# I got an email from a known scam artist, so decided to string him along...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 30, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920 "2003-07-30T15:34:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920/21 "2003-07-31T17:12:25Z")

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BTW, any idea whether the poor English of these scams is genuine or affected?

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**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920/22 "2003-07-31T17:16:21Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lost4life \*  
> \*\*Isn’t **Coldfire** from Amsterdam? Maybe he could pick up the money for you 😃 \*\*

Amsterdam? You just reminded me of [this](http://www.angelfire.com/comics/wendywillcox/).

> [@](#):
>
> In her latest adventure, Wendy travels to Amsterdam on behalf of Timothy Mobuto Seko Seko and his junior brother Nzango, to recover a billion gazzillion dollars.

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**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920/23 "2003-07-31T17:22:54Z")

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These con artists use scripted or canned responses and are used to working a large number of marks in order to turn up a few that fall for it.

In short, you are expending a great deal of effort to be a mild annoyance. You can always report these to the ISP of the sender or even the FTC - but although both will claim to take these things seriously - they do nothing in my experience.

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**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-an-email-from-a-known-scam-artist-so-decided-to-string-him-along/191920/24 "2003-07-31T18:50:41Z")

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Wouldn’t these replies all just be scripted responses? I read them (though not carefully) and I don’t see anything that would indicate they have been uniquely formulated.

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