The 419eater Community Pulls Some Legs

trusteR writes "Always in the pursuit to rid the world of 419 scams with new and often very entertaining strategies, the class of 419eater.com have set new records in making scambaiting an entertaining and funny artform. Shipping ANUS laptops, $$$, Death treats, Audio and lots of pictures." This beats the amusement value of a Captain Kirk passport; the scam-baiters here managed to get cash in the mail and get rid of some less-than-perfect hardware.

Comments

google cache

[helfen]

this site need cache - http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:vyoLxQBww68J:sp l.haxial.net/nigerian-fraud/

what about violence?

[alarocca]

hows about some 419maulers.com ... instead of simply making fun of the scammers, we should abuse them with medieval torture devices and post the pictures on the internet!

Eh

[RyoShin]

While I don't mind a scammer getting karma-lized, I have to wonder about the whole procedure. Of course, the legality of the scammar isn't the question, but rather the legality of the counter-scammer. This sounds about the same as the P-p-powerbook (which I'm sure everyone remembers): Sending false goods, misappropiating funds, etc. However, for any charges to be pressed, it will have (had) to be intercepted by federal agents and seen for what it is, or the scammar will have to spill the beans. Both cases are very unlikely, so the counter-scammar is probably safe.

However, I suggest against going this far in the future. Keeping the guy going with fake e-mails is probably fine and well, but when you start with the exchange of funds or goods (sic), where is the line drawn that the counter-scammer doesn't become a scammer himself?

Re:Eh

[ravenspear]

where is the line drawn that the counter-scammer doesn't become a scammer himself?

Obviously he is a scammer himself. But that is the whole point. The people doing this wouldn't consider it wrong becasue they are not scamming innocents, but rather those who would scam innocents. Whether that argument is valid is more of a personal opinion. This is just a new form of vigilante justice which has always been a topic of disagreement. If I knew you were going to kill me tomorrow would I be justified in killing you today?

The Cthulhu Nigerian chain-yank is still the best

[Anonymous Coward]

www.geocities.com/steerp1ke/David_Ehi.html

'Nuff said.

Re:Worse than 419

[Jucius Maximus]

"Not realy, for the same reason that fraud is aparintly legal in the countries where most of these 419 scams."

Are you aware that the name "419 Scams" comes from section section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, which is used to prosecute these guys?

Re:And there goes the servers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Also since I frequent there, and since slashdot killed the site(thanks a lot trusteR!) here are some more details.

The scammer was trying to do a fake check scam, where they send you a fake check to pay for the goods. These scams count on people depositing the check, and thinking that the check cleared. They also tend to send some amount over what you requested, with them asking you to send the remainder to someone else(which is usually them or someone affiliated in the scam). Then when the bank figures out the checks a fraud, the victim is missing the goods that the scammer "bought," and owes the bank what ever money they gave back to the scammers.

The computers got the name Anus because the scammer called them that.

To continue the story, the scammer issued a threat about not receiving the computers, and only getting junk. The scammer then send a DHL shipper to pick the "real"(still more junk) package up. At this stage the package is not traceable, something is up with DHL. Both the scambater and the scammer don't know what is up at this point.

Also some of the scambaters found the place where the packages were being shipped to, and visited what appears to be someplace in the UK the scammers drop their ill-gotten goods off. They posed as inspectors, got pictures of the supposed scammer/scam helper, and took what appears to be pictures of some remains of the scammer/helper's other scams.

So that is all that is known at this point, and they tend to be frequent on updates when info comes in. Due to the slashdotting I doubt they will be updating this as frequent.

Re:I'm surprised this scam even works

[stratjakt]

A cheque written on anything is legal, you don't have to use the slips of paper the bank sends you.

I could write "pay to the order of (whoever) 1200.00" on a kleenex, and it's still a cheque. All it needs is my account number and signature/stamp.

Banks would (and of course, should) give you a hard time cashing it, they'd probably call my bank, and my bank would call me, but in the end, after much bitching, it's a legal cheque.

All a cheque is is a written permission from whoever writes it for the bank to transfer the funds.