Sundaydriver

Here's an interesting variation....  (Notice the hotmail e-mail address  ) ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: RE: OFFER FROM THE VATICAN CHURCH, VATICAN CITY. From: "OFFICE OF THE HOLY FATHER" <[email protected]> Date: Sun, June 5, 2005 2:30 pm To: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attn: Your Humble Goodself. RE: OFFER FROM THE VATICAN CHURCH, VATICAN CITY. Greetings to you from the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church, Vatican City, Rome Italy. We are writing this letter to you today as a Holy offer/opportunity to work for the Vatican Church, Vatican City Rome Italy, as our only official secret distributor of charity funds to our several registered charity organizations around this global earth with topmost secrecy. In August 9 1903 when Giuseppe Sarto assumed office as the second pope of the Vatican Church Vatican city as Pope Pius PP. X, he included a new amendment to the constitution of the Vatican Church, which relates that as a result of the continuous rising several cases of corruption and mis-use of the funds allocated by the Vatican Church to charity organizations, via the power of the Cardinals of the Vatican Church, the appointment of the official distributor of funds allocated by the Vatican Church for distribution to registered charity organizations, MUST be secretly issued to a non Vatican Church individual/personnel, who must be unknown by all living person’s except the office of the Holy Father and the official holy Treasurer of the Vatican Church, in-order to curb and eliminate the continuous rising several cases of corruption and mis-use of the charity funds, since without the knowledge of the official distributor by any other personnel of the Vatican Church except from the office of the Holy Father and the official holy treasurer of the Vatican Church, the corruption cases would be brought to an immediate halt, and this new measure worked perfectly well from that time till this current time frame. In the Addendum of this new amendment contained in the constitution of the Vatican Church, it is also clearly stated that every new Pope assuming office in the Vatican Church, must select a new official secret distributor for his regime, and upon his death, his selected official secret distributor must immediately have his/her post terminated, with the replacement of a new official secret distributor, secretly chosen by the new governing Pope only. And with the passing away of our previous Pope, Ioannes Paulus PP. II Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II on April the 2nd of 2005, and with the recent appointment of I Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedictus XVI on April the 19th of 2005, the previous secret distributor in Pope John Paul II time has been relieved of his position, and as a result a new secret distributor is immediately required without delay to serve till my regime is over via death. In the light of the above related sentences, you have been nominated by this Holy office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church Vatican City, to be our secret distributor of charity funds to our several registered charity organizations around this global earth SECRETLY with topmost secrecy, in which you would be continually paid a commission of 10% only, of every total amount of funds released to your goodself every four (4) months by the reputable funds organization the Vatican Church holds its charity funds in, for immediate distribution to our several registered charity organizations around the world, as charity funds from the Vatican Church Vatican City. In-order to pre-qualify for this secret official Holy post in the Vatican Church, you must satisfy our basic requirements below; 1. You must be a honest, straightforward and God fearing individual. 2 You must be an aristocrat or an influential rich individual with a designated bank account in a reputable Bank, which can completely and always accommodate the released charity funds to your goodself, without the need of questioning by relevant authorities. 3. You must be 100% fully ready and oblige to keep your post as our only official secret distributor of charity funds as Topmost secret, and guide this secret post in the Vatican Church Vatican City with your life. 4. You must not for any reason perform as not required by the office of the Holy Father i.e embezzlement and mis-use of charity funds. 5. You must at all time adhere fully and promptly to the instructions furnished your goodself by the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church. Please kindly note that, Age, Sex, Religion, and Nationality, does not in any way affect your qualification eligibility, so if your humble goodself is confident and eligible for this secret holy post in the Vatican church, please kindly respond immediately to this electronic message by sending your personal response to our direct secret email address at ([email protected]) from your private/personal email address without delay, and we shall guide you through the mandatory required steps to attain the secret holy post. Thank you for your time as we expect your goodself to keep this electronic contact as topmost secret, in-order to protect the interest of the Vatican Church, Vatican City, Rome Italy, while we await your personal response from your personal email address to our secret email address. Remain blessed and best regard’s from the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church and please take time out to visit our official website at (www.vaticanchurch.org) and to view our profile please kindly visit (http://www.vaticanchurch.org/holy_father/benedict_xvi/index.htm) God Bless you. Office of the Vatican Church, Pope Benedictus XVI Joseph Ratzinger Pope, Vatican Church, Vatican City. Rome, Italy. Website address: http://www.vaticanchurch.org

Better late than never......  The Nigerian authorities have always been helpful in trying to stamp out advance fee fraud, but it tends to be culturally embedded.  The real reason for the reduction in scam levels is that fraudsters will always be one step ahead of the law enforcement agencies and will find something more productive to move on to. In the days before mass internet coverage, they would send out the 419 letters in the post.  Of course, the giveaway was the Lagos stamp and postmark (in one case, the return address was The Bus Shelter in front of the University!).  They quickly sussed this and started sending the letters to "innocent" places like Canada to be re-mailed to Europe - Post Office Investigations once seized sackloads of 419s at Liverpool airport en route to Montreal........ These days, they tend to operate out of South Africa rather than Nigeria.  The scam has also developed - as well as getting you to part with cash to cover those inevitable "up front expenses", they encourage you to go over there to meet them and when you do, you're kidnapped and held to ransom.  It's also their normal practice to murder you after the ransom has been paid.  Its so dangerous, I've known fraud squad colleagues who have had to operate under armed escort whenever they've gone down to SA on enquiries. Nowadays, its lottery scams and internet phishing.....  

Val This is a common ploy by fraudsters.  Its called "phishing" and its purpose is to obtain details of your credit card. You receive an "official" looking e-mail from someone like e-bay, paypal, amazon, your bank/internet service provider - in fact anyone with whom you might have an account payable by credit card.  The e-mail is (nearly) always in English and often contains spelling errors or grammatical inconsistencies.  The e-mail usually states that your account has been suspended for whatever reason (unusual activity, or even "we are updating our customer records") and to have it reinstated, you are asked to click on a link to go to the company's site so as to re-input your logon/password/credit card number/bank account number/mother's maiden name, etc.  The link takes you to a spoof website which looks just like the genuine one. Most companies have an e-mail address (usually abuse@............) to which you can forward the dodgy e-mail for investigation. You can find more details about phishing here: http://www.wanadoo.fr/bin/frame2.cgi?u=http%3A//assistance.wanadoo.fr/index.asp (Don't worry - this is a genuine website )  

My ADSL link dropped out the other day, so I spent ages trying to check and reconfigure my Livebox to re-establish a connection, but without success.  I ended up by phoning the Wanadoo helpline but after the techie had tried to keep me on the line by chatting about how well I spoke French and could I speak Flemish as well   (I cut him off in mid stream - ££££££££!!!), he couldn't offer any help other than suggesting I changed my Livebox.  So I popped into town and changed it for a new one without any problem. I installed the new Livebox and fiddled for ages, but still no link, so I phoned France Telecom to ask them if they would check my ADSL line.  Ten minutes later, they phoned back to say an engineer would be running a check for me later in the day and if he found nothing at the exchange, he would come around to my house in the morning to check my installation.  Two hours later, they rang me to report that he'd found a duff control board at the exchange and that he'd replaced it and reset all the systems.  Result - ADSL back on line. Wanadoo - un point France Telecom - dix points  

Warning to bikers - filtering is now officially illegal in France  Extract from the french motorcycle press: The verdict is set in stone. The Ministry of Transport has decided that filtering between lanes of traffic is a prohibited practice. "Riding between traffic lanes is a grey area in legal terms" explained Catherine Herviou, legal co-ordinator for the French Motorcycle Federation, "so the police are now interpreting certain traffic rules in order to stamp out the practice. On trunk roads and motorways, filtering has recently been classified as undertaking, which attracts a 135 euro fine, three penalty points and a possible ban of up to three years. It is clear that filtering urgently needs to be given a proper legal status" Filtering has always been tolerated by french motorists, albeit subject to sporadic law enforcement. In June, the CRS nicked over 60 riders who were filtering on the A4 motorway outside Paris. In response, around 400 local bikers staged a hour long demonstration at a nearby motorway toll booth, holding up the barriers and handing out protest information leaflets to 4,000 motorists who were then able to go through without paying. The demo organisers explained "If filtering was made fully legal, it could be incorporated into driver/rider training. That way, drivers would take more notice of the presence of bikes and riders would learn to ride more carefully between traffic lanes. Various propositions have been put forward, from riders who reckon that 50km/h between lanes must be practical, to training schools who feel that any speed differential between bikes and cars should not exceed 20km/h. The transport ministry has received all of these propositions but prefers to preserve the current vague legal situation, an attitude which has satisfied no-one.

