Anytime an email from a third world country includes the phrase ‘Please Be Serious”, My guard goes all the way up.

From the research Acci did earlier in the thread, it looks like this fine fellow is busy with a scam where he “orders/asks for” certain specimens, which he then resells without compensating the original supplier in return.  It may not seem like big money, but we are talking a 3rd world country, possibly dozens of such sales per year, and an inflated price for the specimens to whomever he sells them to.  This would certainly be enough for a person to live on in all but the most prosperous of regions in India. 

(I especially like how he has said that Western Union cannot make payments FROM his country, only To it.  This, naturally, makes it easier to send a fake check or somesuch to buy time whilst he receives the package, and then packs up his “university” and disappears!) 

Exactly.  Anything or money one sends this chap is likely to be lost. Period. End of story.

You should ask him for some proper I.D. (Passport/driver’s license)and teaching credentials. (Teaching diploma. Course guide.  Address, phone #, contact info for university. On ‘university” letterhead via regular mail.)  If nothing else, you should get some amusement out of the excuses and/or lousy ‘documents’ he crafts.

To me, this whole thing reads WAY too much like a Nigerian Scam letter. (Of which i have spent too many hours reading over at 419eater.com.)  Odds are you won’t hear from him again once you ask for ID. (Except for one or two missives detailing how ‘offended” he is that you would dare to question his authenticity!)  

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of those “overpayment” scams, where the crook sends a larger payment “by mistake”, and asks the victim to remit the difference.  Of course, the original payment turns out to be bogus, and the refund cheque is cashed.

I also found it deeply suspicious that the good “doctor” wanted banking information.  Alarm bells all over this one!

SteveE - 15 May 2011 02:00 PM

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of those “overpayment” scams, where the crook sends a larger payment “by mistake”, and asks the victim to remit the difference.  Of course, the original payment turns out to be bogus, and the refund cheque is cashed.

Someone tried that with my wife and I once. Sent us a dud money order worth more than the goods.
We contacted the police near to where the goods were supposed to be delivered (iy was a P.o. box)
They staked out the location and an arrest was made