Am I Being Scammed??!

This morning, I received an alarming mail from a Director friend I did some work for last year. The subject read ‘SAD NEWS…’ and here is the body:

Time: 00:44 am

Hey……(not addressed to anyone)

I am caught up in a real mess and i need your help. I'm sorry I didn't inform you about my trip ,I had a trip to the London,United Kingdom and a bizarre thing happened to me.I was mugged at gun point last night, the muggers carted away with all my belongings excluded my passport.Cell,c-card,cash and some important documents are all gone. I was able to make contact with the Uk Police and i was directed to the Embassy, but they seems to be taking things too slow.
I need your help so urgently.. My flight leaves pretty soon but i am having problems sorting out the hotel bills and also need getting my ticket straightened out. I need your help. I need a quick loan to get things fixed out here, I promise to refund as soon as i get back home.. please reply asap. so i can tell what to do and how to get the money to me..
Hope to read from you soon..

So I immediately responded saying:

Time: 10:42 am

Hi ……,

I'm soooo sorry about what happened!! Hope you're fine....I just saw ur mail right now.

Pls lemme know how I can help!!

Tari

Shortly after, I receive a response:

Time: 11:19am

Thanks for the mail.. i feel so glad to hear from you, you given me a lot of hope..the muggers stole eerything from
me and i dont have any access to a phone so amin a local library where i have acess to a computer, i need a quick
loan to get
things fixed out here.. i need $1500 to get things fixed out here promise to refund when i am back home... do you
know how to get the money to me? you can have the Money wired to me via Western Union is safe and convenient.. here is the details you need to get the money wired to me.. you should have the money wired on my name and present
location..
here is the details...
Name : …….
Address.:……………………..
City: Buckinghamshire.
Postal Code: HP11 2JZ
Country: United Kingdom
once you are done mail me with the westernunion details and the confirmation numbers.

At this point, I got quite suspicious. The mail was a little too impersonal. This guy and I, even though ours is a working relationship, play and joke a lot. He’s a very playful and funny person. He also calls me ‘Madam’.

So then I try calling his phone here in Lagos, and it’s turned off. I’m thinking of going to his house to check also.

But I want to get your opinion….AM I BEING SCAMMED??!!

“So What do You do Now??"

That has to be the most annoying question ever to proceed out of the mouth of a beast!!

Right up there with “So who’s the new guy?” THERE IS NO NEW GUY DAMMITT!! Can’t a girl just enjoy some much needed solitude and enjoy the attention that comes when guys can see you are not interested in anything they have to offer?!

I remembered this annoying question while reading my friend Wana’s new blog post, titled ‘Welcome to Mediocre City’.

That’s actually one of the reasons why I cringe when I have to see someone I haven’t seen in a long time. You know that the question has got to surface like a relentless ugly pimple. You haven’t even gotten over the excitement of seeing the person when the question rises.

One crazy friend, so pissed off at being constantly asked the question, decided to start telling people “I carry s#*t!!”

Can’t blame him, because here in Lagos, it’s what I call a Placement question. People automatically want to know how they should relate with you, treat you or how you can benefit them. So they throw the question. It’s the new Self Seller.

So trust my Lagos people (I de hail oooooo!!) everyone fine tunes their audio CV so well in order to shoot up the Placement Chart when asked the inevitable question.

For example, you ask a girl the question; she gives you an impeccable response about the Venture Capitalist firm she works in, conveniently forgetting to add that she’s doing her NYSC there. Placement!!!!

For me it’s particularly annoying because no-one ever understands what I do, so I have to explain for the next 15-20mins. Whatever happened to plain old meeting someone, liking their personality and taking it from there?!

My best business relationships have actually come out of just accepting one another as we are, noting each other’s strengths and then calling on each other when we see an opportunity for the other’s strengths to be expressed.

Oh well...I’m just the girl with the difficult-to-understand job title..what do I know?!

Only in Lagos

Park View Estate, Ikoyi: home of the nouveau-riche in Lagos and apparently also to ….COWS!!