Here are two e-mails I received this morning, misspellings and all:
First e-mail:
Attention Beneficiary: We received a mandatory letter from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi to credit 25 million Dollars to you.
Your respond is required to get back to us with the following information: Full name, Your current address, Phone, Mobile Phone, Your age, Your Sex, Your current occupation, and your identification either passport or driver license.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
EMAIL: bsbernanke_frb@hotmail.com
Second e-mail:
Attn: Beneficiary, It has come to notice of Federal Bureau of Investigation that your long awaiting funds worth US$10,500,000.00 only has been transferred to Bank of America to credit to your account. However, we decided to inform you about this good news so that you will be ready to receive the huge sum of money with any bank account of your choice. Moreover, we have instructed Bank Of America to hold on until we receive what is called "Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST)" from you to prove the legitimacy of the funds approval from Nigerian government. Furthermore, more details and the contact information of above stated certificate responsible issuing officer shall be given to you in my next e-mail. Note that we shall conduct immediate payment cancellation and then charge you for money laundering for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S.A.
Regards, Robert Mueller, III FBI Director.
These are both scams, probably sent by the same person. I am tempted to reply: "Dear Ben and Bob - Thanks for your notes. Please appreciate that I am very busy accepting funds, and cannot respond with respect to amounts less than 50 million dollars. Just deposit the money into my account at Rockland Trust Company. Thanks anyway, Russ."
If you receive an e-mail saying you have won something, it will be followed by a request for cash - to cover taxes, handling charges, registration fees, or whatever... Do not answer these e-mails, because your response will simply cause your e-mail address to wind up on the list for more solicitations. There truly is no free lunch!
You will find more discussions of scams on our website. There we also have a few comments about the real nature of government lotteries.
