On Tuesday I received this email:

From: “awad al jaz”
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: OFFICIAL AND CONFIDENTIAL LETTER

Dear Sir,

To your kind attention for perusal.

Your faithfully,

Dr Awad Al Jaz

Attached was the following letter on a “Sudan Embassy In South Africa” letterhead:

I could tell the letter was fake because of several reasons:

a) The email address in the letter is 1 character different to the email address the email was sent from and they are both hotmail addresses. The reason the email address in the letter is different to the sent from address is because the sent from address will be banned.

b) The email address in the ‘To:’ column was not my email address. In other words, the email was sent to more than one recipient.

c) The letter is not personalised.

d) The letter is unsolicited.

e) The IP address in the email header is not from Sudan or South Africa but Nigeria.

I wonder what the real Awad al-Jaz thinks of this…

The email is an example of Advance fee fraud. If you receive an email like this, do not reply, just delete it. However, if you want to have some fun with the scammers, you could follow some of the examples at 419 Eater 🙂