This message came into the mail this morning, an obvious spam but it got my attention:

Here’s what it says:

From: hard_snip@yahoo.com
Subject: good news
Date: May 15, 2008 5:45:13 AM PDT
To: lam@pacificnews.org

Attention…......
This is the only way I could contact you for now, I Want you to be very careful about this and keep the secret with you until I make out a space for us to see, You have no need of knowing who I am,or where am from,I know this may sound suprising to you but it”s the situation, I have being paid a ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer,its one I believe you call a friend,I have followed you closely for a while now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation he leveled against you,Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do I will know, and might be pushed to do what I have being paid to do,besides this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.I took pitty on you,thats why i have made up my mind to help you if you are willing to help yourself.

Now listen,I will arrange for us to see one on one but before that I need the amount of 30,000 pounds,I will come to your home, or you determine where you wish we meet,I repeat do not arrange for the cops, if you play hard to get,it will be extended to your family,do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation,my employer is in my control now,An account will be provided for you to make a part payment of 20,000 pounds first which will serve as a garantee that you are ready to coperate,then one of my boys will deliver a video tape or i can even download it to you.It contains his request for me to terminate you(the tape recorded our conversation)which will be enough evidence for you to take any legal action against him b/4 he goes employing another person for the job. you will pay me the ballance of 10,000 pounds in cash once he delivers the tape to you or i send it to you,beware of business associates and friends,

WARNING:DO NOT CONTACT THE POLICE,MAKE SURE YOU STAY INDOORS ONCE IT IS 7:30PM UNTIL THIS WHOLE THING IS SORTED OUT,YOUR NEGLIGENCE IN ANY OF THESE WARNINGS,YOU WILL HAVE YOURSELF TO BLAME.
you do not have much time so get back to me as possible.

Bye.
hugo

Hugo didn’t say anything about blogging it so I’m glad at least for that. I don’t have 10,000 pounds – is that like a million US dollars now? – but I do have a full bar so I’ll be waiting for him tonight with my martini shaker.

btw, I checked and there’s a website that warns people of the latest spams called Switch.com and the above scam is well reported. I got that cute pix from their site.

Nice reading to get early in the morning indeed.

Andrew