I have a 1993 Hymer S700 based on a LHD Mercedes Benz 410D chassis, which I originally bought in Germany and imported to the UK.  No problems there, quick MOT and forms off to the DVLA. Having moved to France, I'm now looking to register it here.  Now the potential problems start! I've e-mailed Hymer and they're sending me a certificate of conformity, which I understand will cover both the camper bit (hopefully to Norme NF S 56-200 - the french standard which covers gas appliances, ventilation, etc) as well as the base vehicle It's PTAC (maximum weight) is rated at 4.6 tonnes, so its classified as a poids lourd (HGV) therefore I need to arrange a heavy goods "MOT" test at the local DRIRE/DEKRA. Once this has been done, I should be able to head for the prefecture and get my carte gris. I did call at the DRIRE office in Niort to make sure I was doing it right, but they: 1.  Gave me the wrong information sheet (for vans <3500kg) 2.  Booked me in for a single vehicle approval inspection (RTI - reception de titre isole), which I understand is only required for non conforming vehicles such as non-EU vehicles, self builds, etc. (They also told a friend with a three year old Laika that he first needed a Veritas inspection on the "cellule", then an RTI inspection.  The Veritas inspection cost him 200 euros and when he subsequently presented his Laika CoC to the DRIRE for the RTI inspection, they announced that the Veritas job hadn't actually been necessary, and also that an RTI inspection wasn't even required and he could just go directly to the prefecture.  In fact, the Veritas report was identical to that printed on the CoC!!!) I just need to find out now which stickers to put on the outside of the van - weight/payload,etc, and whether I need to put on the "speed circles" like the rest of the trucks.  I've also heard that there will be road tax to pay but I believe this is a form of "axle tax" which only applies to vehicles over 12 tonnes. Watch this space....

We've been resident here in Deux Sevres for 2 months and I had no problems registering the car here.  Changed the headlamps, got a CT and applied for an attestation d'identification from the local DRIRE (cheaper than the manufacturer!) .  The local tax office issued a tax certificate without even seeing the original receipt.  Took the lot to the prefecture and got my carte gris.  20 euros at the local garage and new number plates were fitted.  Insurance is half what it was in the UK, including breakdown cover. Different story with the bike (1992 Honda Pan European). Even though the DRIRE website states that vehicles with a EC style certificate d'immatriculation (ie the new style V5C) can be submitted directly to the prefecture without a separate certificate of conformity (the CoC details are already printed down the left hand side of the V5C) the clerk at the prefecture refused to process my application. I went to the DRIRE but they wouldn't help and insisted I contact Honda France for a certificate of conformity, so I rang Honda on 3 June.  I sent them a copy of my V5C together with a covering letter.  After 2 weeks of waiting for the mail, I phoned them again.  Sorry, they said, but we'll get on to it this week. Another 2 weeks and I followed up again.  This time they told me the V5C was incorrect - the VIN had some digits missing.  I told them the V5C was compiled from the original Honda UK produced V55 when the bike was first registered in the UK.  After a lot of arguing, they asked me to swear an attestation sur honneur giving details of the VIN as stamped on the plate.  I did this, as well as stripping off the tupperware and taking a digital photograph of the VIN plate.  I sent this off to them and guess what?  No response. One week ago, I phoned them again.  Still no action taken.  Having dug deep into my stock of french swear words, they apologised for their dreadful service and promised to get my certificate out in the post this week.  Naturally, I'm still waiting. At one stage it looked as if I might be forced to put the bike through an Single Vehicle Approval test ( a lot of work) or take it back to the UK to sell it. Fingers crossed.