While all these progress about the internet is good, and while communicating with millions of people at the click of a mouse or a finger push is actually a major advantage of our time, this has also bred a new series of problems, violations, or if you wish to call it, a new set of crimes invented by man himself.

These crimes don't have specific punishments yet, and if George Washington or the Founding Fathers saw this a few centuries ago, they would have crafted a more elaborate constitution! But now, every law and precept in the world is either too vague, or has limited ability and specificity to punish these crimes:

SPAM

Of course, you like SPAM, especially if its fried in olive oil and served with eggs during breakfast. But believe me, you'd be annoyed if you saw dozens of these in your email inbox!

SPAM is the general term associated with unsolicited email. Remember the person with the weird name who emailed you and said he has cancer so please donate $500? Or how about the 'naughty girl' who says she's ready to be viewed online? Or how about the oddball who emailed you about a pyramid scheme? These are all examples of SPAM!

For an email to be considered as SPAM, it must meet certain 'qualifications': First, it is a commercial email. Second, it invades privacy of an individual. Third, there are weird letters and characters. Fourth, there is consistent flooding and repetitive sending of email. Fifth, you did not personally subscribe for that information. Sixth, you have no personal relationship or knowledge of the whereabouts of the email sender! Seventh, there is no 'unsubscribe link' or at least a way out!

SPAM is now considered a crime because of the popular Nigerian 4-1-9 scams. These scams became notorious online for many years now. The con men behind it will gather millions of email addresses using illegal or unethical means, then proceed to mass email them with a fraudulent letter! For example, the 4-1-9 con man will tell the recipient, "I am a rich sultan in blah blah country and I want to transfer some of my money to another country. Will you please be the account holder in your country? I'll give you 50% of the money!"

After the victim has believed the email, he will be asked for a small "wire transfer fee" of $100 or more. Then, if the victim indeed sends the wire transfer fee, the 'sultan' will never email back again. Ever.

The CAN SPAM Act Of 2003 is a bill passed to suppress the spammers and bring them to justice. However, this law is still very limited compared to the various cases of SPAM reported. How can you prosecute someone who sends emails from offshore? How can evidence be traced if the online world is free of thumb marks, blood samples, and even AUDIBLE CONVERSATIONS? This is the reason why SPAM is pretty much 'on the loose' and many people still get away with it every single day.

Phishing

Phishing is the 'art' of exactly copying a certain popular website and fooling people to subscribe there so that they can surrender their vital contact information. For example, a "phisher" criminal might want to copy the Facebook homepage and even attempt to buy a domain name similar to Facebook (something like Facbook). Then people unknowingly log in to this website. The result? The 'phisher' will get private information from individuals!

Phishing actually goes beyond copying websites. Sometimes it resorts to using tracking cookies and hidden "trojan viruses" and online worms. These "devilish tools" are designed to extract login information, credit card details, and even money accounts! This is the reason why popular online money exchange sites like Paypal and E-Gold have phishing filters to protect the money of their account holders! But sometimes, the smartest "phishing" experts still manage to fool many people by sending them to a fraudulent site and extracting their personal information.

Phishing is not a joke. People can go broke as a result of it. People can give up private details to criminals. Personal emails can be read and intercepted. We must be totally aware of the danger. Never ever give away your personal information on questionable sites!

Plagiarism And Copyright Infringement

This is really a problem. With the millions of sites out there, and the hundreds of millions of users surfing the internet daily, there is no limit to the amount of content being submitted online, per minute!

The problem is, not all the content submitted online are ORIGINAL. Some are copied works. Some violate the copyrights of publishers, movie production companies, inventors, and even intellectual property! Movies, software, digital books, videos, commercial ads, and many others, have been plagiarized and infringed time and time again!

The main problem? It is impossible to track all the people who infringe copyrights. With the viral nature of the internet, one plagiarized or illegally distributed piece of content can spread like wildfire. Thus, the original "fake piece" will be hard to trace! You might find thousands of copies of a poem, ebook, or software that got "pirated", but you will never know who first reproduced it illegally. Thus, very few prosecutions of plagiarism and copyright infringement have actually taken place.

The only solution to these three problems? Let's close the internet from public use (ok, I can hear people screaming!). But that will make way for a bigger set of problems (problem number 1: Microsoft will go bankrupt). So, if shutting the internet from public use is not an option, let's just temporarily satisfy ourselves with the idea that we're too smart to be a victim of any of these so called "crimes".

