There need to be Internet Padres.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned; I have sent an email reply to a Nigerian scammer.

I was tired and sleepy and inattentive, as I usually am after returning from Livingston on shopping day. I invariably stay up too late the night before, and usually wake up before the alarm. Add to this driving and greasy fast food, and I get quite drowsy once the groceries are brought in and put away.

So I saw this email in my queue, read it, and didn't think anything of it:

Delivered-To: redneck@********.net
Received: (qmail 20793 invoked from network); 6 May 2008 18:19:32 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO looneymail-mx3.g.dreamhost.com) (208.113.200.14)
by lns1.********.net with SMTP; Tue, 06 May 2008 13:19:32 -0500
Received: from paris.dnstraffic.net (unknown [64.185.237.46])
(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
(No client certificate requested)
by looneymail-mx3.g.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85A749997
for <redneck@******.com>; Tue, 6 May 2008 11:19:24 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from nobody by paris.dnstraffic.net with local (Exim 4.68)
(envelope-from <nobody@paris.dnstraffic.net>)
id 1JtRgn-0004jB-VF
for redneck@wlpcomics.com; Tue, 06 May 2008 14:14:57 -0400
To: redneck@******.com
Subject: Enquiry Mail Order.....
From: JAMES UDOKA <james@aol.com>
Reply-To: jamesudokastores1@gmail.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-Id: <e1jtrgn-0004jb-vf@paris.dnstraffic.net>
Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 14:14:57 -0400
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - paris.dnstraffic.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - wlpcomics.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 32002] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - paris.dnstraffic.net
X-Source:
X-Source-Args: /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -DSSL
X-Source-Dir: miniebizkits.com:/public_html

Hello Sales
I will like to order from your site but before i listed the items, Do you ship to WEST AFRICA?and the type of credit cards your company do accept as PAYMENT? Note geting back to me kindly advice back with the link to your site.
Regards
James

Note: this is a bit more coherent than some emails I've gotten that were legitimate.

I sent the following response:

I'll have to ask the local post office about postage; which specific country in western Africa do you live in?

WLP accepts Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

Kris@WLP

Shortly after I sent the response, I got another email from "James." It was an email absolutely identical to the first- showing no sign of receiving a response.

Uh oh, I thought to myself, and did a bit of Googling. Turns out James Udoka is a common name used in Nigerian scams.

So... I won't be responding to any more of Mr. Udoka's emails, and I can only hope that brief response isn't helpful to him in any way.

Now, if there was only a priesthood of the Internet, one less concerned with the Ten Commandments than with Netiquette, I could get a penance of some sort and get it over with... ten Ave Wikias, five Points of Open Source, a pilgrimage to DARPA, or something like that.

There need to be Internet Padres.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned; I have sent an email reply to a Nigerian scammer.

I was tired and sleepy and inattentive, as I usually am after returning from Livingston on shopping day. I invariably stay up too late the night before, and usually wake up before the alarm. Add to this driving and greasy fast food, and I get quite drowsy once the groceries are brought in and put away.

So I saw this email in my queue, read it, and didn't think anything of it:

Delivered-To: redneck@********.net
Received: (qmail 20793 invoked from network); 6 May 2008 18:19:32 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO looneymail-mx3.g.dreamhost.com) (208.113.200.14)
by lns1.********.net with SMTP; Tue, 06 May 2008 13:19:32 -0500
Received: from paris.dnstraffic.net (unknown [64.185.237.46])
(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
(No client certificate requested)
by looneymail-mx3.g.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85A749997
for <redneck@******.com>; Tue, 6 May 2008 11:19:24 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from nobody by paris.dnstraffic.net with local (Exim 4.68)
(envelope-from <nobody@paris.dnstraffic.net>)
id 1JtRgn-0004jB-VF
for redneck@wlpcomics.com; Tue, 06 May 2008 14:14:57 -0400
To: redneck@******.com
Subject: Enquiry Mail Order.....
From: JAMES UDOKA <james@aol.com>
Reply-To: jamesudokastores1@gmail.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-Id: <e1jtrgn-0004jb-vf@paris.dnstraffic.net>
Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 14:14:57 -0400
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - paris.dnstraffic.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - wlpcomics.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 32002] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - paris.dnstraffic.net
X-Source:
X-Source-Args: /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -DSSL
X-Source-Dir: miniebizkits.com:/public_html

Hello Sales
I will like to order from your site but before i listed the items, Do you ship to WEST AFRICA?and the type of credit cards your company do accept as PAYMENT? Note geting back to me kindly advice back with the link to your site.
Regards
James

Note: this is a bit more coherent than some emails I've gotten that were legitimate.

I sent the following response:

I'll have to ask the local post office about postage; which specific country in western Africa do you live in?

WLP accepts Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

Kris@WLP

Shortly after I sent the response, I got another email from "James." It was an email absolutely identical to the first- showing no sign of receiving a response.

Uh oh, I thought to myself, and did a bit of Googling. Turns out James Udoka is a common name used in Nigerian scams.

So... I won't be responding to any more of Mr. Udoka's emails, and I can only hope that brief response isn't helpful to him in any way.

Now, if there was only a priesthood of the Internet, one less concerned with the Ten Commandments than with Netiquette, I could get a penance of some sort and get it over with... ten Ave Wikias, five Points of Open Source, a pilgrimage to DARPA, or something like that.