scam spam customs border patrol
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Do People Actually Fall For This Garbage?

This is barely one step above from admitting that this is “spam”.

Note: This article pertaining to Do People Actually Fall For This Garbage? was originally published on Tuesday, July 14, 2016 at 2:15 in the afternoon and has been updated.


Since this article was first published on Tuesday, July 14, 2016, my e-mail accounts have endured countless junk messages over the years — and with the recent breach of my personal data with Qantas Airways, I am bracing myself for a flood of garbage…

Do People Actually Fall For This Garbage?

…but I thought I would share this gem when I checked my e-mail messages exactly nine years ago in 2016 with the title Letter From U.S Customs and Border Protection, Reply As Soon As Possible that is still awaiting my response to this day:

U.S CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION
Customs Department:John F.Kennedy International Airport
JFK Airport’s Terminal Nine (American AirlinesTerminal)
JFK Airport New York NY, US 11430
United States of America

Attn: Beneficiary

Dear sir/madam,

NOTICE OF PACKAGE/CONSIGNMENT ON HOLD AWAITING CLEARANCE

Why do you keep silent? Are you alive or dead? Please,reply
urgently if you are alive and healthy.

Be informed, we received letter of “Power of Attorney” from one
Ms.Mary V.Miller Turner of Philadelphia, PA USA that claim to be your
representative and she is ready to pay the required  fee/Charges to obtain
necessary U.S Customs and Border Protection clearance documents and have the
consignment deliver at her address in Philadelphia. Please, let me know
urgently if you are aware of this development.

Please, help us to serve you better.

I wish you all the best and Remain blessed in the light of GOD never
fails!!!

Yours in service,

Jeffery Adams
Office of Inspection(U.S CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT) John F. Kennedy International
Airport, New York, USA.
Direct Telephone: 650 288 6056

My Response

Rather than respond privately to this e-mail message, I thought I would respond with this article instead.

  • Why do I keep silent? Well, gee — just because several hours have elapsed since I posted the most recent article I have written, I am keeping silent?!? I might have found the number one fan of The Gate With Brian Cohen. I will try to post articles more often just for you.
  • Am I alive or dead? Hmm…that is a tough one — a question which cannot be answered without consulting a medical professional. Please let me check my e-mail messages to find someone impersonating a doctor so that I may be examined; and I will get back to you on that. In fact, I probably should also have my gender checked, as you have no idea whether I am a “sir” or a “madam.”
  • Please, reply urgently if I am alive and healthy. So if I am not alive and healthy, should I reply in a relaxed fashion? I suppose it is difficult to be urgent about anything once I am already dead; so forgive me for not replying at all if the result of the aforementioned medical prognosis proclaims that I am officially dead.
  • “Power of Attorney” Well, at least you were “honest” about putting this one in “quotes,” which usually means that what is written is not actually what it is — pardon my “grammar,” as it is nowhere near as “excellent” as your “grammar.” I am confused, though: does the quoted part mean that “Ms.Mary V.Miller Turner of Philadelphia, PA USA” is not really a power of attorney? Do that mean that she — or he — is not really my representative? Please help me out here, “Jeffrey Adams.”
  • She is ready to pay. So “she is ready to pay the required fee/Charges to obtain necessary U.S Customs and Border Protection clearance documents and have the consignment deliver at her address in Philadelphia.” Great! Tell you what: I am willing to forego this delivered consignment. Have her send the funds to me instead. I will need them to book a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia — plus lodging, ground transportation, meals, and other incidental expenses.
  • Please, let me know urgently if you are aware of this development. Again with the “urgently”? Have we suddenly skipped the requirement as to whether I am alive or dead? I do not even know details pertaining to what is the consignment which is to be delivered. About which development are you referring?
  • Please, help us to serve you better. I must admit — with all of the times you write “please,” you are rather polite. For that reason, I am completely convinced that your communication to me referring to this “development” is not a scam.
  • I wish you all the best and Remain blessed in the light of GOD never fails!!! Ahh, the religious component, which must be added to verify that this is a real communication — especially from someone who really is officially employed by a department of the United States government — such as the “Office of Inspection(U.S CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT) John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, USA.” I do feel blessed — as well as reassured that this communication is indeed valid, authentic and genuine.
  • Telephone number. Despite being born and raised in New York, I had no idea that John F. Kennedy International Airport was located somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, as indicated by the 650 area code — either that, “Jeffrey Adams,” or you have some commute to your job every day; or, of course, you originally lived in California but moved to New York and simply kept that telephone number on your mobile telephone. Yes — that must be it.

Just for fun, I called the “direct” telephone number. No one answered the telephone; and I let it ring for at least two minutes. I tried to contact you more than once. How am I supposed to be willingly scammed by you — er…I mean…how are you supposed to please urgently assist me in this urgent development when I urgently call you and no one please urgently answers the urgent telephone?!?

