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Happiness Engineer at Automattic, lover of knitting, crochet, sci-fi and more

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High end spam

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Spam is getting high-tech and intricate. Not only selling things but using it to commit fraud. Although it’s not new, apparently the kind of spam I’ve been getting recently has been going on for decades. It’s known as the 4-1-9 scam. I’ve only gotten three emails to this effect, so it’s not that many, but I received the same one twice and while one sounds quite convincing, the other just sounds dodge.

My name is Silas and I am contacting you from Nigeria for a mutual business relationship and investment. I have some funds realized through contract dealings and I need your cooperation to invest the funds. The money has been paid out as commission and the first stage is to transfer the funds to your account for subsequent investment. I have chosen to contact you because you live in a country where I want to invest in. I therefore want you to work with me as a partner. On receipt of your response, I will send you full details of the transaction and more information about myself. I will not contact another person regarding this transaction until I hear from you. I am waiting for your prompt response.

~

PLEASE ENDEAVOUR TO USE IT FOR THE CHILDREN OF GOD.I am the above named person from SIERRA-LEONE. I am married to Dr Theophilus Uwaoma who worked with Sierra-Leonian Embassy in South Africa for nine years before he died in the year 2001.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christians.Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against.When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of$9,000,000.00 ( U.S. Nine Million United State Dollars) Dollars) with financial institution in Cote d I voire here. Presently, this money is still with the financial institution. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to cancer problem. Though what disturbs me most is my stroke…

I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the original- beneficiary of this fund. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the lord is my shephard. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian.Who ever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Please always be prayerful all through your
life.

Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for a church or christian individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. Hoping to hear from you soon.

The second one sounds very tempting, it sounds like it’s from someone who really does trust in Jesus Christ, pretty much. Imagine what one could do with $9mill!

Anyway, it’s fake. These emails mention all of the places that Snopes.com says these things will come from, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. They even have websites that give you advice about dealing with these frauds.

Guess I can delete those emails now.

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Comments

  2. You’re not the only one to think this could be real – the Anglican Church in Wellington, NZ, fell for a similar scam a while ago – click here for a scant bit of info.

    .e

    • What a bummer. I suppose when you actually know the name of the person emailing you you miht not have any reason to think it’s fake. The scammer was either very lucky or knew the two men.

  4. These mails are a pain. But some take them on the humorous site. Scambaiting, i.e. replying to these eMails and faking interest and wasting the scammers time or make them take pictures in weird locations and positions, has become some kind of sport. I recently posted an article about it: http://positronict.com/photobl.....ded/?p=121

    • Oh my goodness. I might have read that post when you wrote it but none of those scam emails had made it through my junk filter, or I used to delete emails that had a name I didn’t recognise (pre blog and having an email address on the net). I read through one scam on that site. Well I skipped the last few (except the last one when the scammer admits he’s a scammer). The scmmers snivelling and begging was so annoying! It seems good combatting scam emails but I think I’ll keep deleting them, I couldn’t stand the intricacies of scamming back.