The other day, I received an e-mail with what I first preceived as a very threatening content (see below). As it turned out the sender had confused me and Nikke’s Index with a Spanish lottery scam setup (probably the Loterie Nationale, El Gordo de la Primitiva Lottery International or any of their offsets).
The sender might have been a victim of these scammers him/herself, or has a friend or a relative who has. He or she has probably searched for the title of one of these e-mails, and found my site. (Lots of people do.) Most probably, the ironic pitch in my comments hasn’t come through to someone who is really upset and looking for a scapegoat. I guess that is what initiated the threat. But since I don’t think ignorance is an excuse for being rude and to send threatening e-mails, the mail conversation below stays.
9/17 2007 – This evening I received a strange mail, that first looked like everyday spam. Sent from an AOL address with a title with lots of exclamation marks. Something made made me open it instead of just marking it as junk along with the two other junk messages that arrived almost simultaneously.
It’s short, it’s addressed to three of my working email addresses that I actually use, and it actually makes me feel somewhat strange:
From: K Noel kelly at aol.com
Subject: Watch out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Date: 16 September 2006 21:07:47 GMT+02:00
To: nikke at carnaby.se, nikke at lindqvist.com, nikke at klackberg.seGreat,
I have tracked down your operation HQ and your home addresses – Watch out???!££$$$$$%%&
It’s really down to the poit, I must hand that down to the author. But what it doesn’t really tell me what i shoul watch out for, why I should watch out, or who it is that want me to watch out, now does it?
It takes no genious to connect lindqvist.com, Carnaby.se and Klackberg.se. All it takes is to look at my mail footer, or to click on my name, Nikke Lindqvist, at the bottom of each page on this site. The link takes you to the subdomain nikke.lindqvist.com, where all three of the email addresses used for the threatening mail are published as an image.
I’m open with my home address, since it has been my working address as well for well over 6 years now. The address in Klackberg, is where I’m at between early June and late August each year, and you will probably find me there on some week days and most weekends during autumn and spring as well as winter hollidays and easter.
Since I now work from Carnaby‘s office in Stockholm’s Old town, it’s only logical to publish that address as well in my footer.
I really haven’t got a clue about who it is who might have whritten the above e-mail threat, but I can produce quite a few guesses as of why it was written. It wouldn’t suprise me the least if the author is active in the lottery scam business or is a 419er. I’ve been publishing the mails I get in that area for quite some time now, and have, on rare occations, received some feedback that hinted that they weren’t too happy with having their super secret offers on display.
Trying to track down the sender isn’t easy. There’s not much to go by in the mail except for the mail headers. Since AOL is a so called walled garden, they don’t reall tell me that much, but I can at least be sure that the sender has in fact been logged in to AOL when sending the mail, and I do have an ESMTP ID string that AOL could use to backtrack the user:
Received: from imo-m27.mx.aol.com (imo-m27.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.8])
by gimli.datakultur.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB04C2384F2;
Sat, 16 Sep 2006 21:07:52 +0200 (CEST)
Received: from KNoelkelly@aol.com
by imo-m27.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r7.6.) id p.c54.2ce63a0 (32915);
Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:07:48 -0400 (EDT)
The e-mail address knoelkelly@aol.com is probably pure disinformation. I can’t find a single K Nowl Kelly on the web even though there are several people with the name of Noel Kelly. One is a promising writer, another is a member of the board of directors at AOL Europe. But I’m quite certain that any of those have any fish to fry with me…
Therefor I’ll just have to wait. And maybe provoke some reaction by publishing the threatining e-mail. It would be great to at least get to know why I should be watching out.
Therefor, I have answered knoelkelly:
On 16 Sep 2006, at 21:07, KNoelkelly@aol.com wrote:
Great,
I have tracked down your operation HQ and your home addresses – Watch out???!££$$$$$%%&Hi,
Tracking down three of my addresses couldn’t have been more difficult than clicking on the link at the bottom of www.lindqvist.com leading to nikke.lindqvist.com.
However, it would be nice if you would have the courtesy to tell me why I should be watching out. I have of course already published your mail, that I perceived as a threat:
http://www.lindqvist.com/threats-from-iscammer-kwezi-sibeko/// Nikke Lindqvsit
9/18 2007 – Apparently, KNoelKelly has confused me with a Spanish lottery scam setup. Here is the relpy to my mail.
On 17 Sep 2006, at 17:41, K Noel kelly at aol.com wrote:
your web site is linked to a lottery scam originating in spain. i am passing on the information to the relevant authorities.
I’m actually quite relieved, since it should be obvious to anywone who has ever read throug all the scam stings I have published, that I ‘m not a scammer.
However. I don’t think ignorance can excuse the threatening tone used in the first mail. Therefor, this page stays.