Email chancer claims copyright on @

Found on The Register on Tuesday, 17 August 2004
Browse Pranks

Step forward "Robert-Alan Lucht", who has been sending out invoices for use of @. That's right, and it's a pretty good deal, too - just ten bucks a year grants you electronic publishing rights for @ "Internet and E-Mail use". Remember, these rights are only conferred on users with a "valid account", so you'd better cough up before the IP Stasi kick in your front door. Full details of how to pay are at the bottom of Lucht's missive:

This is the international copyright holder for at or commercial at: @. You get it by pressing the keys: Alt Gr and Q. This is your 2004 license for Internet and E-Mail online communications. Yearly private use cost you 10 US-Dollar or Euro in licensing fees. Usage and electronic publishing rights for your @ in multiple contexts for Internet and E-Mail use are only granted by transfer with a valid account. With way more than 238 million users: "E-Mail & Internet" are the biggest online services. All rights reserved.

I'm afraid quite an amount of people will fall for this scam. However, it should be easy to figure out who opened the account. It's funny to see with what idiotic ideas scammers come up with.