeared-and my messages were unsent.
So, then I posted the Beware comment on the website-which was followed up by the comment from Mr. Daniel. Well, Mr. Daniel and I exchanged a few emails-of which I asked him why he was so sure of Mr. Belling-even though he just mentioned that it was alright, cause he had a friend that did similar business with a firm from South Africa-but did not link himself directly with Mr. Belling. And, I asked him what he was doing posting on the OBRA website, which his reply to that was it was none of my business.
So, our dearest Kenji shot me an email, and I passed along everything to him I had saved from the conversation (I saved the entire IM conversation and the emails). Mr. Belling and Daniel were not members of the OBRA list, and Daniel himself was from Nigeria (he gave me the name of a legal firm he supposedly worked for in Nigeria-but it was a bogus situation also).
So-to make a long story even longer, I am not being prejudice or jumping to conclusions at all. And it goes to show, that even all of us that feel comfortable and safe in OBRA land are at risk. All you have to do is hit reply to a post, and an email address comes up. Kenji was going to pass the information on to make sure these individuals were blocked from the list-not sure what else one can do. If you are involved in a legal related career, and want me to pass on the details of the event to you (and in fact you are a real person) please contact me off list.