Reading The Classics

[The_Professor]

Dear Friend,

You may be surprised to receive this message from me since you dont know me in person, but for the purpose of introduction, I am Mr. Jamal Habib Kito senior Manager of ( GUARANTYTRUST BANK OF KENYA) African Banking Corporation Limited Africa.

I got your contact through your country's Information Exchange On line, and then I decided to write you. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the Handling of US$25.5Million (Twenty Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand United state Dollars ) .

This fund is an excess of what my branch in which I am the senior manager made as profit last year. I have already submitted an approved End of the Year 2015 report to my Head Office and they will never know of this Excess.

I have since then, placed this amount of US$25.5 Million (Twenty Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand United state Dollars) .on a SUSPENSE SECURITY without a beneficiary. As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money as the beneficiary of the funds.

I intend to part 50% of this fund to you while 50% shall be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no-risk involved in this. It's going to be a direct transaction. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund. If you accept this offer.

I will appreciate your timely response
With regards,

Mr Jamal Habib Kito

I got this in my email the other day. It's almost too good to be true. But I'll soon be on easy street.
I get one of these classic 419 scam emails about once a year or so, enough to make them a treat for a chuckle.
I got another classic on my phone message machine a few months ago. I owe the IRS money and a sheriff will be out to arrest me if I don't call back and give them my credit card number.
It's also interesting to get a classic you don't know about. A few years ago one of my co-workers got a call from their mother. The co-worker's mother had received a call that her "favorite" grandson was in jail in Mexico and that they needed to send money for bail ASAP. When my co-worker said she didn't know her son had traveled to Mexico I got on the computer and sure enough--it was a classic scam. None of us had heard about it before then. Of course when they finally got in touch with him he was not in Mexico.
And then there's all the emails from services I do not belong to that say I need to log in to confirm or deny something. The ones where the actual link does not match the part you see.
I'm sure all of you run across "the classics" at times as well.

[bpgreen]

Another one I've been getting lately is a phone call from technical support. They tell me I've got a virus and they'll help me get rid of it. I usually hang up, but every once in a while, I'll play along, but act confused when they give me instructions and eventually tell them my computer is a mac (or Linux) and ask if that means the start button is in a different place.

[FedoraDave]

The classics never grow old. War and Peace, Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, and the Nigerian email scam.

[FedoraDave]

We've also gotten calls from the "IRS." All my wife had to do was tell them we have our taxes done by H&R Block (which we do), and they'd represent us, and could we have the agent's name and phone number, and suddenly the line went dead.

Remember, kids, the IRS contacts by USPS only. They never call. Ever.

[Pudge]

Another one I've been getting lately is a phone call from technical support. They tell me I've got a virus and they'll help me get rid of it. I usually hang up, but every once in a while, I'll play along, but act confused when they give me instructions and eventually tell them my computer is a mac (or Linux) and ask if that means the start button is in a different place.

Yep, I used to hang up but decided to play along. When I get that call from "tech support" saying my computer contacted them with a problem I start it with stuff like, "I never got that email from your computer." They say "No, no... we got a message from your computer." I'll respond "From your computer?"... and on and on.

They eventually get frustrated and hang up on me

[jimjohson]

I've had the IRS about the sheriff is coming to get me. I told them thanks for the heads up, I'll have some coffee ready and hung up.

[teutonic terror]

The best one I've run into is the call from the 876 area code to my Mom that
stated they were UPS and were trying to deliver a package to her house, they missed
her, and they needed her to call them and give them her personal info to verify that she was...her!

876 is Jamaica. The dude had the accent and all! LOL!

[RickBeer]

Selling stuff on Craigslist. Got the obviously fake email, "I'm moving, so I want to send a cashier's check and have the movers get it...". I responded, via CL's anonymous email, led them on. Provided my name and address. Except... the name and address was of the County Sheriff. I then alerted the Sheriff's office when the person emailed that the Money Order was enroute. Don't know if they will be able to go down the path to an arrest or not, but it was fun.

[John Sand]

A couple of clever ones. I replied to an ad for a car on a credible online site (car-trader?). The seller claimed to be out of town, but the car was in NYC. I did a carfax search, and found that the car had been recently sold in Florida. The current ad was a copy of the older ad. I notified to online company, they agreed it was a scam.
The scarier one happened to my sister years ago in Brooklyn. She got a phone call telling her that Mom had been kidnapped, and that she wouldn't be hurt if my sister did as she was told. My sister is smart, and quickly asked the caller to describe Mom. Uhhhh-click.

[The_Professor]

This one has been going around too.