NIGERIAN SCAM LETTERS:

WHAT SOME RECIPIENTS ARE WRITING BACK!

Dear Mr. Amadeous Dickson,

Welcome to Overseas Department of FBI located at Russia / MOW-Moscow.
Pls.take a look at this page we had found and strongly advice to read before sending any mails to unknown addresses.
The name of the page is Nigerian Advance Fee 419 Fraud Scams.
You can see this page at:
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm

Be sure that, in any case your coordinates are to be reported to the new
Department of Security, Washington-D.C.
Best Regards.
Daniel Dennis [not the recipient's real name]
Colonel -18156
_________________________________________________

Dear .....,

I was so excited to get your letter and to know that you put so much trust in me.  I will surely not let you down, especially after you have shown your good faith in this proposed transaction by transferring into my bank account in the USA the sum of 

$ .... ( ... thousand US dollars); this is only about 1% of the total sum you are offering me for my help, right?

My bank is ..... You don't need to know the account number;  I told my bank to expect the money. They will know which account to put it in. I am already expecting a few hundred thousand dollars from many other persons like you, living on the African continent, who found my e-Mail address by chance and who, like you, are offering me hundreds of thousands [even millions (!!!)]of dollars just to help them with their financial predicament.

It is surprising how many people in Africa have so much "hidden" money. Anyway, as soon as I am informed by my bank that the transfer of $ ... is in place, I will get back to you we can work out the other details of your proposed transaction. Naturally, this has to be in strict compliance with all U.S. laws.

Respectfully yours in anticipation,

xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. I am forwarding a copy of your communication to:

United States Secret Service,

Financial Crimes Division,

419 Task Force, 950 H Street,

Washington, DC, 20001-4518, USA.

P.P.S. The last person who attempted a scam of this kind, from an African country, currently is in prison.

P.P.P.S If, as I suspect, you are using your Yahoo e-Mail privileges in an attempt to run a SCAM in the USA, I am asking Yahoo's Abuse Service to remove you from their list of e-Mail subscribers.  Yahoo does not tolerate this kind of thing.

Better luck next time !!!

_________________________________________________

First of all, how did you get my contact information? I don't know who you are or what kind of joke this is, but it sounds like fraud and I am in NO WAY interested. At the same time, I work for a company closely linked to the federal government and intend on seeking help from my contacts to see what kind of illegal activity this email is intending to solicit from unknowing Americans. I don't know how you do business in Nigeria, but in America we don't "pretend" to be next of kin when we are not, and I am certainly not stupid enough to send my bank information to a random foreigner in Africa. Take your business to some other country

_________________________________________________

Reply to Tanko:

Erm, rather not thanks!

The 'Nigerian Oil Money Scam' is widely known by now, to the extent of appearing in the print media of a number of countries. Indeed, I'm slightly insulted as I seem to have got a copy of this widely circulated email, some time after it has become old news.

Now if you were writing to me when this was all fresh and new, who knows what levels of stupidity combined with greed, that you may have inspired? I could have looked forward to helping out with demands for ever increasing sums of money to meet your various miscellaneous "expenses". I would have enjoyed making trips (at my own expense) with
more sums of money, to meet your representatives on the other side of the world. I know I would have never ever seen a cent of the twenty percent of forty one million dollars, but hey, the fun is not in the alleged monetary gain, it's in taking part in all of this!

But this is not to be...

In fobbing me off with an old, tired, and frankly lame attempt to engage my greed and stupidity, you have achieved exactly the opposite effect, a hardening scepticism. I'm sure you've noticed a little bit of sharpness in the overall tone of my reply.

Now with a couple of minutes thought, I've come up with my own scenario to force money from the pockets of an unwilling population. Try this for size!

~~~~~Martian Gold for Free!~~~~~

You have to believe this! Martians are living on Earth, and have been accepted as ordinary citizens and members of our government for a number of years now!

Yes, it is true about Roswell, they did cover it up, but the truth is even more remarkable than fiction!

For the Martians have their own systems for living, and their own manufacturing, quite removed from any earthly technology. Now we can reveal for the first time, that a by-product from this manufacture, is a yellow metal, produced in near-limitless qyantities. This metal is of no worth to the Martians, but you may know of it with the human word "gold"!

Yes, there are literally mountains of gold, at a secret location, sitting there for the taking! All you can carry away with you. They don't want it, they have no use for it!

If you are interested, we will reveal the co-ordinates of the secret location. To show that you are willing to keep this secret, please send $10,000 to assist them with their ongoing storage costs.

Contact me by return email, with bank account/credit card details if interested.

Frank the Martian.

Now at least my attempt at stupid people baiting is halfway funny.

So long, and thanks for all the gratuitous amusement.

P.S. I've got the broad outline of how this works, but I'm hazy on some of the detail. Are you guys anything to do with organized crime, or is this strictly an over-hopeful one-man band outfit?

ZETNET SUPPORT NOTE:- For the good of all your customers, please make sure the source of this email is blocked, and the sender reported to the appropriate authorities.