My spam filter is so good that I barely ever get to see all the Nigerian oil-scam spams any more. But this one poked its way through today. It is always nice to see people thinking creatively.
My name is Sgt Kenny Baker, Jr. I am in the Engineering military unit here in Ba’qubah in Iraq, we have about $10, Million US dollars that we want to move out of the country. My partners and I need a good partner someone we can trust. It is oil money and legal.
We are moving it through diplomatic means, to send it to your house directly or a bank of your choice using diplomatic courier service.The most important thing is that can we trust you?. Once the funds get to you, you take your 15% out and keep our own 85%.
Your own part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be sent to. Our own part is sending it to you. If you are interested I will furnish you with more details. But the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times.I look forward to your reply and co-operation,
You can reach me via email: [redacted yahoo.co.uk e-mail address]
Waiting for your urgent response.
14 Comments
It’s pretty incredible how they come up with new stories all the time. It must mean that it actually works.
— wabbit123I once had them send me a fake bank check, just to see the quality of what was fooling so many people.
This is the “I’ll send you a check for $25,000 and you send me your $100 e-bay item and money order for $24,000″.
The check was a joke, and would fool only a simpleton.
— TheBigDuckNot sure if you’ve ever visited the 419eater.com site? Has some great scam the scammers scams.
Also, if you forward that email to abuse@yahoo.com they will kill the address that scammers mention at the bottom of the email within about 12 hours.
You used to have to tell Yahoo to look down the email but I think that they’ve got something automated that checks it now.
— wildfictionIf the name sounds familiar, Kenny Baker was R2D2 in the Star Wars movies.
http://www.starwars.com/bio/kennybaker.html
There are also other entertainers with this name.
— zbicyclistIt means, actually:
YOU ARE GIVING NIGERIAN SPAMMERS A BAD NAME
Cheers,
.lermit
— lermitMe too: scammers!
Cheers,
.lermit
— lermitthe sad thing is this probably is pretty close to how public resources are stolen from the third world
— frankendufWhat kind of spam blocker are you using?
— ceruleanbillIf you don’t help Sgt. Kenny Baker, then you’re not supporting the troops. And thus, you’re against the war. And thus, you’re not a patriot. And thus, you’re siding with the terrorists. And thus, you will be jailed as an enemy combatant and held in a secret prison.
And all because you didn’t respond to a spam.
But frankly, you deserve it, otherwise the terrorists will have won.
— TaedThe Atlantic Monthly Jun 2007 did a wonderful study of these schemes, who responds to them, and an interesting bunch of people who try to scam the scammers:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/cyberscam
also see http://www.419eater.com/
— ensembioTheBigDuck says that the fake check he received would only fool a simpleton, but he obviously knew this was a scam before he requested the check. There’s no way to be sure how obvious the falsity of the check would have been to someone who was expecting it to be real.
— dilbert69Don’t just read these scams — fight back. See the nice overview in the
also see 419eater.com, a site where people exchange tips on how to scam the scammers.
— ensembioYahoo doesn’t do much about those spammers any more. Unless the email was actually sent through a yahoo server, their filters don’t work (they automatically send you a response saying the email didn’t come from a yahoo address, since it didn’t…it just solicits responses to a yahoo address in the text).
I complained up the ladder at yahoo about this practice, and they killed my 10-year old yahoo mail account for “spamming” them, when all I was doing was complaining about their handling of spamming.
And trust me, I received a LOT of Nigerian spam.
— theberleI don’t know which I find more appalling, the psychopathic behavior of the individuals who dream up these harmful scams OR the utterly naive and greedy natures of the people who still fall for this stuff. There truely is “A sucker born every minute”. Just look at how many voted for Hillary in the primarys. Stupid People are Everywhere.
— Woodysgood