My pet peeves include any kind of spam, and I use SpamCop and the web mail’s junk reporting for every one that makes it through to me.  For e-mail like the one you received, I additionally report to:  http://www.ic3.gov/

Meanwhile the Nigerian Finance minister is confused as to why everyone keeps turning down his plea for help.

Meanwhile the Nigerian Finance minister is confused as to why everyone keeps turning down his plea for help.

Yeah, when just raising the inheritance tax would solve all their financial issues!

But honestly, does anyone think that these Nigerian spammers have a serious case of blockheadedness too? A case of overdone patriotism? I mean, by now, many people HAVE heard of the Nigerian spam. They will be suspicious, even if they are normally gullible. By simply changing the setup slightly and saying you got an inheritance from Canada or some other unthreatening, normal, place - they’d probably raise their success rate from 0.1% to 0.2%...!

PS: There is a new version that claims to come from a serial killer hired to off you, asking for a bribe so he doesn’t execute his commission. Rude stuff.

from a serial killer hired to

I meant assasin, obviously.

Shit, really reading it closely, its so crude… I could write a better one easily. Maybe I should offer my services to the Nigerian spammers as a proofreader / government procedures advisor. Say for about 10% of the take only. Of course, I would need your bank account number and…

ingolfson- I somehow doubt that anyone who is likely to fall for this stuff is going to notice small errors of spelling, grammar, and logic.  Or perhaps they are deliberate, to give it that certain Nigerian air of second-language verisimilitude.

It’s not crude, it’s how you tell the authentic 419 spam from the fakes.

they call people from USA for wallets

So its all fake then even if the email address is different, becaues this has been seriously freaking me out all day.

golly gee you mean to tell me i am not going to get my $$ what now? i have already sold all my assets to pay for my mothers heart transplant because i thought i had 10 million coming!! now i have NOTHING if you would like to help please send your bank account # and your ss # to.... JUST KIDDING!!! Have a good one ya’ll!!

I received that today.  It had a US email on it.  ()

I found typos.

I can see how some would think it was legit.

ROBERT S MUELLER, SO CALL F.B.I. AGENT. THAT TELL NOTHING ONLY WANT 1,890.00 NOW,OR I LL SEND BACK U FILE KISS UR 12 MILLION GOOD BYE.

Hey bud i got one too

ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITARY CRIMES DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535-0001
Website: http://www.fbi.gov
DATE: 04/15/2008

ATTENTION FUND BENEFICIARY,

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL ADVICE FROM THE FBI FOREIGN REMITTANCE/TELEGRAPHIC DEPT., IT HAS COME TO OUR NOTICE THAT THE C.B.N BANK NIGERIA DISTRICT HAS RELEASED 10,500,000.00 U.S DOLLARS INTO BANK OF AMERICA IN YOUR NAME AS THE BENEFICIARY, BY INHERITANCE MEANS.

THE C.B.N BANK NIGERIA KNOWING FULLY WELL THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FACILITIES TO EFFECT THIS PAYMENT FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM TO YOUR ACCOUNT, USED WHAT WE KNOW AS A SECRET DIPLOMATIC TRANSIT PAYMENT S.T.D.P TO PAY THIS FUND THROUGH WIRE TRANSFER,THEY USED THIS MEANS TO COMPLETE THE PAYMENT.

THEY ARE STILL, WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION FROM YOU ON THE ALREADY TRANSFERRED FUNDS WHICH WAS MADE IN DIRECT TRANSFER SO THAT THEY CAN DO FINAL CREDITING TO YOUR ACCOUNT. SECRET DIPLOMATIC PAYMENTS ARE NOT MADE UNLESS THE FUNDS ARE RELATED TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES WHY MUST YOUR PAYMENT BE MADE IN SECRET TRANSFER , IF YOUR TRANSACTION IS LEGITIMATE,IF YOU ARE NOT A TERRORIST, THEN WHY DID YOU NOT RECEIVE THE MONEY DIRECTLY INTO YOUR ACCOUNT,THIS IS A PURE CODED ,MEANS OF PAYMENT?

