I don't even have to look at it, it's a scam. Douches like these are preying on desperate people. The trick is to solicit enough personal information to commit financial fraud with your info (no, it's not identity theft, that word was invented by banks to make fraud your problem, when in reality it is theirs).

I managed to scam someone out of giving me his credit card number a few years back. It was some work but it wasn't hard to do. I targeted one person, and it worked right away. Of course now you're wondering why I was scamming this person but it was a dare tied to a bet. The person in question was a friend of a friend.

What I did was this: I tracked him to a forum (he's an avid gamer) which mentioned paying for extras in an MMO (extra character slots or whatever it was, I don't remember). So I pretended to being a new gamer and my credit card not working, and I basically asked him which company he used for his credit card since mine didn't work so he told me which bank had issued it.

After that, I looked up info on fraud control (I forgot the name of the organisation but they're in charge with investigation fraud with credit cards, etc.) - I contacted them through their site to get an official reply through email. This reply I used to create the template for the fake message. Through forum posts I knew his real name and email address and the rest was easy. The email basically said:

"Dear *real name*

We have detected several potential fraudulent charges made on your card. We have blocked them after being given green light by your bank *insert his bank*. Since no theft report was filed and you didn't request for your card to be blocked, you'll be held liable for any fraudulent charges made unless you can prove you're still in possession of your card. To do this, please send us a copy of the front and back of the card accompanied by your most recent credit card bill and copy of your ID card, front and back."

The real mail was a lot more polished and less obvious, of course. I copied bits from a Paypal email which wanted me fax those exact same details to them!!! My credit card front and back, ID card front and back, credit history, last credit card bill, etc.

Well needless to say, he did exactly that - I wrote an article about it for a magazine I was working on at the time but I dropped the story when someone told me that it was actually illegal to do what I did even if I hadn't used the data he sent me (I deleted the email to be sure). But it showed that, if you're smart, you can trick almost anyone. It was maybe an hour or two of work and could have made me thousands of dollars . Well, I did win the bet ;)

Incredible. Simply incredible.

First: A very good trick. Amazing, in fact, in various ways. Congratulations! (I mean it, despite what comes next:)
Second: E-mails aren't that safe and if by some accident, someone managed to get hold of the one he has sent you, the authorities would probably get to you first. Ah and deleting an e-mail doesn't really delete it (deleted things can be found even after rewriting them several times). Not from your computer, if it's stored there and not from a server's HDD, though hopefully you and the provider both have taken care of security. Then again, this guy doesn't seem like the "security freak" sort. Maybe his sent email folder ain't that hard to hack...
And of course it's illegal, you used the "identity" of an existing organisation and it's supposed authority (I'm almost completely sure they would use different channels to communicate this, but I'm no expert) to deceive someone into providing his credit card details. Well you meant no harm and I guess this can be called Greyhat something (I don't know what's the official name for this).
Third: Screw that, I think anyone who send anything like this to anyone deserves such a trick played on them. Though you probably didn't tell him (good thing too, he could probably suite you for this, depending on his sense of humour, pride, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, charisma, strength and dexterity. Or maybe only the first two attributes, but only if they are below 13.)

EDIT:
Also, fun facts:
(From the head of their main page)
<head>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<title>Website Design/Development, Custom Software Development, and Multimedia Packages Development Company</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" />
<meta name="title" content="website design company, website redesign company, web design company, seo, search engine optimization, freelance website designing, Uk, USA, AFRICA, New Zealand " />
<meta name="keywords" content="website design company, website redesign company, web design company, seo, search engine optimization, freelance website designing, Uk, USA, AFRICA, New Zealand "/>

And their page is hosted in the USA (according to flagfox). Doesn't mean much, but won't help convincing anyone...

Here's the reply I just sent to the scamster....

[i]I must have really impressed you. You are an ocean away from me, you can't see me in person, you've never met me, and yet you are willing to allow all your customers to make their checks out directly to me. Not only that, but you trust that I will take exactly 12% for myself and send the rest directly to to you. That's some faith you have in me. You must think I'm a very honest fellow.

So here's my proposal. Show your faith in me by sending me an advance on my first month's expected salary. I'm being honest with you here, I have infant triplets to care for, no job, and no healthcare. What can I say, its rough right now in America. On top of that, Christmas (our holiest of holidays), is less than 3 weeks away. That one month advance on my salary sure could go a long way in providing my wife & children with a decent Christmas. Oh, and I'm afraid I don't have a checking account, but I do have a PayPal account, so you can send the payment directly to this e-mail address.

Thank you & God bless.[/i]

...those that know me on here know that the things I said in there are about 1/2 true. But hey, its easier to exaggerate a story than it is to make one up completely. ;-)

I'm sorry to hear that, man. Having one and a half infants to take care of must be difficult...

Depends if it's the top half or bottom half.

Each half comes with its own set of trouble.

I don't remember if I posted it already, but the one of the more "unique" 419 attempts I've received involved a supposed young woman who had just taken a job as a TV news anchorwoman and couldn't afford to take care of her two dogs, a teacup Yorkie and a Scotch terrier (her spelling, not mine. I know the correct form is "Scottish terrier"). She had apparently gotten ahold of my personal information, and deemed me a worthy adopter after reviewing it. But she still needed me to provided my personal info anyway. That was the second red flag. The first was the fact that she said that she couldn't afford to take care of these dogs after being employed as a TV personality. As far as I know, being on TV pays quite a bit. Especially if you're single.

Got another "job offer," and while I have no reason to suspect anything yet, I just thought I'd put it out there in the hopes some of my fellow GOGers might take a look at their website & see if they spot anything unusual while I wait for more info...

http://ici-business.com/index.php

...I'll admit I'm a little paranoid about online job offers, but this is the 21st century. Thanks in advance.

Maybe its my reaction to smarmy advertising style images but that woman looks shifty as hell to me.

She's standing there saying "Oh you're thinking of taking this job are you? Well I look forward to draining you dry and bathing in your blood to maintain my youthful appearance. Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bathory, Head of HR"

The guy in the middle is too deep in debt to cause a fuss and is pretending he knows nothing about her diableric practices and the guy on the right is the other most recent sucker to be hired for propping up this insane womans vanity

I'm REALLY overthinking this aren't I?

If your gonna play with investments I found it best to get yourself some stocks and shares. I used to work for one of the UK gas and electric companies and aswell as being given shares I chose to have a portion of my wages converted aswell in total my shares cost about 3K, looking at the shares market now and doing a little calculation id say they are now worth about 10K. (My little nest egg) I just gotta watch out for the market crashing.