The package from Malana had arrived and included prospectus on several brokerage firms and mutual funds. While reading the booklets, he had difficulty deciphering the financial jargon and put the pamphlets aside.
He went on-line and thanked her for the information; he would wait for her return to explain the materials to him.
It was now October, and Jamo had not heard from Malana. He went on-line to see if there were any messages from her, but there were none. He needed to know her arrival date, so he could meet her at the airport and take her to their new apartment, but he forgot to ask for her phone number. He did not want her to make hotel reservations and then have to pull out and pay a cancellation fee.
He went to the hotel to see if she had booked a room, but she did not. He sent another e-mail but still heard nothing and was wondering if that call she received was more serious than she had let on. He did not know what to think.
The biggest panic came when Jamo got a statement from the bank, stating his account was empty. He started to experience palpitations of the heart and knew it was an error on the bank's end.
He rushed to the institution, asked to speak to the manager and implied that the bank had made a gross mistake and showed the information to the manger, who said, "It is not a mistake. You transferred all of your money into the World Wide Bank of Benin."
Jamo denied conducting such a transaction; he never came into the bank to perform any business.
The manager informed him that it happened over the Internet.
Jamo replied, "Impossible! I would never transfer that much money at one time."
"Nevertheless, someone did," said the manager.
Jamo started to get sick to his stomach and sensed a headache coming. How could this have happened? Then he remembered receiving that e-mail from the bank.
He hurried back home to retrieve a copy of the message from his computer, returned to the bank and showed the administrator the post.
The manager said, "The bank never sent that communication. Any correspondence sent to our customers would always include their full name in the salutation and not the words Dear Valued Banking Customer, and the web site would always show a secured key, which would indicate it is a safe server to conduct business." He went on to say, "You were the victim of phishing. When you clicked on that link, you virtually gave the cyberspace thieves all the information they needed to get into your account."