Once upon a time...back when the Internet was young. And I mean most people still did not have an email address, much less email addresses for their various roles, some legal eagle decided to put a footer on their emails indicating they were privileged information and that if you were not the intended recipient you should destroy it, etc. You may have seen them, and they are still kicking around, depend on who you do business with and what their job is. It has been generally agreed they are not legally binding, much less even enforceable, but if it makes you feel better when you write highly confidential information on a postcard, knock yourself out.

Today, on a very colorful spam message, saying I was awarded a scholarship to a real US University I neither applied to nor that the message has any actual affiliation with, the following legalize was attached:

Disclaimer: The information in this email and any attachments contains proprietary, confidential and legally privileged information and therefore is intended only for the person(s)/recipient(s) named in the message header. Further all such proprietary, confidential and privileged information is owned by Brain4ce Education Solutions Private Limited operating through its brand Edureka. 

If you are not the addressee/recipient of this message, you shall not copy, forward, print, distribute, disclose or use any part of this message. If you have received this message inadvertently, please immediately notify the sender about the same and delete this message and all copies from your system.

Yes, the spammer is fronting for a US University but is really claiming to be Edureka, which based on the Internet reviews is either a full up scam or valuable use of money. Since the document itself is so full of bogus links and contains an Indian call back number (no US Institution would ever do that), I have to say the whole thing is pretty much a giant scam and I will not be sending them my $1250 USD, even though I was awarded a scholarship. I really need a new NAS drive anyway.

Admissions Office: Academic Year 2024

To,
Selected Learner / Candidate

This is to inform you that, you are selected for the special scholarship for Post Graduation Program in DevOps Engineering given by [Respectable US] University, USA and the selection is done based on your profile and various other factors which our joint committee decides for this program by [Respectable US] University at Edureka.

You are required to enroll on or before the 23rd of April 2024 to utilize the special scholarship.

Now, you have the opportunity to study Cloud and advanced DevOps from [Respectable US] University. And upgrade your knowledge through a challenging curriculum.

-- The opening text from the SPAM message