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WE GET E-MAILS.
I'm thinking of writing back to this one, though:
Dear American:I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
COMMENTS (10)
Thank God nobody I can think of would be dumb enough to fall for that . . .
Posted by: Karl Weber | September 23, 2008 11:00 AM
Dear Sir,
Thank you for writing. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to help at this moment, but you might do well to contact Mr. Barney Frank and Mr. Chris Dodd, or Senator Obama, who has had some experience in making some good money from your GSEs in the past. You might also consider getting in touch with a Mr. Charles Wrangle, who has recently had some experience with the sort of forensic accounting that might be quite useful to you in your time of need.
You might also consider contacting Frankling Raines and Jim Johnson, as I have heard that have a great deal of money that might be useful in assisting you with these transactions.
Best of luck!
Posted by: Kevin S. Willis | September 23, 2008 11:08 AM
I'm thinking of writing back to this one, though:
Oh, you don't have to. It turns out someone already gave him your information. And no, a stop payment won't work either.
Posted by: Dan B. | September 23, 2008 11:12 AM
The BBC World Service this morning called it the "Cash For Trash" program. I like it.
Posted by: dbomp | September 23, 2008 11:30 AM
This is rather poor as Nigerian email scam parodies go.
Posted by: John | September 23, 2008 11:31 AM
This is rather poor as Nigerian email scam parodies go.
Those Nigerian emails are scams?! Oh shit...
Posted by: Glenn | September 23, 2008 11:45 AM
Paulson is rather poor as liars go.
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | September 23, 2008 12:21 PM
Outside the Beltway has been watching for Funnies like this and gives mega Kudos to Ezra Klein:
"Not being an economist, one of the things that I’ve been keeping my eye on to keep myself from going crazy is trying to eke out the best jokes about the situation.
Until now, I didn’t think that it was possible to top Jim Henley’s one-liner: “Wouldn’t it save administrative costs if I just started giving my money to random rich people?”
However, I now have to say that it’s game over on finding the best one. I’m sorry, Jim, but Ezra Klein wins."
Posted by: Elizabeth Crum \"E!!"\ | September 23, 2008 12:58 PM
This looks a lot like http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/09/ksk-off-topic-email-scam-alert.html doesn't it? Except that was posted earlier today.
Posted by: Aynon | September 23, 2008 3:10 PM
Just trying to figure out whether the insult to our intelligence is worse than the loss of our savings, our children's savings, and our grandchildren'savings. Mmmm. No.
Sigh.
Have a peek at my take on trying to squeeze some humor out of the mess: http://splendidmarbles.com/2008/09/24/cartoons/banker-brigade/
Posted by: Splendid Marbles | September 24, 2008 3:33 PM