A programmer on another forum came across an interesting problem. A random stranger approached him basically asking for money not to expose his source code. This kind of action is illegal in some countries, I’m posting the details here to point out that these requests happen.
This email is a little vague in asking for money.
Dear Sir,
My name is Ramzi gattoussi, I’m a 28 years old man. I was graduated from a high school (My degree was a high technician in administration and communication). Due to joblessness and the fact of losing the possibility to continue my education, I forced myself to gain a high level in computer technology. Now, I have an experience of 5 years in this sector. So, I tried many solutions and programs (Due to the absence of copyrights limits in our county, we have the chance to use any kind of software without any limit).
In conclusion, I have a good level in programming (Php, Flash and Actionscript, Delphi, Vb, Sql, Vb.Net and C#). I’m a developer but in a country where the copyrights have no effect. Therefore, I’m asking you to help me by any kind of job in your company and some money to live honourably. And as a result of your help, I will have no need to build a website for commercialising working codes of some good applications like your one (Someone asked me to use the ability of decompiling and reconstruction of application’s codes to get money). Excuse me for sincerity but this is the result of being without a job and having a working brain. In order to convince you, I have joined a zipped file to this email containing a working code. Excuse me another time.
Faithfully, Gattoussi Ramzi
In these situations it’s best not to respond to the original email, never give any personal details and never hand over any money. And if possible you can report it to an online crimes agency such as the one mentioned here, http://www.cybercrime.gov/reporting.htm