scam from cute

[kip_w]

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In a newsgroup I'm on, my friend mike reports having received the following:

Subject: ADORABLE YORKIE FOR ADOPTION

HELLO,

MY NAME IS FAITH WILLIAMS, I AND MY HUSBAND ARE ON A CHRISTIAN MISSION TO AFRICA AND WE CAME ALONG WITH OUR PUPPY. AFTER A WHILE I NOTICE THAT THE AFRICAN WEATHER IS NOT GOOD FOR OUR PUPPY AND I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF HER THE WAY I ALWAYS DO BECAUSE OF MY JOB,SO WE NEED SOMEONE TO ADOPT HER AND TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF HER THE WAY WE ALWAYS DO. IF YOU CAN TAKE GOOD CARE OF HER DO SEND ME A REPLY AND I WILL EMAIL YOU HER PICTURES. I HOPE TO READ FROM YOU.

P.S reply to : revsisdora@gmail.com

THANKS AND GOD BLESS.
SIS DORA.

("If your name is Faith Williams," asks mike, "how cum you signed SisDora?") Daniel adds:

It's a relatively new wrinkle in the Nigerian scam/spam setup. The idea is that once you express interest in the cute little puppy, there are all sorts of fees and whatnot that will need to be paid before said cute little puppy can be shipped to you.

And, of course, there is no cute little puppy.

So there you have it. If the puppy is too adorable to be true, it's probably not true. And as always, beware of missionaries who shout all the time.
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Comments

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

this reminds me of a parody I read years ago of the "make money fast" chain letters, where you convince your grandmother to mail a dog to five people, along with a list of names, and they're each supposed to mail dogs to five more people & add their names to the list. Eventually you end up with 328,692 dogs. Alas, I just spent the last 15 minutes on Google and I couldn't find it. Maybe it was all in my imagination.

[meggins.livejournal.com]

I've been getting the e-mail spam "I'm an artist in the U. K." and it's such a pain to get payments from my U.S. customers so "I need agents in the U.S." I knew it was a scam, even before I got a second but identical e-mail from a second "artist," but I couldn't remember how they actually wormed the money out of you. Hubby 'splained. You get bogus checks to deposit. Of course, it takes a few days for them to bounce. But you're supposed to wire the money to them before that.

Sure enought, when I replied (just being damned curious), with a psuedonym, incorrect address, and a throwaway e-mail address, I got my "instructions." You should have received a package. Deposit the checks. Immediately withdraw the money and wire it (minus your 10%> to....ta dah! Two gentlemen in Nigeria. (They're there buying "authentic African materials" for the "artist.")

Oh, man, who falls for these things? I mean, I've seen scams that are hard to detect, but this one is so transparent. (Hello, have you never heard of international money orders?)

The only thing I feel guilty about is if UPS is actually out there trying to deliver a package to a bogus address. *sigh*