[Ads-l] OT: The Nigerian Scam revisited

Robin Hamilton robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM
Sun Oct 2 16:27:13 UTC 2016


Actually, the version Larry provides below probably *should *count as a distinct
variant, especially if the sender was an (alleged) US national.  [The
accidentally intruding cyrillic glyph is ... interesting.  :-)  ]

I think I'll tag is as: "Grammatically Correct 419".

Robin

> 
>     On 02 October 2016 at 16:32 Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 
>     > 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
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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