RECORDS WHICH WE HAVE HAD WITH THIS METHOD OF PAYMENT IN THE PAST HAS ALWAYS BEEN RELATED TO TERRORIST ACTS, WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO GET INTO TROUBLE AS SOON AS THESE FUNDS REFLECT IN YOUR ACCOUNT IN THE U.S.A, SO IT IS OUR DUTY AS A WORD WIDE COMMISSION TO CORRECT THIS LITTLE PROBLEM BEFORE THIS FUND WILL BE CREDITED INTO YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT.

DUE TO THE INCREASED DIFFICULTY AND UNNECESSARY SCRUTINY BY THE AMERICAN AUTHORITIES WHEN FUNDS COME FROM OUTSIDE OF EUROPE, AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THE F.B.I BANK COMMISSION FOR EUROPE HAS STOPPED THE TRANSFER ON ITS WAY TO DELIVER PAYMENT OF $10,500,000.00 TO DEBIT YOUR RESERVE ACCOUNT AND PAY YOU THROUGH A SECURED DIPLOMATIC TRANSIT ACCOUNT (S.D.T.A). WE GOVERN AND OVERSEES FUNDS TRANSFER FOR THE WORLD BANK AND THE REST OF THE WORLD.

WE ADVICE YOU CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY,AS THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN STOPPED AND ARE BEING HELD IN OUR CUSTODY ,UNTIL YOU CAN BE ABLE TO PROVIDE US WITH A DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY SEAL OF TRANSFER(DIST) WITHING 3 DAYS FROM THE WORLD LOCAL BANK THAT AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER FROM WHERE THE FUNDS WAS TRANSFERRED FROM TO CERTIFY THAT THE FUNDS THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE FROM NIGERIA ARE ANTITERRORIST/DRUG FREE OR WE SHALL HAVE CAUSE TO CROSS AND IMPOUND THE PAYMENT,WE SHALL RELEASE THE FUNDS IMMEEDIATELY WE RECEIVE THIS LEGAL DOCUMENTS .
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We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund, because of the amount involve,we want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in United State in your name , but right now we have ask the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them , unless we ask them to do so, because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you. Note that the fund is in the BANK OF AMERICA right now, but we have ask them not to credit the fund to you yet, because we need a solid proof and verifications from you before releasing the funds.

So to this regards you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money your about to receive is legitimate and real money. You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you have it in your possession, if you don’t have it let us know so that we will direct and inform you where to obtain the document and send to us so that we will ask the bank holding the funds the Bank Of America to go ahead Crediting your account immediately.

This Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer, so get back to us immediately if you don’t have the document so that we will inform you the particular place to obtain the document in United Kingdom U.K, because we have come to realize that the fund was Authorized by H.S.B.C Bank in London.

An FBI Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service.

THESE CONDITION IS

VALID UNTIL 22TH OF APR 2008 AFTER WE SHALL TAKE ACTIONS ON CANCELLING THE PAYMENT AND THEN CHARGE YOU FOR ILLEGALLY MOVING FUNDS OUT OF NIGERIA .

GURANTEE: FUNDS WILL BE RELEASED ON CONFIRMATION OF THE DOCUMENT.
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FINAL INSTRUCTION:

60F CREDIT PAYMENT INSTRUCTION: IRREVOCABLE CREDIT GUARANTEE
61E BENEFICIARY HAS FULL POWER WHEN VALIDATION IS CLEARED
62 BENNEFICIARIES BANK IN U.S.A., CAN ONLY RELEASE FUNDS-
62 UPON CONFIRMATION FROM THE WORLD BANK/UNITED NATIONS.
64 BEARERS MUST CLEAR BANK PROTOCOL AND VALIDATION REQUEST

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NOTE: We have asked for the above documents to make available the most complete and up-to date records possible for the enhancement of public safety, welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights.. If you fail to provide the Documents to us, we will charge you with the FBI and take our proper action against you for not proofing to us the legitimate of the fund you are about to receive.

The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S.A.

An individual may request a copy of his or her own FBI Identification Record for personal review or to challenge information on the Record. Other reasons an individual may request a copy of his or her own Identification Record may include international adoption or to satisfy a requirement to live or work in a foreign country or receive funds from another country (i.e., Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer, letter of good conduct, criminal history background, etc.)

