Quite some time ago I put an obviously fake and ridiculously silly profile on a Russian dating site, purely to see what, if any, kind of response it might get.
Surprisingly, there were a good few replies. I never corresponded with anyone, I just wanted to get an idea of whether the women on there were obvious scammers or not.
Most seemed genuine though, until I got an email from Elena Volkova who was obviously looking to scam people. My latest check on my inbox reveals an email from another Russian lady, Tatyana Gorbunowa, who sent me the exact same email, word for word.
The only differences between this email and the one from Elena Volkova are the name and the email address… how lazy is that?!?
I saw your announcement on a site in the Internet. There there were many good people. I do not know why I have written to you, probably something inside has prompted 
me to do it. I already during long time wanted to find to me directly people, but not from Russia. As in Russia very many bad people and are very difficult to find such person, which will serve me as a fine half. Simply me the girlfriend has advised me to go in the Internet of cafe to search for persons outside Russia. My best girlfriend has found to itself through Internet good people Which has invited her in the country, and now they live together 2 months It also has pushed to find me to itself of the satellite Though I also do not believe life in it, that it is possible to find love through The Internet I should hope for it up to the last.
Now it - is slightly about me: My name - Tatyana Gorbunowa. I the simple Russian girl who search for a basis The person from abroad for serious attitudes in the future for Creations of family. I live the Russian city Cheboksary. It - very beautiful city In which I live. I very much like to help people and therefore I have chosen trade on heart the doctor. I am long brave to write to you and have written in hope which you will write also to me I hope for it, and I shall look forward to hearing from you.
P.S. If I though have slightly interested you, please write to me the answer. On mine E-mail:tatyana3434@mail.ru I shall hope, and I shall wait, that you nevertheless will answer it soon. I send the image in the letter. With hope your new familiar Tatyana Gorbunowa
If you search around the net you will soon realise that the people behind these romance scams recycle the same pictures all the time (they are often photos they take from modelling websites), but this is the first time I have seen an email used verbatim.
Most people who like fruit love the taste of bananas, but should you be careful of what you eat?
The latest email to hit my inbox suggests that bananas from Costa Rica can be bad for your health as they are infected with a flesh eating bacteria, known as ‘Necrotising Fasciltis’.
This disease has killed the local monkey population.. will you be the next victim?
Several shipments of bananas from Costa Rica have been infected with necrotizing fasciltis, otherwise known as flesh eating bacteria. Recently this disease has decimated the monkey population in Costa Rica. We are now just learning that the disease has been able to graft itself to the skin of fruits in the region, most notably the banana which is Costa Rica’s largest export. Until this finding scientist were not sure how the infection was being transmitted. It is advised not to purchase bananas for the next three weeks as this is the period of time for which bananas that have been shipped to the us with the possibility of carrying this disease. If you have eaten a banana in the last 2-3 days and come down with a fever followed by a skin infection seek MEDICAL ATTENTION!!!
The skin infection from necrotizing fasciitis is very painful and eats two to three centimeters of flesh per hour. Amputation is likely, death is possible.. If you are more than an hour from a medical center burning the flesh ahead of the infected area is advised to help slow the spread of the infection. The FDA has been reluctant to issue a country wide warning because of fear of a nationwide panic. They have secretly admitted that they feel upwards of 15,000 Americans will be affected by this but that these are” Acceptable numbers”. Please forward this to as many of people you care about as possible as we do not feel 15,000 people is an acceptable number.
If you believe that.. you’ll believe anything! It is of course, an email hoax!
The popular free email service, Hotmail.com, is close to closing down.
The service, run by Microsoft, has, apparently, become so overburdened that they are running out of resources and need to close thousands of dormant accounts at the very least.
How do I know this?
Because the following email I received told me so…
Subject: Fwd: Hotmail is shutting down, pls read this if you have hotmail.
Dear Hotmail User,
Because of the sudden rush of people signing up to Hotmail, it has come to our attention that we are vastly running out of resources. So, within a month’s time, anyone who does not receive this email with the exact subject heading, will be deleted off our server. Please forward this email so that we know you are still using this account.
WARNING WARNING
Hotmail is overloading and we need to get rid of some people and we want to find out which users are actually using their Hotmail accounts. So if you are using your account, please pass this e-mail to every Hotmail user that you can and if you do not pass this letter to anyone we will delete your account.
From Mr. Mark Bernard
Hotmail Admin. Dept.
Before you panic and sign-in, as some of my friends who received this did, you should realise that this is no more than an email hoax.
Microsoft have plenty of resources and hotmail will not be closing any time soon.
I would imagine most people have heard of the missing girl, Madeleine McCann, but did you realise that there are always hundreds of missing children around the world at any point in time?
For that reason, I don’t think it is particularly clever to joke about such things but, apparently, Evan Trembley does.
This email hoax has been going round inboxes for most of this year -
My 15 year old boy, Evan Trembley, is missing. He has been missing for now two weeks.
Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child. That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation of her picture on tv.
The internet circulates even overseas, South America, and Canada etc. Please pass this to everyone in your address book. With GOD on his side he will be found.
“I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE.
It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone knows anything, please contact me at: HelpfindEvanTrembley@yahoo.com
I am including a picture of him.
All prayers are appreciated! !
It only takes 2 seconds to forward this.
If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get!!
The media believe that Trembley initiated the above email himself, and no organisation that monitors missing children are aware of his disappearance.
Personally, I think to joke around such a subject matter is sick as it distracts from those children who really are missing, and the pain their parents must be feeling.
Authorities in Detroit arrested 10 people on Wednesday. The suspects are believed to have been involved in a pop can smuggling ring.
The 10 people arrested have been charged with crimes ranging from false pretense to running a criminal enterprise.
If convicted, they could face sentences ranging between 5 and 20 years in prison.
The group were caught along with $500,000 in what is believed to be a smuggling ring that collected millions of pop cans in order to claim a 10 cent rebate in Michigan.
With differing rules on pop cans in different areas of America, it is believed that the group collected cans in areas where there are no rebates on offer and then crushed and bagged them before transporting them to Michigan to make their profit.
The original article, found at ClickOnDetroit.com, quotes Col. Peter Munoz, director of the Michigan State Police as saying, “Each year, this type of activity defrauds the state approximately $13 million”.
Loading ...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
4 Comments