AN email apparently pleading for help to bring two people - and millions of dollars - into the country from Africa has ended up in the hands of a Driffield couple.
Brian Fleming, of Northfield Avenue, has warned others to be vigilant after the message arrived through his partner's Friends Reunited profile.
And officials from the site have urged other users who receive similar items to contact them.
Mr Fle
ming said he could not believe the message when he saw it and said he was speaking out in a bid to stop others being affected by a similar mail.
"I wouldn't want somebody else to get hold of it and get sucked into it", he said.
The email is claimed to have been sent by a Sabina Marume, who is described as the daughter of an assassinated senator in Zimbabwe.
The message asks for help to transfer four and a half million US dollars from an account in the Ivory Coast to the UK and to arrange for Sabina and a younger brother to come to Britain.
It concludes: "I am ready to compensate you for your effort in assisting me."
Mr Fleming said the email had been sent to his partner under her maiden name and that he had reported it to the police, who advised him to ignore it.
Jon Clark, head of Friends Reunited, said that incidents of this sort were 'very rare' on the site.
He said: "We recommend the recipients of any unwanted message block the sender and contact our support team so we can remove the offender from the website."
He added: "We would like to highlight the fact that our members email addresses are never ever revealed and so they are safe from direct contact at all times."
A spokesman for Humberside Police added: "The best thing to do with the letter or email is to ignore it.
"If the offer sounds too good to be true, the chances are it probably is."
She added that residents should not send any details in response to such correspondence, no matter how tempting the offer may appear to be.
allister.webb@yrnltd.co.uk
The full article contains 361 words and appears in Driffield Post newspaper.
