To anyone who has found this page by searching the internet, please be aware that this page is documenting an INTERNET SCAM. If you have received something similar to these emails do not be fooled by this guy. Check out the full story starting in March 2006 and continuing in April 2006.

Emails in order.. (17th Apr - 18th Apr)

April 17th
From: Mr Kalu
To: ray
Subject: NEW MOBILE LINE;+234-80-68187831

DEAR BROTHER,

HOW WAS YOUR ESTHER AND EVERYBODY AROUND YOU?

IM BACK FROM THE HOLYDAY AND UNFORTENALY,I LOST MY PHONE BUT I HAVE GOTTEN ANOTHER ONE READY TODAY SO THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS GET ME THROUGH AS YOU SAID THAT YOU WILL CALL ME TOMMORROW.
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MY NEW MOBILE LINE IS +234-80-68187831,SO CALL WITH WITH THE LINE.THE OTHER ONE IS NOT WORKING ANY LONGER BUT IM TRAYING ALSO TO RETRIVER THE LINE.

MY KALU

NEW MOBILE LINE;+234-80-68187831

April 18th
From: chuck (using rays email account)
To: Mr Kalu
Subject: To all Ray's friends

[To undisclosed list of recipients]

Hi folks,

Chuck is here. I am sending this message from Ray's web account to everyone in his address book. The phone was ringing non-stop yesterday. Thanks all of you for your kind wishes and support. Please pray for our friend Ray as he does need help now.

Just to stop the wild rumours, I want to give you the actual facts regarding the sad events which happened over this Easter break. I was there with Ray and I will never forgive myself for what happened.

Four days ago Ray gave me a call. He was drunk and distressed in a big way. At first I thought it's something about his ex-girlfriend. Could hardly understand him. He told me he needed help urgently. In 20 minutes I was at Ray's place. He was drunk as a skunk. Since he got religious he hardly drunk at all, but even in the old days I didn't see him that smashed. He was mumbling about some bastard who stole his money. Was hardly able to explain anything. Told me we gotta fly to New Zealand right away.

I managed to cool him down a little bit, told him no chance we would be allowed through the airport security with him in that state. He said 'Chuck I know I am drunk now, but if you are my friend, call the f*cking Qantas right now and book the first f*cking flight in the morning.' I could see he was really set on doing it whether someone would help him or not. So I called Qantas and arranged the flights. I told Ray to get some sleep and promised to pick him up at 6am. Got home, set the alarm clock, crashed.

At 6am I parked in front of Ray's place, thinking that I would have to break the door to wake him up. But he was waiting for me. He was sober, with that menacing look he used to have in the old days. Those of you who went to the high school with us would know what I mean.

We got to Mascot, checked in, hopped onto the plane and in three hours landed on the other side of the Strait. I know Ray wasn't on drugs or anything, but he was really fired up and was making some silly jokes all the time. When we got out and walked to the taxis he said -

'Chuck, thanks for being here. Please don't think bad of me. But you know I never allowed anyone to walk over me. I am here to teach one punk a lesson. This can be dangerous, he is a crim. Would you watch my back?'

'No worries mate.' I know, I should have at least tried to stop him. But at that moment I don't think I could have stopped him anyway.

Ray was still weak after all that booze and we dropped into some little Italian place near the centre. While I was ordering pizza, Ray was making phone calls to some mates of his. We waited for our pizzas, eat them, downed a couple of beers when the phone rang again.

'They found him. That email was real.' - Ray told me - 'Now I know his name and address.' He looked a bit funny, and not in a good way funny.

'Just to teach a lesson, mate, right?' - I said - 'Please keep your cool.' He just laughed.

'No worries Chuck, I don't want to ruin my life over that prick. I have some really good things waiting for me back home. Just a little lesson of respect, nothing more today.'

It calmed me down a bit. But I still felt uneasy. Those of you who were around for a long time remember how feral Ray could be when he was pissed off. Sure you remember that weekend trip to Blackheath when the village boys thought they could give funny looks to Jessica. It took four of us to wrestle that monkey-wrench from Ray's hands.

Anyway, we caught a taxi and went on our way. Our trip ended in some seedy inner suburb. The entire place was pretty much run down. Broken windows. Garbage everywhere. A real shithole if you ask me.

Ray checked the address and there it was an old highrise building. The list of apartment by the floor near the front door. Clunky smelly lift. Going up. Long dark corridor - they must have been breeding rats there - the place just smelled like that.

Ray knocked on the door.

