I receive at least 1-2 of those African spams a week.  They have to be the 
most ludicrous scam I've ever seen in my life.  More importantly, it is junk email that ties up my system and my time (even hitting the delete button is becoming a chore for these stupid emails). Many of you probably feel the same way.

Does anyone have any idea how these began, where they come from, or if anyone has actually ever fallen for it?  Does it originate in Africa, or is it just someone with too much time on his/her hands?  Should we consider the African spam a virus (like a Worm)?  Most importantly, can our computer department create a retro-virus that goes back to the source and destroys that computer just for sending African spam mail???  

A long time ago I attempted to reply just to see what would happen (no really, I just wanted the millions!). My email bounced back with a "bad address" reply, so how do they expect to scam someone if the reply email is not valid?

Does anyone have any ideas about how to kill this internet infestation?

Tom Bodkin