The Anonymous Widower

Illegal Uploading

The government makes a lot of fuss about the illegal downloading of films, television programs and music.  But I suspect more of us are affected by illegal uploading, or the various spam messages we get all the time.

Here’s one I got this morning.

From:Lady Sylvia Ströher

23-16  street, Berlin,Germany.

I am Lady Sylvia Ströher suffering from cancerous ailment.

I am married to Lord Stroher,a German shipping tycoon notable for his great wealth,influential extended family,and charitable activities all his life before his death.Our life together as man and wife lasted for three decades without child.My husband died after a protracted illness in August 22,2007.My husband and I made a vow to uplift the down-trodden and the less-privileged individuals as he had passion for persons who can not help themselves due to physical disability or financial predicament.I can adduce this to the fact that he needed a Child from this relationship,which never came.

When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of 20.000.000.00 (Twenty Million Great Britain Pounds Sterling) which were derived from his vast estates and investment in capital market with his bank in United Kingdom and named me as the beneficiary of this trust fund.

Presently,this money is still with the Bank.

Recently, my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to the cancerous problems I am suffering from.Though what bothers me most is the stroke that I have in addition to the cancer.

With this hard reality that has befallen my family,and me I have decided to donate this fund to you and want you to use this gift which comes from my husbands effort to fund the upkeep of widows, widowers,orphans,destitute, the down- trodden, physically challenged children,barren-women and persons who prove to be genuinely handicapped financially.

It is often said that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because Ido not have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are bourgeois and very wealthy persons and I do not want my husband’s hard earned money to be misused or invested into ill perceived ventures.I do not want a situation where this money will be used in a worldly manner, hence the reason for taking this bold decision.I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going.I do not need any telephone communication in this regard due to my deteriorating health and because of the presence of my husbands relatives around me as i am currently bed ridden in the Family house here in 23-16  street, Berlin,Germany.

and do not receive any visitors unless approved by Huwer Stroher who is the immediate younger brother to my late husband.I do not want them to know about this development in order to safeguard this bequest.I will also authorise my Private Attorney in the UK whom i communicate with via emails all the time,to issue a Letter of Authority that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund, he would also endorse my WILL where i will name you as the beneficiary of the 20.000.000.Million GBP.You can contact my personal Lawyer through his email address only on this email below please:

Barrister Jones Shealy

Email: shealyjon@gmail.com

Tell him that I have WILLED the said sum to you and the reason for doing this is best known to me.My happiness is that I lived a life worthy of emulation. Please always be kindhearted all through your life.Please assure me that you will act just as I have stated herein.

Your’s Sincerely

Lady Sylvia Ströher

We all know that it’s a scam and you shouldn’t reply to it.  But some people must do as these people wouldn’t keep sending the junk.

But what are the authorities doing about it.  At best little and most probably nothing.

But as a programmer, who likes to think he knows the Internet better than his hand, there must be simple solution.

For instance, the technology is such that if we all forwarded this junk to a special e-mail address, then the various e-mails could be analysed and if say a hundred copies were found, then any e-mail addresses used would be immediately shut down.  A lot of this could be automated and if done on a world-wide basis, it would make it much more difficult for these swindlers to operate.

Or we could use a guerrilla approach.

You register an anonymous e-mail address at something like Hotmail, GMail or Yahoo and then send the embedded e-mail addresses in the fraud a nice large picture file of say a puppy, kitten or something else pleasant as an attachment.  If enough of us did that, then these fraudsters would quickly get overloaded and hopefully the innocent wouldn’t get sucked in.  They would obviously target your anonymous address, but when it gets unusable, you just abandon it. 

After all these anonymous e-mail address companies, are one of the reasons we get so much junk.  If they did a few more checks when an account was opened, the fraudsters perhaps would be deterred.

September 8, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Computing | Fraud, Internet