What do you do about nigerian scam letters?

scottc: What do you do about nigerian scam letters?
lately to my yahoo email account i have been reciving numerous emails that are basically variations on the nigerian scam letter, though lately they seem to mostly come from england or some other african country, to what authority do i report these scam emails to? And am i risking anything by sending them sarcastic replys like somehow violating yahoos terms of service if i am rude in replying to them? Do i report them to some US authority or is there an international agency that deals with this? interpol or law enforcement in the given country, and how do i even know where these folks are? Can i somehow put the email in the hands of law enforcement that runs stings on these scamers? That is what i would most like to do.

Answers and Views:

Answer by rhsaunders
A good question. I have only gotten one of the things. I talked to the bank about setting up a sting, but they were not all that interested. But someone has perpetrated a scam on the scammers by demanding fees up front before doing anything.

Answer by Justme
Every time you open the email you verify your account. If you are getting so many you must not have your spam alert turned on. I don’t think the US authorities are going to be overly concerned about them they have so many other things to worry about like online theft etc.

Create a new online account or at least turn on your anti spam. And don’t open anything when you dont know who the sender is.

Answer by Kevin R
“england or some other african country”

England is in Africa? WTF?

Answer by crazyhumans
Ignore them and delete them. It is not worth reporting because no one can do anything about it. Many are spam or hijacked email addresses anyway. Many banks, security places, etc. don’t even bother with it.

Answer by nixinvestigations
I too received this scam and became very frustrated at the lack of concern or help from authorities. That is until they sent me this letter or scam through the regular mail. When this happened I took it to my local authorities who were working with the FBI on the matter. There’s really not much they will do if anything if you are only receiving it online. Be sure to watch your mail at home and if you receive anything take to your local police dept. They should have a detective that handles these type cases. GOOD LUCK!

Answer by royalrunner400
I have gotten several of these scam emails. Most of them I just delete, but one time I did some research to see what other people had done. One guy messed with them for over a year. He gave them the phone number and address for the police as his own. The guys sending the scams were complete idiots and never caught on.

Answer by Coach D.
These scam letters have been around for some time and the “authorities” are aware of them. I would suggest that you ignore them, don’t respond to them and just delete them. ou could forward them to your friends to inform them of this scam.

Answer by John L
Don’t be stupid. The bear trap is set and you’re going to walk in it. A fool and his money is soon parted.

Answer by billybetters2
Delete them. Go on with your life. The odds of getting a police or governmental agency to do anything about them is nil.

Answer by inzaratha
Report the letters to the FBI or CIA and to your server. The FBI and CIA have places on their sites specifically to do this. I know because I reported one myself but it was several years ago and I do not remember which of the two I wrote to anymore. They have a place on the site where you can type in the address of the person who sent it, etc. Give details.

Answer by andy3191
just delete them or report as spam…

Answer by wilfreds805
From one day to another my mailbox was full of these, the best day however i could have made about 300,000,000.00 dollars in a week. I get about 3 or 4 of these everyday in my yahoo inbox and then another 5or 6 in my junk box. Theres nothing any one will do, just delete them or report them as spam.

Answer by serenitysoul61
Send the email with full headers to the yahoo abuse, [email protected], and to www.spamcop.com they report it all for you.

Whatever you do…don’t reply to the email…it verifies your address is working and you’ll get more spam than you can imagine!