jomaxx - 5:14 pm on Feb 16, 2005 (gmt 0)

I got a letter this week headed "i will like to donate to further your works". The person wanted to send me a donation and only needed my address and the name to make the cheque out to. (BTW that's not completely ridiculous; I do get unsolicited donations once in a great while.) The email was vague but was addressed to me from a real email address. Anyway that information is available, or else fairly guessable, from WHOIS data anyway, so I sent it on to him.

Today came his reply with the kicker: "as soon as you get the money order cleared,i will want you to deduct $300 and wire the balance of the money order via western union money transfer to my agent". I can only assume that the cheque will be either invalid or drawn on some third party's account without their knowledge.

Is this a well-known scam? I haven't encountered it before.