Join Today

Join the Illuminate cult online today and get instant sum of 5 million
dollars with a free home any where you choose to live in the world and also
get 200,000 dollars monthly as a salary… If you are interested please
kindly fill the following information to this email below {
greatbrotherhoodilluminati666@gmail.com}

Sounds legit.

This started popping up in comments that were made to social media posts by news organizations, under a few different names, and so I dropped in on their profiles to see what their deal was. And it was the same thing, over and over. Post after post, going back months, all with the same text. Many of them contained random links to other content on the Web; anything from food blogs to racist screeds by open White supremacists. And a number of articles about the Illuminati; either purporting to explain some aspect of their ritualism, lists of their members in specific nations, supposed exposés of their worldwide leadership and, strangely, articles debunking the whole thing.

Every time I see a scam like this, I wonder who the intended mark is. Who sees an offer of membership from what is supposed to be the most secretive group in the world (how it maintains this status given that everyone seems to know about it is beyond me), promising instant wealth, and says to themselves: "Yeah, my ship has finally come in. I'll just send an e-mail to this random gmail account and the all-powerful rulers of the world will set me up for life. As soon as I give them my financial information.

I understand the whole point behind making these 419 scams so outlandish that anyone who genuinely pursues one will stick with it to the bitter end (and the complete draining of their finances), but it's difficult for me to fathom that anyone could be both that gullible and able to retain enough money to be worth fleecing. There can't be that many completely unintelligent lottery winners in the world.

But if this is coming from some benighted 3rd world backwater somewhere, perhaps $20 here or $50 is enough to keep them afloat (and pay for internet time) long enough that they can desperately fish for their next mark. Maybe they should just advertise the low, low cost of living, instead.