Stupid spammer tricks: Do people actually fall for this stuff?

The sculpture "Cain" by Henri Vidal. Biblical figure Cain is depicted hiding his face in his palm after killing his brother, Abel.
The sculpture "Cain" by Henri Vidal. Biblical figure Cain is depicted hiding his face in his palm after killing his brother, Abel.

Face. Palm. FAIL. (Photo © 2009 Alex Proimos/Flickr) (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Do people actually fall for this stuff?

Here’s an actual email I found in my spam folder today:

From: FAX <fax@billyslight.com>
To: administrator, ebay, helpdesk, me, pp6stxghz0e3qvb, scans, uysr8ns6erq7vly
Sent: Fri, July 31, 2014 at 8:35 AM

Subject: You have received a new fax message

You have received fax from EPS19447572 at billysuratt.com
Scan date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 20:35:05 +0700
Number of page(s): 5
Resolution: 400×400 DPI

Download file at google disk drive service – dropbox.

https://goo.gl/r7CNCl

_________________________________
File is scanned image in PDF format.
Adobe(A) Reader(R) can be downloaded from the following URL: https://www.adobe.com/

“Download file at google disk drive service – dropbox?”

Dropbox is not now and has never been a Google service.

“Adobe(A) Reader(R) can be downloaded from the following URL?”

Pretty sure they meant “Adobe® Reader®.” (If you can figure out how to send spam, you should be able to figure out how to insert a registered trademark symbol into text.)

Perhaps the dumbest thing about this spam message, however, is the sender used Google’s Goo.gl URL shortener for its target link. I disabled the link for this post, but trying to visit the spammer’s shortened URL less than eight hours after the message was originally sent returned this error message: “Clicking this goo.gl shortlink has been disabled. It was found to be violating our Terms of Service.”

Google don’t play when it comes to spammers using its services, as I guess this one found out. (Gotta love stupid criminals.)

What’s the dumbest spam message you’ve ever received?

I'm a Mid-South photojournalist, Kentucky writer and digital media consultant (or eNinja™). Circle me on Google Plus at Plus.BillySuratt.com, follow me on Twitter at @surattb and Instagram me at @BillySuratt. Got a news tip or suggestion about some journalism that needs committed? Email blog@billysuratt.com (discretion is always guaranteed).

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