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Dear Prince Alwasi,

Your wonderful opportunity has come in answer to our urgent prayers. We are members of a church in great need of these funds for a new roof and have been faithfully praying for just such help. In order for us to proceed, you would simply need to become a member of our church. Please see here for details:

http://www.419eater.com/html/k...

Did you post your correspondence here? http://www.419eater.com/

I also use Adobe Reader / Windows to fill out the SF424 forms because, well, if it screws up because you've got your panties in a twist about not using one company's software versus another's, and you don't get the grant because the form was unreadable or inconsistent, you have no one to blame but yourself.

This is true: if you want the grant, you must comply with whatever rule the funding agency requires. If they ask for a photograph of the PI with a herring on his head, then you better fish-up.

The question is whether those bureaucratic rules are necessary or appropriate. Is your DARPA grant allowed to include a windows computer for the sole purpose of filing grants? Is there some technical superiority to Acrobat forms over html or javascript forms?

I'm always pleased when the US government allows me to use my Linux box (and I do that preferentially), but as a realist, I also have a dedicated Windows box on my desk for exactly the times when the assumption has been made that Windows is the computational substrate.

Seems pretty wasteful if you, and dozens (? hundreds?) of other people, have to go buy a second computer, OS, and other software from a specific vendor just for communicating with the government. I don't think anyone's asking you to pick up the banner and fight the power, but don't denigrate the people who are trying to push the government to move to better systems.

The form progression has, so far, followed a minimum-change model. First the paper: typewritten onto pre-printed forms. Then Word template documents to print and mail. Then the dedicated program where you load pdfs generated from the old Word templates into fixed fields (I think I still have a copy of that monstrosity, which was definitely worse for the applicant). Now the Acrobat fillable-forms with pdf-attachments. It gets a little better every time, so let's not stop improving it.

It's rare to find an exec (or person, for that matter) who has every skill. Some are good at negotiating, others are good at motivating underlings. Some have 'vision.' One who knows how to lead a manufacturing firm might be clueless in the hotel industry.

This guy's skill seems to have involved getting good contracts through 'soft skills.' His gullibility to this is reminiscent of 419 eaters.....those who scam fall hardest to scams because of their greed.

the Nigerian 411 scammers is to simply give yourself the following test: "If it's too good to be true, it most definitely is." No one in their right is just going to wire several million dollars into your account in exchange for a small transaction fee. The best thing to do is just delete these emails. Or, if you feel intrepid, it might be fun to bait them along for a little bit.

411 is the telephone number for "information" in the US. You're thinking of 419.

Have a good day!

So, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

If you've got some time on your hands, toddle over to 419 Eater and get educated. If you have even more time on your hands, become a scam baiter.

Nice reference, Sir! That is one of the classics in 419 eater.

http://www.419eater.com/html/m...

My personal favorite was The Incredible Shrinking Artwork (http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm). But you can waste far too much time on that site.

Don't forget PPP-PowerBook
  http://joi.ito.com/images2/thepowerbook.pdf

Lazer!!!

Nice reference, Sir! That is one of the classics in 419 eater.

http://www.419eater.com/html/m...

My personal favorite was The Incredible Shrinking Artwork (http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm). But you can waste far too much time on that site.

As long as it doesn't affect the scam baiters.

There's a couple more rules of thumb that help: 1. It's much harder to cheat an honest person. For example, if you don't download kiddie porn, it's very hard to get you to pay a fine to avoid trials for doing so. The Nigerian prince scam worked only on people who were willing to help somebody commit money laundering. 2. If it seems fishy, it's a scam. Anyone saying "money for nothing" (who's not a member of Dire Straits) should be suspect.

Righto! cf. http://www.419eater.com/

Great baiting story here. They got the scammer to send money and pictures of himself. (I'd like to do business with you but first you'll have to join our church). Or this one where they scored some awesome wood carvings from the scammer.

Great baiting story here. They got the scammer to send money and pictures of himself. (I'd like to do business with you but first you'll have to join our church). Or this one where they scored some awesome wood carvings from the scammer.

Some people do that, and even manage to get pictures of their scammers by asking for a proof that they do exist by making a picture of them with a sign spelling the name of the sender (And sometimes senders are called Iam A. Dick) http://www.419eater.com/html/hall_of_shame.htm

You have a lot to learn

It's potentially entertaining, and you can win free prizes like bizarre pictures if you do it right. One guy even managed to get a dollar out of one of the scammmers. See 419eater.com for examples and helpful tips (including how to avoid getting in any trouble yourself).

Sounds like we need one of those incredibly dangerous tribble harvesters.
http://419eater.com/html/tope.htm

(worth reading)

That's good. But, this, is rich!

http://419eater.com/html/bigman2.htm

You can see plenty of them here: http://www.419eater.com/ in a Hall of Shame.

The idea of wasting a scammer's time and resources reminds me of http://www.419eater.com/ (even though this is a non-419 example)

Hi

Would you be kind enough to use the contact page on my website to send me a private message:
  * http://www.419eater.com/

Thanks :D

He illegaly gained access to servers in the US, so he commited the crime in the US and should be prosecuted there.

he is accused of illegally gaining access (even his own admission isn't sufficient to declare him guilty until he is found guilty by a jury - he may have given it in the hope of staying in the UK)

But your whole argument is totally stupid and short sighted. Let's find some equivalents.

• A Nigerian court has decided to extradite Father Bateyoo Reelgud on suspicion of fraudulently leading on a Nigerian citizen.
• Predator pilot Robby Williams is accused by the Afghan government of manslaughter for the destruction of a civilian house next to a Taliban base.
• The Ayatollah of Tehran has demanded the extradition of Moron Oxyd, an American citizen accused of libelling the keeper of the holy scriptures. It is believed the charge would fail in the US, but since it fits under an existing US law, the judge is not allowed to examine the evidence.

