On Sun, 4 Jan 2004 23:12:29 +0000, "doug."
wrote:
In message , Tumbleweed
writes
"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
.. .
The message
from "Tumbleweed" contains these
words:
Yes but an African fraud letter doesn't because it would fail
totally if
it did (unless there's an alternative address in the body)
Bouncing mail back or even writing something rude wastes their time
and
may take their mailbox over quota.
And if you're posting it back through your ISP they can do a 'whois?'
and you may well find an armed yardie on your doorstep.
DON'T MESS WITH THEM.
If everyone who got one of these messages replied to it, the fraudsters
would be unable to continue their scams, due to teh sheer volume of
replies
they wouldnt be able to sort out the small proportion of 'real' replies
from
gullible idiots. The well-meaning advice not to reply merely enables the
spammers to have the gullible sort themsleves out for the spammers,
since
they are the only ones who will reply (plus the few who write amusing
web
pages about them).
I suggest you talk to your local C.I.D.
Or the FBI, they also give out this advice. As I say, well meaning but
silly, even a simple reply with no text would nuke their email servers (far
easier to send than receive)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I get 'em regularly. An African so-called important person is in
possession of some important papers but he needs a few thousand to
release a couple of million quid and he wants me in on it, etc. etc.
Please send five thousand for starters etc.etc.
He must think I've just come off the fells with the last shower of rain.
One wonders at the mentality of the fools who answer. There must be
some mugs sending money, because the crooks sending the letters must be
making money from somewhere otherwise they'd give up.
Chuck the daft things straight into the kitchen waste bin, I say.
Another technique might be to make a few posts to usenet in their names, hopefully the harvesters will soon fill their mailboxes 
Here's one a got recently.
And here's another one.