I just got sent this amusing mail to my Lycos account....

[enismirdal]

FROM MRS. SARAH JOHNSON.

JOHANNESBURG.

SOUTH AFRICA.

FAX:1-34-740-20123

TEL: +27-73-286-2518

ATTN: SIR,

You might be surprise to receive this letter from me since you don't know me
personally. I am MRS. SARAH JOHNSON the wife of late MR MICHAEL JOHNSON who
was murdered by the Zimbabwe war veterans and irate black people. I got your
contact e-mail address through South Africa chamber of commerce and
industry. After due consideration of your profile, hence I decided to write
to you. I write to solicit for your special assistance to my family
shattered by a tyrannical Government led by a dictator and his (ZANU-PF)
ruling party. President Robert Mugabe.

Because of land and farmland crisis in Zimbabwe the Government secretly
sponsored the war veterans and some irate party members to disposed the land
being occupied by the white farmers. This action hassled to killing of some
members of opposition party including my husband who did not support this
ill-fated action.

But before the death of my husband, he anticipated some dangers and so he
smuggled out the sum of US$14M (FOURTHEEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) to
South Africa and deposited it in a Security Company with the intention of
using it for the purchase of farm machinery and chemicals for agricultural
purpose in South Africa and establishment of a new farm in Swaziland.

This money was deposited in a box as a germ stone to avoid much demurrage in
the Security Company. On the 29 august 2001 the war veterans and some
spotters of (ZANU-PF) ruling party trooped into our compound and axed my
husband to death and my second son of 22yrs. Since then they have been
terrorizing my son Anthony but he managed to escape to neighboring country
South Africa as a political asylum seeker (refugee).

His position in South Africa dose not permits him to open an account or to
operate any business. That is why I want this fund to be transferred in your
account so that you will assist him to invest the money in your country. I
must let you know that this transaction is 100% risk free. If you accept to
assist us, all I want from you is to arrange and come down to Johannesburg
South Africa so that you can help him to open a non-resident bank account in
your name which will aid us in transferring the money into your nominating
account overseas. I have two option for you, firstly, you can choose to have
certain percentage of the money for nominating your account in this
transaction or we can go into partnership with you for the proper profitable
investment of the money in your country whichever the option you want feel
free to notify with him. He will then furnish you with every detail you
needed to know. We have also mapped out 5% of the total sum for any expenses
that might be incurred during the time of this transaction.

If you do not prefer a partnership, we are willing to give you 25% of the
money while remaining 70% will remain for my family, if you are really
capable and willing to assist us please contact him immediately in South
Africa with this e-mail that I used to sent this mail to you.

Finally please treat this matter as urgent as possible, I'm in dire him to
leave that country soonest. Thanks for you're mutual co-operation. AND I
EXPECT YOUR URGENT CALL TO MY SON ANTHONY TO THIS PHONE NUMBER TEL:
+27-73-286-2518 SO THAT HE WILL FURNISH YOU WITH MORE INFORMATION.

Best Regards,

(MRS SARAH JOHNSON)



Please tell me people don't actually buy into mails like that?

Comments

[rivendell-elf.livejournal.com]

Ohhh... I got one of those a couple of weeks back. Though it was addressed "Dear Sir" which worried me a bit.

[doltaghey.livejournal.com]

I get one of those about every three weeks or so. According to a documentary I saw on TV, some people actually do fall for it. At best they lose a lot of money. Some have even been killed - the final stage of the scam requires the victim to travel to the country to collect their payment in person, obviously there is no payment.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

That is actually pretty scary...the poor people.

[melime.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I get those all the time. It's always from some guy in Africa, isn't it? Never Brazil? Sweden? Mongolia? No, he's always from Zimbabwe or Botswana. Weird.

[psieye.livejournal.com]

Ah, that kind of spam mail. First time I got one of those was in my first year. Have gotten a fair number ever since that time.

[girlofthemirror.livejournal.com]

Iget quite a few of those... I away like the random stories they come up with, quite amusing, for spam.

[talullahred.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I get tonnes of those in my uni email. They were fun at first.

[hermeneut-me.livejournal.com]

I had someone bid on an ebay item and then trying to get me to accept 200$ after I had laundered their money...or whatever story it was-i can't remember now.

[chess]

I had a couple of them to my Yahoo account I barely use; I considered having some fun baiting them, but didn't get around to it.