I think it is supposed to look a bit like money laundering, but of course they won't actually filter any money through to you, they will just take your identity and your money.

You had better hurry up Sue or Aginor is going to beat you to the prize. Seems you have both been offered the same deal

hello,have you received the money?I'm form belgium and I've received exactly the same mail.

No Tim I haven`t received any money yet but the offers just keep rolling in. Here is the latest,I`m playing around with this one and it`s the third email.

Quote:

---

Dear Beloved

Blessings to you beloved. Your words in your response have given me great Joy this is a good work of charity project I have placed in your hands. My dear I will only say to you with reason of my throat cancer I am unable to speak but all I want is that the money is first safe in your account before I meet the Lord so that it can be used for the intended purpose.

I have told you in confidence that I want the project to be kept very secret and details of my contact with you should not be disclosed to anybody and this is because my husband's family might want to do everything to gain possession of this money for their own selfish interest.

My dear the bank in possession of the money is in Europe, the money can be transferred to your account electronically once you activate the DORMANT ACCOUNT and I need the following details below to send LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION to the bank in Europe that you are now the sole beneficiary see below:

NAME IN FULL:

CONTACT ADDRESS:

COUNTRY:

TEL:

FAX:

OCCUPATION:

I want you to know now that if the project does not take place it will be your fault as I have done all in my power to see that everything works in the manner that we have discussed.

My dear, I want you to have faith and pray always knowing the task ahead and the bold step I have taken to give you this money, I need you to always stay focused and follow instructions, there is need for prayers as obstacles will arise but all that stand against the success of this transfer and the project proper will fall.

Let me rest and leave you to pray and build your mind towards the task ahead and also always be in contact with me. It is very important that you complete this project in good faith even if I join my husband before time and always know your share of the funds is 20% and the balance must be used for the project proper which is 80% dispatching it to the list of the charity organisation that i'll be sending to you.
May God bless you.
Your sister in the lord.

Mrs.Rita Gilbert

---

The "Beloved" is a nice touch and saves the scammer from having to remember names.

I generally either ignore these letters or send them an abusive reply like...

Quote:

---

The quality of the scam emails I receive is dropping rapidly. Your pathetic attempt to deceive is THE WORST I HAVE EVER READ.

Really is your I.Q that low that you cannot think of and write a better scam email?

If this latest attempt is the best you can do I am amazed that you know how to breath all by yourself, a rock could write a better and more well thought-out email.

Try and use what little brains you have been given and compose an email that actually looks half legitimate,that way at least you wont look like a complete fool, just a piece of scamming rubbish.

---

That`s one of the more polite ones.

Some years ago there was an online poetry competition which I entered for fun. Soon I received notification that I was one of the winners (I sent total garbage) and I was invited to come along and read my poem, and receive some silver tray prize. Reading the small print I discovered I was supposed to register for a little over $600 not including accommodations. Sheesh! They would also print my poem in their anthology for about 50 dollars. Later, since of course I ignored them, they let me know if I couldn't make it they would hire a professional reader to present my poem for a fee of course. It was all very entertaining and it did make me wonder if anyone was narcissistic enough to register and actually show up...

I must be so very well thought of all over the world, I have won so many lotteries by having my email picked at random, so many people want me to benefit by their dishonesty - come to think of it, do I have a really shady reputation out there in cyber world?

Well there ARE all those men...

It's not just the bank details they are asking for. To me the most worrying is the requests for copies of driving licences and passports - that's where the real money is I suspect. By the way,my name is Rita

There's a very clever scam going around now in which they target job seekers and they are looking for people with international passports etc. You're actually cashing checks on your account for people to avoid commissions!
I keep seeing it cropping up or proposed to people.

It sounds legit so watch out.

I'm comforted to know I'm not the only one to get these things which now seem to be arriving in my in-box almost daily. I also read somewhere that once you reply you're listed as an active e-mail and that may dramatically increase the numbers you get through. Seems to have been the case for me but if you're having fun with it, enjoy! Like Sue, I just feel terribly sorry for the people who don't realise these are scams.

Our local radio station has a guy who makes 'crank' calls to people and puts them on the air. Last week he phoned the number listed on one of these e.mails, thinking he would not get a reply. Suprisingly he did and after chatting for a while, politely told the guy he was a scam artist. Instead of just hanging up on him, the scam artist got angry and had a few choice words to say in reply. Just shows you how dumb they realy are!

Well, I've won the UK lottery four times in the past week, the NY State lottery once and the Netherlands lottery twice.

I'll be posting next from my lovely new villa in Nigeria just as soon as I help some kind lady move a massive amount of money out of the country. Who knew I was so lucky?

hmmm, Indie, you may just have to share. I've also won the UK lottery a few times this week.

Oops! I created a thread in the debating society regarding this topic as I did not realise this one was here! I receive 4 or 5 of these PER DAY and it's such a pain. I have had ones from supposed 'widows' with no heirs bestowing their millions to me, job offers to receive money on behalf of companies etc. Even asking for Bank and Passport details! There is always a promise that if you send money you will get much more in return. The spelling is always terrible and I am supposed to believe that they are reputable companies with offices in the UK or US. It worries me that some people must fall for these or why would the same people keep bothering to do it? Grrrs

Just as an example:

Dear good Friend,
I didnot forgot your past effort by trying to help me, now
i want to tell you that i have suceeded in getting those
funds transferred under the cooperation of a new partner
from Paraguay.

