Today I was surprised to receive a new kind of african spam I never saw before. It seems “they” noticed their usual pattern is too impossible (hidden money of an african country, I will give it to you because I don’t know who you are), so they finally got innovative.
Today the spam I got was different, but is indeed a spam, and based on the origin (tracked from the mail’s “received” headers, strangly I reached Nigeria), I believe responding to this email will get me involved in something like “He finally paid but the money is blocked in Nigeria and I’m blocked in XXX, please go there and get it for me young man, I will give you half of it”. Anyway here we go:
| Dear Counsel,
My name is Clara Jong and I am a contacting your firm in regards to a We had an out of court agreement (Collaborative Law Agreement) for him I am hereby seeking your firm’s to assistance in collecting the |
See, quite original isn’t it. So everything needed is in there. High amount of money, a (young?) damselle blocked in an exotic country (Japan in this case, which is not quite exotic for me), and a problem with a husband. Headers are revealing the sender’s IP on a network managed by:
org-name: MTN Nigeria org-type: LIR country: NG
I believe this is rather obvious and leaves no place for doubt. Welcome to new Spam 419, more subtle and likely to get more people involved with this scam which has been known to strip people of their money for years. I guess we’ll soon see the same pattern emerge from ex-USSR as they have been working closely (copying?) with nigerians.
Anyway be careful and never respond to those.
#1 by Ron Huttner on 2010/02/23 - 16:50
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I got this garbage email today.
But the email purported to come from one “Antonio Bernardo” in Mozambique !
The following is my reply:-
Dear Clara,
I can only assume that you are brain-damaged.
Your email address is in China, but you say you are in Japan.
You say your name is “Clara Jong”, but the email sender is “Antonio Bernardo” in Mozambique !!
Are you male, female, or transexual ?
Presumably you have had a lawyer in the past ?
Use him or her again.
But frankly, I am convinced that both you and your Mozambican friend need good psychiatrists far more urgently than either of you needs a lawyer.
Regards,
#2 by Ron Huttner on 2010/02/23 - 17:02
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Poor “Tanaka Masato” appears to be in EXACTLY the same sad situation as dear Clara Jong. And her husband appears to have paid her back EXACTLY the same amount as the good Ms Jong’s husband. And to still owe her EXACTLY the same amount as does Mr Jong.
See:- http://scamoftheday.com/wordpress/2009/10/11/divorce-settlement-collaborative-law-agreement/
What gives me a huge chuckle is the fact that I am, in fact, a lawyer with considerable experience in recognizing a crooked rogue when I see one !!