Kazakhstan HQ for the Buffett Foundation
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I received an exciting email this afternoon from Perry Alexis, the chief accountant for the Warren Buffett Foundation. It seems I have been picked to receive a $1,500,000 donation — not a grant for research or anything, but a donation. And I notice it came from an email address in Kazakhstan.
I don't know why Mr Buffett's foundation would choose a server based in Kazakhstan. Probably something to do with availability of space, electric power, and local programming staff. Or maybe there's some kind of tax advantage. I do know that the Kazakh Ministry of Communications and Information requires all .kz domain names to operate on physical servers within the borders of Kazakhstan, so it's got to be genuine.
Anyway, I just have to send my full banking details including password to priem_zhgpz@cnpc-amg.kz and my donation will be on its way to me.
I wonder if Zhgpz is the sender's surname or his personal name (given in Asian style, after the surname)? Like the name of Trff Bmzklfrpz, the former president-for-life of Berserkistan in the Doonesbury cartoon strip, this name looks a little hard to pronounce. I'm going to assume it's a surname. I'm going to email Mr Zhgpz right now.
Footnote: Certain friends of mine who are adept at sleuthing (thank you, Keith and Jichang; the secret of your true identities will be safe with me) did not take very long to discover that the email address to which I was invited to send my account details is the main email address of the Zhanazhol oil and gas production complex, a Chinese-controlled business unit of the CNPC-AMG joint-stock company of Kazakstan.
"Priem" is a transcription into Latin characters of the first few letters of "приёмная", meaning "reception" or "front office"; "zhgpz" is the abbreviation in Latin characters of "Жгпз" that at a guess was the old name of the unit, as "Zhanazhol Gas Processing Works" ("Жанажольский газоперерабатывающий завод").
As one of my friends remarked: "Either somebody in the Zhanazhol unit has a sideline in 'charitable works', or the email account has been compromised and is being used by an outsider." As always, beware of phishers. They are everywhere, and they want your details. Do not gratify their desires.