PAINS AND GAINS PART 2

OFFICE SOMETIMES

The first introduction was from my university classmate Henry. Henry was not that a smart boy; he was just there, and he never acted like someone who would be great in life. But the instance I saw him, my life was having a turn around. I got into the shortest profession called YAHOO. It was a wonderful experience and it led me to this point I am. 

Henry was driving a car I didn’t ever believe he could ever drive in his life. He stopped to sort out something with a recharge card seller when he heard our shouting across the road with a suya man. The man had sold suya to us five days ago, which we used to support Garri. We have tried to dodge him, but that faithful day he caught up with us. The Aboki brought out suya knife to threaten, and our shout as if we were justified, made him slow down a little. Henry tapped me from behind and I felt a sense of shame. He asked what happened, and the suya man explained. He brought out a thousand naira note and gave the man. I told him the suya was Four Hundred Naira worth, but he told me to leave the change. My squatter and I rolled with him as he bought us a bottle of Jack Daniels, and he counted ten thousand naira to pay. I opened up to him on how broke we were, and the whole unemployment thing. He asked if I was interested in doing what big boys do lately; the yes was the fastest in my life.  He gave me his number and an additional ten thousand naira. I promised to call him the next day. That day was the first time in twelve months I slept well. 

We confidently paid all our debts, and we were proud again for one day. Eight o clock on the dot I was in his house. I knocked and I was surprised he even had a security man. He escorted me and my roommate into a big sitting room with eight laptop computers and some very young boys working on them. I thought it was a business center until he came out. 

He told me this is YAHOO: the real money. He explained how it works and said if I can concentrate on it, at most by two weeks I should be able to count my own one hundred thousand. He gave me a laptop and told me to start sending bulk messages to different email addresses. The work was simply copy and paste.

The mail read thus:

The National Lottery,
PO Box 1010,
Liverpool,
L70 1NL,
United Kingdom.
Ref: LSUK/2031/8161/04
Batch: R3/A312-59

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

We happily announce to you the draw (#951) held on Wednesday, 2nd January 2003.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475678645 188
with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 02, 19, 28, 33, 44, 49, 21.which subsequently won you the jackpot prize. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £714,075 (Seven hundred Fourteen Thousand and Seventy Five Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.
All participants for the online version were selected randomly from the World Wide Web through a computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your £714,075 would be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.

To file for your claim, please contact our judiciary agent:
Mr Trewy Kopoly
Email: claims_dept@mail2trewy.com

Provide him with the information below:
1.Name:
2.Address:
3.Marital Status:
4.Occupation:
5.Age:
6.Sex:
7.Nationality:
8.Country Of Residence:
9.Telephone Number:
10.Fax Number:
11.Draw Number above:

That way your Winnings Certificate and all other relevant documents/paperwork can be prepared for you. You would be required to show an instrument of identification when cashing your cheque i.e. Drivers License or International passport. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned.


Good luck from me and members of staff of the U.K NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Yours faithfully,

Sir James Duchess.
Online Co-coordinator for U.K NATIONAL LOTTERY, Sweepstakes International Program.

This was the new job I got. I had a target to send a day. The emails were many and I wondered where they got them from. Every other person was doing the same and in time we were all friends. We talked from how much one can make to what we’ll buy when the money comes. The boys were now my source of income; no longer Henry. The first payment came three days after I started work. One of the boys had collected money from a client. The bulk of the money would be given to him, but all the members of the office would share from it. I was given $200 and at this time I knew this was my office. 

I worked day and night. Sleep was a luxury I couldn’t afford and at the end of the first week I’ve had eleven replies in my e-mail box opened for me. They all needed to collect their money and I wondered what greed could do to people. Henry processed the payment for them through some stages. With promises that were never ending. The fraudulent way was paying and whenever I see some friend and colleagues still queuing up to be attended to in offices that have no job for you I wonder if they haven’t gotten the revelation yet.

It was now two weeks at my new office:  an establishment without a letter headed, no id card, no registration with CAC, and an office without a salary structure. Your efficiency determines your output. Five people have paid the first payment for their virtual money and on that faithful Tuesday, Henry called the whole office again, and presented to me an envelope. He gave the remaining eleven people $200. I held the envelope in fear and excitement. I couldn’t open it, and when I eventually did; tears rolled down my eyes. I felt the pain in what my government cannot do for me; Henry has done. At this point I knew nothing would take me away from this office. I must grow old to be a director, and slowly I counted the money, it was $3,400…………….