Email Phishing Scammer Tried to ‘My Cousin Vinny’ Me
Notice to Appear in Court
That was the headline of an email I received to my work account Thursday afternoon. I get a million SPAM messages from scammers and link farmers every day, and I typically ignore them. However, something about this one made me click to preview it, and I'm glad I did because I got an endorphin boost from all the laughing I did.
The email as a whole is nothing special. Here, I'll show you.
So, what was so funny about it?
Check out the signature.
Vincent Gambino? That's one letter off from my all-time favorite fictional attorney, Vincent Gambini. You know, from 'My Cousin Vinny'!
WARNING: NSFW LANGUAGE
Maybe I'd just had a long day, maybe I was just really caught off guard, or maybe, just maybe...I'm a huge dork. Either way, the signature made me lose it.
I imagine this email was generated by some bot that did a quick scan for names of lawyers, and somehow mixed up Joe Pesci and the Gambino crime family. I mean, hey, Pesci's been in a lot of mob movies, so I guess it would be easy for some SPAM bot to moosh Vincent LaGuardia Gambini and Carlo Gambino.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the email with all of you. Maybe you'll get a chuckle too, and you might even be inspired to re-watch one of the all-time greatest comedy films ever made. If you've never seen 'My Cousin Vinny', do yourself a huge favor and watch it as soon as possible. It's easily on my Top 10 movies of all time list, and you wont be sorry.
In the meantime, don't fall for these lame phishing scams. If you get an email telling you have a court date and that a judge is about to have you arrested, report it, delete it, or just ignore it. If you're worried you might actually have some sort of court case, look up the number for the court in your jurisdiction the email claims to be from and ask them directly. Do not reply to the email or click any links inside of it.
Now, I'm going to use this as an excuse to share one of my favorite YouTube videos with you. It's a real attorney reviewing 'My Cousin Vinny'.
WARNING: If you haven't seen the movie, do that first. Again, it's amazing and you'll love it. The video below contains major spoilers.
MORE: 11 of the Worst Marketing Blunders in History