The personally known demished Mr. K[G]rugger...
Two of my pet peaves about Internet activity are, Number 1, SPAM, for all the time wasted and the inability to stop most of the cretins who do it. Number 2 is AOL, just for general principals, at AOL it's "my way or the highway". But the one good thing that AOL does have is competant SPAM filters. Which brings me to today's subject. Entertainment SPAM, no not SPAM about entertainment, but spam that entertains. And the only real example of that is "Nigerian 419 SPAM".
For the unitiated, or AOL users who probably don't see it, Nigerian Spam, is from friends you don't know you have in Africa who want to do you a favor and send you $5 million, and the only thing you have to do, is to send them $50,000 first. What a deal. The 419 stands for the Nigerian penal code that outlaws this. The letters are the entertainment in themselves. Some are in fairly good English, some are just plain bad, but all are hugely comical. And they all have several things in common. Among them is some really wild story purporting to have gotten your name and email address from some high citizen of Africa who has met you somewhere along life's way. [Gee, I don't remember being in Ghana, but if they know me...I guess I was]. The other commonality is the twisted convuluted trail of how so much money came available and just how you were selected out of the world's billions to help them get it.
I received one just today that was on the low end of quality English but was high on entertainment value. Among my favorite parts is:
I am truly sorry about the demish of this personally known customer, but I'm even sorrier that they can't seem to get his personally known name right. Which is it, Krugger of Grugger. I'm not sending $50K unless I know!
These personal pleas, are entertaining and so insane that you wonder why they take the time to send them out. Who would ever believe these. Well, I'll tell you. Morons, and apparently boatloads of them. Never count morons out. The US Secret Service says that hundreds [yes hundreds] of millions [yes millions] of dollars have been lost in these schemes and the number is growing. What was even more interesting about the Scam Mail I received today was that the problem is so bad, that the senders ISP tacked a message warning of Nigerian 419 SPAM right onto the bottom of this actual Scam mail!
I find this sector of the Internet world interesting and entertaining. So much so that I am in the process of compiling Nigerian SPAM Scam emails for a new website dedicated to the morons who fall for this. In fact here's a complete copy of today's mail from Mr. Kwesi Boateng, Froreign Bills Dept. and don't forget to visit the Secret Service webpage linked at the bottom.
Two of my pet peaves about Internet activity are, Number 1, SPAM, for all the time wasted and the inability to stop most of the cretins who do it. Number 2 is AOL, just for general principals, at AOL it's "my way or the highway". But the one good thing that AOL does have is competant SPAM filters. Which brings me to today's subject. Entertainment SPAM, no not SPAM about entertainment, but spam that entertains. And the only real example of that is "Nigerian 419 SPAM".
For the unitiated, or AOL users who probably don't see it, Nigerian Spam, is from friends you don't know you have in Africa who want to do you a favor and send you $5 million, and the only thing you have to do, is to send them $50,000 first. What a deal. The 419 stands for the Nigerian penal code that outlaws this. The letters are the entertainment in themselves. Some are in fairly good English, some are just plain bad, but all are hugely comical. And they all have several things in common. Among them is some really wild story purporting to have gotten your name and email address from some high citizen of Africa who has met you somewhere along life's way. [Gee, I don't remember being in Ghana, but if they know me...I guess I was]. The other commonality is the twisted convuluted trail of how so much money came available and just how you were selected out of the world's billions to help them get it.
I received one just today that was on the low end of quality English but was high on entertainment value. Among my favorite parts is:
I AM WRITING IN RESPECT OF A FOREIGN CUSTOMER OF MY BANK, OPERATING A
DOLLAR /DOMICILLIARY ACCOUNT NO. 00-14-255-018 UTB WHO INCIDENTALLY DIED
IN A PLANE CRASH PANAM-AIR FLIGHT OVER LOCKERBIER IN 1988.
FOLLOWING THE DEMISH OF THIS PERSONALLY KNOWN CUSTOMER MR LAMBART
KRUGGER, I HAVE MADE SEVERAL EFFORTS TO TRACE THE NEXT OF KIN OF MR GRUGGER
WITHOUT SUCCESS.
I am truly sorry about the demish of this personally known customer, but I'm even sorrier that they can't seem to get his personally known name right. Which is it, Krugger of Grugger. I'm not sending $50K unless I know!
These personal pleas, are entertaining and so insane that you wonder why they take the time to send them out. Who would ever believe these. Well, I'll tell you. Morons, and apparently boatloads of them. Never count morons out. The US Secret Service says that hundreds [yes hundreds] of millions [yes millions] of dollars have been lost in these schemes and the number is growing. What was even more interesting about the Scam Mail I received today was that the problem is so bad, that the senders ISP tacked a message warning of Nigerian 419 SPAM right onto the bottom of this actual Scam mail!
I find this sector of the Internet world interesting and entertaining. So much so that I am in the process of compiling Nigerian SPAM Scam emails for a new website dedicated to the morons who fall for this. In fact here's a complete copy of today's mail from Mr. Kwesi Boateng, Froreign Bills Dept. and don't forget to visit the Secret Service webpage linked at the bottom.
