Odd spam...

[Clif45]

Got this in the inbox when i got home from class tonight...

Hi,

My name is Elena, I'm 32 years and I write you from small Russian city. I work in library and I allowed to use computer after my work if possible. We have a big problem and I decided to write you this message in despair.

I have daughter Anghelina, she has 8 years, her father leaved us and we live with my mother.

Due to crisis recently my mother lost job (a shop where she worked was closed) and our situation became very difficult.

Gas and electricity is very expensive in our region and we cannot use it to heating our home anymore.

Temperature is very cold already in our region. We very afraid and we do not know what to do.

The only possibility for us to heat our home is to use portable wood burning oven which give heat with burning wood (fire). We have enough wood in our city and this oven will heat our sleeping room all winter for minimal charge.

Problem is that we can not buy this oven in our town because it cost 8181 roubles (equivalent of 191 Euro) and we cannot afford it because this amount is fortune for us.

If you have any old portable cast iron oven and if you stoped to use it, we will be very happy if you can donate it to us and organize transport of this oven to our address (185 km from Moscow). This ovens may be different and weight 100-150kg.

I hope to hear from you back.

Elena and my family.
Russia

Now instead of wanting my bank account information, they want heaters that I have stopped to use??? Crazy plans from the scammers...

 

[BloodEclipse]

I think they are counting on the shipping costs to be more than the cost of a new one. Regardless of the ploy they want your money.

 

[Cygnus]

She's lying. We know global warming has killed winter in mother Russia

 

[Clif45]

This at least sounds better then the other one I seen earlier about a lottery that is powered by the internet??? I wonder how many people they actually get with this crap. At least a few people have to do it, or people would just give up and quit, and its slightly scary that someone would believe any of this.

 

[ATM]

Tell her you sent it out FedEx to:

Elena and family
185 km from
Moscow, Russia 90210

 

[Clif45]

Tell her you sent it out FedEx to:

Elena and family
185 km from
Moscow, Russia 90210

DHL might be a better person to ship with for this situation.

 

[Indecision]

I'd go wtih the big brown truck. I get tons of stuff through them. I too can't believe that people fall for this stuff.

 

[mrman740]

Tell her you'd be glad to drive it up to her!

 

[rambone]

Tell her to send pics.

 

[JetGirl]

I know I can't be the only one that read "Russian City"
and then heard Natasha read it the rest of the way...

 

[Dryden]

This would make a logical response:

Just take a short drive from that small Russian city and go to Chernobyl. Throw a chunk of the building into your pickup truck (or donkey cart) and haul it back home. Put that chunk anywhere in your one room house. Presto...You'll have free heat for the next four thousand years.

P.S. Please take lots of pictures over the next few years. It'll be a hoot to see the changes you and your family morph into.

 

[rich8483]

i dont get what the scam is actuallly accomplishing. are they hoping you just sent them money instead? b/c the shipping would be so high?

maybe its for real. ill get right on it.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Usually it is a shipping scam. We get them all the time for our work when we send pallets overseas...

They ask you to prepay for shipping via a company they want you to use to they can use their "account". They end up not only stealing the money you sent for the shipping but then run amok with your banking information. We get it all the time for stuff going to the Middle East, occasionally we get them from Eastern Europe. In our case, they ask for a quote, get us to make the product then scam during the shipping arrangement phase, screwing us not only in our shipping money but sticking us with product (and very little warehouse space).

I would imagine in this case they would claim the only company that would deliver to their little 'burg would be (insert company here), usually an accomplice.