Email hoaxes that grab millions

It's hard to believe, but those far-fetched email scams telling you that you have won the lottery or offering investment opportunities that sound too good to be true still seem to attract plenty of takers, and sometimes their money. The spammers send out millions of solicitations without cost, and if only a very small percentage respond and fall prey, it can be money in the bank, or in some cases just a good laugh.

Computerworld has compiled a list of some of the top email hoaxes that have come through in-boxes and fooled millions. They include pitches to raise bonsai kittens in bottles, and a claim that Bill Gates wants to give you money. One version of the Bill Gates scam, all to get money from Microsoft, is to forward an email to your friends. Microsoft will track the email for two weeks, and you get paid for every person who receives the email through you.

Then there are never-ending missives from an earnest resident of Nigeria that start with a hello and an introduction, suggesting that your help is needed to claim an abandoned sum of money in a foreign account. The message typically promises that you will receive a large amount of money if you simply send a smaller amount of money now.

To learn about these scams:
- see this Computerworld.com article