Best way to play this lot?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

Firstly...hi all Smile

I get a fair few 419 type mails in my inbox each month and normally delete them but this latest one has piqued my interest, mainly because it is supposed to be from someone in the UK (yeah ok so why use a french webmail server? Smile

) and it is different from the usual "give me $1000 and I'll give you 2 million" mails. Anyhoo, what's the best way to wind these guys up? Here's the mail....

I am M.Sarah Frank.from England I am deaf and has cancer of the breast I lost my husband 12yrs ago without a child of mine.

I have to sell all my properties left by my husband because the doctors say i have less than 2months to live.

I have deposited the funds of $4.5million USD which i sold from my properties and deposit into a Bank.

I want you to help me use the funds to help the charity deaf and the motherless babies home before i die.

If you are a good and honest Christian i shall give you the contact of the Bank and also the Deposit Certificate so as to claim my funds before my death.Expecting your urgent response and may God bless you as you carry out my wish.

yours dying sister.

M.Sarah Frank.

Now I was going to reply asking why they used USD instead of GBP but I'm sure there are people here who can do far better than that.

Any ideas?

P.S. Didn't think this was the kind of post to go into the 'scambaiting' forum (seemed more for the 419 scambaiters), if I'm wrong then would a kind mod please move it Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:53 am

Sorry, but this is a bog standard 419. There will be fees involved in getting the money that you are supposed to be investing for her.

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:54 pm

The "dying widow" 419 format (since I work for a non-profit I see several of these a week, actually) usually doesn't mention fees up front because nobody will bite if they mention fees for money they aren't even supposed to keep. Somehow--the "I'm a perfect stranger who wants you to help me give a ton of money to charity but you have to pay to help me" angle is over the top for the first email.

But, it will quickly evolve into a poorly written "you will give away 90% of the money and keep 10% as a fee, but of course I can't access the money now so you'll need to pay fees up front and be reimbursed later."

Definitely an African lad, who may or may not be in the UK (the thing about the scammer mentality is that it tends to go "once a scammer, always a scammer" and they will scam from wherever they end up in the world). More likely not in the UK, just claiming that because some people are suspicious of any email from Africa.

Treat like any other 419, start with initial interest, then you can have fun when you introduce your "charity"--you can be very creative with a "charity" you want to help--you can argue it out of deaf/orphan charities into some unrelated "charity" of your own, or maybe you want to donate it to the "deaf death row inmates fund" or something like that. And ultimately, since your lad is going to want money, you will use the exact same payment-delaying and time-wasting modalities as you use for any other 419.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

Ahhh ok, usual 419 thing then, just not seen one like this before. Thanks for the advise Dorothy, replied but not had a mail back yet so I think it's a dead one. thanks all anyway Smile

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