French-Language Spam

I have long received plenty of Nigerian-style scam emails and spam, but today I received a similar message in French. What is more, instead of being about Nigeria, it had a seemingly plausible story about a senior figure at a Russian oil company being arrested and so forth. It was even more realistic than a Nigerian email. Though I have to say that sending an email in French to me in the first place shows that their marketing is not very well targeted.

I noticed this email because it slipped through the spam filter. I have recently been using Proofpoint as my spam filter, and it removes almost all spam, so this message stood out when it slipped through. It will probably be caught by tomorrow, so I had better write about it today.

Below is the complete text of the spam. Incidentally, I only read the first 2 lines—more precisely, I cannot read the rest. orz

Hello,

I am Ina Khodorkovsky, wife of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, CEO of the Russian oil company YUKOS, who was imprisoned on October 25, 2003, and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp following an inquisitorial trial. My husband was wrongly accused of tax fraud. All our assets in the country have been seized. However, my husband’s foresight enabled him to sense what was coming, and he was able in time to deposit the sum of 25 millions of US dollars, concealed in two suitcases, with a security and finance company. As a precaution, he had always refused to speak about his hidden fortunes. But during my latest visit to his prison, located 5 000 kilometers east of Moscow on the former lands of the gulag—the lands of political dissidents in the days of the Soviet Empire, on the frontier of oblivion, and also the place where the tsar deported several dozen liberal reformers in 1825—in disregard of a Russian law under which every sentence must be served at the place of trial (I am allowed only 4 visits per year), he revealed to me the existence of this money, which, for security reasons, had been transferred to another country far from here and placed with a more discreet security company. I now seek your discreet assistance in transferring these funds to your country under your care and subject to certain guarantees.
I undertake to give you 10 % of this sum, and I also undertake to reimburse any expenses you may incur in concluding this transaction. Since my husband is still in prison, I ask for complete discretion concerning our cooperation. As soon as I receive your positive reply, I will put you in contact with the company where the money is hidden.
N.B.: When depositing the two suitcases, my husband paid all custody fees. There is therefore nothing to pay.
Mrs. Ina Khodorkovsky