Postal Spam
July 21st, 2010 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarJust received a very rare postal spam letter from France.
I was curious as to who in France would be writing to me, and opened it to find it was the usual spam con, offering 90% of $3.5 million as next of kin, if I will only donate 10% of the legacy to some charities.
The con artist is actually in Spain – a Laura Fernando Diaz is their claimed name.
What surprises me is that they are doing it by post. It must cost a fair bit to send letters from Europe to NZ. E-mail spam costs nothign to send, but mail does.
However if they send out 100,000 letters and even one person is stupid enough to believe it, they will make money.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
We had several arrive at work on the same day to various people which kind of gave the game away.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 4:18 pm
You mean it was a hoax? Oh shit!
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 4:31 pm
They have given up on me… my email spam deletes itself… and the few I get in the post.. say I blow my chance of winning.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Forward them all to Bill English. That should clear our deficit.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Clearly they have a flawed business plan.
To make best use of the printing and postage costs, Ms Fernando Diaz should also have proposed marriage and offered to share with you her cut-price stash of Viagra
ROFL @ RightNow
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I honestly didn’t realise real mail spam existed these days – any chance of scanning and uploading?
[DPF: Normally yes, but now travelling]
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 5:18 pm
I’m sure I saw this in NZ Post’s business plan, didn’t Mr Bolger help with it? With snail mail getting increasingly irrelevant, they need a slice of the action that is spam. What’s more, even if you decided just to write a letter back to get some more information, that immediately costs you 40c, and is profit for NZ Post. Dead cunning I tell you.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 5:49 pm
There is a good chance that more than 1 out of the 100,000 will be a ‘global warmist’.
Vote:Therefore the hoaxer will make money!
July 21st, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Has anyone participated in a Circle Group phone survey where if you happen to have shares, property and a clue they dont phone you back, despite promises to do so ?
Vote:Next time they call (which will be about the tenth time) I will pretend to be poor dumb and stupid and see what sort of fast talking “advisor” turns up.
July 21st, 2010 at 6:38 pm
OH NO!!! POSTAL SPAM!!!!~
QUICK
THE GOVERNEMT MUST ACT AND STOP THIS HORRID SCOURGE!!!!!!!
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I think you’ve mistaken this blog for the Standard, Mapplethorpe.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I’m surprised Liarbore hasn’t resorted to such methods, the Glenn Owen fund must be in the red by now.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 7:10 pm
In the past the Nigerians (who else) did a lot of this. The stamps were fakes so it didn’t cost much at all.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 7:12 pm
I got some too. Annoying as I am not sure how they got my name and address…
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Where’s mine?
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Some good ideas about what to do if you get a letter like this: http://www.419eater.com/
You could just ignore, or you could waste the scammer’s time by leading them on, though obviously it’s best to do that under a fake name. Some of the stuff that “scam-baiters” have achieved is brilliant.
And remember, every second they’re spending replying to an email from you, or doing some silly thing you’ve requested from them, is a second they’re not spending ripping someone else off.
Vote:July 21st, 2010 at 10:29 pm
So who is the Left Wing party in Spain, are they in power, and what is their mail budget for staff departments?
Vote:July 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 am
if you reply to
Vote:enough of these letters one
is bound to be real
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:41 am
What would you like to do to the piece of shit that organised this postal spam.
Sharon Harper and her husband still receive junk mail and magazine subscriptions in their daughter’s name 22 years after she died in a car accident in 1988. Angela Harper was 12 years old and never lived at her parents’ current address.
Vote:July 22nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Haiku Dave @ 12:13 am
if you reply to
enough of these letters one
is bound to be real
No they won’t…
Vote:Unless you mean real spam scam…
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Clicking delete is lame. Join the club that elevates baiting these scammers to the level of a hobby and – almost – a sport:
http://www.419eater.com/
Or, be like a former colleague of mine, who used to respond to these sorts of scams with a standard reply template of more or less the following:
Vote:July 22nd, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Not, I hasten to add, that I share or endorse those views!
Vote:July 24th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Guessing they’ve resorted to snail mail because the scam is old news on the net now. Prob figure if they send out enough letters, sooner or later they’ll hit some guillible old fart who’s never been on that new fangled webbernet.
Vote: