My week of e-mail scams

A roundup of online appeals shows that you'd better be on your guard. Here's what happened when Times reporter David Colker hit 'Reply.'

By David Colker | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 11, 2008

Monday

The London representative of the Pavarotti estate prepared me for the shocking news that I was an heir.

"This may sound strange and unbelievable to you," he wrote.

But it didn't sound so strange to Brian David Delany, a singer and actor in New York who got the same e-mail in January.

In 1986, Delany was a sales clerk at a Sam Goody record shop when Pavarotti visited for an autograph session.

"He was wonderful to me," said Delany, who was assigned to assist the opera great. "He said for me to keep on practicing my vocals."

When the e-mail came, Delany, who goes by the stage name Ian Starr, thought his idol had remembered him. For the next several weeks he exchanged e-mails with the "estate," which instructed him to wire nearly $800 for "transfer" fees.

Luckily before he did, Delany's brother warned him it was a scam.

But perhaps it provided creative stimulus. One of Delany's latest songs, a self-recorded effort, is called "Illusion."

Tuesday

It was our lucky day.

Lottery wins have become a staple of online scams, and on this day staffers received congratulations on winning contests in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Britain and Thailand.

Our total haul: $17.5 million. Not a bad day at the office.

We hadn't entered any of these lotteries, but we didn't have to.

"All participants were selected through our Microsoft computer ballot system," explained the Netherlands contest, "as part of international e-mail promotion."

Now it made sense.

In each case, we were to reply by e-mail or call to claim the prize.

At least some of these were fake-check scams, including the Thai contest that required that a fee be paid out of winnings to a company that "played the lottery in your name."

The winnings check probably would turn out to be counterfeit. The scammers hope that that won't be discovered until the fee is wired to them, turning the lottery winner into a two-time loser.

Wednesday