Contact my secretary in benin
ask him for ( $800.000.00)
for your compensation
his name Mr.John Martins
Email:johnmartins1@yahoo.fr

NOTE :BELWO HERE IS THE REQUIRED INFORMATIONS YOU WILL SEND TO MY
SECRETARY :
(1) YOUR FULL NAMES
(2) YOUR HOUSE ADDRESS
(3) YOUR DIRECT CELPHONE NUMBER AND HOUSE PHONE WITH FAX IF ANY .
(4) YOUR ID EITHER INTERNATIONAL PAS-PORT OR DRIVING LINCES .
Regards,
Barr. Paul Chukwu

I'm rich, too! I get these emails at least 3 times a week. Marking them as 'Spam' seems to do no good...Who are these people?

The best way to describe them is "Scam Artists". Sadly I think there are a lot of people who fall for these scams and loose their money. Thus far (cross my fingers) I have not recieved any like these but I get a lot of penny stock suggestions which is very annoying. I forward the details to my service provider (considering what I pay a month for thier service) and they block them. Only problem is they are very clever and send them thru different countries and names each time.

Its probably a scam

WooHoo! I won $2,500,000 in the South African lottery this morning!

I haven't answered any of these, of course, even just to play around with them. I usually send them to the spam box without even opening them. But even without opening them, I am still getting several a week. How do they keep getting our addresses?

I have never replied to any of these e-mails either yet i still keep getting them. It is strange as my husband never receives any and i get at least 3 a day! Am getting tempted to reply and tell em where to shove it! (politely lol)

I replied to one the other day for a joke - it was wanting an agent in the US as he was going to be in the UK.

My email said...

So if you want a person in the US why would you contact a person who patently DOESN'T live in the US? Just check email addresses in future.
Now if you are saying that you want me to relocate to the US, will apply for a green card for me and pay my location costs then contact me with your proposition. I will require very good medical insurance as I have already had open heart surgery so this will be a real possibility for the future - health coverage will need to take this into consideration.

....................

From: Anderson Smith [mailto:anderson_smith212@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 01 May 2007 19:02
To: Sue Monks
Subject: RE:



where did you live

............

Me again....

The clue is in the email address.

...........

No further response! My email address he used was ---@----.co.uk!

No further contact.

I finally got tired of seeing them and set up my outlook express message service to automatically delete messages with the key words in. I realise I am taking a chance here - I risk deleting the messages telling me I really did win the lottery I never entered but you know what ........ I'm prepared to take that chance. As many of you have said, spam marking never seems to make any difference. What drove me particularly nuts was my mail service let their e-mails through no problem and never marked them as spam but a couple of times when I was playing about with replies they blocked me telling me I looked as if I was sending spam! In the three days since I set it up I haven't received any - fingers crossed.

The latest one is not bad, makes me feel important to have so many government officials looking after my monetary interests.

Quote:

---

OFFICE OF THE SENATE HOUSE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
(RESOLUTIONPANEL ON CONTRACT PAYMENT)
IKOYI-LAGOS NIGERIA


Our Ref: FGN /SNT/STB



ATTN: Beneficiary ,

We, the entire members of the Federal House of Senate, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigerian Government, Under the auspices of the civilian Head of State, President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Governor of Central Bank Of Nigeria , Prof Charles Soludo held a meeting last week concerning payment , both foreign and local contractors and some inheritance funds.

On going through files yesterday, we discovered that your file was dumped untreated , so at this juncture, we apologize for the delay of your payment and please stop communicating with any office now and attention to the appointed office below for you to receive your payment accordingly .

Now your new Payment Reference No.-35460021, Allocation No: 674632 Password No : 339331 , Pin Code No: 55674 and your Certificate of Merit Payment No : 103 , Released Code No: 0763; Immediate Telex confirmation No: -1114433 ; Secret Code No: XXTN013 ,Having received these vital payment number , therefore You are qualified now to received and confirm Your payment with the Federal Government of Nigeria immediately within 24hrs .

Now you are directed to contact the Office of the Paymaster General Federal Republic of Nigeria Dr. Wilfred Adamsimmediately so that he will pay you and fax you the payment Copy Slip and also you should reconfirm your banking Details , this is to avoid mistake while transferring your overdue payment to you today .

Contact Person: Dr. Wilfred Adams Email: sen.wilfred_adams@pobox.sk
Direct Openfax:+234-802-940-2768 , Contact him now and inform him that you received an email from The Federal House of Senate Federal Republic of Nigeria , Instructing you to call him for immediate release of yor fund and forward your Details to his office to avoid transfer mistake

NOTE : We have mounted our security network to monitor every in-coming call , if we still find out that you are still dealing with all those fraudsters that have been frustrating , I shall stop and cancel your payment immediately .



Best Regards


DR. KENNETH NNAMANI Dr Uffort Ekaette
SENATE PRESIDENT Secretary of the federation
(Federal Republic of Nigeria)

---

I feel like playing with some of them at times, not those who just give a telephone number though.

Hehe, I love playing with them Sue. My wife walked into the computer room the other day while I was reading through my emails replied to,she was killing herself laughing after reading just one reply and was crying with laughter after the first ten, I had to cover the page a few times as I get annoyed with the spammers and will write all sorts of insults. I`m lucky that she finds the show "Becker" funny.

The latest one is supposedly from some 18 year old girl in Africa, I`ve been replying to her/his emails in a polite manner and am really hoping to get them to send a picture of someone holding a sign with my "name" on it. I`ve had no luck so far but it gives me something to do.

One thing would be interesting to see happen. If everyone that received a lottery or other type of email actually replied the spammers wouldn`t be able to keep up with the number of emails, maybe they might stop.