Michael Williams notes some common (and amusing) strangeness in the Nigerian Scam emails.

I have been meaning to touch this topic, having received numerous 'opportunities' myself. I too was curious why they feel the need to write out the numbers, as if we could not understand them without it. But the e-mail which I enjoyed the most started out like this:

I found this very reminiscent of a very old Saturday Night Live skit. During the Regan era, we had one serious feud with Lybia. The sketch was three terrorists coming to kill the President. They were caught sneaking in but the hostess treated them like guests instead of intruders.

She asked them all manner of questions and they each one in the most suspicious manner possible. Of course, she never took any notice. One example is when they were asked where they were visiting from. Their answer was "We are from Lybia (pause) but we are not terrorists."

I wish I could find the transcript for that one. If I remember correctly, it included Dan Akroyd and Gilda Radner and possibly Jane Curtain. (I suppose that dates both the skit and myself.)