Note: The reference about Nigerian 4-1-9 scams does not in any way degrade, malign, or condemn the Nigerian population in general. Criminals referred to in this article are responsible for their own actions, and do not act in behalf of their respective country of origin.

Before we fly off the deep end implementing all sorts of precautions and countermeasures, we need to identify the various types of identity theft in order to ascertain to which we are most vulnerable. Our tactic will be one of learning from the misfortunes of others and taking the appropriate steps to ensure that similar events do not become manifest upon ourselves.

According to the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center, identity theft falls into one of four categories: financial identity theft, criminal identity theft, identity cloning and business/commercial identity theft.

Financial Identity Theft

Incidents involving the fraudulent use of another's identity to obtain credit, goods and services are now becoming commonplace. Skimming and other means of duplicating electronic payment cards in order to commit financial identity theft are on the increase. With over US$500 million estimated to have been lost to financial institutions alone last year this is no longer little league crime.

The problem is that more often than not multiple crimes are committed with the final objective being financial fraud of some form. The borderless nature of the Internet also plays its role in financial identity theft.

Money laundering is another area where a considerable amount of financial identity fraud activities take place. The criminal focus here is upon the “cleaning” of that which is already been stolen. Perpetrators of this type of identity fraud want to attract as little attention to themselves and their activities as possible. Thus, from the perpetrators perspective the best identities are those of decent hard working Mr. and Mrs. “Average” domicile in another part of the country or the recently deceased.

So-called Nigerian 419 scams are a form of financial identity theft that still claims victims many years after having been exposed. Factors contributing to the longevity of the Nigerian 419 scams include younger people who have not heard about it, human greed and naivety. Even so-called “do-gooders” have fallen as prey. I guess the perpetrators believe in that age old adage; “when you are on a good thing, stick to it”.

Criminal Identity Theft

Posing as another when apprehended for a crime has long been a means used by felons to avoid permanent incarceration. Confidence tricksters have also been using identity theft as a means of perpetrating their scams for quite some time now.

Persons wanting to avoid the consequences of their actions have been supplying law enforcement with false identities for centuries. Their primary objective is to remain free (not in permanent custody) or avoid some penalty (speeding fine etc). There is no disguise better than becoming somebody else. The more “ordinary” and unobtrusive that other somebody is the better.

Identity Cloning

Identity cloning often takes the form of using another's personal information to assume his or her identity in daily life, or for abetting illegal immigration, terrorism, and espionage.

Institutionally condoned identity cloning is in some instances, the act of a government agent, undercover operative or the agent of an external government. It is still a crime regardless of who the perpetrator(s) be or their motive(s).

Identity cloning plays a large role in orchestrated attacks against payment systems such as social services (pensions or disability payments) and medical insurance fraud. Simple substitution of the appropriate “desired” medical evidence such as X-ray or pathology reports in place of the real ones is often all that is required and can be very rewarding in compensation claims. Whenever adjudication of claims of this nature without the obligatory attendance of the claimant occurs, the system will always be open to this form of abuse.

A more recent twist on the identity cloning fraud theme in Australia has been the practice of certain persons of non-Caucasian extraction substituting a capable driver in place of the individual applying for their driver's license, for a fee of course. Compulsory driver's license ID photos are putting a brake on this.

Many other social services and government bodies have long been susceptible to identity cloning. For example we still find cases where individuals continue to collect benefits on behalf of the deceased appearing in the news. The most alarming aspect of this type of fraud is the current escalation in its incidence.

Masquerading and Impersonation

When it comes to the issue of masquerading remember that it is not always a person that is impersonated. Many subtle forms of authentication masquerading attacks involve the attacker's machine masquerading as a legitimate machine(s).

The “evil twin” and SSL injection attacks are forms of Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks where the impersonation of other machines and digital authentication systems takes place. With most users so trusting of digital authentication technologies the possibilities presented by a successful SSL injection attack are numerous and very lucrative.

Business/Commercial Identity Theft

In general, business/commercial identity theft is usually based around the use of a third party's business name to obtain credit or as a means to obtaining another's personal information. Numerous email scams have involved this type of activity. However, the primary motivation is still financial gain.

Phishing is an example of online business/commercial identity theft and often involves the duplication, replication and/or impersonation of a valid well-known commercial, institutional or non-profit website. The side-effects can be very damaging to the organization whose online identity (the owner of the cloned website) becomes misused in this way. Consumers tend to take the view of once bitten twice shy.