'Who's there?'

'I told ya punk I'm coming for you,' - said Ray calmly - 'And we will talk - NOW!'

We heard some frantic activity behind the door and the voice of a man talking on the phone in panic. There was no time to waste. Ray stepped back, kicked the door and rushed in. I followed. We found ourselves in a huge dimly lit room, almost empty with only a few pieces of furniture along the walls.

'The punk' turned out to be a big bloke in a dirty blue singlet, quite a bit overweight but all the more dangerously looking. He was standing in front of an open wardrobe throwing stuff out of it. A second later I realised what that meant when the bloke pulled a shortened shotgun out of the wardrobe. But Ray was already next to him and smashed a chair over his head. At that moment I heard someone else rushing into the room and turned around just in time to throw the first punch.

I don't remember much about what happened afterwards. I was punching and kicking like mad, then I heard a shot and another one. Someone hit me on the back of my head really hard and I blacked out.

I got back to my senses a while later when everything was over. There was police all over the place. As the paramedics helped me onto my feet I saw two bodies on the floor. Ray was nowhere to be seen. There was blood everywhere, I remember my feet sliding on the lino as they lead me to the door. My head felt like a brick and the rest of my body wasn't much better.

The rest of the story I know from what the police told me. They didn't say much but here is what I gathered. The crims were known to police for the long time, but, as always, no one could arrest them for anything serious. They were quite unruly, but that's normal in those places. There were 4 of them - 'the punk' and 3 of his buddies. When they attacked us, Ray shot two of them and knocked the third one unconscious (he was later arrested). But the main guy managed to get out of the room. Ray caught up with him near the fire exit and kicked him down the stairs. Probably broke his neck. Then he jumped onto the guy and proceeded to beat him into the bloody pulp with the butt of the shotgun. There was not much left of the punk's head at all. When the police and paramedics arrived Ray was cataleptic - just like when he got into the mental department when he was 16.

It was a 24 hour nightmare after that with me testifying that we acted in self defence and that my friend is mentally ill. Shit, I never thought I would say it again, he was completely fine for the last 5 years. Luckily for us they managed to contact Ray's old hospital right away and verified his records. But the main luck was that the crims were sort of personal enemies of the inspector who dealt with us and double-crossed some of his relos. The chap just couldn't stop laughing. So, the NZ police handed still unresponsive Ray to the medics, we were transported to the airport and sent back home on the first plane.

Met by the Oz police and an ambulance in Sydney, another 6 hours of questioning for me. The cops were particularly interested in everything Ray told me about his Internet commerce, went to his place, seized his computer, all backups and even the pile of fresh printouts from the printer. I told them that Ray is squeaky clean, he is not the kind of guy they could be interested in, but they said he might have been dealing with wrong people without knowing it. Said will pass all that info to their new Internet crimes unit. Finally they let me go.

Ray is at the mental hospital, the same place as 10 years ago. I still know some people there. I crashed, had several hours of sleep and went back to the hospital. Found some old buddies and was allowed to see Ray - briefly. He is barely responsive. But recognised me and managed to smile. Despite the latest events they don't treat him as dangerous, so he is not in a straightjacket with thugs by his sides. He is in the eastern wing, basically a nice hospital, his own room, good care, so he is OK. Talk about the benefits of private health insurance... Actually the nurses are all over him, calling him 'a poor baby'. Bastard. :-) Talk about the benefits of being tall, dark and handsome. There are some really cute girls among the nurses and they are paying lots of attention to 'poor Ray'.

So, once again, thanks for your calls and good wishes everyone. Ray is in the good hands. We all hope he will recover, but this might take a while. That's all for now.

Chuck

And as if that wasnt enough to stop the emails from this scammer.. a few hours later I receive one last email (from the Contract Award Committee of course)...

April 18th
From: CONTRACT AWARD COMMITTEE ABUJA
To: ray
Subject: CONTRACT AGREEMENT

Attention the President,

According to the infomation that was passed to us from the Federal Ministry of Justics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

you are reqeusted to open the attached file and get back to us as soon as posible for the officail signing of your contract sum and payment.

Secondly,you are needed to send your account infomation/bank infomation to us so that after the signing of the contract aggreement,your payment could be transfwerd into your account withen seven working days becouse of the urgency needed for the shipment and supply.

Th date in the attachment is not correct becouse of topographical error from the typist,the correct date for the singning has been shedled as the 24th of April 2006.

waiting for your mail and update.

Lizzy Nnanta