The letter is like the requests that people sometimes get in the mail, asking for money to put the person on some list or publish the person's name in some book. If you ask enough people for money, and you do it with sophisticated looking letters, some people will pay. Like any good phishing scheme, you do it by the numbers and only grab at the low hanging fruit.
I suppose I thought that the Copyright Office would be different, that somehow it was above the scammers and the junk mailers. I suppose I was wrong. I do not mean to imply that the Copyright Office is involved, but there are people who fervently watch the records of the office and send letters like that shown below. I especially like how my blog post is referred to as a manuscript and how the signature looks like two sea gulls. I may follow up on this, and if I do, look for more posts.
