You Could Already Be a Loser!

A few months ago one of my coworkers got an e-mail from a guy in Zaire who wanted her username and password. The e-mail was written in poor English and was clearly sent from an e-mail address located in Zaire given its “.zr” suffix. The e-mail explained that my coworker’s e-mail account would be deleted if she didn’t send the nice con man her private information.

So, she was going to do it. If I hadn’t overheard her reading the e-mail aloud, I wouldn’t have been able to quickly shout out, “Don’t send him your information. That’s a scam!”

A few weeks later I was watching my local television news when a story came on about a woman who received an e-mail from “her grandson” who needed $2,000 because he was falling on hard times. She sent the money to the man, but there was one little red flag in the story that never seemed to go up for the woman: She didn’t even have a grandson. She sent the money anyway.

As it turns out, these people are not the only ones to be suckered by e-mails. In fact, according to a new survey, some people aren’t even sure why they click on some of the e-mails that they do.

From the poll:

• 82% of the respondents were aware of e-mail bots, but many considered themselves immune to them.

• 52% admitted to having clicked on spam offers

• Of those 52% who click on spam offers, 12% were actually interested in the stuff being offered

• 13% said that they weren’t sure why they clicked the spam

• 6% said that they “wanted to see what would happen.”

Yes, 13% simply did not know why they clicked their mouse and 6% just clicked the spam offer for the hell of it, possibly putting their computer in danger of viruses and spyware.

Since we have these people out there, I’m making an offer to everyone reading this: I have a large piece of oceanfront property in Nebraska and I’m willing to sell it for only 50 cents an acre. Who would pass that up? You don’t want to. You know that you want to buy this land. So do it.

To buy this piece of beautiful Nebraska oceanfront property—which overlooks the magnificent Wyoming Ocean—just send me your name, address, Social Security number, and all your credit card numbers.

You didn’t pass up the offer for your inheritance from Crown Prince Shaka Zulu, those impotence pills, or that Russian mail-order bride, so don’t let this one get away!

ReferenceCheng, Jacqui. “12% of E-Mail Users Have Actually Tried to Buy Stuff from Spam.” Ars Technica. 15 July 2009.

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