It’s The Language, Stupid

Like most, I get my share of spam. Since I use Thunderbird as my mail program, lots of it (not all of it and certainly not as much as when I used a standalone spam program) gets dispatched to a place I seldom see.

When spam does make it to my in-box, I often look. I’m curious about these scams and the lengths to which the scammers will go to make their email seems legit.

Today I got a congratulatory email telling me I had won the British Lottery! The return email address was an MSN account and the “DPU Information Officer Mrs Judith Mark who has been assigned to Assist you,” is using a free account from an Indian portal.

Meanwhile, if you look beyond that, my favorite part is this. I’ve won the “consultation” prize! Hey guys, don’t you mean consolation?

We wish to congratulate and inform you on the selection of your email coupon number which was selected among the 45 lucky consultation prize winners.

Your email ID identified with coupon No.PBL2348974321 and was selected by our E-games Random Selection System (ERSS) with entries from the 50,000 different email addresses enrolled for the E-game. Your email ID was included among the 50,000 different email addresses Submitted by our partner international email provider companies.

You Have won a consultation cash prize of US $2,500,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) The BRITISH WEB LOTTERY. Have approved a Payout of your consultation cash prize which will be remunerated directly to you by the official Payment Agency Board.

Wow, I’m now a consultant.

Try as they might, these advance fee fraud phishers always screw up somewhere. Some day they won’t. Right now, they’re fun to watch… as long as you watch from afar.

3 thoughts on “It’s The Language, Stupid”

  1. Well, no one is perfect! Did you catch Channel 8’s boo boo tonight!? The story on the Schaghticoke’s tribal recognition….the (very obvious) graphic behind the anchor during that story contained the word tribal as Tribale. Big letters too! Hmmmmm :))

  2. Well, no one is perfect! Did you catch Channel 8’s boo boo tonight!? The story on the Schaghticoke’s tribal recognition….the (very obvious) graphic behind the anchor during that story contained the word tribal as Tribale. Big letters too! Hmmmmm :))

  3. Dear Mr. Fox:

    The real shame of these scams is that it victimizes disenfranchised royalty like myself. My stepfather, the King of a Scandinavian country, was married to Mother until 1976. He sent me to British boarding school at the age of 9 and the Royal Military Academy in Sweden at 18. When I turned 22, I was supposed to receive $40 Million USD and a score of jewels in a security box at the national bank. I was personally penniless at the time, ironically, and living off my salary as a horse trainer. The bank needed an advance payment of $100,000 for me to pay the trust fees- they were not legally permitted to advance it against the $40 Million and the jewels. In the 1970s, it was difficult to obtain a loan for such a purpose. I had to beg my friends to help.

    I pity the legitimate estranged poor royalty that must endure the humiliating process of begging on the web for their monies.

    Best,

    Prince Olaf.

    P.S. By the way, I got the money. It’s cold here in Denmark where I have relocated to a Copenhagen suburb.

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