Neal's Workshop

I received a most unusual email today:

Hello..

I am a nurse and my late grandma was a bulldog breeder, she died about 3 months ago and left behind a male and a female english bulldog ( Sire & Dam), the female bulldog recently had a litter of 6 puppies, they are so adorable, my job as a nurse cannot allow me to take of [sic] these puppies.

I want to find them loving homes, if you [are] interested in having them, please contact me immediately.

Have a nice day.

Celine

Note: The pic was not included.

The email was sent from celine1@inmail24.com with a reply-to: celine2@2itb.com. My first reaction was, "Aww, puppies!" I'm more of a cat person (See: Zeke use the toilet), but a friend was looking into getting a puppy recently, so I immediately hit reply. That was when I noticed the bizarre email addy and realized immediately that this was spam.

You have to understand that I get a lot of emails due to the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, so seeing an email about puppies only struck me as slightly more odd than the latest tip about a faltering lender.

My question is: am I naive? Missing something? Is there some black market for puppies? What is the point of a spammed email about English Bulldogs? Is there an embedded message about v1agra or hoodia (WTF is hoodia, anyway?)? Is this some new spam tactic? What is going on here?

Update 12:11 P.M., September 24, 2007

A reader has commented that she received a response from Celine after emailing her back. Celine (who responded using a third different email addy) said:

Hello,
I was directed to contact you by your daughter (Jessica), I need help in placing both adults and puppies into a responsible caring and loving homes. Puppies are 10 weeks old and they come with complete shots and worming. I am located in Thailand and will like to ask you some few question to know if you will be capable to have my babies.Where are you located? do you have other home pets ,are they indoors or out door pets?

I will send you a copy of the below papers before shipping. Asking price is $ 400 for adoption to cover for the vet expense made and shipping is $350.

Click on the site below to view my babies.
http://www.zyworld.com/adorablebabies/Home.htm
Looking forward to hearing from you,

Have a nice day,
Celine.

I didn't realize you could ship puppies globally. And for only $350!! What a "steal"!