You won’t believe what I’ve won this week. I’ve never been so lucky. I couldn’t believe it. My Karma cow finally moo’d into the pasture outside my house bringing with it a host of winnings and good fortune. This week I have simultaneously won the American Green Card Lotto, the Coca-Cola Lotto, the UK National Lotto and someone from Nigeria died and left me their fortune. Lucky me.
Who writes this stuff? And more importantly how can it be such a lucrative trade that people keep writing it. I heard that some brainiac in Benoni sent gazillions of rand over a period of years to a scam, only to be surprised that her lotto winnings never came her way. Seriously? Who believes this nonsense?
Since I started my writing project in February and put my email address for the project on the site I have received non-stop spam and mails about various products, which I assume are based on the diverse content of my project. I guess when you have a project that speaks about masturbation, death, marriage, menstruation and abortion you are bound to get a pick n mix of interesting things sent your way.
We all get spammed at one stage or another, even if it is by our friends and family members. So I was wondering what sort of spam you receive? Have you ever responded? Just so you know Mike Cassey, Harrison Martin, Mr Uche Davids, Mrs Inga-Britt Ahlenius, Juliet Isaacs, Johnson Kwame, and Mrs Helen White — I will not be responding to your mail. I think you should keep your fortune for yourself. Enjoy it!
I once won the Canadian Lottery. The weird thing is, the prize was in US, and not Canadian, dollars.
I will pray for you to better your REAL luck at Lotto, with men and every thing your little heart desires….only for 10% of your income. Please phone 0860 PASTOR to change your luck! Phone cals are billed at R10000 per minute, Try it today.
Pastor Ray Mc Oily…. The Pastor who puts STUD back in Bible Study!
I won a UK National LOTTO. Strangely the winner’s (myself of course) email address was chosen out of a pool of INTERNATIONAL email addresses!
I’ve also been fortunate enough to receive Standard bank and ABSA Bank notifications letting me know that my account has been compromised and I should log on to their site to change my current banking details and passwords. Thing is I don’t bank with any of these banks!
Hi Jennifer,
This last week I have also won every single lottery you can think of and several rich princes have left me their money and an accountant in a bank found some money tucked away with no claims to it, but thought I might be interested in lending my name to it, so we could share. I once replied to one of the lotteries, just to see what they would ask of me in return. No surprise there, bank account details and a deposit for the money transfer of R 10 000.00. It is totally beyond me how anyone can fall for these scams. Then we have the emails: from your concerned bank manager, click on this link, your account details need to be verified etc etc. It must be a lucrative business or why carry on with it, unless you have nothing better to do with your time; but if one person in 1000 bites, then bingo : money for jam. I know my domestic got very excited about winning a new bed by sms, though she had to pay R 200 for delivery. PS the bed never arrived.
Hie Jen.
Now this is the kind of discussion I think adds value to blogging society. Thanks for this piece.
I read somewhere that all those “send to 8 people or you will die” emails have trackers that will send back to source your email addresses.
So never ever respond to those “Jesus Loves You” and such other attractive emails. The writers are serious syndicates that start by collecting emails addresses and then sending out such scam spam.
I once received an email from an old friend claiming to be stuck in London (after travelling from Zambia) and wanted me to send him some cash by Western Union. It was an “Any amount will do” SOS email. I laughed it off and I am sure I am not the only one.
Bottom line, people: NOTHINGS FOR FREE!!
Jenni, like you you I am astonished at how many people still fall for all the crap of that sort that litters our inboxes.
If it looks too good to be true…
Is that such a hard idea to grasp?
And, if it’s not that type of email but seems in some way incredible, then look it up on http://www.snopes.com, chances are it’s an old and well-worn email that’s done the rounds many times before and you’re just number seven million and three in the endless list of mindless morons who forward email without making any effort to check them out first.
Tim
The saddest thing is the inability of the 419 scammers to lift their game. They were sending exactly the same letters 20 years ago by fax.
More irritating is that I’ve started to get them (in abbreviated form) on SMS now as well.
Ha! I’ve won all those and more at least three times a week since mid-May…but my best were hundreds of ads for viagra that came to me when I belonged to a 90% male worldwide business organisation. I got so tired of the ads this female decided she could do without the organisation.
I sometimes wind up the 419 scammers, but they have become quite good at detecting someone who is taking them for a ride.
But it was fun while it lasted. Once you get them going, you can make them do quite extraordinary things. Like ask for a photo of themselves, holding today’s newspaper with a dead fish balanced on their head. This is to prove that they are real (not that it proves anything, but they do sometimes fall for that)
Yes…. scams, cons and bonanza winnings are manna like, feeding desires for instant gratification. Snake oil salesmen have always been around. The internet helps their access to more greedy victims and thank heavens, their exposure. Thanks, Jen for promoting the latter.
I don’t mind the silly lotto emails and the like but what truly gets to me are those idiotic emails that colleagues past and present send – you know the ones telling you that you should only eat fruit before a meal otherwise the digestion process kills all the vitamins, or that raw onions cause botulism or that you shouldn’t open your door at night if you hear a baby crying because a crazed serial killer is out there. Although I do save a special place of hatred for those calls to end racism by the germans because they’re having an exhibition about africa in a zoo or how the latest car rental add in austria is racist because it depicts a white car beating a black car in a race or how the latest funny nandos advert is either racist or sexist for some unknown reason that seems have more to do with a lack of a sense of humour on the part of the sender than any evil creative intent by some ad agency intern. Come to think of it, in light of this idiocy I say bring on the Nigerian princes and their FIFA lottery emails.
Scam Smam thinks spam mail is a more stimulating topic of discussion than feminism, sexuality and human rights…
What is this world coming to?
@ Shelly
Its how one engages a topic that makes it more interesting. Reader response rates indicate the interest levels however.
Spam Ham topic in my view has had a higher reader response than the ones (by Jen) you have listed. The reason is, I think, Jen had taken sides in the starting the debates e.g in anti-rape condom – she was clear that ‘it was the stupidest invention ever’.
That is not a stimulating ignition to a debate, in my view.