Another spam email, promising me millions ;)

I do love a good scam email. This was correctly categorised as spam by Gmail and placed in a folder, however I am unable to resist playing along (if you do this, don't click links) so I hoiked it out to see what they send out when you 'bite'. 

Not surprisingly an almost identical version of the second email can be found here https://stopscamfraud.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25093

This arrived first, apparently from someone at HungKuang university in Taiwan, who may have had their account hacked or phished. Email address begins with letter u then there are eight numbers.

_________________________________

On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 at 20:30, Name redacted <[email address redacted]@ms.hk.edu.tw> wrote:

Hello

I apologize for the urgency, but could you please speak with me at your soonest possible convenience?”


*Sincerely,*

[Name redacted]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

_________________________________

 

I replied disingenuously that this had reached me in error, which of course triggered this one:

_________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: [redacted but now a Gmail address]
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 at 08:22
Subject: Re: Mutual Benefit
To: [me]

Hello [me]

Thanks for your swift response, firstly, I will formally introduce myself to you, my name is Mr. [Name Redacted]. I am currently the President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy. I am sorry to have encroached into your privacy in this manner, without further delays, I will immediately proceed with the details of the proposal as said in my introductory email to you.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this email confidential and also respect the integrity of the information that you are coming across as a result of this email. I contacted you privately and no one is aware of this communication thus the reason why I had us communicate strictly via our email.

I am the personal accountant to one (Late Mr. Robert), a foreign contractor with Royal Dutch, who has an investment account with my bank. Unfortunately, my client died along with his nuclear family in France while on a Sabbatical leave during the summer of the year 2011, may their soul rest in peace. He died without leaving a Will. Several efforts were made to find his extended family through his embassy without success.

Furthermore, I received a notification last week to provide the next of kin of my late client being his personal accountant or the account risk being transferred to the government (es-cheat) in 14 days' time. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating the funds left behind by my late client. This claim will be executed without breaching any Turkish laws and success is guaranteed if we co-operate on this. The bank will release the account to you because of the recommendation of you as the next of kin.

I am a man of high integrity; I will not lie to you and I expect the same from you. The amount involved is €8,250,700.00EUR (Eight Million Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Seven Hundred Euros), I propose we share the proceeds 50/50, I think this is fair?

I will provide you with all the necessary information about this deal when I get your response. I am contacting you to assist me because I know you can handle this. The bank could not identify any of his relatives because nobody came to make claims, of which no one knows of his account with my bank. That's the reason I contacted you, to stand in as the NEXT OF KIN to my late client because in a few weeks' time all the assets will be handed over to the government, so I thought it wise it could be of benefit to us if we did co-operate as one to archive this.

I assure you that there will be no form of Risk or illegality in carrying out this transaction because I have been working on this for a very long time and have made sure that the process is free and fair for both of us. I anticipate your cooperation. Treat this proposal with utmost confidentiality and urgency for 100% success. Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you.

My position as President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you find yourself able to work with me, I urge you to indicate that without delay. Once again, do note it's confidential, and be assured that this transaction would be profitable for both of us.

Thanks in advance for considering this, and I await your prompt response.

*Sincerely,*

[redacted, in case they've stolen a real person's email account and are using their name]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*

 _________________________________

Inundated with spammers trying to get a link on my posts ;)

A post I wrote back in 2009 and updated in 2013 receives a disproportionate amount of spam attempts in which someone tries to get me to add a link to the page. Of course the link they want me to add has nothing to do with the page (it's very clear they've not read it or understood the page). 

The intention in getting the link onto my page is to 'tell' Google that my site thinks their page is worth linking to. Nope. This has been going on for a decade and I have kept 50 or so examples which I'll gradually add below, with their link, name and email address redacted. 

The page in question is which is a fairly popular page but is actually only my 10th most-read page is (inexplicably!). You might expect they'd want to pick a more popular one but perhaps are hoping to go under the radar.

Where London science communicators might work (24 July 2009) - this one attracts all the spam despite being much less popular than nine other posts.

All-time views for the most-read posts on this blog - the one
that attracts all the spam is the one right at the bottom!

Here are some examples from the back catalogue.

Suggestion of a link about nursing but my page is not about that.

I get a lot of requests from people claiming to be teachers or home educators saying that a small child in their class is terribly excited to share a resource with me and please can I add it and then tell them I've added it so they can celebrate. Bit too social engineering for my liking. Hard no.

The most recent one, on holistic ophthamlmology.
Note that 'click to unsubscribe' link at the end. I hadn't subscribed ;)

Spam link attempt from weight loss surgery and diabetes

Spam link attempt from someone with a guide
for safe travelling for people with diabetes

And a couple of bonus emails from people who've misinterpreted my post showing how you could (in 2012) "bypass" a third-party resource for handling RSS feeds sent to Twitter.

Handy Twitter RSS feeds to bypass IFTTT Twitter trigger switchoff (30 September 2012)

Someone asking me to post advice that is about heart bypasses on a
page where I'm talking about a completely different type of bypass.

This one is hoping to get a page about heart disease
and hair loss after a bypass on my page.

Another one just came in later this evening!