Love Letters From Nigeria

Well coincidentally I was going to post another funny 409 scamster email here today, when I got a comment from an Anonymous commenter in response to my "Scamster Respond" post:

Hi Phil, I was researching the name Marcus Cambell Black and came upon your blog. It is very interesting to me that you found him to be a scammer. I am a US citezen and i was looking for a nanny job and got an offer in the UK by a Mr. Bill Williams, via the e-mail address marcuscambellblack@yahoo.com . He offered to pay 200 pounds a week and would pay for my flight. I have been e-mailing him trying to find more about him and his family. I have asked repeatedly to receive pictures and a phone call from him, but he has been simply sending me the same e-mail over and over again. I finally received pictures, one supposedly of him and his son, the other of his wife and daughter. They both looked posed so i googled them. I found the same picture of him and his son on a stock photo website. I also found it suspicious that he was using the name Bill Williams while he said his family was the Marcus family. (notice on your blog that Mr. Black got the internet from his friend 'williams') If you have any more information on mr. black please post it on your blog and i will check back here soon. Thank you so much for you help!

Wow, what other scams are these people into? Anonymous commenter is lucky to be savvy enough to smell a rat. It's still amazing to me that even though Americans have lost a reported $8 billion, more then the Gross Domestic Product of Mongolia (Here's a good business idea for you Mongolia...), there is still very little effort to actually catch or stop any of these scams.

I have noticed a trend where the scamsters are claiming they are from the UK and using more UK-based email addresses lately (googlemail.com, yahoo.co.uk). I suppose it's possible they are actually based there, but I still see more Lagos IP's then London.

Here's todays fun email:

From: mario_nkay@yahoo.com

it is an insult unto my personalty for you to flag me for a potential fraud.i am now warning that if thi continuesx i wont essitate to call on my lawyer.rthanks alot.JYDE AWESOM

Yikes, please don't essitate! Besides the fact that nothing done by me to block the scam attempts is illegal, and that you can't sue for being insulted (well at least a foreign national can't), I again checked for proof that this may be a scammer...

Again, sight unseen I emailed him from a different email address telling him I would accept his offer, without mentioning any make or model of a car:

jide seyi"

Subject: Re: Your Car

hi,fill but thats not the amount yyou posted on the ads for the car.i would like us to start arrangement based on the price you pasted on the net .thanks alot.
GEORGE ANDERSON

George Anderson is it now? Why does your from still say Jide Seyi? I'll be sure to give him a more fair price, and leave my usual forwarding address of the Secret Service.