You are listening to a Clarks World magazine podcast with your host and narrator.

We have some breaking news. We have just received a letter which I will now read to you in its entirety.

Nigerian astronaut really is lost in space and he's in trouble. It turns out the scam letter was not at all a

scam. There actually is a Nigerian man stuck out there on a space station. He's

been stuck there for 14 years and after recent events he's probably not okay

though Space Flight Services Incorporated the private spaceflight company he was

working for knew he was alive. It's only with the exposure brought by this

letter that plans are being made to bring him back. Quite a different reaction compared to the one

in the science fiction blockbuster novel in the film The Martian.

Last year, an online publication received a most peculiar 419 Nigerian scam letter,

a man named Bakare Tundi, was claiming to be the cousin of

Air Force Major, a Bacha Tundi, a Nigerian astronaut abandoned in space.

Bekare was offering the letter's recipient $3 million if the recipient would allow him to transfer a large sum of money that would be used to bring his cousin back. It's assumed that in order to do this,

the recipient would have to front some money first. Thinking this was just a typical,

albeit more creative scam letter, the publication posted it on its

website and it quickly went viral.

Here is the letter.

Subject.

Nigerian astronaut wants to come home.

Dr. Bakare Tundi, Astronautics Project Manager.

National Space Research and Development Agency.

Dear Mr. Sir, request for assistance strictly confidential. I am Dr.

...