As you might expect, the email was one of those crazy scam emails that originate from another continent and promise huge amounts of money. All of these types of email involve a little political intrigue plus one or more of the following...millions of dollars in cash or gold coins...access to a safe deposit box...a split of a truly massive treasure...and all for a little assistance to help move the money to an American Bank account.

Of course, there's no doubt in my mind that somewhere along the line (usually earlier rather than later) you'll be required to supply some banking information to make this entire thing work.

Yes...we've all received these silly scam emails. The plot lines are absolutely ridiculous and hard to believe. They are always horribly written, and it's almost impossible to believe that anyone in their right mind would ever respond to this kind of garbage.

However, they just keep coming don't they? Why? It's because every now and then...someone actually does respond positively to them. Occasionally, the thieves do get lucky and find a person foolish or desperate enough to play along. The emails are cheap to produce and cheap to distribute by the hundreds of thousands.

There are tons of things to hate about these crooks, but perhaps "Sheldon Uthman" can also teach us something about running a mortgage business. Now, I not at all suggesting that you lie, and scam, and con people at all.

But, these scam emails do illustrate the following important mortgage marketing lessons:

1. Volume creates profits. If you can drive enough traffic to your mortgage business, for instance, you will eventually close a loan. The more the merrier. Of course, you can increase your closings exponentially by improving your conversion rates ("Sheldon Uthman" could own all of Africa if every recipient of his story fell for his trap), but these scams do underline the importance of having a large traffic stream.

2. These rip-offs are really an inspiration in a somewhat strange way. It shows all of us that anything is possible. The idea of this strategy actually working is absolutely preposterous. These wild cons don't seem to have any chance of working. Yet they do. If a plan that bad can actually produce results, imagine how successful you can be with a well thought out mortgage marketing program, fair prices, and an honest high-quality service? The sky really is the limit isn't it?

You don't want to learn how to run your mortgage business from "Sheldon Uthman" (or any of the other phony names attached to these criminal emails), but if you look at them closely, you can find some legitimate lessons in them.

In all of this, "Sheldon's" email isn't going to lead you to a bank and millions of dollars in cash or rare gold coins, but look closely and it can provide you with something of value after all.