4-1-9 Scammers are getting lazy

[Unidyne]

Got another one in my In-Box. This time with the message line "URGENT MESSAGE FROM WESTERN UNION FOREIGN REMITTANCE MANAGER". The message, rambling as it is, says that if I send them $55, I'll get $40,000,000 in the form of $5,000 a day.

A few giveaways, besides the usual typos and grammatical errors,
1) "Dear Beneficiary"
2) The name "Western Union" is used both with and without capital letters.
3) No Western Union logos appear anywhere in the message.
4) The message has also been sent to another 144 people.
5) The reply address, supposedly from Western Union, is on a gmail account.

I swear, they're not even trying to look convincing anymore.

[NYGman]

As said before, the probably make these mistakes on purpose, as it screens out those smart enough to see through the pending fraud. Anyone who takes that bait, would be the perfect mark.

Unfortunately, it can also ensnare those with diminished capacity, like some elderly people with dementia or similar cognitive impairment. Then again, those are the targets they are after.

So while we can pick apart all the issues with the email, that is the intent, as why waste their time on those that will figure them out, best to focus on those that are oblivious.

That, and they are sending out high volume, so even a small response could feed them for weeks.

[Unidyne]

And it seems to be my lucky day! Just got another one, supposedly from Publisher's Clearing House.

My name is not mentioned, but it does say, "You have been selected through your email as the few finalist to win 1 million dollars in our Sweepstakes Promo Dated 2nd of May 2016." I'm asked to reply to an e-mail address on a Hotmail account (The message was sent through an Ecolab account. Ecolab is a commercial water treatment company).

[notorial dissent]

I probably get several of these in a day along with Russian/mail order bride and who knows what all else, but my ISP has a really good sort and can algorithm that they use, probably one of the few nice things I can say about them, and the discard bin is perpetually full to overflowing. I go in and flush it periodically just to see what kind of crap I'm getting lately when I'm really really bored. There does seem to have been an uptick of the I'm Miss/Mrs so and so and would you please be my business partner ones again. I never see them unless I want to and generally they just go floosh.

[fortinbras]

I suspect that some of these errors are deliberate, as if to limit the pigeons to REALLY DUMB people, too dumb to call the police or be useful to law enforcement.