Protective nuances

In a recent post I mentioned that the subtleties of the English language do at least make it hard for scam artists who do not have English as a first language to rip us off via emails. And no sooner had I posted the blog than an email sneaked past the company's spam filter from "Mr Steven Kenneth".

Mistake number one: who uses the Mr in this context?

What follows is the usual appeal to the recipient's greed: in this case 45% of "a huge amount" in return for no more than my bank account details. But Mr Steven Kenneth describes himself as "a senior staff with a bank in Scotland, UK". Clearly you can't be a senior staff – but neither would you say, or write, "Scotland, UK". It's not wrong, it's just... wrong.

There's more of the same and you might argue that anyone who falls for such a sloppy scam deserves to be ripped off. But thank goodness these emails are so poorly written. And in case any overseas conmen are interested, JD and I might be tempted to reword your emails, just as an intellectual exercise you understand.

Simply send us your bank details and we'll get back to you. Honest.