Dear Hacker

Wednesday, 18 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

After receiving an email with a “strange greeting, bad spelling and flawed punctuation” from a “friend” who said he was stuck in London and could Alexander wire him some money please, Steve Alexander of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did something that I’ve always been curious about. Knowing it was a phishing scheme, Alexander was about to delete the spam until he decided hitting ‘reply’ instead might be more fun.

Turns out he was right. After asking how he could help his “friend,” Alexander got this reply: “Glad you replied back to my email.as soon as we are back home tomorrow please we would definitely refund..well all we just need is just $ 1,950 USD but would really appreciate what can help with you can have it wired on my name via Western Union,You can lookup a western union shop near you via the western union website.” You’ll have to click through above to see how this story ends though I’ll offer up a clue: U.S. Treasury Agents are involved.