what does this Email mean?

Email spam from Nigeria

[ThomasBright]

For God's sake some body tell me what is this email about?
I have received similary emails again and again for the last few years in my different email accounts!

<snipped>

[edited by: engine at 5:39 pm (utc) on Feb. 3, 2003]
[edit reason] no e-mails, thanks, see TOS number 9 [/edit]

[Mardi_Gras]

That's a long running scam - used to be letters, then faxes, now e-mail. Known as a 419 fraud. More info at the Secret Service:

[treas.gov...]

[hurlimann]

Yes amazed that last year Millions was lost by UK fools including one guy who lost 3.1 Million.

[EliteWeb]

:p heheh poor saps who are unaware of scams on the Net. HowTH would they of gotten yer email dood -- you dont know anyone yet, you've only been online for 20 minutes in your lifespan? ;)

[engine]

The site search tool here brings up discussion on this scam.

Check out this earlier thread. [webmasterworld.com]

[Sinner_G]

You mean there are really people who fall for that?

[cornwall]

You mean there are really people who fall for that?

According to the FBI's 2001 Internet Fraud Report , about 2,600 people in the United States reported problems in 2000 with the 419 scam, and of that number, 16 claimed financial losses totaling $345,000.

So it's been around a while

According to State Department figures (PDF) [state.gov], 25 murders or disappearances of Americans abroad have been directly linked to 419 fraud.

and or a little light relief at the end of a long day [scamorama.com] shows how some make a hobby of fighting the lads at their own game ;)

[Marketing Guy]

Thats a lot of money! :)

And pretty amusing too!

I remember watching an episode of Watchdog (UK consumer afairs programme) ages ago that covered the snail mail based version of the scam.

I cant believe how many people were falling for it! It wasnt just people with a spare couple of thousand lying around - people were sending their life savings!

I feel like doing a mailshot along the lines of:

"You're gonna get scammed anyway, so why don't you just give me your money? At least you'll know where it is!"

Send it to enough people and ill be rich in no time! ;)

MG

[chiyo]

We got the first one of these at our Singapore office via fax in 1991. Though we do get considerably more by email these days. Easy to get rid of in mailwasher.