I've heard of these scams before. If you request more information, then there'll doubtless be some large transfer fee they'll ask you to pay their bank, and ... well, you guess how it goes from there.
As far as sophistication goes, this trick is one below "pull my finger."
i am getting this:
Thanks for letting me know. While our spam filters catch a huge majority of this type of spam, unfortunately some of it does still come through if a member reads their messages before the spammer account is closed.
Best thing to do with these, is report them as you have done, then delete their message and not reply to them at all.
Hey fellow members,
Anyone get one of these messages lately:
Dear friend,
We greet you in the name of almighty God.
My name is Sandra dickson and My Sister Juliet dickson, from Sierra Leone.
We are writing you from Rep of Cote d'Ivoire where we have been taking
refuge after the brutal war and murder of our parents by the rebels during the
renewed fighting in our country.
Because of the war our late Father sold his shipping company and took us to
a nearby country Cote d'Ivoire where he deposited US$7,500,000.00 Seven
Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars in his foreign account with one of the
bank here in Cote d'Ivoire.
Due to the current political situation in Ivory Coast,we are seeking for
your assistance to transfer this money and also relocate to your country to
further our study and we are willing to offer you 15% of the total sum for
your help but we believe that you will not sit on this money when the bank
here transfer it to your account, we wait for your responses so we will give
you more information about the transfer.
Yours Sincerely,
Sandra &Juliet dickson.er,
Now I don't mind great story telling or a good fabrication, but this qualifies as neither. I know these things happen, but come on. I'm too cheap to spend my money on anything other than chess books and guitar. I suppose I should be happy that I got a message from somebody.