FBI Director
RMuellerobert S. , III

Hey, if they believe in Sky Daddy, why not believe the FBI is trying to help them receive $10,500,000.00? Seems to me to be a small stretch.     

WOW… THOSE NI-SCAMMERS ARE SURE PERSISTENT aren’t they.  I just received the first of the FBI guy scam [April 16, 2008] my brother’s birthday by the way… sorry I digress.  But seriously, I have received over 90 or more of the various fradulent lottery, pleas for a dying christian woman, professor Sulodo (CBN), a guy who died in an airplane crash with whole family… by the way he crashed 5 times in less than two years by my nigerian scumbags. I even had them to call me at 4:30 in the morning, 62 times when I was a novice to the 419 scum… I mean scam.  I got upsetting followup emails from “madames” who insisted that I send the money asap.  This went on for a while, to the point that I was mailed a $5000.00 bogus check to cover the “courier fees” for my consignment box full of cash to be dropped at my doorsteps.  The check was to be cashed and $300 to pay the courier, and the remainder to be sent back to the Big Sounding Official Titled Scumbag at CBN.  Lot of cash to be charged to my checking account, right.  Only that in a month or so, the check would bounce and I would be responsible for the “mistake”.  After checking [no pun intended], out the check… turns out that the bank in Texas that the 5 grand was written on, had that branch shut down eons ago.  But the friend of the Nigerian lowlife, living in Texas had somehow stolen blank checks from that branch, and used it to complete the scheme of CBN having a “trusting american account"… it gets better or worse, depending on if you are John Walsh or wanting comic relief.  The Soludo fellow had me call a confidant in West Virginia to verify the honesty of this transaction.  A gentleman answered and very quickly said, “Dr. Whoever name and diplomatic title give to me at the time… was an honest man”.  He refused to answer any questions other than that comment.  O.K., I’m slightly convienced, but skeptical.  Upon taking the bogus check to my bank, the branch manager suggests an investigation.  They did one and I thought of an idea to catch the scumbags by opening an account with only $10.  Although $10 is less than the miminum required to start a checking account at the this bank, the manager complied. Result was that they took the bait, and somehow got my account number to my personal full of money, account… and ashamed to admit… but they slowly drained that account by taking out small amounts at a time.  Not until I received my bank statement did I know that over 24 withdrawals of the same amount had been taken.  By the time I contacted the secret service about the matter, the scumbags had gotten another IP address.  That is the problem with these situations… before any authorities can catchup with them, they move.  I wish a system can be established where immediate action could close in on these bastards before they scam… oops scram.  To be honest with you guys, I think that some american lowlife dude is behind many of these emails.  The hitman/assasin culprit sounds American… WHY… the sentence structure was o.k., the spelling and grammar was atrocious.

I write this lengthy discourse to help warn others that the scam letters come in various forms.  To notice the sentence structure, the grammar, spelling (especially americanized last names like, William instead of Williams, Spear not Spears etc., the use of words that may compensate for the correct one, but any legit company should know the right thing to say and how to say it… I would if I wanted to sale something, even a lie… wouldn’t you?
Oh yeah, someone mentioned this earlier, but THE EMAIL ADDY!
No corporation would use a free email account such as YAHOO.UK, or Hotmail or gmail or any of the newer ones they have begun to use, like Free.UK.

Lastly, one resort I used a few times is to reply to the sender, not the fake counselate or fudicary - see I can’t spell their titles-
while using my no name addy, to send a reply telling them what a lowlife scumbag (from Joe Walsh) they are, and we Americans are not stupid, we have been warned by Western Union and the FBI and T.V. about there 419 schemes.  And that I have just sent their IP address to the U.S. Secret Service along with the authorites in their country before they receive this letter.  Then I SEND IT MULTIPLE TIMES, SOMETIMES CHANGING THE SUBJECT LINE like “I can’t wait"… or… “how do I get my money"… well you get the idea… and on this note I will close and say stay alert to any official (Bank letters saying your account is frozen, so give them your info. so they can reactivate it… NO BANK SENDS EMAILS SUCH AS THESE EVER).  So be warned that if they address you as “Dear Benificiary, or anything except your name- well if you get on a sucker’s list as I have evidently, they may get your first name- be warned do not fall the scum… oops scam.