419 Scammer Gets Scammed

johnduffell writes "There's a lot of awareness of 419 scams at the moment, including a report from the BBC of a baiter who managed to get $80 and a birthday card by courier! He did this by convincing the scammer that he was in the Church of the Painted Breast and there's even a photo of the scammer with his breast painted! Presumably the scammers are hoping that the scammees are as stupid as they are."

Comments

Two wrongs don't make a right!

[beh]

The question now is just, whether the stupid idiot on the other hand might
actually sue those who tricked him for having been scammed for US$80.

There is not much chance he would get anything out of this, as he
tried to scam people himself, nevertheless - it might keep the guy
here quite busy for a while (because he might STILL have to appear
in front of a court).

Now - THAT would be interesting to see... ;-)

Always remember - they might be on the "safe side", since THEIR
judicial system doesn't care too much about them. But on the other
hand, by tricking the 419 scammer out of his money, we are breaking
OUR laws (be that in the US, Europe, or wherever you are - and our
courts look very different on these issues!). Or - in simple
terms: Two wrongs don't make a right!

Also - in comparison, the guy in Nigeria is guilty of ATTEMPTED
fraud, whereas the guy who tricked him out of his US$80 is guilty
of ACTUAL fraud...

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for making sure that this whole 419
scam thing stops. But I don't think we should simply skip the
principles of our 'western world' while doing it!

Re:Two wrongs don't make a right!

[sH4RD]

Tell that to the P-P-P-Powerbook scammer.

Re:Two wrongs don't make a right!

[yog]

But on the other hand, by tricking the 419 scammer out of his money, we are breaking OUR laws (be that in the US, Europe, or wherever you are...

That's fuzzy thinking.

What law did this fellow break, exactly? He asked someone to send him some money, they did, and he kept it. There was no legal, signed contract between them. There was no handshake or face-to-face meeting or phone call or anything. Just an unsolicited email requesting money that was answered with an equally unsolicited request for money.

If someone walks up to you on the street and says, "Please give me your bank account number so that I can share millions of dollars with you" and you say "OK, but it will cost you $80" and they hand you $80, have you stolen their money if you then don't share your bank account number with them, which they want for obviously nefarious purposes? I know of no law that covers this sort of behavior between two private individuals.

Morally speaking you have more of a point. The question is, is it immoral to steal from a thief, or rather in this case to trick a thief into giving you some of their ill-gotten gains? Questionable.

This is funny but,

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't running a reverse scam like this one illegal? I mean, the nigerian scammer got what he deserved in every way, but isn't it kind of dangerous to do these kinds of reverse scams? I know the governments in the U.S. and UK might actually prosecute, which the nigerian scammers don't have to worry about from their govs.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Stupid..

[SlashDread]

"Presumably the scammers are hoping that the scammees are as stupid as they are."

Having met a decent slice of Human population, I can say that in fact that is the case.

"/Dread"

It's a reverse scam, but not for personal gain

[cryptor3]

Several commenters have expressed concern that what this guy is doing is equally wrong, and that he could risk getting sued.

Besides the previously mentioned unlikeliness of any sort of extradition, the article made clear that all proceeds from these reverse scams go to a children's charity. Therefore he's clearly not doing this for personal gain.

I'm would guess that as long as this type of thing doesn't become a serious epidemic, there's no reason the reverse scammers would receive an adverse judgement. Besides, someone has to lodge a complaint against this activity, and who's gonna do that?

Customs:

[Beardo the Bearded]

Customs Agent: Reason for entering the country?

Scammer: I'm here to beat the tar out of David Hyde Pierce of the Church of the Painted Breast, who stole $80 from me while I was trying to rip him off for $18,000.

Customs Agent: *puts on gloves* Step into this room, sir.

Artists Against 419

[Spazholio]

If you don't want to directly engage the scammers, but still want to hurt their cause, check out this site. All the images there are taken from the fake banking sites that the scammers set up. The pages refresh every 2 minutes to keep the bandwidth usage going. If you REALLY want to hurt them, and have bandwidth to spare, try going to this page. It will load 12 images, all from the aforementioned fake banking sites as fast as your connection will allow.

Now, meet the Nigerian death squad

[GPLDAN]

There's a very good reason that Mike didn't want to give the BBC his real name. These guys are like the mafia, I don't think they appreciate being made fools of. Many Nigerians believe in "Sharia" - or the death penalty for all kinds of transgressions. Source link

Probably not good people to have your home address and phone.

Re:There's no way they could really press charges.

[Beardo the Bearded]

Didn't they arrest 500 people last month for running these scams? Ah, yes, here's the link:

Scammers arrested.

Re:You know...

[kfg]

If you read the article and/or had ever read 419eater you'd know that this is an extensive international ring.

As it happens they have confederates in London and Mike can be assumed to be in England given that it's a BBC story. Holland is also a big center of the "Nigerian" scam. They can afford all of this because, I'm afraid, the scam actually works.

While the poor schlubs who actually work the scam in the initial phases are poor patsys the people actually working the scam are rich, powerful and often even Nigerian government and law enforcement officers, which is part of what makes prosecutions of the scammers a nonstarter in Nigeria.

KFG

Not All Nigerians are Scammers

[frank249]

Last fall I received an email from a Nigerian who identified himself as a psychologist and was interested in obtaining some stress management materials I referenced on my website. As soon as I read it I thought to myself that this was going to be the start of a 419 scam. I almost ignored it but then thought that I would play along. I told him that to mail the materials I would need $15US to cover the postage and to my surprise a couple weeks later a cheque arrived. I was sure it was going to bounce but when it didn't, I sent him what he asked for. The moral is that Nigeria is a big country and not everyone there is trying to run a scam.

Re:Not All Nigerians are Scammers

[cherokee158]

That's true, but Nigeria is alsoa country where people will deliberately block your car while a grease monkey crawls under it and wrecks your transmission...coincidently just a block down the street from a repair shop. (Source: The World's Most Dangerous Places)

Nigeria is a cesspool of lawlessness and violence. Stereotyping isn't always fair, but it may just save your life.

The Church of the Painted Breast Is A SCAM!!

[bfg9000]

If I were this guy, I'd forget about the spammers -- I'd be more worried about his involvement at the Church of the Painted Breast. I just asked my Most Holy Pastor here at the Church of Scientology, and he told me the Painted Breasters are a scam and just a "stupid made up religion to scam the weakminded out of their money". And my pastor isn't lying -- in fact, he *can't* lie, even if he wanted to. He cast out the demons of lying when that exorcism went on sale last fall. I wish I had the $23,500 required; all I had was $15,000, so I just exorcised the demons of disobedience and free thought.