Nigerian scammers on Fan Mail

1. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   I just got my first Nigerian scammer in my Fan Mail! 
   
   You know the one, the long sob story of how someone has died and left someone money which is stuck in a bank and the writer would be very grateful if I'd help out by yadda yadda....
   
   I must say, I always thought fan mail was limited to a few lines - I had to keep scrolling down to read this one!  I hope this isn't the beginning of a new trend!

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      Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      They are on Gmail as well. I have been getting them since the last couple of months. Yahoo seemed to have blocked them or something.

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   2. 65

      Brandon E Newmanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Those scam letters are funny. Read them. It's like someone asking you to jump off of a bridge. Some think they make them so stupid to weed out anyone with any sense at all. They must be fishing for the dumbest ass person on the web.

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      agvulpesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I was under the impression that only 'members' of HP can post FanMail?

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         Susana Sposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         It's very easy to create an account!

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   jericho911posted 11 years ago

   OMG ! I get those in my email regularly but now it's in your fan mail ! How pathetic !

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3. 79

   LuisEGonzalezposted 11 years ago

   I have not gotten those long emails but I have been getting fan mail that seems incoherent and not at all related to the hub. Perhaps they are from the same part of the world but they talk about me visiting such and such a place and that they can't wait for me to meet their kids and so on........odd to say the least.

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4. 81

   CMHypnoposted 11 years ago

   I have never yet seen one in my fan mail Marisa, but I get plenty via email.  My favourite is one that comes where they say they are the FBI and they have around $27 million from an unsolved case that they want to put in my account for safe keeping.

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5. 71

   Shanna11posted 11 years ago

   You know what,, when the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly, asking for help, you help! His father ran the freaking country! Ok?    -Michael Scott

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6. 61

   HattieMattieMaeposted 11 years ago

   ha ha...well those fan mails & emails have been around for quite awhile. I don't even waste time reading them. I agree with Shanna, maybe he's richer then you and can lend you some money to buy a new car or something. lol

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The emails have been around for years - I get them all the time, usually in my spam folder.  The reason I posted was because this was in my Hubpages Fan Mail.

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         Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         What?
         
         That means we need some changes on HP. We need to be able to choose not to get messages from non-members. So only logged in members can contact us.

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         1. 85

            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            It's already there.  I just hit "deny".
            
            This is the first time I've received such a thing in Fan Mail.  As others have pointed out, you have to join the site to leave Fan Mail so I can't imagine many other people going to that trouble.

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            1. 91

               Cardisaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I am confusing using the contact form with Fan Mail......silly me....lol

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7. 84

   ComfortBposted 11 years ago

   I get at least one of those a day in my Hotmail. I simply dispose of them. And not all are from Nigeria(ns) mind you, some of those letters are from copycats. And I'm not just saying that because am a Nigerian, but because it's true.
   
   Now getting those in your fan mails, that's another story.

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8. 76

   brittvan22posted 11 years ago

   Yes, they are never ending I actually hubbed on an incident where one posed as  yahoo rep and tried to hack my back account. They have the saddest of sob stories and they are on fb, yahoo, Hotmail, twitter, pretty much anywhere there are people.

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9. 83

   WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

   It doesn't surprise me. This site is a magnet for pigeon English scammers in general.

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      brittvan22posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It is indeed.

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10. 80

    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    You guys want to hear a sad story - I know we all assume that everyone knows better than to fall for these things, but a dear man in my church (in his 80s, at least) who lived on a shoestring, fell for several of these.  So many church friends would try to tell him they were scams, but he honestly believed he would be getting a car, or that there was money in a foreign account that he would be getting soon.  It was terribly sad.  And, of course, by the time the church friends had learned of it, he had already sent money down the drain. 
    
    The poor man passed away a few years ago, but his last several years were in poverty, and these heartless jerks (who have no conscience) had him on some sort of list as an easy mark. Which, of course, he was.  I wish those scams could be shut down completely.

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    1. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       There was a documentary on TV here recently about people who were conned by these scammers. 
       
       One poor man - who was sucked in by a fake African sweetheart - had lost several thousand dollars.  But even though the documentary maker presented evidence, he still wouldn't believe that his "girlfriend" wasn't real.

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11. 58

    chinweikeposted 11 years ago

    Greed on the part of the victims are to blame. It is simple, don't expect where you have not sown. Is only potential scammers that gets scammed. Be contempt with what you have and no one would scam you.

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Except for one thing...elderly people often do not have the same mental capacity as younger people which means those who go after their money are lower than dirt.

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12. 95

    john000posted 11 years ago

    Thanks for the alert. Hmmmm. Don't click on a link. I understand they can also carry a lot of software that can be damaging. That might have happened because you let anyone comment. Turn that off and maybe you won't have the problem again, unless you don't mind. Thanks again for the alert.

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    1. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       That's the silly thing - you can't put a link in Fan Mail. "She" did provide an email address for me to reply to, though (which of course I won't).
       
       Fan Mail has nothing to do with Comments.  HubPages' filters do an excellent job of filtering out spam comments , so I wouldn't dream of blocking anyone from leaving a comment.  Comments are valuable.

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13. 73

    Kangaroo_Jaseposted 11 years ago

    My current personal fav, since I get about 20 of these bloody emails a day.......
    
    Is the opening line,
    
    Hello dearest, My name is Mark, will you help me in Gods name?....
    
    Dont, they already know I am a man and I'm an atheist??????

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14. 82

    Marsha Musselman1posted 11 years ago

    I would imagine that these fan mail scammers would become member first, otherwise, I'd agree that they wouldn't be able to post fan mail unless they were members. I've checked other things out after logging off, this would be something Agvulpes could check on their own to see for sure. I've not been here long enough to know for myself, but I thought the same thing.

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15. 0

    Ghaelachposted 11 years ago

    Hi MARISA.
    It's not the first and won't be the last.
    I had a letter from a "love to be lawyer" in the USA telling me I was the last surviving family member who had infortunately all died in a car accident. I was the only person left to inherit $6.5 million. But I'm not as green as some of my hubs. Scams like this shouldn't hurt, so long as you don't reply.
    LOL Ghaelach

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16. 84

    Good Guyposted 11 years ago

    They are like flies.  I just delete them from my mail without opening them.

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17. 0

    delleaposted 11 years ago

    I have "allow others to contact you" under Profile/Email settings un_checked and so far this has reduced my HP email spam to nothing but I still get fan mail from actual users.

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    1. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       In all the time I've been here, I've received less than a dozen spam emails via the  HubPages email system, even though I have "allow others to contact you" checked.
       
       I'd hate to remove the ability for other Hubbers to contact me.

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       1. 84

          agvulpesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I agree

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18. 76

    Barbara Kayposted 11 years ago

    I've received some good contacts this way. One was a paying job and the other from a large publisher to do a book review. You need to keep the communication lines open. You never know what jobs can come your way.

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