In today’s world, most people have an email account. And in each email account there is a spam folder where all of the junk mail is supposed to go. But just as no human is perfect, neither is any email account. Sometimes junk mail invades your inbox, and the emails you want end up in your spam folder.
What would you do if you received the following emails? Would you respond? What would your response be? Better yet, how would your character respond? Would responding open up a world of intrigue and adventure for them?
The below email did end up in my junk folder, but I opened it out of curiosity. The other two managed to make their way into my inbox.
Email #1
I’m Wayne Lee (US ARMY) currently stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan for peace keeping. Is this email private for us to discuss a $7,000,000 business that will be of mutually beneficial to us. This is not stolen money and there are no dangers involved. Do get back to me with your response and I will forward more information to you.
Email #2
Hi
This note might come as a surprise to you. You might consider it an invasion of privacy and I hope you forgive me , With this letter, I would like to seek for your attention. I know this is an unconventional way of reaching out to someone I’ve never meet or heard of. I also hope you don’t find this letter provocative or intruding. I write to seek your attention as friends.My name is Natalie Olsson. I’m of Swede Origin. I hope you do not view my contacting you strange because I’m using something as cold as this means to reach you. But this is the best I can do for now. The purpose of this letter is to seek your friendship. And if it seats well with you, You can write me back and we can communicate further and learn about each other.I look forward to hear hearing from you. email me at bosslady080sw@yahoo.com
Yours Natalie
Email #3
Can I confide in you
The way these emails are written doesn’t sound natural, and the punctuation isn’t right in places. Some words don’t have the needed space between them. The email address I was told to write to in the second one is different than the one it was sent from. Maybe I just have a suspicious mind, but something doesn’t make sense here. The third email was from someone going by the name Imani Vaserman. It had no signature, no punctuation, and absolutely no explanation.
Writing Prompts:
Pretend a character in one of your stories receives one of the above emails.
Now pretend that your character responds to this email. What does he say? Is he serious? Polite? Rude? Does he attempt to thwart whatever plans the one who sent this to him has?
How big of a temptation to your character is the money mentioned? Does this convince your character to respond?
Could the letter be some kind of code? Why was your character chosen to send the letter to? How did this person get his address if it was sent through the mail? If sent to your character’s email address, how did they obtain that?
Can I confide in you? What does this person with to tell your character? His plans of the bank robbery of the century?
Is the writer of this email being held prisoner in some foreign country?
Does he want your character to become his confidant? Why?
Does he want your character to help him with some crime? A murder?
Why does he want to confide in your character, someone he doesn’t even know?
But your character could also have written an email similar to one of the examples. Is he devious enough to do it under his own volition? If so, what is he trying to accomplish?
Under what circumstances would your not-so-devious character be persuaded to send such an email to someone? Has your character been kidnapped? Threatened? Has someone kidnapped and/or threatened the lives of those he loves if he doesn’t do as asked? And what is the purpose of this email?
Before the internet and email accounts, would your character have sent such a letter to someone they didn’t know who lived in a faraway country?
Videos:
The below videos show how James Veitch has dealt with some of the spam email he has received. No matter how much these videos make you laugh, you’re bound to get more writing prompt ideas from watching them.
