419s: apparently, less is more

I take security seriously. And I don’t consider fraud at all funny in principle. But I can’t resist sharing with you a couple of examples of contenders for the most economically implemented 419s of 2011.

(1)

Subject: £750,000.00 Pounds was given to you In The BPO Lottory:
To: undisclosed recipients
Message body (stripped some whitespace):

name:
country:
tel:

(2)

Subject: Your E-Mail ID have just been awarded, £950.000.00 GBP in the Mercedes Benz On-Line Promo,for claims send: Name Tel Country
To: undisclosed recipients
Message body: errrr, none….

I’m guessing that Mr acidpen@sbcglobal.net and his colleague or alias aren’t making a lot of money out of this. I hope…

David Harley CITP FBCS CISSP
Small Blue-Green World
ESET Senior Research Fellow