Don't be a moron.

[Beep]

So, I signed up to a "Free iPod or iMac" sites. They promised they don't pass on email adresses.
This morning when I read my mail I was shocked to see in my junkmail folder a message reading

Dear Beloved

Assalamu alaikum!!!

My contacting you is based on trust. I have seen war and I have seen peace, I have seen riches and I have seen people die of hunger on daily bases. And I am quite certain that life is vanity; the only life worth living is a life of service to the almighty One God, most merciful, most compassionate and most benevolent. This is the reason for my present decision based absolutely on taqwa.

I am Khalid the only surviving child of the Gen. Abdulaziz Shihab, one of the UNITA rebel leaders of Angola. My late father fought the agonnizing protacted Angolan civil war from the very scratch, and was incharge of selling diamonds and other solid minerals of the rebel stronghood area, as well as purchasing arms and ammunitions in return. This position made him very rich and powerful. So powerful that the late Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi the head and founder of the UNITA guerillas felt threatened that he planned to get rid of my father.

As much as I can remember, one Sunday I was away with my mother when a handful of soldiers onbviously sent by the late Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi went to our house and killed my father, my two sisters and brother. They also executed everyone that beared the same surname with us in my village, thus making sure that we were completely wiped out the surface of the earth. An aid loyal to my father met with me and my mother and sneaked us to Zambia a neighbouring country, from where we travelled to London, My mother died of extreme cancer a month ago here and here am I on my sick diagnosed of HIV 1 & 2 i.e. full blown AIDS and I have a few months to live. Three months ago my late mother took me to the Bank Finance Company where my late father deposited large sum of money ($2.5m) he acquired during the war, and I took possesion. I do not want this money to get into wrong hands by means of intestate laws.

My late father probably did not do thing right and fate has dealt with us decisively, but lying here on my dying bed I am determined to do thing right to enable me die in a state of Taahir, by passing this fund on to a God fearing person not minding his or her religion or an Organisation that will use it to progate Peace to the glory of the almighty One God, take care of the weaks of the earth ( the widows, old and ophans) . If you know and believe in your heart that you stand up for a good course and bring glory to the name of Allah, distinquish yourself in this world full of evil and corruption and use this money just as I have said, then get in touch with me immediately forwarding the following details.

(1) Your full contact detail
(2) Your telephone and fax number(s)
(3) Your Date and place of birth
(4) Your Occupation

So that I can forward to the security company to contact you, Time is of the essence, because it is imperative that you pull this fund to your bank account now that I am still alive to avoid eminent confrontation and refusal by the Finance company when I am gone.

Awaiting your immediate reply.
Yours in faith,
Khalid Abdulaziz

He was using the email address [email protected] however upon reading the message internet headers he was not from a google server. The reply email was [email protected].

EDIT: I must state that this is a 419 scam and I have reported it.

I just think it's funny that they have tried sending the same email to lots of people since 2005.

I was wandering if anyone else had someone try to do this.

[Sput]

"Don't be a moron" would be a better thread title.

[TG]

419 / Phishing mails?

I'd guess most of us get those.

Difference is, most of us don't take them too seriously.

Take the hint.

[Nini]

Difference is, most of us don't take them too seriously.

Most of us don't think any "free super awesomeness" site is going to actually send anything out based on referrals.

Can we dispose of this thread? As much as providing basic levels of "don't be a dick on the internet" is fun, it is beep so all the spam that comes to him makes me chuckle and should be encouraging him to reply to all of them and do as they ask.

[nidave]

These sort of things seem to be on the increase again... not had any for ages now I have 4 of the same ones to different addresses.

Code: Select all

 UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION UNIT, IN AFFILIATION WITH WORLD BANK.

 Attention:HELLO AND GOOD DAY,

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family?, You may not
understand why this mail came to you

We have been having a meeting for the passed 4months which ended 2 days ago with the
then secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This email is to all the people that have been
scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS have agreed to compensate them
with the  sum of US$ 100,000.

 This includes every foreign contractors that may  have not received their contract
sum, and people that have had an  unfinished transaction or international
businesses that failed due to Government problems etc.

 We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this have
been agreed upon and have been signed.

 You are advised to contact Mr Mcrobert.james of our paying center in UNITED STATE
OF AMERICA , as he is our representative in AMERICA, contact him immediately for
your  Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$100,000. This funds are in a Bank
Draft for security purpose ok? so he will send it to you and you can clear it in
any bank of your choice.

 Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone  number your correct
mailing address where you want him to send the  Draft to you. Contact Mr Erick
Scott  immediately for your Cheque:

Person to Contact: Mr Erick Scott  
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +13236918831.hotlineservice

 Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you
cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place.

Regards,Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon.
http://www.un.org/sg/

[marksi]

I've never had any of these emails ever.

I do though get messages on Gaydar from Russians and Nigerians who apparently admire my "structure".

[cdd]

That's not true. Some of these scams are really nasty. There are a few that follow the "Hustle principle" but many of them use sob stories and such to extract cash - so well intentioned people can fall for them.

I received a very unpleasant one a while back which was more of a blackmail attempt than anything else, written as a death threat. Given that they had gone to the effort of extrapolating my name from my email address, it felt quite personal. For someone who isn't experienced with the Internet, that really is a nasty thing to receive.

A am very Very sorry for you, is a pity that this is how your life is
going to end is a pity but I will like to give you some chance to help
your self RIP.


As you can see there is no need of introducing my self to you because I
don't have any business with you, My work as I am talking to you now is
just to kill you and a have to just do that as I have already been paid
for that.

Some one that I will not like to tell you the name came to me and told
me that he want you and the whole of your family dead and he provide us
with your name, Address and Phone Number and with my network I sent my
boys to track you down and they have done that but I told them not to
kill
you that.


I will like to contact you and see if your life is Important to you so
I called the him back (I mean my client) and ask him of you email which
Ididn't tell him what I want to do with it and he gave it to me and I
am
using it to contact you. As I am writing to you now my men are
monitoring you and there telling me every thing about you. So I will
like
to know if you Like to live or die as some one has paid for you to die.



I am given you.just two days to get back to me or I will just make a
call
and tell my boys to wipe you and your family out.

GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY.

[Nini]

That's a bit laughable though, even if you're not au fait with the ways of the intertubes it doesn't take too much to figure that someone sending you an email stating how you might die if you don't contact me is pretty much unlikely to happen. "You'r going to die for Tottaly reasons unknown", feh.

[Pete]

what a strange concept, letting the person know that they are intended to be killed, surely in that case one would contact the police and arrange protection. silly scammers

[LaSeandre]

I'm apparently getting spam FROM MY OWN ADDRESS!

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

I had a query about that a couple of weeks ago from somebody who's mailbox I administer. It's a method they use to easily avoid some of the more basic spam filter methods. Most clients whitelist addresses in their address book and the easiest way of finding a whitelist address to use is to use the address it's being sent to in the first place.
Thankfully the query was from someone who trusts me so I didn't have to go too far to prove he didn't have to worry, but it's easy to see why he was concerned - especially with the content of some of those emails!