Some days go past without my wondering just how low the human species can descend in its barbarity towards its own species.  Comparing humans with animals tends towards insulting our four-legged friends,  for they only prey on each other out of need.

Yesterday was not such a day, for I came across something which sickened me.  From the death and misery and suffering of one of the poorest countries on earth, a country which has had a tragic history of natural and man-made disasters,  and now an earthquake killing tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands, emerged scams like this :

 Hello Sir/ Madam

Do get across to the Haiti earthquake victims through M.E. FOUNDATION home.

Save a Life today through us

God bless you as you contribute to the victims of natural disasters

For any form of relief material you plan to send across, please do contact our home team Mr. David Isco Iker on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call us directly on +34634026536

Yours in Service

Mrs. Mary Isco Iker
President
M.E. FOUNDATION

 and this :

 The British Red Cross Society
British Red Cross
UK Office
44 Moorfields
London EC2Y 9AL.

MAKE YOUR DONATIONS NOW.
 

Dear Reader,

A devastating earthquake measuring 7.3 on the richter scale struck Haiti on 12th January 2010 ................Please give what you can today to help thousands of people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Donations are to be made payable immediately via western union money transfer or Money Gram International Money Transfer. and directly to our donations account liason officer as Receiver`s name: Sharon Cole

RECEIVER'S NAME: SHARON COLE (LIASON OFFICER)
DONATIONS ACCOUNT NAME:... SAVE HAITI
LOCATION: 44 Moorfields, london EC2Y 9AL

Please provide us via return email the following informations below as they appear on the western union or money gram ineternational money transfer s slip:

1. NAME AND ADDRESS OF SENDER
2. EXACT AMOUNT SENT.
3.MTCN.

Note: At British Red Cross we are committed to protecting your privacy as a Standard practice.We will not share your information unless you have previously indicate that you are happy for us to do so.

Hope to receive your donations soon as thousands needs your help.

Your Sincerely,

For and on behalf of the British Red Cross Society.

Liaison Officer

and many more,  which can be found on websites such as
www.scamwarners.com
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5725

I won't even attempt to describe my feeling towards people who can perpetrate this type of scam, I would be unable to do so using language which would be fit for publication.

All of these emails orginated from Nigeria,  shown by a simple check of the message headers, and apart from the poor spelling and grammar,  have many other hallmarks of being scams, for example requests to send money via Western Union or Moneygram.  

Genuine emails from reputable organisations will not come from domains such as yahoo.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com, and so on.     They will also not use 'follow me' type phone numbers such as UK + 44 70xxxxxx numbers.

If it looks like a scam, it probably is.  You can't win a lottery you haven't entered.  President Abasanjo's ex wife does not want to share her millions with you, and Bill Gates won't send $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for each time you forward an email. Nor will Nokia send you a free phone if you forward an email to 10 other people.

You won't grow a cyclops eye or die from breathing poison air if you ignore and delete these emails.

Be careful, it's a jungle out there.