This is possibly the stupidest ever scam but the most amazing thing is that some people believed it. It is basically the 419 scam where a fortune is offered in return for allowing a very large sum of money to be processed through the victim’s  bank account, but of course there is no fortune – just a scammer who will bleed the victim dry until they realise it’s a scam and stop paying.

The message title is: Nigerian Astronaut Wants to Come Home

The scammer doesn’t know your name – she only bought a list of email addresses, so she addressees you as Mr. Sir,

Dear Mr. Sir,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo.

He has been on the station for 14 years and accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $15 million which is held at Lagos National Savings bank. If we can access this money then we can make a down payment of $3 million to the Russian Space Agency for a Soyuz return flight to bring him home.

My colleagues and I are willing to transfer the $15 million into your account as we as civil servants are prohibited from opening foreign accounts.

For your help, we will pay you $3 million.

Yours Sincerely, Dr. Bakare Tunde, Astronautics Project Manager

If you know an even dumber scam – let me know.

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