Advice anyone please? :)
 

I know sweet old lady who co-ordinates a local charity for re-housing of homeless animals. She just wrote to me to ask me about an email she received. I am sure it is a scam, but it is strange that it is written in a more specific way than i have seen before (maybe it was sent to a mailing list?).
Here is what it says :

Good day,
I would like to make a donation to your institution in support of your work in helping the pets. My name is ************* family attorney based in London. A year ago I was diagnosed with lung cancer with less than 18months to live.
I have not been a religious man, but now I am close to God. A priest advised that to find happiness with myself I should use the privileges God has given me to help the less privileged in the Society. I have then decided to make money and gift item donations to three different organizations. That’s why I have contacted you, I hope you accept my kind offering and use my donation to help the pets.
Having said that, I would like to make a donation of US$10,000 and gift items to your organization in support of your work in helping pets up for adoption.
Please get back to me with your address, name and phone number,so I would know how and where to send the payment by check.
Thank you

Am I just too cynical? I think it's pretty clear that it's BS.
What do you think?
The main question I have is how do i tell her in a nice and convincing way, but also how can you report people like this for investigation?

sorry it's a strange/long one :) any views?

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Seems like if it was real, he would have found her business address at the same time as her email address. Never a reason to need a personal address for something like this. Also, he should have provided verifiable contact information for himself.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

yeah, and she's not at an institution.
it makes me sick that someone would prey on a charity :confused:

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Good day,
I would like to make a donation to your institution don't know what it is, don't care in support of your work in <helping the pets> insert generic here. My name is ************* family attorney irrelevant info designed to promote trust based in London. Start heartstrings tug here: A year ago I was diagnosed with lung cancer with less than 18months to live.
I have not been a religious man, but now I am close to God must be trustworthy. A priest advised that to find happiness with myself nne* I should use the privileges God has given me to help the less privileged in the nne* Society. I have then nne* decided to make nne* money and gift item donations to three different organizations. That’s why I have contacted you, I hope you accept my kind nne* offering and use my donation to help the pets. reiterate generic here
Having said that, I would like to make a donation of US$10,000 and gift items the gift that keeps on giving to your organization in support of your work in helping pets up for adoption. re-reiterate
Please get back to suspicious space me with your address, name and phone number if you know the charity, you know the address ,so I would know how and where to send the payment by suspicious space check.
Thank you

*nne: non-native English

Sounds to me like a scam that has been re-edited by another scammer.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Dut to some "administrative error" the check will be for too much and she will be asked to send the excess back by Western Union. The check, of course, will later bounce.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Or they will want your bank accout number to pay it in ...

how you still got the original email header ..
we can see where it originated...

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Sorry not of much help but maybe if you contact your local internet service provider they maybe able to point you in the right direction for reporting it and if it is genuine you'll find out through them

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Another give away is that people don't make $10,000 donations without wanting to discuss how it will be spent.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

That's what I'm thinking....and anyway, something like this, if it was on the up, his solicitor would make the contact, and would do so in writing...

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

I suppose you could call this a cat scan.....

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

A late night in Florida? :D

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

****SCAM SCAM SCAM****

Most likely from Nigeria.

Give us the email headers and we'll get the boys round to explain the error of their ways to them, harrasing good folk is just not on.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

As everyone's pointed out, it's a scam.

More specifically, it uses the exact same generic wording as a rash of around 50 emails I received a couple of months ago. In this particular case they've just made it slightly more targeted. All the "...not a religious man, but now I am close to God" bullshit is identical to the "Nigerian 419 scam" or advance fee emails I received.

Pointless contacting the ISP in my view, given the number of these being sent out.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Nice one squirrel..............

I would forward it to The Anti Phishing Working Group who's email address is [email protected]

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

I was pretty sure about the scam part, now how do i break the news to a sweet old lady from a charity who would never think anyone would try to scam her?

and for the email header... what do you mean? She sent it to me as an attachment, but i have the email address.

:) thanks guys

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

p.s. have cleaned out my pm's
sorry :o

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

You say: "Hey kind and gullible old lady....this is from some nasty bugger on the other side of the world who has never met you yet wants to scam you out of your money. The world is full of tw@ts like this....now please forward me the original message so I can pass it onto to some acquaintances who will gladly sail forth and kneecap this sad sick bastard"

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

well done ray :rolleyes:
next you'll post the beer roasted cat recipe:D

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

ok. i will slightly adapt your words, it that's ok. :D

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Artistic license is allowable. As long as the general flavour remains.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

An email "header" is the address part of the message which you normally cannot see. It contains the actual source of the message and the route it took to get to the addressee.

Email addresses can be "spoofed" so that apparent return address is not the originating address.

When you report a phony email such as this you should, if possible, include the message header. The way you do this varies between email applications.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

so i checked, and she did fwd the message, but it arrived as an attachement for some reason. Can i still use this?

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

If I were you I would take the simple route, just delete it and also go to your friend's PC and delete her copy too.

As others have said, nobody gives donations in this manner. It has to be a con in the making.

As a general rule, if an email seems unlikely it is unlikely.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

I know, but the thing is I'm pretty sure it must have been sent to a mailing list of pet charities... it wouldn't be worthwhile to send only one. I'm worried that someone may fall for it. Targeting charities is really sick:mad:, and i don't just want to leave it there. Maybe there is nothing i can do, but i want to try at least.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Give us what you have ....

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Forward it to me at the email address below:-

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

thanks ray, i couldn't figure out how to post it, but i sent it to TRPardoe and he helped me out.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Thanks to everyone who posted. My friend is quite upset because, as i said, she is a very sweet old lady, and didn't think someone would write an email like this and not be genuine.

Thanks all for doing good :)
you bunch of do-gooders:D

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Than YOU for being so cute (about it all)................ :cool:

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Its called cut and paste ...

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

i already included the email (see above) and there are no headers. the email address is shelton astronomer [[email protected]]

yeah... i know... great name :)

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

I hate you now. You know that right?

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Wow! We were so wrong...it must be genuine with a name like that.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

i was hoping. Usually when i'm bad you offer a spanking.:D

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

don't make me blush... i had to have better proof to tell the sweet old lady :o

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Total scam!! he will send a fake check for $20.000 and ask her to bank it and send him 10k change - on top of that she gets charged with fraud!

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

Im putting on the rubber gloves as I type.....prepare yourself madam....

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

I'll happily fill in for that role if AWP is too busy.

Re: Advice anyone please? :)
 

funny that AWP never seems too busy to give me a good spanking :D

but thanks anyway! maybe if he goes on his hols :)