As you know, those Nigerian scams are still making the rounds–though thankfully, they are, as you’ve said, generally filled with grammatical and spelling errors–along with atrocious formatting–that help brand them as phony. I’m very sorry for those who have been fooled by them, but also surprised that they would be, because these e-mails tend to be very poorly conceived and prepared. It’s hard to believe that the prominent people and organizations you’ve mentioned would fall for these scams–particularly such supposedly savvy individuals as doctors, lawyers, and a Congressman! (But, I guess it just goes to show that the desire for monetary gain can often seriously cloud our judgment!)

The more ridiculous spam messages you mention–with subject lines designed to either pique your interest or make you think you know the sender, and unrelated strings of words and phrases within the body of the e-mails–are very annoying, to say the least. I receive these regularly. I’ve been wondering the exact purpose these e-mails can serve. There must be one, I assume–other than clogging our inboxes with spam–but I haven’t quite figured out how these nonsensical messages can benefit the sender. I simply delete them.

Thanks for the links you’ve provided to help us research the annoying–and often-dangerous–phenomenon of e-mail spam!

Very helpful post!
Jeanne