mutations of the Nigerian spam

You all know the Nigerian spam, right? This is the one where the sender claims to be some close relative of a deposed ruler or the like; he's got $28 million or whatever that he has to transfer out of the country right now, and if you arrange it you can keep 20%, and if you'll just transmit your bank-account information we can get started...

I first got that spam years ago and it seemed to die out after a while. A few months ago it started showing up again -- and then the mutations, like now the person was in Liberia or elsewhere.

The spam I just received smells an awful lot like this one, but with a different tone: ( Read more... )

Large sum of money: check.
Situation is urgent: check.
Bad English (to make you think he's a foreigner, I presume): check.
Can't talk to you directly: check.
Can't go through the people who know him: check.
Remorse over the state of his soul: new twist.

whose water?

There's not much water available in the Iraqi desert, of course, so most soldiers haven't bathed in a long time. According to this article, there's an army chaplain in Iraq who has a large pool of water for use by the soldiers, but there's a catch: they have to get baptised first.

Unless that chaplain personally collected the water without using any army resources (including protection), I hope they kick him out of there. Because in any other case, it's not his water; it's the army's water. And yes, my reaction would be exactly the same if it were a rabbi who required everyone to pray the daily service first, or a Republican who required you to change your voter registration to his party first, or anyone collecting a fee.

I'm all for having folks along with the army who aren't part of the effort but who do provide support services valued by some members of the unit. But when support staff become parasites, it's time for them to go.