Diamond Mercs and Silver Audis

We’re starting to see more 'oil sheik’ emails than the ones from the Nigerian scammers – which must be a concern for the Nigerian banking industry, which seems wholly dependent on us to unlock the squillions of dollars held captive in their vaults.

Like the Nigerian emails, the oil sheik ones follow a ridiculous pattern: a series of photos of garish ultra-luxury cars, and the claim that these are the private vehicles of this or that Middle Eastern royal, who uses the hard-earned money we poor Westerners have to spend on petrol to indulge his bad taste in this over-the-top bling.

The supposedly diamond-covered Mercedes-Benz is a sparkling case.

`This car costs $4.8 million’ the email headline screams …and we’ll leave out the annoying string of exclamation marks used to hammer the point.'

`And if you want to touch it you have to pay $1000. It belongs to Prince Al Waleed from Saudi Arabia. Remember, when petrol hits $5 per litre, that you paid for this car’, the message goes on.

Incorrect. And what should immediately pinpoint it as a hoax is that there’s no way you could cover a Mercedes with diamonds for $4.8 million… $48 million, perhaps.

The car is a show vehicle for an American company called Garson that offers a range of luxury aftermarket bits, including accessories encrusted with crystals.

We’ll leave alone what that says about bad taste in over-the-top bling. But the cost of the car was only $1 million. And it was developed as the highlight for DUB magazine’s auto show and concert tour. If you want to see it in action, it will be at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this year.

No sheik owner, no fee to touch it. And the only dollars that went into its production was the profit from the kind of people who buy crystal-covered wheels. And who really cares what happens to that sort of money.

Other popular hoaxes include the supposedly sterling silver Audi, supposedly made for another supposed sheik – or as the email revoltingly puts it 'camel jockey’.

Incorrect again. It’s another show car. This time from Germany, where it was used by aftermarket suppliers MTM to demonstrate their metal polishing process. It’s not silver, but aluminium that’s been buffed to a mirror finish. Yes, some of the photos show it in Dubai – which was just one stop on its touring around the world.

Don’t feel badly if you’ve been taken in. The similarly widely-circulating photos that claim to be the private home of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, complete with fleet of prestige vehicles were used by an ethanol producer as part of a development application presentation to a planning committee in the United States.

He reportedly told them: "This is the type of thing being done with your petro dollars that I want to re-patriate. Keep in mind the gentleman has more than 20 wives. This is one of 70 baths. Some are bigger than my house. This is his little swimming pool. These are his cars."

Rubbish. This is the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi. The cars are the hotel’s fleet of vehicles for the use of guests.  

The point is that as the price of petrol is rising – and probably also as the political conflict with some parts of the Middle East is escalating – we are seeing more and more of these emails circulating. The underlying message is intended to demonise the Middle East, but what it’s really doing is clouding over the real problems.

Are the oil sheiks growing wealthy from the world’s dependence on their fuel? Absolutely.

Would any other businessman turn away that kind of profit? You have to be joking.

Are the big oil companies making similar profits? You betcha.

Has any of that information made us significantly change our driving habits and fuel consumption as we watch the pump price climb towards $2/litre? Like hell, it seems.