David Hughes' unwitting role in a recent email scam

David Hughes is a pretty common name. But when a friend received an email from David Hughes and Associates he immediately thought of my business. He assumed I had been the victim of identity theft. And in a sense I had - along with every other David Hughes in the world.

Below is the content of the email:

DAVID HUGHES & ASSOCIATES
33, Bedford Row WC1R 4JH
London, England.

ATTENTION:

On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engr.Jurgen
Krugger. I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter was returned
undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address
on
the WILL.I wish to notify you that late Engr.Jurgen Krugger
made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Thirty Million, One
Hundred Thousand Dollars (USD$30,100.000.00) to you in the Codicil and
last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you,
but
it is real and true.

Being a widely travelled man, he must have been in contact with you in the
past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous
friends abroad who wished you good. Engr.Jurgen Krugger, until his death was
a
member of the Helicopter Society and the Institute of Electronic &
Electrical Engineers. He was a very dedicated Christian who loved to give
out.

His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his lifetime. Late
Engr. Jurgen Krugger died on the 13th day of December,2004 at the
age of 80 years, and his WILL is now ready for execution.

According to him this money is to support your humanitarian activities and
to
help the poor and the needy in our society. Please if I reach you
as I am hopeful, endeavour to get back to me as soon as possible to enable
me
conclude my job. I hope to hear from you in no distant time.

I await your prompt response.

Yours in Service,
DAVID HUGHES ESQ.
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS: Barrister Aidan Walsh. Esq Markus Wolfgang, Mr.John
Marvey
Esq, DAVID HUGHES Esq

Needless to say this isn't David and Associates and I'm not the David Hughes in question. The assurances in this iteration of the 'Nigerian' letter that, "This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true" are just some of the clues, if any were needed, that this is a scam. Setting aside the abuse of our name and the spam that has been generated, what needles me most is that - thanks to this email appearing on scam noticeboards all over the net - this scammer has a higher profile for his faked ID than almost any of the real David Hughes' - myself included.

But it is the real David Hughes' that may well bear the brunt of his email shenanigans. I've already had one email from a complete stranger in America expressing concern about the email I've supposedly sent him.