Mrs. Hassan Eva

I am Mrs. Hassan Eva, I'm a 64 year old South African barren woman.

I just read the above line, and burst out laughing. These scam emails make me happy every time. When I was in college, I was caught by Publishers Clearinghouse, or something like that, which promised that I was one step away from winning the grand prize. Until someone explained to me, I didn't realize what was so wrong with that proposition. I got off easy.

I never experience gold rush. I'm somewhat skeptical about my intelligence, and a firm believer of lack thereof. So I double check anything that sounds too good to be true. GrameenPhone IPO, which means I'll have to part with 20,000BDT for a month. Silver as a commodity, high yield bonds and mutual funds.

But you have to give credit to scammers. Something simple like the Nigerian widow can make even a scrooge open their bank account. So simple, so beautiful, so effective, if not elegant. Something for nothing.

I've been trying to convince my family that the energy saving lightbulb is the biggest scam there is in Bangladesh. You pay Tk.300, a premium of 270 over an incandescent one, or 900%, which will save energy. The more you use energy, the more you save. One kilowatt-hour of energy costs Tk.6.75 or so. It'll take you over two years to realize the savings, whereas, for those two years, you could've kept the Tk.270 in your pocket.

My cousin's incredulous response was, "but you're saving the environment!" there are so many things wrong with that argument, I can't even begin.

Another chimed in, "think about all the bulbs you'll have to buy for that period of time".

At least they're not expecting Mrs Hassan Eva to show up for your sperm donation.