A Prayer for Everyone

The Agnostic Prayer

Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that I be forgiven for anything I may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness.

Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which I may be eligible after the destruction of my body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a way as to insure my receiving said benefit.

I ask this in my capacity as my elected intermediary between myself and that which might not be myself, but which may have an interest in the matter of my receiving as much of said benefit as it is possible for me to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony.

Ramen.

New developments in SPAM?

I have fought SPAM off and on for nearly ten years, having administered mail servers for large organizations, but these days, I leave it to Google, by routing all my email through their excellent systems.

However, occasionally one slips through, and this one happened to catch my attention.

ATTN:
I am Mr Mike Leonard,a registered and legitimate private loan lender. I give out loans to Individuals,families,student,Organization, Business Men and women that needs financial assistance at the interest rate of 3%
Loan is given out in Pounds, Euro and $US. The MAXIMUM I give is 5,000,000 both in pounds and $US and the MINIMUM is 5,000 pounds and US$ so if you are really interested contact us for more information on how the loan can be transfered to you.
There is one Question i have to ask i hope you are serious? Because we give out loan to serious minded people and those that we know they can pay us at the stipulated time that was agreed.
Loan that is more $10,000,000M can be given to those that falls only on this category.

Manager of a company
A private Holder
A broker in banks
A director in any office or company
A high investor of a company
If you are interested you have to fill this application form below.
*Applicant full name:....................................

* Applicant Contact Address:..............................

* Phone No:.....................................

* Country:.......................................
* Age:.............................................

* Marital Status:................................
* Amount Required As Loan:............................
*Proposed Terms/Duration Of Loan:..................
.
*Annual Income:..................................

*Occupation:......................................

Mode of Payment:
* Payment by bank to bank transfer
* Payment by bank certified check(courier)
************************************
Fill this for and get back to us so that my loan terms and conditions will be sent to you. If you are interested i need you to get back to us via mike.leoloans@gmail.com and you will be glad you did!!!
Best regards,
Sign;
Mgt.

And also this one:

Earle Crane to brad.boyce

If you have your own business and want:

- IMMEDIATE cash to spend ANY way you like.
- Extra money to give the business a boost.
- A low interest loan - NO STRINGS ATTACHED

http://www.nowdthis.net.cn

Without investigating too much, I note that the first link is a relatively new approach (for me at least), to what I expect is a two-fold attack:

• Advance fee fraud -- they will "process" the loan, but will expect some payment to facilitate the transfer, which of course will never happen


• Identity Theft -- full disclosure of Bank Account and related details will of course be required.

The second link is more interesting. Visiting the site (which seems to use a Chinese DNS name), shows a Web server based in Beijing (which should ring alarm bells), for someone claiming to be "E2 Finance". At first glance, it might even be legitimate -- I can't figure out the angle, compared with the first one which seems more obvious. Perhaps they really are offering finance? Naaah. They're Spammers. Spammers lie. Ergo, they are simply a Phishing site, which will use any disclosed info for identity theft.

The obvious risk here -- trusting what one reads on the Internet, and entrusting financial information to unknown persons.

P.S. I heard a very funny comment on the local FM4 radio station this morning. I think it was daddyd (Dave), who suggested that the U.K. had actually proactively engineered a superb response to the current economic downturn -- by "accidentally" releasing in a series of incidents the identity information of more than half the U.K.'s population, this was going to provide a major boost to the only area of the economy which is currently experiencing double-digit growth -- identity theft. Respect, mate. I like the cut of your jib, and would subscribe to your newsletter.