[mcmama]

Being community manager, I see a lot of spam. Some of it is obvious, some of it is clever, and some is just plain stupid. Sometimes it is so stupid it is funny!

I know someone who actually managed to turn the tables on a Nigerian scammer. I don't recommend this, because it is dangerous. He is still laughing at the "my friend, how could you do this to me?" emails.

Today I found the "mother" of all stupid spam posts: http://forums.families.com/please-he...mother,t110544

I left it up for your amusement. I banned the member, of course.

I thought it would be fun to have a thread about outrageously stupid scams and spam emails.

Share with us your misadventures in global crimes committed by idiots. We're talking spam worthy of the darwin awards.

[twinzplus3]

Wow don't I feel dumb. Totally read that a night or so ago and missed it. Didn't pay it a second mind. You however, are too funny! I did get several Nigerian scammers from the same e-mail address with different stories once. . .

One week it was the christian girl. . .the next week it was a deathly ill cousin. . .the next week it was someone else.

--but my all time favorite is when they barely speak English.

[mcmama]

I like the ones that post that they are in a refugee camp in Burkana-faso and please send money and clothes. And plane tickets.

Yeah, a refugee camp with an internet cafe. Uh huh.

I don't recommend this, because it is linked to organized crime, but I have known people with disguised ips and throw away emails to answer them. They offer money in currency that does not exist, and take on aliases which are really funny but the scammer does not recognize this.

They send out hundreds of thousands of these, and if they get just one person to take the bait, they can clean up. And I really doubt they are in refugee camps, but I am sure that some of the people writing and sending the emails have a problem. Like living in a country where crime pays.

So just don't pay them!

[AudreyOka]

I can share my funniest spam.....it happened about 5 years ago. I received a solicitation from a man named Bob. He wrote and pretended we knew each other and pretended we were friends. He told me how he'd been thinking of me and wanted me to join his business.

I wrote him back. I pretty much wrote the following:

Bob,

I was so happy to get your email. I'm sorry to do this, but times are tough. Remember Larry, (made up name) well he ran off on me a few years ago and closed out all of our bank accounts when he left. He's never sent support and as you know I've got 8 mouths to feed these days. Your email said you are now earning a 6 figure income. I really feel horrible asking, but can you please help me out? I'm sure you still have our address...anything you can send would help. Again, I'm so glad you wrote me.

After I hit send, I laughed so hard. Of course I never heard from him again. His name came into my life about 6 months later when one of his group spammed me and bragged how she was part of his team. Would you believe that after I emailed her back, I never heard back from her either???? ROFL

I think that was my funniest spam ever.

[mcmama]

Audrey, that's a funny experience, but you were probably dealing with a small scale company. Usually, replying to spam, even hitting the opt out feature, results in more spam. It tells the spammers they've got a live one. The person who spammed you is probably a real person with a real company, and concluded after the second message that you were "opting out"

Folks I know who have replied and had some back and forth correspondence to waste the spammers time have disguised their ips and adopted throwaway identities.

[QueenAngie]

! Thanks for the laugh, Audrey!

[twinzplus3]

Audrey--YOU ARE TOO FUNNY!

[AudreyOka]

Jaent,

Yes, he was a real person.

I have in the past responded to real people. I've actually had some positive results. My name and email are all over the place, so I am an "easy target" for those who are real people and have been taught to spam.

Many times I've written back and said "I wonder who taught you this is ok. I ask because who ever taught you this has taught you to break the law"

Believe it or not, the real people often don't understand what spam is and have been taught that what they are doing is ok.

Those emails have led to business for me. Again, I only do it with real people not with the pharmacy and enlarge your parts emails. Those I hit delete without ever opening them.

[mcmama]

Ok (phew! wiping brow in relief!)

Yes, THOSE we always have to delete without opening. Any creepy thing will just crawl all over our computer bellies if we open those up.

It is funny, because when you deal with real people like this, they really often do not understand that this type of marketing is problematic. Good for you to turn it into an opportunity!

[AudreyOka]

The newest spam is scary. It's the "you received a greeting card" email. Every single one I've gotten contains a trojan. Those can kill a computer

All I can say is online greeting cards should NEVER be an attachment and should NEVER be an exe file.