Retarded E-Mail of the Week

I recently heard from Barrister Daniel Sampah.

Dear Friend,
This message might meet you in utmost surprise; First of all I want you to know that this is not a scam mail, my reason for saying this is that most mails we receive these days on the internet are scam intended. Because based on what is going on all over the internet, people find it very difficult to believe letters like this any more. I want you to know that where there is real, there is also fake.

I am Barrister Daniel Sampah, a personal lawyer to one late Mr. Ruth Fred Leo An American oil Contractor with the Ivorian Solid Minerals Corporation, here in Abidjan Ivory Coast who died in an auto Crash in September 2006. Later Mr. Ruth Fred leo before his untimely death, made some deposit of funds with a Finance firm here and did not declare any information of any of his relatives to the said fund deposit.

Where you come in is that I needed your good collaboration to pull out these funds to overseas for investments because, he left with me the deposit information and no body could come around to lay claim if not I and a foreign partner in good collaboration since he did not leave any information of any of his relatives.

Kindly get back to me in order to bring you to the detail arrangement on how to move out the funds across to your destination.

Kind Regards,
Barrister Daniel Sampah

Hey Barrister Danny,

Do you know how many of these things I get a week? And they always start off by saying it’s not a scam.

By the way, Danny, your e-mail came to me in my junk mail.

To show my softer side, I’m very sorry about the passing of your friend and client, Mr. Ruth Fred Leo. I feel even worse that he had to go through life with a name like that.

- Joe Locker

(Photo from madskipper.com)

Comments

[Sarah]

Really? Retarded? When did it become acceptable to use offensive/derogatory terms in a legitimate publication? You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Julie]

Sarah,
I see your point but saying "retarded" means being an ass on purpose - like this e-mail that was sent saying it wasn't junk mail. Clearly it is.

If the word "retard" was used, that gets personal with someone. I think there is a difference.

[Matthew]

It's been my experience that when someone uses 1/3 of the letter explaining that 'it is not a scam', it generally is a scam.

Is "retarted" an offensive/ derogatory term? It's so hard to keep track of the things people are offended by. If retard is out I'm guessing 'tard is also an issue- a variant of offensive/ derogatory.