Don’t believe I got one of these

You would think the “Skeptico” email address would have given it away. A hint. A clue. A sign that “You’ll be wasting your time”. But no. Some bozo harvested my email and sent me one of those internet scams. You know: untold millions await - all I need to do is send them a few thousand dollars. Then a few more. Then (er, you get the idea.)

The email is from a Stuart Fielding (or Felding – he spells it both ways). Here is how it starts. (Spelling and punctuation as in original.)

Good Day,

I am Mr.Stuart Fielding,Senior Credit Officer of NATWEST BANK plc. Here is a 100% concealed and mutually profitable business proposal for you.

After the United States and Iraqi war, our client Hatem Kamil Abdul Fatah who was the deputy governor of Baghdad in Iraq and also business man made a numbered fixed deposit for 12 calendar months, with a value of Twenty Five million British  Pounds only in my branch.

Upon maturity several notices were sent to him, even in the first quater of this year.Again another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found out that the Deputy Governor has been assasinated in Baghdad.

You know how the rest goes. Does anyone actually reply and send money to these people? I guess someone must otherwise they wouldn’t bother, right?

I think I’ll decline, though. You see, if I’m going to waste my money on a con-merchant it’s going to be with one of “the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria”. For one, I received one of the earliest examples of this scam from them in 1992 – in the regular mail! (Yes children, this was in the days before email.) And for two, these guys just won an Ig Nobel Prize for literature. Fielding has a long way to go to catch up.

So I won’t be calling Mr.Stuart Fielding. Even on his “provate email”. Don’t let me stop you though. Just don’t send him any cash.

Comments

[Clone]

This girl does respond to those letters and the results are very entertaining
http://bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html

[Tanooki Joe]

There was one guy who turned the correspondance into something out of a Lovecraft novel. Hilarious.

[Lord Runolfr]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to contact a law enforcement agency and start corresponding with the little jackass to see if you can get him thrown into Abu Ghraib.