[Ads-l] The Nigerian Scam revisited

[Wilson Gray]

Isn't "Nigerian _letter_" the older term for this particular scam, which is
two days older than water?

Esquire - Volume 77 - Page 184
https://books.google.com/books?id=gWJXAAAAYAAJ
William S. Burroughs - 1972 - ‎Snippet view
A typical _Nigerian letter_. The correspondence closes with three
"references of long standing business" and the illegible signature of a
"Director." I answered. "Dr. Mr. Director:

     "Many good thanks for your letter.

     "We at X-Pando are not financially equipped to send $400 [approx.
$3700, today] worth of free samples sight unseen even to such a
well-established firm as yours. We promise you that the X-Pandotite in the
one-pound can is exactly the same X-Pandotite as in the 100-pound drum.
Only more of it.

     "We have checked your three references. At present writing two have
answered:
"We do business only on the basis of an irrevocable letter of credit."

      I thought that had ended it. Yet I am surprised by yet another letter.

On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 11:18 AM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at wayne.edu>
wrote:

> The "IRS" has been sending threatening emails and - even worse -
> threatening phone calls for quite a while now. One version demands payment
> by gift cards (!) for a 'student tax', targeting undergraduates new to
> grown-up finance, but there are many versions.  We get a call once or twice
> a week and delete from our answering machine - no spam filter equivalent
> there.
>
>
> sigh,
>
> Margaret
>
>
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> On Leave
> Office of the Provost
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
>
> mewinters at wayne.edu
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 11:06 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: OT: The Nigerian Scam revisited
>
> I've just had an email (which my ISP rightly decided, with acute disdain,
> to
> relegate to my Spam folder) threatening [sic!] me with legal action from
> everyone from the IRS to the United Nations, if I don't send them at least
> a
> token payment on an overdue debt.
>
> I don't remember coming on this particular variant on an old-established
> ritual
> before.
>
> Anyone else had one of these?  Or am I the only sad person on this list who
> checks their Spam folder?
>
> Robin
>
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-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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