Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Impertinent Criminals and their Offers

The latest internet scam offer I received purported to come from some one named MarkDavid28 and the subject of the email was: MY DEAR LET'S DO THIS BUSINESS WITH TRUST. The unmitigated gall of the sender struck me which is why I am posting the title of his 'offer' here. I could argue with almost every word in the subject of his email. I am not HIS Dear, for a start. The 'Business' to which he refers no doubt is simply a matter of fleecing a total stranger of his/her money and the idea of being able to conduct ANY interaction with this nefarious and shameless individual 'with trust' is inconceivable. I do not know if any one ever responds positively to these 'offers' at this point in time. It brings to mind a rather hilarious episode of 'Flight of the Conchords' where Murray (manager of the group) 'invested' their small profit with a Nigerian, after receiving an internet plea from the man. Of course, with the brilliance that characterised this show, the result was unexpected. The Nigerian actually WAS legitimate and came all the way to New York to return the fairly small sum of money he had 'borrowed' from Murray. I very much doubt that this ever has occurred in 'real life' which is why the episode was so amusing and clever.

In reality, I believe that most of these fraudulent pleas and offers are simply another means by which criminals phish for data. Even if the recipient never pays the money requested, by simply giving their own names and addresses, they are playing into the hands of the criminals. That is why it is best simply to ignore any of these internet email scams, even if one can be very tempted to respond with justified contempt and rage...

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