Some of you may be wondering what has happened so far ..........

I posted what appeared to be a continuation of a 2006 bank note scam from an Indonesian man in Canada wanting to sell a $100.000 Dollar note. He sent the email to a number of people whom I recognize as fellow collectors. Those same people would love to have access to such an elusive note, but they are the wrong people to market a fake to. They KNOW what to look for and would spot a fake quickly and easily.

I have researched him, have copies of his passport, visa, email address, home address, phone numbers and know the names of his wife and two daughters. I have explained to him that being in Canada awaiting a flight back to Indonesia that he could easily be arrested/detained if he was indeed trying to perpetrate a scam/crime and it was not worth the risk if I were to forward the information I had collected to proper authorities. Then I stopped responding to his emails.

What followed was a number of emails that appeared to be pleading with panic. The emails came almost hourly. Reading these emails, I began to believe that he was ignorant of the fact the note was indeed fake. (Of all the notes he could have tried to sell, it was the one denomination that was NEVER available).

Next, what to do? I thought about it and knew authorities would probably delete my email anyway because they get some many like it. Also, this guy was a small fish. So, what could I do?

I explained that I would take no action IF he were to email ALL of the original people he had contacted (including me) explaining that he had discovered the note to be fake and had destroyed it. Also, I wanted to know how and where he had acquired all of our email addresses. When I receive the email containing the list of people in the TO: box and it matched the original, then I would take no action.

A scam artist would have simply dropped communication and went on to other people taking the hook (I believe). He supplied me with valid information, a scammer would supply bogus info that would lead nowhere, or to someone else. He did not. Everything he told me (except about the note) checked out.

It is possible that he was put up to this from someone else because he did not know. Who Knows?

I am waiting for the email I requested- We’ll see what he does next.