The latest from Nigeria or Russia? (A consumer education blog.)

I'm tired at the moment, and feeling off center, and was going to do a very short blog, but some electronic con men sent me a message today that I think I'll share. Here it is, in toto:

From: "FDIC"
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 22:46:12 -0400 (EST)
To:
Subject: Important News About Your Bank Account

To whom it may concern; [semicolon, sic, though otherwise it's a professional writing job.]

In cooperation with the Department Of Homeland Security, Federal, State and Local Governments your account has been denied insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation due to suspected violations of the Patriot Act. While we have only a limited amount of evidence gathered on your account at this time it is enough to suspect that currency violations may have occurred in your account and due to this activity we have withdrawn Federal Deposit Insurance on your account until we verify that your account has not been used in a violation of the Patriot Act.

As a result Department Of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has advised the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to suspend all deposit insurance on your account until such time as we can verify your identity and your account information.

Please verify through our IDVerify below. This information will be checked against a federal government database for identity verification. This only takes up to a minute and when we have verified your identity you will be notified of said verification and all suspensions of insurance on your account will be lifted.

[Web site that these crooks are using to capture bank account numbers has been deleted, on the remote chance anyone seeing this takes it seriously.]

Failure to use IDVerify below will cause all insurance for your account to be terminated and all records of your account history will be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington D.C. for analysis and verification. Failure to provide proper identity may also result in a visit from Local, State or Federal Government or Homeland Security Officials. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Donald E. Powell
Chairman Emeritus FDIC

John D. Hawke, Jr.
Comptroller of the Currency

Michael E. Bartell
Chief Information Officer

Nice touch, adding the chief information officer of the FDIC, if in fact that's the right person. As if it mattered.