I received this morning a new (to me) twist on the usual Nigerian email scam – this one purporting to come from the FBI:
We believe this notification meets you in a very good present state of mind and health. We the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington, DC in conjunction with some other relevant Investigation Agencies here in the United states of America have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you presently have a transaction going on with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as regards to your over-due contract payment which was fully endorsed in your favour accordingly.
It might interest you to know that we have taken out time in screening through this project as stipulated on our protocol of operation and have finally confirmed that your contract payment is 100% genuine and hitch free from all facet and of which you have the lawful right to claim your fund without any further delay. Having said all this, we will further advise that you go ahead in dealing with the Central Bank office accordingly as we will be monitoring all their activities with you as well as your correspondence at all level.
From a purely strategic point of view I cannot regard this as a happy innovation on the part of the scammers. Using English in ways no native speaker would doesn’t necessarily set off a red flag if it’s supposed to be coming from a Nigerian, but it should if it’s supposed to be coming from the FBI.
Who exactly are the people who fall for this stuff anyway?
I think it might be better if we didn’t know…
I could see more people falling for this *because* they don’t understand what the hell the scammer is talking about. It’s like when someone in an argument uses a lot of complicated words and name drops a ton. To someone who doesn’t know any better, it doesn’t matter whether that person is actually right just so long as it’s delivered with confidence.
People fall for this all the time. I am familliar with one situation where someone sent all the money he had (granted, not much) based on a Nigerian scam….and then convinced someone else to loan him upwards of $100K to send to Nigeria to get the money.
My guess is that nobody genuinely believes they are entitled to this money. Usually, they think the whole thing is a mistake by the Nigerians that they are all too willing to take advantage of.
People who believe voting makes a difference?
I replied:
Greeting in supervenient order to you legate,
Speaking to you from Agorist Cadre we have reviewed communication and determined its origination protocol not Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) but Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB). Let commencings provenate, this unit must feed. Excelsior!