The new Nigerian Scam, and a way to look at things....

Tim's commercial project right now deals heavily with Spam emails, so we've been reading some. Okay, a lot.

Many of you are probably familiar with the old Nigerian Scam, which predates the internet. You can read more about it here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp

I got a new twist on this scam yesterday in my spam box. It said that the UN has approved compensatory payments for victims of Nigerian scams. Just send along your bank account information.....

Now the fraudsters are choosing their target audience more carefully--people who believed it the first time and are anxious to get their money back. And, presumably, gullible enough to fall for it again.

Reading all the spam emails has led us to a few sites that illustrate more literal meanings of the often euphemism-laden spam emails, with hilarious (although not always sparklingly clean) results. This is one of the cleaner ones: http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/316
And one that sounds "dirty" but they changed how you see it: http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/31
or http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/16

So, after looking at all these, I started seeing all the undesirable ads in Vegas in a whole new way. For example, right at our exit from the freeway to the Strip is a big billboard of male strippers showing off their bodies. The last time I looked at it, I suddenly saw them without their skins on, showing off their muscles and stomachs, and bones. I mean, if you're going to show off your body....

The other that struck me funny is a big picture of a showgirl from the back. Looks like a proctologists' ad to me--so now when we drive by I hardly notice it's there. Big sign for a doctor's office is all.....

How we manage to adapt is amazing, isn't it?