Pricewatch »

• Not even trying, part 7

  April 23, 2009 @ 10:50 am | by Conor Pope

  I have a soft spot for emails from the widows or daughters of deposed sub-Saharan dictators with suitcases filled with diamonds which they want me to have in return for nothing at all. I also like correspondence from shadowy lawyers in the same region who say they have plucked my name at random from a “register of good persons” because I sound like a person who’d like to offer my bank account as a home for the vast fortune of a man who died intestate of some terrible affliction.

  What I don’t like are emails like the one I received this morning.

  Greetings!!! You have a bank draft of $780,000.00 USD, which await the outstanding payment of $275USD.Contact the TNT courier company for claims with your information. Contact person Mr. West Oduduwa,Email: tntcours***nl.rogers.com.

  No tragedy. No ridiculously convoluted story, nothing at all to suggest they’ve put any effort in to the mail.

  Sometimes I think these 419 scammers hearts’ aren’t in their jobs any more.

• Spam spam spam spam

  November 20, 2008 @ 4:28 pm | by Conor Pope

  The global economy might be collapsing faster than you can say “Bubble? What bubble?” but at least there are some good news stories out there. You just have to look very, very hard to find them.

  And speaking of spam, has anyone else noticed a dramatic decline in the amount of the electronic stuff about the place of late? It’s all because of the shutdown of a major spam hosting network. The break won’t last long though. . . and the scammers will be back up and running by the weekend.

  * Friday update (to please no-one but myself!) I’ve just re-read this post and realised I’d used the word apparently twice in the same sentence. Sory about that – I’ve taken both away now.