At the Twilight's Last Gleaming: Scam Spam du jour

November 2, 2005

Scam Spam du jour

I guess the Nigerian 419 scamsters have established the fact that there are no end of suckers in this world. The following e-mail that I received this morning shows one of they ways they (the scamsters, I mean) are branching out. Comments follow.

From: quartz46@tv2mail.dk
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!

QUARTZ PROMOTIONS WORLDWIDE.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM (NL)
333 COMMERCIAL STREET,
MANCHESTER NH 03105, UK

FROM: THE PROMOTION DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS DEPT.
REF: 7487/4360/4629
BATCH: 830923183-DX68

ATTN;WINNER,
RE:AWARD FINAL NOTIFICATION:,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International programs held on the 19th of September, 2005. Your e-mail
address attached to ticket number 986047296748-8562 with serial Number 4681-546 drew lucky numbers 5-24-78-62-11-08 which consequently won in the
1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of £500,000.00.00Pounds (Five Hundred Thousand Pounds).CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Due to mix up in some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until you file for your claim. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted
abuse of this program by some participants.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 25,000 companies and 50,000,000 individual e-mail addresses and names from all over the World. This promotional program takes place every year.
This lottery program was organized by our group of philanthropist promoted and sponsored by Mr. Bill Gates of Microsoft Inc, eminent personalities like the sultan of Brunei, Multi Choice and other corporate
Organisations.This lottery program was organized to improving the use of computer softwares and for the benefit of every Microsoft user.
To file for your claim, please contact our fiducial Agent:
QUARTZ TRUST AGENCY.Foreign transfer manager.
Mr.Peter Banks.
FAX +44 700 593 8064
Email:q_trust01@katamail.com
They are your agent, and responsible for the processing and transfer of your winnings fund to you.Remember, all winnings must be filed not
later than 8th of November,2005 or when authentic proof is given for the delay of filing. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence.
Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being a Winner in our promotional program.

Note: Anybody under the age of 18 years is automatically disqualified.

Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Victoria Green,
Lottery Coordinator.

Confidentiality Notice:
The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments may be legally privileged and confidential. If you are not an intended recipient,you are hereby notified that any dissemination,distribution or copying
of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and permanently delete the e-mail and any attachments immediately. You should not retain, copy or use this e-mail or any attachment for any purpose, nor disclose all or any part of the contents to any other person.

------------------------------------------------------
Opret en gratis TV2 mail på http://tv2mail.tv2.dk

In making several observations about this e-mail, I offer some free advice to the scamsters about how to improve their "product":

Given that you're supposed to represent a bunch of rich people and organizations, we can be forgiven for assuming you could afford to have someone on staff who is familiar with basic rules of punctuation, grammar, and paragraph formatting.
If you're supposed to be in country X (England), don't send the message from an e-mail service in country Y (Denmark) and give a reply address for an e-mail service in country Z (Italy). At least the Nigerian-style scamsters could be forgiven for this—after all, they're on the run from corrupt authorities in their home country as they're trying to transfer SIX MILLION U.S.DOLLARS to some lucky e-mail recipient. But the rich folks you represent surely could have scraped up a bit of cash to buy a domain name. Hey, they even could have gone to GoDaddy and gotten both a domain name and e-mail for mere pocket change.
I'm sorry, but the following is an immutable law: Any e-mail that invokes the name of Bill Gates as a means of establishing its legitimacy is automatically a hoax.
Organizations dealing in the transfer of hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars in funds will never, ever, ever send an official e-mail whose Subject line contains more than one exclamation point following a single word. You did it again in the message body, upping the ante by one exclamation point. Good grief—you might as well have followed it with "LOL".
I've just violated your Confidentiality Notice. Neener, neener!

11/9 UPDATE: Scamorama lists this and dozens of other lottery scams floating around the 'net.

1 comment:

Unknown said...: I received a similar congratulatory announcement snail mail (a federal offense)! Can you say US Postal Inspection Service?; 11/02/2005 11:01 AM

What Happened to C-Pol?

For over a decade, this blog was called "C-POL: Constitutionalist, Conservative Politics". Over time, my deep-thought ponderings have been moving away from the rough-and-tumble of everyday political wrangling and toward the larger philosophical, ideological, and cultural currents of our age.

I've changed the title of the blog to highlight my conviction that the "fundamental transformation" (to adapt President Obama's phrase) of the United States that's currently underway is, in the long run, bad not only for this country but for the world in general.

Scoff if you must; I'm okay with that. I aim to make my case as time goes on. I'm okay with being on the "wrong side of history" if I'm actually right.

Why our country is where it is

As I have traveled across the country, I have been astounded just how many of our fellow citizens feel strongly about their constitutional rights but have no idea what they are, or for that matter, what the Constitution says. I am not suggesting that they become Constitutional scholars -- whatever that means. I am suggesting, however, that if one feels strongly about his or her rights, it does make sense to know generally what the Constitution says about them. It is at least as easy to understand as a cell phone contract -- and vastly more important.

-- Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, October 16, 2008 speech

The U.S. is not a democracy!

Q. If we are not a democracy, why are our officials elected by a majority of the people, and why are our laws passed by a majority of the lawmakers?

A. We are not a democracy because both the people and the lawmakers are limited by the fundamental law of the land, our written Constitution. Election by the people is not a grant of power beyond the constitutional limits of the office. A representative government limited by law is a republic, not a democracy. In a republic a majority of the people cannot vote away their own rights, or the rights of others -- unless ... unless they step outside the Constitution.

-- Preserve The Constitution, By Don Fotheringham (October, 1995)

The Cancer of Democracy

Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome.

— Lazarus Long, in Robert Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset

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November 2, 2005

Scam Spam du jour

1 comment: