[Ads-l] OT: The Nigerian Scam revisited

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Oct 2 15:32:41 UTC 2016


> On Oct 2, 2016, at 11:06 AM, Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 

I may have received a version of this, but I confess I'm a bit behind (months or years) in keeping up with the contents of my Spam (well, actually, Junk) folder.  Inspired by your post, I checked its contents for the last couple of days and, amid the usual offers to improve my "loving life", my "intimate life" and even my "male humbling problem", there was a solicitation from a Major Rebecca Schieble, who finds herself in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in the possession of $3.8 million dollars U.S. that she and her comrades discovered in barrels during a foot patrol; she now apparently needs my help in evacuating this money.  No dangers involved, I am assured.  There may seem to be improprieties involved, but as she points out "No compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this Hellhole", and she counts on my discretion in proceeding with what she assures me will be our mutually benefitting relationship.  Curiously, under the signature line I find
"Groupe Hospitalier de la Rйgion de Mulhouse et Sud-Alsace"
[In case it doesn't get properly transmitted, that's the Russian letter /i/ mysteriously popping up in the word for "region"]

LH

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