TRAPS are commonplace in China so I thought it was ironical that I would fall in one here. Two young men came to my office and presented a ‘Chinese International Approve Tax Clearance Certificate' issued by a so-called ‘Tax Revenue Collection Department' of China, which said that prize of USD500,000 was to be won. They said a sum of SR5000 was to be paid to a designated company to release the prize. Without hesitation, I told them to forget about it. It is a trap, I said. I knew that once they get their money, these men will not be seen anywhere, let alone the ‘prize money'. But the two men were reluctant to accept their illusion of big money was false and asked me to check for them if the ‘taxation department' and the company were real. I assured them that there was no such government body in China, and even if there was, it would never issue a ‘certificate'. Dispirited, the young men left. This reminded me of similar hoaxes. I have been receiving emails for the past months from some women, all conveying a similar story: a widow of some rich entrepreneur (mostly from West Africa) says that her late husband had left her a ‘big fortune of millions' in a bank. But their country exercises a limit for withdrawing big amounts of money by citizens. If the beneficiary is of foreign citizenship, there will not be any such limitations. The poor widow and her children (mentioned in some emails probably to arouse sympathy of the readers) would seek “honest and reliable” foreigners to get her money from the bank and transfer it to another country where she can withdraw it freely. And sure enough, the one who helps will get a handsome income for doing so. This is, no doubt, another trap of swindlers. I haven't yet figured out how they will proceed to unfold their set-up later. Anyone with an average IQ will smell a rat in this episode and judge it as a fraud. In spite of their easily seen through games and their knowing it, swindlers still send such mails. The point is, they probably know that there remains in us a particular human weakness—greed. They know that they stand no chance when all of us are in a ‘normal' state of mind and unless that state is broken by greed, they will not succeed. Victims of such fraud are reported everywhere, and reports show they are ‘normal' people like others, some even having high IQ scores. Why then do they fall victims of the trap? Greed is the answer. Fortunately, no ‘widow-fortune' victims have been reported so far. One should guard himself against falling victim to frauds in any form and caution himself not to let greed disrupt his mind's clear reasoning. He should drive out the desire to make quick, easy and big money. And as a Chinese saying perfectly puts it, “It never rains pancakes from the sky.” Wang Xiaoshan Consul Chinese Consulate of Jeddah __
