Fake Michelle Obama sends out scam emails

FILE: Oct. 15, 2012: First lady Michelle Obama at a campaign rally at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. (AP)

A crudely written email that claims to come from the American first lady invites recipients to collect their supposed shares from a "scam victims' compensation fund, " but only if each one ponies up his email address, phone number and $260.

"I am Mrs. Michelle Obama and I am here to inform you that your SCAM VICTIMS COMPENSATION FUNDS from white house here in Washington DC is the sum of $20.000.000 twenty million us dollars," the email reads.

"Bear in mind that i am the only one that has your funds in regard to my husband Mr Barack Obama and you will have to pay the sum of $260.00 before your funds will be delivered to you today so get back to me with your home address."

Of course, the email isn't from Michelle Obama, or from anyone affiliated with the federal government at all. Instead, it's the work of scammers, possibly from Nigeria, who invoke the names of celebrities to try to make their scams more appealing and believable, Kaspersky Lab's SecureList blog reported.

To anyone with an eye for detail, believable this is not. A quick look at the sender's email address shows that the message actually comes from "World Wide Web Owner" with a Russian ".ru" email domain suffix, and "missnadia" with a Chinese "yahoo.cn" email address.

Although this particular scam may not be disguised very well, that may be by design. The sheer stupidity of such obvious scams might make sure only the truly gullible respond.

As Softpedia points out, getting duped into sending money or accepting payments from dubious sources could lead to significant financial losses or even charges of fraud and money laundering.