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Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers

Posted by timothy on from the and-throw-away-the-key dept.

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.

17 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. 419 by ZeekWatson · · Score: 5, Funny

    They look just like I'd imagined too!

    1. Re:419 by Chilliwilli · · Score: 5, Informative

      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
  2. You missed the best photo! by CrystalFalcon · · Score: 5, Funny

    In one of the letter threads, he requires the scammer to identify himself on a photo, With His Chosen Password!. Of course, this password is carefully chosen in order to positively identify the business transaction partner.

    Hilarious. :-)

  3. Further Sites by graveyardjohn · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Funny... but be careful! by kneecarrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just a friendly reminder to everyone that the criminals behind the Nigerian scam emails are just that -- criminals. There have been several murders involving those who have become involved with the scammers. Granted, these are people who went to meet with them foreign locales with pockets full of money. However, this is definitely a "better safe than sorry" scenario. If you really must contact these people for pestering purposes, guard your information carefully.

    --

    I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.

    1. Re:Funny... but be careful! by nodwick · · Score: 5, Interesting
      It actually seems like the victims are a pretty scary bunch too. The one murder quoted in the article was the shooting death of a Nigerian consul by a scammer victim:
      Last February a retired Czech doctor who had lost more than 400,000 stormed into the Nigerian Embassy in Prague and shot dead the leading consul.
      The point you're trying to make is a good one, though. I'd be a little more cautious about how much I mocked dangerous criminals in a public forum, especially when posting them to the internet using my personal domain. With the amount of information that's online these days, it's not that many more steps to reverse-engineer your identity from there.
    2. Re:Funny... but be careful! by whereiswaldo · · Score: 5, Funny

      With the amount of information that's online these days, it's not that many more steps to reverse-engineer your identity from there.

      That's why Slashdot continues to be the best place to make fun of our way too powerful overlords.

  5. A confidential message by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Date: November 16, 2003, 3:05 pm
    From: "Deeoni Chow" (address classified)
    To: Slashdot

    Dear Sir.
    My name is Deeoni Chow, and I am the Lawyer of Son of Marcos Jacobs, the recently Assassinated President of Nigeria. Your contact information was referred to me by one of my trusted contacts, whose name I am not at liberty to compromize. I would like to approach you with reguards to a possible lawsuite. Please to remove my clients picture from your internet immediately or we shall sue for $16,000,000.00 (SIXTEEN MILLION) US DOLLARS.

    Having a nice day, Hope this helping
    Deeoni Chow

  6. Scamorama by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 5, Funny
    Also check out Scamorama which is a similar site where the scammers fight back. One piece of my own handiwork can be found there.

    My favourite anti-scam-scam on that site is the one where they got the Nigerian guy to pose for a business card photo under the name "IAMA DILDO." It's laughalicious!

  7. Wouldn't do that myself by GauteL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These are rather unscrupulous people, and if they realize they have been played like this, they may very well try to get some sort of revenge that is less funny than these photographs.

    Personally I would just stay clear of them completely. Making fun of hard core criminals is not always that funny in the end.

    1. Re:Wouldn't do that myself by AzureLunatic · · Score: 5, Insightful
      If one's communicating with these scammers using one's most common e-mail address, and one has a significant web presence and hasn't always been careful about leaving personal information elsewhere, it's conceivable that someone with a grudge and a lot of time on their hands could do something interesting.

      For example, if someone were to Google my primary e-mail address, they could very well come up with a page that contains my real first and last name. With some of the information on that page, they could track me all over the web, where I've left my original hometown, the city I live in and the general area in that that I'm in now, and the school I attend. They could also find out who some of my online friends are, and could perhaps social engineer more information out of them. All of this is information that I wouldn't want shady characters getting their paws on.

      Even though my e-mail address cannot itself be traced to a specific location, I would definitely recommend using a brand-new address if playing with scammers' heads.

  8. Re:Little Hat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a loaf of bread - the anti-scammer had him pose with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine in order to "verify his identity" (i.e., waste his time and make him look like a fool).

    Brilliant!

  9. Been there, done that. by rylin · · Score: 5, Informative

    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*

  10. Without Nigerian Scammers by Pan+T.+Hose · · Score: 5, Funny

    Without Nigerian scam artists The Spam Letters would just not be the same. Keeping the above in mind, please reconsider your revenge. Thank you.

    --
    Sincerely,
    Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
    "Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
  11. Re:What revenge? by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well not really. If 1000 take 2 minutes to send a fake reply, that means a lot more work for the fraudster. How can they easily tell who's the hoax and who's the genuine victim, Agreed, you'd have to be by far the bluntest tool in the box to fall for this kind of scam, but anyone who tolerates or accepts this kind of crime has a fairly odd outlook on the world.

    --
    -- Using the preview button since 2005
  12. This one bets them all... by Handpaper · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I came across this page several months ago. The scammer is claiming to have a supply of gold, so the 'victim' demands a sample - and gets one!

  13. New Turing Test to Wipe Out Nigerian Scammers! by eversunsoft · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I propose a revised version of the Turing Test designed to wipe out Nigerian scammers.

    A program (preferrably written in Perl) will parse the Nigerian scammers letter, and automatically generate a response, leading the scammer into a web that will eventually entagle him and send him to the slammer.

    Since the average Nigerian scammer seems a bit dumb to begin with, this might be a suitable stepping stone for the artificial intelligence community to consider.