You've just won 800,000 ugandan dollars...

[Iron Criterion]

So after getting an e-mail claiming I've won money on a draw I've never even entered and all I have to do is send £200 along with all my personal details, I decided to create this thread so you fellow escapians can share examples of the best fail scams you've ever seen...

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Any of the ones saying that "I've seen the picture of you on your profile and find you really hot" blah blah blah so on, so forth.
Because there are no pictures on me on the internet. so they all automatically fail.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Something similar actually. It said a million dollars was ready to be transferred to my account.

[sub]Zimbabwean dollars[/sub]

Isn't that about 25p?

 

[Vlane]

Something similar actually. It said a million dollars was ready to be transferred to my account.

[sub]Zimbabwean dollars[/sub]

Wow you are like rich and all that stuff.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Any of the ones saying that "I've seen the picture of you on your profile and find you really hot" blah blah blah so on, so forth.
Because there are no pictures on me on the internet. so they all automatically fail.

Yea, this.

Apparently people find the fat Dr. Pepper guy sexy

Whoda thunk it?

 

[Kollega]

And i thought this was a thread about toilet paper. For shame!

 

[AWC Viper]

got an email telling me that my homeloan is about to reset (live with my dad) and the dumbest one was "i cant believe how you look after all these years. your old college sweetheart" (am in highschool and never been to the US)

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I put an advert up to try and sell an old amp...all I got was scam mail. The worst example being something along the lines of "I am interested in the item, I will give you £2,400 for it if you send me the following details and remove the ad from the site today".

Considering I wanted £200 for it, this is slightly suspicious

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I got one telling me that I could change my name to have a "Lord" or "Lady" in front of it and all I had to do was give them my Social Security and Credit Card numbers!



I emailed the people and asked "Why couldn't I just go change it myself?"

They didn't reply.



I know they saw it though.

 

[Trivun]

The one where I keep getting emails saying the same thing (slightly reworded) from various Kenyan employees of the First Bank of Ouagadougou saying I can join a plot to scam the government out of some dead bloke's money and I get 40% for my troubles. I think the First Bank of Oagadougou has some pretty lapse vetting procedures for staff with the amount of people willing to scam the bank out of money they want to share with some random British dude.

Oh, and it fails even more when the same names are used about ten times trying to get me to join when I keep deleting their emails anyway. If I don't respond to them the first nine times then I'm hardly going to respond to the tenth time, am I?

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

I think they're all pretty ridiculous.
Especially the ones entitled "RE:[whatever stupid shit they're trying to scam you with]".
Oh wow, how nice of them to get back to me.
I don't remember ever sending any emails to anyone, but it sure is cool that they'd take the time out of their day to reply.
OH WAIT A MOMENT

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Well...
I got an e-mail telling me how nice it was to meet me, and also how in love with me the person was.

Which was kind of awkward.
I mean, love at first sight?
Fine - a bit unlikely, but fine.

But love before meeting someone you know nothing about?
That's even sillier.

You too, eh? Every few weeks I get an Escapist message from a variation of the same email address saying the exact same thing.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

But love before meeting someone you know nothing about?
That's even sillier.

Why not? You're a catch! Now you're just being silly! Silly willy!

Well, it's not a scam, but I once got an e-mail. In it, someone was trying to tell me who I am.

Something like,

"Hi! You're !
You're ."

ETC.

 

[Iron Criterion]

Well...
I got an e-mail telling me how nice it was to meet me, and also how in love with me the person was.

Which was kind of awkward.
I mean, love at first sight?
Fine - a bit unlikely, but fine.

But love before meeting someone you know nothing about?
That's even sillier.

You too, eh? Every few weeks I get an Escapist message from a variation of the same email address saying the exact same thing.

My girlfriend used to get these, from women...

 

[simmeh]

I got an email out of the blue from a Russian bride scammer. I strung "her" along for a while before losing interest. "She" never really asked me for money, but I'm sure it was coming if I had continued to converse with "her". I still have all the emails saved, if anyone wants to see them; it's worth a chuckle or two.

More recently, I got a letter saying I was in a draw for $500,000CA. I never remember entering this draw, and I have no idea how the letter got to me, as I normally get things mailed to my parent's house and not my student house. But, they didn't want any personal information, all I had to do was mail back some coupons. For 56 cents, I decided that it was worth seeing if this really was a scam. Still haven't heard back from them.