Nearly the victim of a scam, I started thinking about the idea of a scam. It’s a lie with bad intentions. It’s a dirty trick. It’s a way to fool people into giving you something on pretense, or worse, to get you involved with something you really ought to stay out of. Some people are great at scams.
To take a line from Tommy Boy, a good conman could “sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves.”
Luckily, most scams are attempted by amateurs, so either their blatant gimmicks or their poor grammar skills will reveal their true plans before any harm can be done.
When I applied for a tutoring job, I got a rather strange e-mail reply. The English was terrible. The tone was secretive, which raised a lot of red flags. The writer also made it sound like his “daughter” was a mail-order bride. Or some child in a trafficking ring. It just didn’t sound right at all. Majority opinion found this to be a scam, so I reported it, then decided to do something useful with it.
I made a poem, using word-for-word excerpts from the e-mail.
From trash comes art.
SCAM POEM
Dear Tutor
My daughter
Teach her as soon as possible
Your experience and qualification
Made her feel more happy and comfortable
I am planning that you will be teaching
The {English} Subject
Teach her during the week
I want her to study more
What she need to know
When she arrive
I want her to improve morally
Quiet, intelligent, obedient
She love to dance
I will be paying you
I will also pay the Guardian
The Guardian would bring her down
You receive the payment
Remit the balance to the Guardian
Can I trust you with my daughter?
And the rest fund to be remit?
Send information as its been requested
So it can be mail out on-time
You will teach her good academics
And some moral respects
She can be good to their self
In the future
And the economy
I would be glad
I wait your full information
So I can proceed
Regards
Roger
THOUSAND THOUGHTS 