$pam, $cam, Thank You, Ma'am

For many years the author has, like most computer users, been receiving spam emails that he used to bin straight away – until one of the more outrageous ones caught his eye. Then he began to read them more carefully and, over the course of six years, selected outstanding examples of  ‘scam’ literature.

The author was especially attracted by the inventiveness of the senders, their very particular use of the English language, and the variety of the scams on offer. 

This ebook scrupulously presents those emails as they were received in terms of layout, vocabulary, and spelling. The author’s only intervention has been to rearrange them in eight thematic chapters and for obvious reasons, to disable their various ‘links’.

Having worked on this project for years, the author discovered that a fair amount of people actually had taken the bait and been duped by these mails. 

Needless to say, the author did not send the replies that you are about to read. They have been added to serve as a light-hearted warning against tricksters, fraudsters, swindlers, et al, who seek to extract often significant sums of money from the unwary.