The first paragraph of some spam that appeared again in my spam folder – I expect some of you have received variations of it – reproduced exactly:
FORGIVE MY INDIGNATION IF THIS MESSAGE COMES TO YOU AS A SURPRISE AND MAY OFFEND YOUR PERSONALITY FOR CONTACTING YOU WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR CONSENT AND WRITING THROUGH THIS CHANNEL.I GOT YOUR CONTACT FROM A PROFESSIONAL DATABASE FOUND ON THE INTERNET WHILE SEARCHING FOR A RELIABLE AND HONEST PERSON THAT WILL ASSIST ME TO SAFE GUARDAO UND INTO AN ACCOUNT OVERSEA. I WAS DIVINE LYINSPIRED TO PICK YOUR NAME AMONG ALL OTHER NAMES FOUND IN THE DATABASE.
Right.
The rest of the "English" is equally bad, or worse. So is the sender's math. S/H/IT seems to state that US$315,860,000 is equals to UK £15,860,000.
The email purports to come from a London England email address. So much for the Queen's English.
Somehow I suspect that Her Majesty had nothing to do with the expression involved. Perhaps it was written by one of those seditious British republicans.
I had an interesting variant on the Nigerian scam yesterday: the writer said she had been a victim of a Nigerian scam and had lost over $20,000, but then she had had the good fortune to be put in touch with the Rev. someone or other, who was the straight goods, and for a payment of only $155 she had come into possession of about $1.5 million US. So her advice was to deal only with the Rev. Mr. whatever, and not with all those crooks.
I suppose it may work on some. Her English was better than what David received, as well.