Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. Recently I received an email that brightened my day. Why? Because a good laugh is always welcome. It happened to be spam, or to be more precise, phishing—a blatant attempt to get me to send them information they could then use to steal from me. There are a lot of these scams out there. Some succeed in fooling the recipient, in the short term if not long enough to actually do harm. But this one? Rather than try to explain the many many tipoffs contained in the text, I’m simply going to share it in its entirety. Enjoy!
Subject: DID YOU SIGN THE POWER OF ATTORNEY!!!
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)
DEPT: WORLD DEBT RECONCILIATION AGENCIES.
ADVISE: YOUR OUTSTANDING PAYMENT
NOTIFICATION
A power of attorney was forwarded to our office this morning by
two gentle men, one of them is an American national and he is MR.
DAVID DEANE by name while the other person is MR. JACK MORGAN by
name a CANADIAN national.
This gentlemen claimed to be your representative, and this power
of attorney stated that you are dead, they brought an account to
replace your information in other to claim your fund of $12.5
Million Usd which is now lying DORMANT and UNCLAIMED, below is
the new account they have submitted:
BANK.-HSBC CANADA
Vancouver, CANADA
ACCOUNT NO. 2984-0008-66
Be further informed that this power of attorney also stated that
you suffered and died of throat cancer. You are therefore given
24hrs to confirm the truth in this information, If you are still
alive, You are to contact us back immediately, Because we work 24
hrs just to ensure that we monitor all the activities going on in
regards to the transfer of beneficiaries inheritance and contract
payment.
You are to reply to this office immediately for clarifications on
this matter as we shall be available 24 hrs to attend to you and
give you the necessary guidelines on how to ensure that your
payment is wired to you immediately.
Just also be informed that any further delay from your side could
be dangerous, as we would not be held responsible of wrong
payment.
Barrister. Barry Christopher
Finance Department Director
International Monetary Funds Agents
+1407-801-6706
Even if I’d fallen for the rest of this drivel, the signature line would have given the game away. Lawyers don’t sign their names that way, not even in Canada.
Most fraudulent emails have similar obvious mistakes in the text. Some of them are downright laughable. If you have examples to share, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.
Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett is the author of more than fifty traditionally published books written under several names. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Currently she writes the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (X Marks the Scot—December 2017) and Deadly Edits series (Crime and Punctuation—2018) as Kaitlyn and the historical Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries (Murder in a Cornish Alehouse) as Kathy. The latter series is a spin-off from her earlier “Face Down” mysteries and is set in Elizabethan England. New in 2017 is a collection of short stories, Different Times, Different Crimes. Her websites are www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com
Kait Carson
Charlene D’Avanzo 
Yep, this one has all the earmarks of a scam all right. While I don’t want to give them any ideas that might increase the success of their nefarious endeavors, I wonder why they don’t hire someone with a good grasp of grammar/usage to edit their email missives?
Makes no sense to me, either. They only thing I can think of is that they get enough responses even with all the mistakes that it’s not worth it to them to bother. Scary.
Does this mean I won’t be inheriting that “$12.5 Million Usd” after all? SAD!!
Cheer up, hon. You still inherit all the yuge royalties I’ll have accumulated before I finally kick off at a age hundred and one.
signed,
writer, Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson
(aka Mrs. Sanford M. Emerson)
What fun it would have been if you could have safely replied, assuring them that you were indeed dead! As a mystery writer, you could have claimed expertise on the matter.
Truly laughable, but scary as some uninformed unworldly person might actually respond. But funnier than the email I’ve had from not only my non-existent college=aged son but also from a good friend stranded in london and in need of big bucks to get on a plane for USA. Sure