The organization involved is often left with little choice but to completely redesign their website in order to remove any semblance or relationship to the old exploited website. Often other more draconian and expensive measures are required. Because many identity theft crimes of this nature occur across international boundaries victims often have very little avenue for recompense.

Blackmail, Extortion and Character Assassination

Not only are blackmail and extortion methods commonly used in obtaining false identities or another's personally identifiable information they are often the real motive for doing so.

Theft of electronic authentication credentials is a means often used to access “private” correspondence. The perpetrators intent is often to determine if a subject is conducting improper affairs such that might be useful in the commission of blackmail or extortion.

Character assassination, always a favorite with politicians is another objective of identity theft that is still uncommon but on the increase. The goal here is to destroy the target's credibility in some manner. Sex scandals are a political death trap for any candidate. Financial impropriety or the insinuation of financial impropriety is a powerful tool in the destruction of political opponents.

Commercial character assassination incidents where one group posing as another will deliberately commit crimes or create incidents involving unwanted and unfavorable publicity in order to damage another organization's reputation.

By the time the victimized organization can clear itself from the “misunderstanding”, misrepresentation or mistaken identity considerable detrimental damage may have already been done. Bad publicity sticks.

Concentrating Your Defenses and Countermeasures

When it comes to planning and defending against identity theft and subsequent fraud there are a number of areas, countermeasures, preventatives and “after-the-fact” strategies and tools readily available to us all. Many are free or free to use for home, home office and/or small business. However, before we can use any of them we must first evaluate the technologies and level of protection currently afforded the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in our care.

Because the perpetrators of identity theft have such an expansive range of tactics and directions (geographically) from which to attack we need to concentrate our efforts upon protecting that which is of the greatest value to us and them, the PII entrusted to our care.

The key to not becoming a victim is to be able to identify exactly what you have that identity theft perpetrators might want. Then decide whether it is worth protecting. If it is not, then it is probably not worth stealing. In this way, you can determine where your efforts and countermeasures are best concentrated.

As always, the proactive prevention of identity theft in all its guises is by far better than after-the-fact cures when it comes to the gathering, administration, upkeep and eventual destruction of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) be it our own or that of other parties.

As individuals, organizations or members of an organization we need to up the stakes and improve our vigilance and countermeasures in order to ensure that we adequately protect all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in our charge including that of ourselves, our organization and its employees, clients, business partners and contractors.

The most recent email I got was supposedly from a leader from a foreign country. They wanted me to respond with my personal information such as my physical address and phone number. From there, they would try to get my social security and bank information. Beware of all of these silly scams that seem to be happening way too often. I cannot believe after all of the stories written and all of the air time that these people get on the news that there are still those that fall for it. They decide that they will support these people told about on the emails by sending them checks and giving them various personal information. Particularly the elderly are targeted since their life savings are at risk.

If you receive emails like this please delete them immediately and be sure to delete your history on your computer. This will destroy any chances of thieves taking your personal information. You need to delete your history after purchasing or paying for something online as well. Ask yourself how these people managed to get your email address. Did you know them from before? Guarantee if you send them an email from another email address that doesn't have your name you will not get an answer regarding who they are exactly and how you can contact them by phone or in person.

Always be sure to protect yourself from thieves ready to steal from you. Don't bother with sending money to anyone you don't know or any supposed company you don't know. Always make sure to know where your money is going. You work hard for your money and losing it to a thief doesn't make any sense.

E-mail Quote:

“Dear Sir/Madam, Greetings! I contact you by this email due to limitation of options to seek your cooperation. Please due treat the content of this correspondence with utmost exigency and due privacy. I am privy to cash totaling seventy-five million US Dollars (US$75?000?000.00) which I wish to invest in your country and in your company if you are willing to facilitate the conveyance of banking of the funds”

Many of us email recipients have received these sometimes amusing scam letters from all over the world. Remember all the scammers with the Nigerian letter, then the UK lottery selecting you to claim your millions, then the Russian reship package fraud with stolen credit cards and Paypal processing and of course, phishing. This new one wants to actually send me 25 million cash in three chests.

Next Quote:

“ You must understand that this is an urgent and serious business and there is no time to waste I am not joking at all. The money is in CASH and you must receive it so after which it will be your responsibility to get into a bank or financial institution for which you are getting a remuneration of 30%. We have to proceed without any delay. The funds will be delivered in a consignment of three chests by a special courier service that delivers precious and discreet consignments. Please let me know if you are willing and able so we may proceed with no further delay.”

