Anatomy of a Scam

The point of this exercise is show the readers out there exactly how someone might attempt to pull off a scam using email. I intend to have a little fun with this and see how far I can take it without of course, sending any money or real information of any kind (besides my cell number, more on that later)

Ok, let's get started.

This morning, I received a letter on one of my email accounts. Here it is:

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I am Van Dick

An attorney at law. A deceased client of mine, that
shares the same last name as yours, died as the result of a heart-related condition on
March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all
the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in
Sumatra Indonesia .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
I can be reached on (BLOCKED)@aol.com
My late Client has a deposit of Eighteen Million
Dollars ( US$18 Million Dollars) left behind.
Best regards,
Van Dick
Attorney at Law
(BLOCKED)@aol.com

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What? Interesting..!! Someone with the same last name as me died from a heart attack, apparently from due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami of Dec 2004? Wow! there must be some mistake! But.. there's 18 million dollars left behind.. doesn't say what for exactly, but I'm curious... So.. I'd be an idiot not to reply at least to get a little more information, besides he IS a lawyer after all, and actually sounds dutch.

Here's my reply: (Sent Sept 29th 2008 @ 10:30am)


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Mr Van Dick,

Thank you for your email!

I would be highly interested to a little more about my relative's intent with the 18 million dollars left behind. Could you answer a few questions for me?

1. What denomination is the Money? is it US funds?
2. What was his name?

I look forward to your reply
Carl Meyer

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Keeping it simple as possible, using a fake name (and matching fake email address). Let's see where this goes... stay tuned. This is happening in real time.

Alex.