This is a first… the African “multi-million dollars are coming to you” scheme has now reached Skype. How could it not?

Dear friend,

We want to transfer to overseas ($6,000.000.00 USD) six million United States Dollars) from a Bank in Africa. Iwant to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up anew Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c canserve,as long as you will remain honest to me till the end for this important business,trusting in you and believing in God that you will never let me down either now or in future.

Blah, blah, blah

For now, I just blocked that user. But if it starts to be a real issue, here’s what you can do –

• Go to Preferences > Privacy
• Set “Allow instant messages from” to “Only people whom I have authorized to start”.

Now this means a new friend can’t get in touch with you, but it is probably worth it if spammers start using Skype actively. I hope Skype also adds a “report this user” functionality before it gets out of hand.