This long missive is the best spam scam this month: Am I dead or alive? My urgen [sic] attention is needed. Because if I’m dead, they can’t scam me, right? Don’t reply to messages like this; just delete them. Even if they need courage.
From: “Mr. Godwin Emefiele (email hidden; JavaScript is required)
Subject: Re: GOOD DAY BENEFICIARY, ARE YOU DEAD OR ALIVE YOUR URGEN ATTENTION IS NEED
To: Recipients <>
Reply-To: email hidden; JavaScript is required
OFFICE OF Central Bank-Nigeria
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
Aso Rock villa, Asokoro District, Abuja
Telephone No. +2348027768935
Dear Beneficiary,
ALIVE OR DEAD
In the course of our General Auditing and Account revision of the last quarter of the year 2018, we discovered that the Bank Accounts with sum of $38.5 Million United States Dollars belonging to some Benefactors have been changed on the basis that the owners have died some time last two weeks or have given out an authorization note of change of data. After the investigations, however, it was revealed that there are Foreigners who are collaborating with Retired Staffs to make these changes illegally without the knowledge of the Bonifide Benefactors and one traced to your own change is this Mr Rick Jones who said you are dead, hence they have forwarded some documents of funeral service held for you so as to divert your fund. They have also forwarded to this office account below as the new account that will receive this money:
Bank:Hang Seng Bank
Bank Address: 83 Des Veoux Road,Central-Hong Kong
Account Name: Rick Jones
Account Number: 235-325172-882
Bank Code: 024
Swift Code: HASEHKHH
But we wanted to confirm if actually this is true and hence decided to write to your email address which after 2 days from now and there is no response, we will then know that you are dead indeed and go on with the transfer. If proved otherwise by you that you did not die, please forward to us all the related Benefactors particulars including your
Your Full Name:…..
Your Residential Address:….
Your Telephone number:…..
Your Occupation:…….
A valid Copy of International/Driver License
These details from you will help to assist us reach a conclusion that you are not dead.Anything contrary to this claim will help us charge this man to court and prosecute him while your fund will be paid to you immediately without any further delay.You have to get back to us on time for us to commence legal proceedings against Mr. Rick Jones and his accomplices. We do await your positive response and is neccessary you write to me direct to my private e-mail (email hidden; JavaScript is required) also give me a call with my direct Telephone No. +2348027768935.
Yours truly,
THANKS AND REMAIN BLESSED.
Mr. Godwin Emefiele
Governor Central Bank of Nigeria,
Financial System Stability
Will Need Courage
They’ve got overdue invoices to pay me. Don’t you think so? Uh, no. Don’t send people like this your bank info – or anything. Delete such scam messages, don’t reply to them.
Does “Gavin” seem totally above-board to you? Don’t you want what his real name is? No matter what, it’s a scam. That he tried to bypass my spam filter by spoofing my own email address in the “from” header is a nice touch. And doesn’t the aol.com email address ooze technical proficiency?
This seems legit… Not. What made it worth sharing was the opening, “It’s my modesty obligation…” It’s that obligation that will ensure the hitch free transfer of our fund, of course. That doesn’t explain why someone at the United Nations uses a Hong Kong email address for official business, though. Or why someone at a Federal Reserve Bank (in New York City, USA) would use gmail.
Yeah, I’m not worried, not when an email like this goes to an “info@” email address that I monitor. It’s a scam: The link goes to a site that tries to sell you background information on people. Don’t click on messages like this, don’t reply. Simply delete them and move on.
I received two spams on the same day, and with the exact same subject line. The messages, however, are quite different, and are quite laughably bad. Even so, don’t reply to such messages, even if it’s tempting to correct their grammar or spelling. The best thing to do is delete the messages.
Were they real? Were they dangerous? I’ll leave those questions to historians. However, if you believe in the Illuminati, you’re probably not going to join that secret society by responding to spam. Read, enjoy, but don’t respond to messages like this.
Such a tale of woe! None of it true, of course. Sorry, you’re not going to get a share of this £17,352,110 windfall from an abandoned bank account — because it doesn’t exist. Enjoy the email, if you receive it, and then delete without responding.
