Slashdot Mirror
Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers
davesag writes "I just came across this fine site, 419Eater, wherin people counter scam the Nigerian 419 scammers that have been plaguing our spam filters for the past few years. The UK paper The Guardian is also running a fine article on this site. The site author, and several other contributors, have taken to responding to the scammers, using obviously fake names and so forth, and then string the scammer along for as long as possible. In many cases they get the scammer to pose for a photograph! Amazingly the scammers are just as gullible and greedy as their typical victims, and fall for the most obvious ruses hook, line, and sinker. 419eater welcomes contributors, so if you ever wanted to get your sweet revenge on these low-lives, here's a channel for you. The 419 refers to the section of the Nigerian criminal code under which such scams fall." We've linked to a few such fraud-baiters before, though few with as amusing a photograph.
There are a whole host people replying and stringing along the thieves and potential kidnappers - the Lads from Lagos have some great stories and images, Scamjunky (be kind, he's on geocities), and the obligatory Snopes link. There are also tons of links at Google Directory.
I think this guy is the original. This particular one dates back to early 2001.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
A swedish reporter (from Expressen) did this a few months ago.
After a while, he ended up meeting one of the people behind the scam.. in amsterdam. For anyone able to read swedish, the article can be found here.
The best part is definitely the 26th of April.
Back in stockholm
I call Lucas up:
Hi, it's Ingvar
-Where did you go? Are you trying to con me?
Lucas, I'm not who you think I am. I'm a reporter from a large newspaper, I'm just investigating your business.
*silence*
*click*
For more excellent pictures of the scammer see EbolaMonkeyMan ... this guys even pretends to be David Hasselhoff and they still keep emailing him!
Cure cancer.. and stuff! www.team45.info
Western Union numbers are usually just 6 or 7 digit numbers. the recipient turns up to their nearest WU office with photo id and gets their money. it's very fast. I was holidaying in Italy and realised I had forgotten to pay a mate in australia for some work he did so i just WU'd him and send him the code as a text message via my phone. he had the money within minutes.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
Not funny.
IIRC, a victim of the scam assumed that the fraudster really was from Nigeria, lost it, and took it out on the closest real Nigerian he could find.
The Czech doctor did not realize that the email only -appeared- to come from Nigeria, but it -actually- came from somewhere like Toronto. I am sure there is more than one scam, and they are probably coming from various points on the globe.
This is why we have to fix SMTP - there has to be a basic level of accountability. No more fake 'Reply-to:' addresses.
In fact, this con is really old, and it's always been aimed at collecting some interim fees to get to the big score.
It's so old, it used to be called the "Spanish Prisoner", back when there was a chance someone cared about who might be held prisoner by Spain... The story would be there was the son of some rich man being held prisoner, and the scammer was going to rescue him for a big reward. Of course, he'd need a little bit of money up front for expenses or bribes or whatnot. And then a little more. But it'd all be worth it when you got to the big payday.
The best kind of spam to response is the one offering to refinance your mortage/credit/whatever. The buyers of the database will pay up to 50 dollars per "lead".
My other OS is the MCP!