Scammers and Spammers

Another kind offer of financial assistance from an apparently aggrieved African has arrived in my inbox. It’s the usual sob story, the typical dying benefactor bullshit – husband was ambassador in Sierra Leone, but now dead, left huge sum of money in a bank account somewhere which she wants to entrust to me for a small fee. It’s interesting to note that her e-mail address has a Slovakian domain name (atlas.sk). I used to receive these e-mails on a virtually weekly basis a couple of years ago when this type of thing was at its peak. I thought this sort of scam had had its day, but I suppose there’ll always be the odd chancer out there hoping that some gullible corporate employee will fall for their hoax.

A quick Google search of “Millicent Godwin”, the alleged name of my would-be donor reveals that the name is a regular one used by e-mail scammers. She’s been sending the same message to messsage boards and no doubt other individuals. Countless websites offer advice on how to deal with various unsolicited messages. Their main advice is to delete the e-mail. My approach is somewhat different. I reply to give the impression I trust them and keep the correspondence going for as long as possible, sticking in a few words of Irish here and there just to confuse them and basically see how far I can wind them up. It can be rather amusing.