I don’t remember how many years back was it when I first saw the original nigerian scam mail. You know, the type of ‘I have so many million dollars and I want to get them out of the country etc’. If there was a spam hit parade this would be Nr 1 for years.
It is so legendary that it does not even annoy me anymore to receive such spam.
Perhaps Google’s gmail antispam filter feels the same way, otherwise it wouldn’t let pass this one. There is a slight variation here. The originator is from Ghana, not Nigeria, but, what the heck, it is pretty close. I copy it for you below (syntax and spelling are intact):
from Ben Goodman <ben_goodman20gh@yahoo.com>
reply-to ben_goodman25@hotmail.com
to ben_goodman20gh@yahoo.com
date Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 3:36 PM
subject Regards
mailed-by yahoo.com
From: Mr. Ben Goodman
Accra, Ghana.
Hello Dear
I got your contact during my search for a reliable,honest and a trust
worth person to entrust this huge transfer project with My name is Mr. Ben. k .Goodman, Branch manager of a financial institution here in Ghana. I am a Ghanaian married with two kids.
I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of $ 7,597.864.00 Million United States dollars only. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which am the manager made as profit duringthe 2005 financial year.
I have already submitted annual report for that year to my head officehere in Accra Ghana as I have watched with keen interest as they will never know of this excess I
have since, placed this amount of $ 7,597.864.00 Million United States dollars only to an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (anonymous) to avoid traceAs an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money due to civil service code which formits civil servants from owing or operating foreign currency account coupled
with the fact thatthe fund is huge thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to
receive this money into your bank account on my behalf I intend to part 30% of this fund to you while 70% shall be for me.
I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this. It’s going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can be legally processed to your name and be transferred to your account. If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response to my private mail: ben_goodman01gh@hotmail.com
With Regards,
Mr Ben Goodman
I like the name particularly: Goodman. An attempt to appeal to the subconscious as a good man.
More puzzling than ‘how did gmail let this pass’ is ‘how can there be such spam today’. It seems that there is no shortage of fools, nor there is going to be anytime soon…
