Apparently it is according to a 419 mail I got this morning. This one is quite a good effort however it does have some fundamental flaws. It begins thus:

This letter is not intended to cause any embarrassment in whatever form, rather
is compelled to contact your esteemed self, following the knowledge of your high
repute and trustworthiness.

I am David Garfield, Chief Campaign Officer of the PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
OF DEMOCRATS: OBAMA 2014 INC ID: C00411934.

The flowery language at the start is *the* hallmark of a 419 but this time around the grammar is rather good and punctuation is aslo good with no rampant capital either until you get to the bit that mentions Obama and the official looking code numbers.

So why are the Democrats in the U.S. sending me advance fee fraud mails? Aha! Here we go:

I write to seek your sincere assistance in transferring the sum of £10M GBP 10
million Pounds sterling.

Stirling? From the Democrat party in the United States? Surely that should be dollars? And where did they get the 10 million from in the first place?

I discovered my office has some excess funds amounting too 10 million Pounds
recovered from donations and grants from democrats around the world during our
election campaign and pleas for support for our incumbent president Barack
Hussein Obama, According to plans, The excess funds was to used in clearing
debts owed by Mrs Hillary Clinton during her campaign programs,I taught there is
a better way of expending this funds.I want this money to be used to alleviate
the poverty and sufferings of children in Iraq and Africa and donate to Charity
organizations around the world.

Yeah right! Unfortunately what started out gramatically quite decent has started to break down slightly with all this philanthropic talk. Anyway why not just give it to charity? Why should I launder the money?

My plea to you is that you assist me get this funds out of the United Kingdom
where it is presently lodged safe and for your assistance ,you will have a fair
percentage of the total money and all investments shall be under your
supervision.

This simple transfer process could be arranged in less than 3 working
days.Ensure your response is sent to my personal e-mail address xxxxxxx@gmail.com

I sent a mail to gmail alright. Straight to Google’s abuse department to get that mailbox shutdown along with another gmail account used in the signature. BTW the signature itself is pretty funny. I wonder if the 419er did this intentionally? Probably not. Anyway note the UK telephone number:

419 Rating – 5 out of 10

It did arrive claiming to be from a democrats.com mail address and started out quite excellent but left itself down badly in the plausability stakes with references to Obama and Hillary Clinton. And of course claiming to be from the Democrats while using gmail accounts, references to Stirling currency and a U.K. mobile telephone number mean that I can only give it 5 out of 10.

Out if interest, the mail itself arrived from a mail server in Indonesia and was sent using IMP webmail which is part of the Horde Application Framework.

Dear Friend i verry happy to inform you about my success in getting those

funds transferred under the cooperation of  your help in UNITED KINDOM in our

last business and i hope i am contating the write person.Presently I signed a

cheque of ($850.000.00.USD) which i kept for your compensation for all the

past efforts and the  attempts you render me in this matter. I realy

appreciated your efforts at that time very much.

finally remember that I had forwarded instruction to the DHL OFFICE on your

behalf to contact you on how to  receive your cheque containg the funds i

kept for you, so you are to get in touch with DHL OFFICE with your full name

and contact address on their email on how to send you the parcell

Email claims_dhldiliverydepartment@hotmail.com

Phone +2348032185491

My Regards To Your Family
Mrs.Brenda Howell

Oh dear, dreadful spelling, probably as a result of being a non-native English speaker. Why DHL would have a hotmail address is anyones guess.

419 rating – 2 out of 10.

I would have given it 1 out of 10 but that phone number is genuine Nigeria so I give it an extra point for being a genuine 419 and not some cheap knock off from Ghana.

Lots happened that I can remember and some parts are coming back slowly as the pain in my head subsides. I did manage to meet everyone on my like to meet list though and of course I met lots more people who I’m looking forward to meeting again. Despite having a camera with me for most of the night I didn’t take many pictures.

There were a couple of funny incidents that happened over the night. I’m going to have to write about them tomorrow I think because I can just about barely focus on my screen. Bock will probably write about one of them. It was something that could probably only happen here in Ireland!

Anyway here are some (bad!) photos to look at. I’m heading back to bed!

“Prawo Jazdy” is Polish for “Driving Licence”

Apparently unlike our paper licences, the Polish one is a credit card sized ID type jobby. With “Prawo Jazdy” written in big letters along the top which our unwitting Gardai took to be the owners first and last names!

Legendary! More here in The Register. And a bit more here in the Indo.

“Name 5 bloggers you haven’t met in the flesh before that you’d like to say hi to at the Blog Awards, say why if you want, link to them. They then, in turn, link to 5 bloggers they’d like to meet and so on.”

I thought it would be easy but sitting here with my thinking cap on it seems impossible as there are plenty of people I am looking forward to meeting there. But alas I have to pick five. Indeed two have chosen myself so naturally I want to reciprocate. So in no order I’m looking forward to meeting:

Will – Because as he wrote on his blog “He used to live near me and I never met him all that time. It tuns out our interests and situations were also similar (even started back in (different) college on the same date).”

Grandad – Because he Bock owes me beer!

Grannymar – Because I hear that she doesn’t have enough toyboys in her entourage yet.

Donncha – Provided he will be there of course. Employee of WordPress and reponsible for some fantastic photography.

And last but not least

K8 – One of the wittiest people who’s musings I have read and also responsible for probably the most poignant and striking post I have ever read or am likely to.

So in additon to the above I’m looking forward to night. I have my hotel room sorted or at least I think I have. (Mental note to self: drop mail to Bernie) So there will be much merriment as I won’t have to drive home. Yay!