Confessing Evangelical

I received one of those scam 419 emails last week: the usual stuff, you all know the drill:

I am seeking for a business co-operation with you / your company to act as my Investment and fund manager / co-beneficiary to funds held in a financial Trustee, belonging to late Mr. D____ S_____ ... My late husband owns an investment account in the name of one of his Accountants Charles I. Alexander (esq) ... worth Nine Million British Pounds Sterling ... The sum of One million eight hundred thousand British pounds sterling shall be paid to you ... There is no risk whatsoever to bear in this venture ... Consider this as a cry of a widow in need of urgent assistance...

All very tedious, straight into Deleted Items.

But in an ingenious twist to the usual "fire and forget" approach of 419 scammers, the grieving "Mrs M____ S_____" (name omitted to protect the real Mrs M____ S_____ who - just to hazard a guess here - is not connected with this scam) has now demonstrated that she is all-too familiar with dealing with lawyers. I opened up my inbox today to find she had sent a chasing letter:

In furtherance of the investment matter, of which you were contacted yesterday, I hereby suggest that you kindly contact Mr. C_____ A_______ strictly by fax at the Toll Free fax number +1 806 737 2*** for further details ... If you have not contacted him yet please do so and him your contact coordinates for effective communication. He awaits your response ... Please find a place in your heart to consider assisting me.

In our most honest moments (no sniggering at the back, there!), we lawyers may occasionally own up to the fact that we can sometimes be less responsive to people's letters than we (and they) would like. But for email scammers to have picked up on this trait and to be making use of it to make their pleas seem more credible - well, if that's not a blot on the good name of our profession, then what is? :-)