I received the following from a Faithful Scam Joke Page Reader in Malaysia. Unluckily my parents felt victim to the scam. This is the story from my dad. I forward the same statement to 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov.

One day my wife received a letter posted from Johannesburg, South Africa. The letter was sent to her by a lady named Maria who claimed that she is the third wife of the late president of Congo Laurent Kabila. She wanted assistance to transfer their money and to be invested outside their country. The amount was 22.5 million. In return we would get 25% out of the amount and we are also need to assist her with financially in order to make the transaction possible.

My wife got in touch with her son David Kabila. David said that the money was 22.5 million left by his father. The money was actually for the people of Congo send by US government for a help. However his father took one box and kept aside for his family. On this money there was a thin coating and also printed with the word DRC on it. To use this money as normal USD they wanted some special chemical to wash. For the time being the money deposited on security for safety purpose. They also require 12000 USD to take the money out of this security.

Later with all the fact we agreed and went to Johannesburg. There we met David Kabila and his friend, James Cross who said that he is a banker who would be helping him to clean the money.

When we arrived David was waiting for us at the airport and brought us to his home. And we also met James Cross. Same day security came with the box containing the money. When he opened it we saw the money. It was covered by a thin cotton layer. It looked like it was never opened before. Then he took some chemicals which it to be used to clean money, unfortunately the chemical was frozen and cannot be used to wash the money. However there is some chemical which was not frozen. Then James took a few notes from the box and washed it and gave it to us. We came to central bank and it was shocking to use that the money was real and genuine.

As the chemical was frozen they wanted some money to liquidize it. We were asked to provide 40,000 USD for this purpose. Since we had no money that time we came back to Malaysia.

In Malaysia we gather that amount and went again to Johannesburg. When we arrived that morning we handed the money to David. After 2 days they brought us again to the same house. This time the chemical had been liquidized and we were going to wash the money. I was also given the receipt of that transaction. When we reached the money was already there. They put newspaper all over the floor just to wash it. James instructed David to take the chemical and then keep it in the refrigerator while waiting for the washing machine to clean the existing money arrive. Suddenly we heard a blast from the back. We ran back and saw David lying on the floor in pain. David in fact had dropped the chemical and it partially burned his hand. The money cannot be wash.

They said that to buy a fresh chemical would cost them 1 million USD. Further more only the central bank has this particular chemical. However since James is a banker in the Central Bank he could discuss with the bank to pay only 10% of the amount as deposit i.e. 100,000 USD to get the chemical. Since that time there is nothing that we could do, we just came back to Malaysia in order to find the money for that transaction.

Later on, when we came back to Malaysia they contacted us through the phone. They told us that we need to come in Johannesburg before 5th Feb. This is because the English man who is in charge of the chemical was on leave until 5 Feb. Since he is on leave than they do not have to pay 100 000 to get the chemical instead they could only pay 70 000 USD in order to get the chemical.

Then we contacted our son in US. Then only we came to know that this is actually a scam. Till today they are still contacting us. In order not to raise any suspicion on their part we just agreed to go to Johannesburg with the money on 2nd Feb.

They can be contacted at:

James Cross : 27833725247
27836927758
David Omar Kabila: 27836683906