Perhaps I could reply to officialmailbox02@gmail.com — which is the e-mail address from where the message to me came. After all, that is an official e-mail address of the United States Customs and Border Protection — right?!?

“Jeffrey Adams,” I am beginning to believe that you are not “mine in service.” I have just sank into an urgent deep depression — never mind the possibility that I might be dead.

Final Boarding Call

It is annoying enough to receive “click bait” e-mail messages from reputable companies such as airlines — but do people actually fall for this garbage?

As one who travels globally, the title of the e-mail message did initially catch my attention — the U.S with either a missing period or with a superfluous period tipped me off where I instantly knew that this was a “spam scam” — but I was curious enough to want to look at the contents of the e-mail message, as I found it potentially humorous.

I know you would never fall for anything like this; so I hope that we had some fun at the expense of “Jeffrey Adams”; but some bogus e-mail messages can be more sophisticated — enough to have you wondering whether or not the communication is genuine. Please be sure to read this article written by me which gives you advice on how to tell if an e-mail message is “spam.”

In the meantime, I please wish you all the best and urgently remain blessed…

  1. Unfortunately there are people that fall for this garbage and will pay whatever they are asking or provide information they requested. If nobody felt for this they would not continue to waste their time sending it.

    1. Also, I suppose that sending out one e-mail message to a massive quantity of recipients does not hurt either, Santastico.

      Send out 100,000 of them. One successful bite is probably all that is needed to make the process more than worthwhile…

  2. It has been suggested that these scams are purposely poorly written so that only the most credulous will respond.

  3. Apparently some do, or you wouldn’t see these stupid emails. Straight to the trash bin you go!

    1. Yes, Captain Kirk, the question I ask as the title of this article is more of a rhetorical one — but I still shake my head in disbelief that people actually do fall for this garbage…

  4. The 419 scams are deliberate about their misspellings, poor grammar, and somewhat implausible scenarios. The reason is simple, the next phase is people who RESPOND, and interact with a human. Those people, will soak up manhours of handlers of the con game. A con artist doesn’t want to waste time on skeptics and bored people playing “spin the plate”. It is a net that targets a particular fish, the most gullible people who have a good chance to cough up money.

  5. That is very similar to an email I received from “US Customs” which said that a diplomatic package containing $2.5 million with my name and address had been intercepted at JFK airport and that I was to claim it within 14 days or I would face possible charges for tax evasion, money laundering and raising funds to aid international terrorism.
    I deleted the email and am now waiting for the FBI to come and kick in my door.

    P.S. If I leave my email address below you’re not going to spam me are you?

    1. I have no intention of sending you “spam”, Mollie.

      That these forms of communication continue suggests that people are falling for these scams.

      Thank you for sharing your experience.

  6. It is unfortunately a proven way to defraud the elderly and others with cognitive impairments.

    Individual losses of $250k to $500k or more are not unusual.

    Costs of running the scam are negligible.

    So ROI is astronomical.

  7. I once got a fax from a law firm. The letter said that a person with my surname died and had a life insurance policy. Since nobody claimed it, the letter asks me to claim it.

    I looked up the law firm and replied to the law firm, not the contact information on the letter. I suggested that they turn over the information to the unclaimed property office of their state. The law firm said they did not write the letter.

  8. I used to receive numerous emails of similar ilk… What I describe as the Ghanaian/Nigerian scams…unclaimed inheritance being primary. I would receive all to a very restricted email account I never used for personal or business correspondence. I would respond with the most vile, profane and vulgar language I could conjure. This type of email ceased.
    I have used the same tactic with spam calls received on my US phone. I suspect my DMV,other banks have sold some personal information These same calls, depending on my mood, I either prolong the call, as if I’m going to succumb to what ever they are offering,or I verbally insult, and if I detect I certain accent I culturally insult them. They called me. I must be on their “no fly” list. Now the calls are almost non existent. The robo calls,if I answer, there is an immediate disvonnect.

  9. I almost always send them the money they request. But thats only if the email was sent to a non-main email address of mine (not my real name) its on a public computer eg a Hotels computer in their biz center and never send my real tel #. Why, simple its a GREAT way to use a Gift Card that you already unloaded all the funds from. So the answer is no if it was sent to the email address I use on BA then it gets discarded

    1. Send the scammer a gift card that is completely depleted of funds from an address which is not traceable to you. That is classic!

      So far, isaac, you have won the “prize” for the most creative way to deal with a scammer.

      Actually, sending them gift cards with only one cent left on them is probably worse…

  10. “… I wish you all the best and Remain blessed in the light of GOD never
    fails!!!”…
    Pretty sure this wouldn’t be the closing paragraph on a letter from customs.

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