What is so wrong with just trying this in the UK where the guy was all the time?

It can be so fun!

http://www.419eater.com/index.php

I bet you'd have a lot of fun with scam baiting. :-)

A wonderful story, but please don't stop there and put those emails themselves up on the Net!

\Sure thing

I was doing this for a while myself, but... it got to the point where it was like, "why bother?" My time is worth more than it takes to make some jerk ...well, look like a jerk. Come to think of it... it's kind of how I felt when I gave up on Gentoo as taking up entirely too much time and yielding entirely too little return...

I think you would fit in well with this group: http://www.419eater.com/ ^^

Wherever there are niggers, there is crime.

Checkout this Scambaiting advice site:
http://www.419eater.com/

OMG.

Thanks for the link.

Monty Python's "Dead Parrot Sketch" performed by Nigerian Email Scammers. Truly priceless. Almost worth the price they were promised.

The link. Make sure you follow the story all the way to AT LEAST the video on page 3.
http://www.419eater.com/html/bigman.htm

...419 Eater. My favorite is the Harry Potter handwriting scambait (search in the page for "after the call").

...419 Eater. My favorite is the Harry Potter handwriting scambait (search in the page for "after the call").

I wonder if any nigerian has ever tried it? By the way, about the 419's, check out http://www.419eater.com/ Scambait is great!

Because I like to scambait.

... now you can take up scambaiting as a sport.

Sort of like hating fraudsters but having a good feeling about fraudsters being scammed themselves

Maybe you could get a Nigerian scammer to record it for you, like this guy did for HHGTTG.

-Jupo

I was just revisiting the 419eater website due to yesterday's news about a woman being scammed for $400k and came across this version of the sketch (scroll to near the bottom of the page)

http://www.419eater.com/html/bigman2.htm/

No one ever won by sending money to a Nigerian.

http://419eater.com/

These guys bait scammers, usually persuading them to send a ridiculous picture of themselves - but one guy actually managed to persuade a scammer to send a $25 'clearing fee' before he would send his own 'clearing fee' back.

No one ever won by sending money to a Nigerian.

http://419eater.com/

These guys bait scammers, usually persuading them to send a ridiculous picture of themselves - but one guy actually managed to persuade a scammer to send a $25 'clearing fee' before he would send his own 'clearing fee' back.

http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm "'Prince' Joe Eboh contacts me with a classic 419 opening letter. I decide to make him jump through a few hoops before I'm prepared to agree to his proposition, and the results are amusing AND profitable, to the tune of $80 + $49 DHL shipping, so our scammer is down a whopping total of $129"

I'm sure there's a Nigerian scammer out there who is as dumb as this lady. Problem is, he almost certainly doesn't have any money to be scammed out of. I mean you might be able to get one to hang a laptop from his penis or pose with a fish while wearing a bra (they're both in there somewhere) but a financial gain seems very unlikely.

In contrast, I've been to casinos about 4 times, and I'm up about $200 overall. That's not all that unusual.

No one ever won by sending money to a Nigerian.

True ... but sometimes they can win and get the Nigerian to send THEM the money (or at least lots of entertainment of intangible value) http://www.419eater.com/.

Actually, there are quite a few people who get big payouts from the scammers. See http://www.419eater.com/

But, my point was that the scammers and the casinos bait and hook their victims with promises of big payouts to keep you giving them money. The majority of people will see the gamble and not take the risk. Others like the one in the article, or the man in this article: http://www.onlinecasinoadvisory.com/casino-news/land/casino-loses-collection-case-1939.htm take the bait and keep pumping the money in.

From the linked article: "In March 2000 he began a bad run at blackjack during which he lost over $3.5 million in one night."

Just because casinos show you the rules beforehand, they will drain you as fast (if not faster) than the scammers could.

This scammer got tattooed, all right.

No, I believe the GP means the ones that have just come into a large inheritance and need you to give them some money to help them get the inheritance out of Africa and into your bank account.

We know from the letter, that the devices will be shipped with Mandriva Pre-installed. And that Mandriva has already been paid. It also seems likely that money has already changed hands in favor of the Nigerian government to support this "sudden change of heart".

Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Will it come to MS deploying goons to ensure the software gets installed?

From a country that specializes in "Wire us some $$$ and you will be rich", it may be the case that MS marketing drones may be experiencing the joys of an industrial-scale 419 scam.

I've seen this story on several Apple/Mac related news sites yet, and the majority of the comments consisted of Apple apologists telling each other "nothing to worry about, because you still have to enter your admin password".

The type of people who will be infected by this will be similar to the types that get caught up in the 419 scam.

The only real reason this is news is because it's the first occurrence of an OSX trojan in the wild. Much like Crispus Attucks, it's only getting exposure because it's the first.

This really isn't any different than someone creating an applescript called FreePr0n.app that erases a user's harddrive, and as other commentors have pointed out, it requires a bit of user interaction to actually get itself installed. Although I'm sure people who jumped ship to OSX thinking that the mac is virusproof are going to run anything and everything they come across on the internet thinking their safe.

Good thing Leopard adds an extra layer of protection.

and why does safari have the Open "safe" files on by default, again? I don't get that.

409 scam, is that where they take you into a room and spray you with a bleach solution until you submit? Or is it where they make you watch flash websites about products that don't deserve websites?

Or do you mean 419 scams?

no, bad nigerian.

He looks like the guy from the 419 scams

Or even better, http://www.419eater.com/html/bigman2.htm for a more recent version.