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Things I Did, Below

I, personally, receive email in HTML format. The following was received (and looked) like I received it. At the time, I was more interested in the message than the headers and do not have the original. This is a copy I forwarded to myself as I sent it to my father.

• I removed my email addresses. These came to various accounts and some no longer exist. There are places on this site you can get hold of me if you wish or need to. They are protected from spambots using JavaScript, but all you have to do is click on them.
• All scammer and related email addresses, and any actual website links have been changed, at least putting spaces into them. They appear as underlined blue links, though they aren't.
• Any notes I added in the actual letter are in square brackets ("[" "]"), are bold, red in color, and highlighted. If what I found "behind the links" (email or website) are different than what was displayed, I will include them in this type of note.
• All spelling, spacing, line-wrapping, and punctuation errors are the ones that appeared in the original received email. (I may or may not analyze some or all of these.)

Scam Example
Received 01/16/2007

Email Headers

[DO NOT send email to any of the following email addresses]

Notes

Problems I see:

• Obvious (to me, anyway) errors:
  • from the email, itself:
    • The email is addressed to "Dear Friend", yet appeared to use only my email address. If the email was directed to me, why wasn't my name, or at least the email username, used? (Oh... And I WASN'T the only one to receive it... See Heads up! (fraud) (Volksdevil VAG Forum) - VR6riggs - November 13, 2006 05:03 PM (GMT) (Use your browser's Find, enter "Roh", and you'll find it)
    • The name looks cut-and-pasted into two places. It also looks more like a Genealogical treatment ("Akiko YAMANAKA, Ms"), with the surname being all caps and the given name in upper-/lower-case, and the prefix going last. Kinda strange type of treatment, isn't it?
    • The capitalizing of the other names, is strange, too..
    • This lady, Professor Akiko Yamanaka: graduated from Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Tsuda College, a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Media and Communication and Hokkaido University (International Negotiation Strategy), and Visiting Scholar at the Japan Institute of International Affairs.. The English in this email is atrocious, even giving EXTREMELY liberal "benefits of the doubt" for not being British or American. I think she's much to educated to make the errors in this email, even accounting for typos.
    • Why would a person of her stature send an email to me, a relative nobody, instead of one of her known contacts, especially given the fact "she" wants me "to help [her] in securing the funds, as to invest, and further purchase of properties for my family ...[I]nvesting in your country with your guidance." I would be willing to bet she knows MUCH more about "investing in my country" than I ever even though of!
    • If you'll notice in the Email Headers, it was sent from one email address (minister.jp, which  doesn't appear to be any type of official site), and the reply would go to another (at MyWay.com). This sets off red-flags, especially for any email I believe MAY be a Scam email.
  • from the Email Headers:
    • llord.com is a site in France offering Web Services. I didn't see an email setup (translated site from French through Google translator), but I'm sure there's one there. Why was this sent from France, and Who is "nobody?"
    • There IS a website address www.minister.jp, but it's a blank page (only base HTML)
    • MyWay.com is a portal site, offering free email services. I doubt VERY much that the "Vice Minister" of ANY branch of any country has an account with them, especially under their own name.
    • The "Anit-Abuse" headers state that the originating domain is Hotmail.com. Strange that no other email address above, except mine, said ANYTHING about Hotmail.
    • MissInternetEuroInternational.com also points to France. Even when attempting to hide their "offer" to someone, why would a Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs use anything but more "natural" email addresses like Hotmail, Yahoo, Iwon, etc.?

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