Sounds pretty Incredible ! Can anyone imagine receiving 25 million in cash to your doorstep? If you own a local bank you are in luck. Otherwise, how many deposits in cash can you make under the $10,000 limit that banks monitor and report when cash is used for any deposit. I would love to walk into a bank and deposit $25 million in cash and become the center of attention. Would the FBI or IRS show up and escort me away for the third degree? What were these scammers thinking? Where is their scam and why is their plan so insane! The 25 million belonged to a businessman from Bagdad, Iraq who was killed --- probably another corrupt official. The money was meant to purchase five metric tons of raw gold nuggets. I would be willing to bet that there are many millions in cash floating around Iraq somewhere.

This amusing email asked for my name, address and phone number. When I responded to take me off your scam list, they got real serious and emailed back the above quotes. They still wanted to proceed with shipment. I wonder if three chests can fit into my PO Box. I have not heard back from these “astute” businessmen with anymore proposals or how to succeed.

The header on the message is spoofed, the entire message is designed to look as official as possible. The sole purpose of the message is to gather information from the victim which will give the phisher remote access to the victim's finances.

For example, a typical phishing email might allegedly come from the potential victim's bank indicating that his account is overdrawn because of a check that the victim did not even write. If the message just happens to appear to be from the bank, and is related to a serious matter, it easily catches the potential victim's attention.

Typically, such a message will urge the potential victim to take action and the message will contain a URL supposedly leading to the bank's website or phone number. Although the phone number may or may not actually be the bank's phone number, the website URL is never legitimate even if it appears to be otherwise.

Sometimes, the phisher will place the bank's actual phone number in the mail in the hope of making the message appear more authentic. Other times though, they will place another number and have someone just waiting for calls from panicked bank customers who respond.

This person manning the telephone line will ask the person who is calling for an account number, a pin number and any other information that might be useful to the phisher, such as a social security number or birth date.

The phony bank employee will then pretend to solve the problem while the victim is on the phone. Instead, the victim has given his account information directly to a thief who can use it to access the victim's bank account and launch other types of financial fraud.

How to Spot Such Scams

The official looking URL on the email message looks like that of the bank's official website. However, when the user hovers his mouse over the URL, the hyperlink that appears does not match the URL displayed in the message exactly. Typically, the phisher will replace the URL with an IP address, or a domain name that is spelled very similarly to the bank's domain name.

The key to avoiding phishing traps is to become knowledgeable about it. Other possible variations of the phish are:

Telling Victims the last Two Digits of Their Account Numbers

In a particular type of phishing scheme, phishers send out emails that request sensitive information from the victims. To prove to customers the legitimacy of such a request, the email even includes two numbers supposedly being the last two digits of the victim's account number. These two numbers are randomly generated by the phisher, and whether the numbers actually match with the victim's account number is entirely left to chance. A random two-digit combination has a one in a hundred chance of being right, so based on probability, if a phisher sends such an email to one million users, 10,000 customers' accounts will show an exact match with those two numbers.

Use of a JavaScript Applet Over the Address Bar in the Browser

In this method, when the victim clicks on the hyperlink contained in the phishing email, the phony website detects the victim's browser settings, and the phony website subsequently applies a custom JavaScript over the address bar in the victim's browser. The JavaScript applet is designed to look exactly identical to the address bar it overlaps and the bank or credit card company's authentic address is displayed on the applet. Victims will thus not be able to see the phony website's actual address, which may give rise to suspicions because of slight differences with the authentic address.

How to Protect Yourself From Such Scams

Remember that the idea behind a phishing scam is to cause the victim to panic, thus frightening him into clicking on the link contained within the email message and then getting him to enter his bank account and password.

Thus, remember to take the time to think it over. Learn to be sceptical when dealing with such emails asking for your account information. The fact of the matter is that no reputable institution is going request for the kind of information that these phishing messages ask you for.

When you get an email that requests something like that, you can choose one of the following options. Firstly, you can easily ignore it. The alternative will then to be to contact the institution directly to ask about it. Do not contact them via the Web link or phone number provided. Contact them through your usual manner. For instance, you could always type in the proper website address for the company with which you are dealing. Don't take the bait.

Phishing is a problem that is here to stay. As such, there can be no foolproof way to completely irradiate it; at best, the hit rate of such a crime can only be reduced to a minimum through the use of preventive measures. In order for the successful curtailing of phishing, and for us to be protected from this menace, there must be collaboration among authorities, financial institutions as well as the individual.

