MetaFilter posts tagged with spam and nigeria

Write better emails. Make more moneys.

Wet Spot — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:12:09 -0800

Like most Nigerians, you're probably finding that it's increasingly difficult to earn a decent living from email. That's why you need to attend the 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference .

Scamming the scammers

ook — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 16:58:01 -0800

Still getting those Nigerian scam spams? Brad Christensen is too -- but he seems to be enjoying them. (And he's not the only one, either.)

Geo — Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:07:51 -0800

Nigeria has made a deal with the Abachi family. Does this mean I will have to send back the $35 million that Mariam said she would deposit in my bank account next week? She promised it would be transferred just as soon as something was cleared.

sylloge — Sat, 11 Mar 2000 02:59:06 -0800

Can you help a brother out with a little money laundering?

So, I was thinking about this otherwise unremarkable spam while cleaning out my inbox when it dawned on me how familiar it was. I have seen this letter (with slight modifications to suit the contemporary political news from Nigeria) three times in my life. The first one I remember was over 10 years ago (on oniony paper, soft brown fibery envelope, red mock-official stamp). And I was wondering: how many of you have seen a postal version of this letter? Did I just fluke out, or is this letter so common that it is some obscure junk mail counterpart to Coca-cola, Princess Diana & Baywatch? I kind of like to think of it as the fraudspam equivalent of the nervous Don Knotts.