I think I'm getting Nigerian Scammed at work

[lupo pazzesco]

I just got this email sent to my inbox (the one I use to answer/contact buyers from our online marketplaces, i.e. Amazon.com Half.com, etc.)

Dear Sir,

would you mind to check a status of payment (back for returned book) please
<redacted order info>

Thank you very much for your collaboration.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
<redacted name>

I've searched all 3 computer systems we use to maintain the online order markets, using the order number provided, and the name provided, as well as the email address, and got nothing.

wtf is going on here?? And am I the only one who read that and thought 419 scam sounding?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The syntax would suggest that, yeah. That's how lads put together sentences in English. Also, some of the words themselves are pretty typical.

Yeah. Lad from Lagos, right there.

[TheMike]

definitely a scam, the syntax reminds me of some of the ESL scammers in a certain online game.

[Chazzie]

Doesn't look like a scam to me, only because it's not asking for any money or information, it provided it to you...

[Aethian]

Maybe it's a English academy kid who had to speak prim and proper? And they sent a email to the wrong buyer? I know a long shot but that's first thought to me.

[Whiskey]

Sounds scammy to me. Send him an email back telling him to call you about the order.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Don't ever send anything back to anything like this from your real email address unless you want to end up on some "live sucker" list in Nigeria. They don't always ask for anything right off the bat.

If it's not your personal email, go ahead and ask about the order, but I would bet money it's some scammer feeling around for a bite.

[MoonCat]

We've gotten some scam emails at work. I have replied to a couple by email because I can block their emails from coming through after that if necessary. Usually once you ask for better information and assure them that everything will be verified, they disappear.

[Brojekk]

definitely a scam, the syntax reminds me of some of the ESL scammers in a certain online game.

I got a whisper from a suspicious source while playing World of Warcraft. One of the lines was and I quote..."we delivery in an hour".

[lupo pazzesco]

Well, when I left work, there still wasn't an answer. The title of the email was Money. I may have failed to mention. It's not my personal email, it's my work on, that's l pazzesco @ textbook hell dot com, for example. Only stuff that goes through there is work emails between me and managers of my store and others, corporate/regional updates and new order notifications, for example.

[Seshat]

Send a response email as you would if the question had been asked in perfect colloquial Texan-dialect English.

But make a folder for this one, and filter emails from him to the folder. If you know how, set up your system to put copies of your outgoings to him into the same folder.

If everything proceeds as a not-scam, wait a month or so then move the letters back where they should be, and delete the folder and filter.

If it moves to a scam, alert the FBI's internet scam/fraud folks, and offer them the entire folder. It'll be a nice clean record for them of exactly what occurred.

[Chromatix]

I once dealt with the whole "chinese gold farmer" problem in an online game. Based around spaceships as it was, one of the more infamous quotes resulting from that was "why do you violence my boat?"

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

"why do you violence my boat?"

For great justice?

I'll show myself out.

[Andara Bledin]

I always respond as if the person were legit.

Once you display that you do research and don't do anything until you've verified the information with your system, they tend to go *poof*.

Of course, since I've started reporting all of these to the two sites I love (and the "return" address to that address' domain), I get far fewer than I used to.


spam@uce.gov is for the FTC
scamreports@fraudaid.com is for Fraud Aid, which is mostly a victim advocacy and education site

^-.-^

[Mr Hero]

"why do you violence my boat?"

My hovercraft is full of eels.

On Final Fantasy XI I get messages from gil sellers. It's too much trouble to add them to my blacklist since they end up getting a permaban soon afterwords. I'm thinking that when FF XIV comes out I should get a "Z" name. Being an "F" name in XI, I get most of the gil sellers before they're banned.