I will start with internet marketing. I will focus on the vultures who scan every bulletin board or legitimate advertising forum for emails that they compile to send you indicating that “theirs is better”. Listen up stupid…if YOUR program was better than the one I am using, why are you wasting so much precious time looking on other websites for me email address so you can scam me? Get a job. Or a life. Do you really get replies to these emails you send?

How about peeve number two?? If you send me a letter with poor spelling from a third world country claiming to be an heiress, with no way to get the money out of that country other than to “carefully choose me” because I am “so reliable and a good person”…what---- do I have a resume out there somewhere stating such? How do you know I'm not a bloodthirsty scum sucker who would love nothing more than to scam the daylights out of you? I will not reply to you. I am surprised that anyone with half a brain would, but judging from the brainless people I come into contact with every day, I am sure you do get some replies and successfully scam a few people along the way, usually bottom feeders such as yourself. Get a job. Get a life. (And for the love of God and all that's holy, please learn to spell).

Number three on the list we all can relate to. Mass emails to your “contact list”. Chances are if it was really funny, you are the third person who sent it. I don't have time for this. I don't have time to forward it to the next 15 people or my corpse will rot in hell, or I will have bad luck, or I don't love Jesus. I am sure Jesus, if he has email, doesn't have time either. Focus your energies on taking care of people who need help. I will donate 5 bucks to the American Cancer Society, the food pantry, or a needy local person. I don't need luck, I create my own.

Now we are moving along to number four….and I can't really identify whether this is a peeve or a curiosity. I get DAILY offers to date men, women, martians, fat girls, fat men, and view webcams, and actually join webcam sites based on a picture someone saw of me on the internet. Am I missing something or is there REALLY a market for NAKED granny webcams?? I'm trying to keep the visual out of my mind….but GEEZ that's just funny. I just found out I needed a penis extension, and although I am quite sure that I don't even HAVE A penis, that if I do it is actually quite small and maybe I should be calling these people. I also need a boob job….do these people have a camera on me??? How did they ever know?

If I get one more email for a colon cleanse I will vomit….it doesn't sound like a pleasant spa experience and anything that's in there will come out after my next big mac, I assure you!

Last, but certainly not least, the YOU HAVE WON emails that tell you to take a survey, complete two silver, two bronze and one gold offer and then jump through 40 hoops (all of which is costing you money and time by the way)….to win that laptop, washer, trip, whatever the scam of the day is. While I think they are probably legit if you have the time, energy and money to do all of these things, I can't begin to see where these offers would benefit me in the long run…..If I have to spend 800 dollars and complete every little thing on that offer in fine print for the next 90 days, just to get that item….forget it. I could go buy the item from a discount store and be done with it in about 35 minutes, and instantly be enjoying my new laptop or flat panel tv tonight!!

I hope that I see more postings of people out here that have had similar experiences on the internet such as myself. I also would like to warn you of the more serious phishing scams, where you get apparently legitimate emails from paypal, eBay, your bank, or credit union, asking for you to click on a link in the email and provide updated information. These emails are NEVER legitimate, and apparently the people that send them are having some success at stealing money from the unsuspecting consumer. Delete them. They are not even worth opening. If you have a question about your bank account, call your bank. If you have a question about your eBay or paypal account, log into their account directly from your browser, not through a provided link in an email. It's your money, protect it.

And never click on the colon cleanse link.

First off, an explanation of what may be happening.

Your computer may be part of a bot net

If your computer is "zombied" this means that somewhere on your computer a program or set of programs is letting someone else access it and use it for nefarious deeds such as spamming or bringing down a website. Most of this is automated, the person responsible is not in your computer looking at your stuff, they are using automated scripts and programs to access many computer simultaneously. This is known as a "bot net" and you really don't want to be part of this, it slows your box down, really annoys people who are getting the spam being generated, and is just generally uncool...

Your computer is running too much spyware or malware

This really slows computers down as the regular programs have a hard time running when something is using up all available memory

Where does this stuff come from and how did it get on my computer?

There you are happily surfing the web searching for variations on turnip wine recipes or some such thing, when you land on a certain website. The site seems totally innocent, even the website designer may be unaware of the evil lurking in the webpage code. But your computer downloads this bad code, and when executed, tries to download all its friends. the next thing you know the computer is running slower than the hour before schools out, and your start page has gone from google to some strange page about midget yahk herder sex. This is called a drive by, and is just one of the ways that you can get compromised.

Oh sweet tunderin' Jesus! what do I do now?