This is either a mistake or an clever attempt to evade anti-spam filters. There is no message body. I am inclined to believe it’s the latter, guessing that filters will look at the body of the message, not the subject line. Either way, the U.S. Homeland Security department doesn’t use email addresses in Italy for official business, or ask fund recipients to confirm their nearest airport.
Little boxes, little boxes, all the same. If this spam has anything that makes it interesting, beyond the terrible grammar, it’s that the faux shipments are so detailed: 61x156x73m, with a capacity of 680 liters.
If writing parts of a message in ALL CAPS lent credibility, this spam might be believable. But really? How long has it been since Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State? Look at the email addresses, look at the names, look at the typos. It’s hard to believe anyone would be fooled by this type of spam.
How very British – having correspondence from “Citibank House,” somewhere in the state of North Carolina. It’s like the address for the British Broadcasting Corp. was simply BBC, 
Mr. Christopher A. Wray is confused. Otherwise, why else would he use an email address that says Eric Wilson? Why else would he say he’s head of the FBI, but uses an email domain at a supply-chain management company in Pennsylvania? Why would his return-to be to a gmail.com account?
Oh, no! The scammer’s letter was returned undelivered! Well, this is a nice scam, isn’t it, including using an address at lawyer.com as the faked sender. (According to my quick detective work, the email originated from a commercial Internet service in Guatemala.)
I had to clean up the formatting on this email to make it somewhat more readable. I hope you enjoy the stilted language and attempts to assure the recipient that this isn’t actually a scam.
This message came to one of my spam trap email addresses. So, this private jet company thinks that hovering addresses from websites is the best way to find customers. Maybe they’re right. In any case, it’s spam. Amusing spam, but spam nonetheless. (Plus, it is always suspect when the “from” email address is not the same as the “contact me” address in the body of the message.)
Such an obvious scam, but for some reason, I find it amusing. Is it that they don’t know how to spell out $2.6 million? Is it that they keep repeating the amount over and over again? Is it the implied legitimacy because of the FedEx link? Is it that they’re using a fake Israeli domain for sending, and a gmail domain for replies? Is it that they are asking for only $120 (don’t worry, they’ll want more later)? Is it the 100% money-back guarantee? Is it the claim of no hidden fees? (Ha ha ha)
He died in 1898, but that doesn’t stop Baron Otto von Bismark from wanting to scam you from beyond the grave. Sure, he’s calling himself Diplomat Otto Bismark, but that can’t fool me: We know he’s the First Chancellor of the German Empire, seeking his revenge.
Here’s a scam attempt noteworthy only for its inadvertent humor. Needless to say, any email like this is trying to defraud you. Don’t respond to such messages; simply delete them without asking why an allegedly South African email is coming from a Russian address. Or anything like that.
This just in, via Facebook Messenger, from an account called “Clemond Fernand.” It’s a scam. Don’t reply to messages like this – block the account instead.
It’s like this scammer isn’t even trying. Dr. George is disappointed in me for setting up and missing an appointment. Fortunately he went to bat and convinced someone to pay some fees to save my $5.5 million ATM card. If I reply soon and repay the fees, the cash is mine! (I wonder why scammers like to mention that ATM cards were shipped via DHL. Does it make the scam seem more credible than, say, FedEx?)
Hello, Terry, whatever your email address is. I don’t think you really have a job offer for me. For one thing, if you really connected via LinkedIn, you’d have messaged me through the service. For another, email addresses often match names. For another… well, that’s enough.
From: Chelsea Dytham
Isn’t this rich? I get these occasionally and they always elicit a chuckle, especially when they refer to “mafias.” Don’t reply to these emails. Delete them instead.
The common element: An email attachment. It’s a corrupted Microsoft Word document that contains nasty malware that will do bad things to your computer. (The bad things vary depending which versions of Microsoft Word you have installed.) Don’t open it!
If you see messages like this, delete them. Don’t respond. Never open attachments from messages if you don’t know and trust the sender… and even then, be wary.
This scam is comically bad, yet who knows if anyone fell for it? This is exactly how the mail came through. I’m leaving in the email addresses, well, just because.