Who says all investment offers from Africa are scams?

I received a fax from Samuel Kofi Atta Mills which I almost threw away - until I investigated it.

The fax began as follows (and yes, it was in ALL CAPS due to its importance):

SIR,

I AM MR. SAMUEL KOFI ATTA MILLS THE SON OF LATE GHANAIAN PRESIDENT WHO DIED ON THE 24TH OF JULY 2012. I'M CONTACTING YOU IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT WE MAY BE OF GREAT ASSISTANCE TO EACH OTHER. I CURRENTLY INHERITED THE SUM OF NINETY FIVE MILLION US DOLLARS....

Now I know what you're saying. You're saying to yourself that this is obviously a scam, and that "Mr. Mills" will eventually ask me to deposit money in good faith, and that once I stop sending money I'll never see "Mr. Mills" again.

Well, I did a little bit of research with the BBC, and here's what I found.

First, Ghana did have a President with the last name of Mills - John Atta Mills - who passed away on July 24.

Second, I did some additional research on Mills, and discovered the following in this BBC article:

He is married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, a director of education and trained marriage counsellor.

The former second lady-turned-first lady is also a dog-lover who has kept cross-bred Alsatians. The couple have one son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills.

Sam is also mentioned here.

So this offer that was faxed to me is obviously legitimate. Now I realize that a 2009 email reportedly from Sam was not legitimate, but that email had a Hong Kong address. This fax listed an email that was with a domain in Kazakhstan - and that's pretty close to Ghana, isn't it? And the fax number listed was for country code 27, which is in South Africa. Everybody knows that South Africa is in Africa, which is real close to Ghana. Presumably Sam didn't trust the people of Ghana with the $95 million, so he went to the town of Kazakhstan in South Africa where it was safer.

Obviously I'm not going to give you any of the specific details, such as the exact email address or fax number, or the information that Sam wants me to send to him. After all, he addressed the fax to me, so it's my $95 million.

You may call it greed; I call it shrewd investing.