All is not lost! Follow these suggestions and there is a good chance that you can solve these difficulties.

(disclaimer...The following are just suggestions, and by using them you do so at your own risk. If you are uncomfortable doing the following, indeed call in a pro)

Number 1 (and most important) Check to make sure that your anti virus is running and up to date. I cannot over state the importance of this. Many computers that I have to deal with have either outdated, disabled or non-existent Anti Virus. I even had one lady who uninstalled her anti virus because she didn't like the color of the antivirus window. sheesh!

All computers ship with antivirus programs, but most of these only work for a couple of months before the ask you to pay a subscription or they stop updating.

Some viruses, worms and spyware will intentionally break your av.

What to do if your av is broken...

There are quite a few Free for personal use Anti Virus programs out there. The one I have been using is Avast.

It is a self updating av, scans everything going in and coming out of your computer and it talks. The first time I used it I left my computer on overnight, and around three am I heard this manly voice say "Anit Virus successfully updated"...scared the bujesus outa me!

It is good for a couple of months as a demo, but registration is free, and all they want to know for registration is your email, so they can send you a registration number,and what country you are from.

Just download it and install. It will ask if you want to do a "boot time" scan. Say yes and let it reboot your computer. It will scan before letting anything load into windows memory, and will pick up most of the crud.

If you have problems downloading it because your computer is running too slow, shutdown your computer and restart. As it starts to boot up press "F8" a few times and it will bring up a boot menu. Use the arrow key to go to "safe mode with networking" and hit enter. This will start windows without any drivers or programs being loaded. the screen will look weird, but you should be able to access the internet.

Next you are going to want to download another free program Spybot Search and Destroy.

Download and run this, make sure you update it first. This will remove spyware from your system.

This is normally enough to get things back on track, but being the overly paranoid and under paid person that I am, I also use these programs just to make sure:

Ad-Aware

Super Anti-Spyware 

All of these are free for personal use.

Other suggestions to keep you safe...

Use the Firefox browser. I personally think it is a better browser than internet explorer and has lots of plugins to keep you safe. One of the add ons is called "NoScript" and when enabled, stops websites from executing anything unless you say so.

Another handy plugin for most browsers is the Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar. This will alert you if a website is fake, like a banking site or auction site. I'm always getting emails telling me that I need to reset my banking info, or there is something wrong with my ebay or paypal account. These are just attempts by scum sucking hairless monkeys to steal my stuff. Neither Banks or ebay or paypal would ever ask you to reenter your financial info by email. When in doubt, phone the person that the suspect email is from.

Well, thats all for now. I'll put up some more security stuff as soon as I get time.

Cheerio all!

It seems that lately, I've been getting an increasing number of these fake inheritance e-mails cluttering my Spam filter, and my Inbox, alike. While about 60 % of these e-mails end up filtered out, I still get more of these every day that somehow get past my Spam filter. My disgust has reached all new highs. Most recently, they aren't just bold, but inept, as well. Here is one of the latest totally lame attempts I received:

"Dearest friend,

I am sincerely Sorry for bugging into your privacy, it's due to a business deal in my bank value at thirty million Six hundred thousand us dollars, as a foreigner I can present you as the beneficiary to the inheritance since there is no written will by the deceased who Died at the Israeli checkpoint in Rafah in Jerusalem, as the director of system I have been following the records.

However I am the only one aware of the funds and investigation so far in my bank due to my investigations.

I am Mr. Minoru Fujii, Director of Systems, The Shiga Bank Ltd, this opportunity will be of mutual benefit to the two of us."

Is that Fujii or Fuji?

They didn't even bother to include the entire message! Now that is just pathetic. What did this criminal expect me to do, send him an e-mail and say something like, "Hey Fujii, you didn't finish your lame Phishing attempt! If you really want to fool someone, you should at least try to make the e-mail look authentic. Not only that, but you failed to capitalized "Jerusalem", and "Fuji" is actually spelled with only one "i", not two. You're not just illicit, but incompetent!"

Don't Send It!

Of course, I'm not actually planning to send out an e-mail to Mr. Fujii, even if I thought there really was such a chap, which I don't. Were I to do so, "Fujii", or whomever sent this felonious e-mail inquiry would then have my e-mail address, and that would not be a good thing.

Resist the Temptation

So, if you're like me and getting these annoying scam attempts, just keep sending them to your junk mail, and otherwise ignore them. It's all they deserve, cuz you'll never really have somebody's e-mail inheritance actually come your way. Be assured, it simply doesn't work like that.