419 Nigerian scam...

[E-Raser]

... ever been invited to earn 10 or 20% of an enormous millions of dollars.
Get real much mony rather for free?
Just a tiny help to get some money out of Ivory coast or Nigeria or may be Russia even?
Sure

Have you also known that there is a serious community who scam the scammer? Google scambait and come up with 419eaters or scamorama.

Terrible funny e-mail corrospondance is shown there. Worth a read. And some nice pics also. Ever thought about a guy waiting at the airport holding high a plakat 'I love hairy pie".

What I simply want to know if someone here is involved in such a buiz-
and how your ideas are. Is it morally ok to scam the sammers? Humiliate them. Steal their time so they have less chances to actuall fool someone for real.

I've read they make about 100 millions of dollars each year with this kind of scam.

It is amazing how utterly stupid people really can be- just a riddle they know how to breathe...

 

[Rambuchan]

Excellent work Eraser!

I was going to start a thread up about this when I received my first 419 about a week ago. This is it, with advice on how to deal with them below:

DO NOT REPLY TO THESE MESSAGES (I have included the email address so you can see what they look like DO NOT contact it!)

Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:15:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Omar Ahmed" <omar0a@yahoo.com>
To: Send an Instant Message omar0a@yahoo.com

Subject: How are you?


Dear Beloved one,

Greeting to you,

I am Dr Omar Ahmed from the northern part of burkina faso.I want to seek your assistance after my discovery during auditing in my bank as am the manager of Bill and Exchange at the Foriegn Remittance Department of BANK OF AFRICA,(B.O.A.) In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of USD$10.8million US dollars in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in plane Crashes 2000,

Since his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately all the efforts proved abortive.

IT is therefore upon this discovery that I decided as the head of my department to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

Do not view this as been illegal <<< but an opportunity for us to help enrich our hope in life instead of the bank converting this much money to the security funds. You should not nurse any atom of fear <<< as all required arrangements have been made for the smooth transfer of this funds and your acceptance is what will crown this effort.

We will conclude this operation within 14 banking days based on the amount of coperation you will contribute.

Thank you for your understanding as await your urgent response to enable me give you more details.Please reply with omarcoco20005@yahoo.fr for security.

Remain blessed,

Dr Omar Ahmed.

I work in international finance and deal with banks all round the world everyday. I don't know of a single bank in the world that would conduct themselves like this. It is clearly a load of BS designed to trick some idiot.

RULE OF THUMB 1: If it sounds too good to be true - then it is! Who in their right mind, and with an honest heart, will give you US$10m for absolutely nothing?

RULE OF THUMB 2: Never reply to these emails, you will only confirm the message as read and that you are a potential victim to be scammed.

RULE OF THUMB 3: Report it as email / spam abuse to your email provider. Do not trouble the authorities about it unless...

RULE OF THUMB 4: ...if the email contains banking co-ordinates, a postal address, phone number - basically anything to trace them (not an email address) - then you need to report it to your appropriate "419 Fraud Office".

In Britain, this is handled by Scotland Yard and The Metropolitan Police. I recommend anyone who has seen these kind of emails click the link and read their advice, it's pretty universal, common sense advice they give.

http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/419.htm

 

[IglooDame]

I think there's a 419 Olympics out there somewhere, where people compete to see how far along they can string the scammers. Great fun, nothing immoral about it, etc., but people should keep in mind that while the people they're dealing with may have difficulty with languages, foreign cultures, and the like, they are criminals that have no moral objection to stealing thousands of dollars from innocent people. They would therefore probably find beating or killing someone that strung them along not too objectionable, either, so tread with a bit of caution.

 

[farting bob]

Ive received many of these emails. 'I am a property investor in nigeria. Send money to this suspicious email address, and i'll email you some more money in a year.'
Its stupid how people fall for these, and lets face it, it only takes 1 person to send money, and the scam has worked, since it costs nothing to send the emails.
Its good to scam scammers, they have no moral or legal leg to stand on.

Reminds me of the article i read from someone who was selling a laptop on ebay and the buyer was a scammer, saying he would put the money in a (fake) escrow account, then once the laptop arrives, the money would be sent to the seller (or not..). So the seller send a huge, box from america to this scammer in london, and put the value at $4,000. Aparently the buyer has to pay import duties, which is a % of the value of the item. so it cost the scammer $600 in the end to find out he had been scammed.

The best bit was because the scammer ran a internet cafe, a friend of the seller went to the place and recorded it over webcam when the guy opened the box.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

You could however post that e-mail all over the internet. It attracts spam like nothing else... I sure hope Nigerians are fond of penis enlargement pills

 

[E-Raser]

You could however post that e-mail all over the internet. It attracts spam like nothing else... I sure hope Nigerians are fond of penis enlargement pills

Nope, they'd close the account and open another one. The trick is to keep 'em busy for MONTH, palying the mickey with them- recieve some trophy fotos- send them with dumb plakats to the airport waiting for the mugu wit da mony- may be even one more time.

If you go along the scambaites you'll see some are seriously inventive with it

Highscore is even to make the scammer send a bill...

But never give them ANY chance to trace you- better they think of you in another country even...

 

[Jawz II]

as you mentioned, theres a guy with a website, he tries to waste the their time and make fun of them at the same time, some of the stuff he has done is really funny, like scam the scammer for 600 us dollars!!

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

 

[Rambuchan]

I think this was one of the best 419 scambaiting stories I heard of:

The Church of the Painted Breast Counter Scam - brilliant

Scambaiter Mike: "I tried to turn it round by saying I worked for a church and we couldn't do any business with people who are not of our faith."

Mike sent a response in the name of Father Hector Barnett of the Church of the Painted Breast.

Dear Sir,

I would dearly love to help you. If you ever decide to join our faith then of course I could help you both with my experience and financial support. I wish you well in your endeavour my brother.

Yours, Father Hector Barnett

"Now I knew the guy would write back and say: 'Well, can I join your faith?' and indeed he did," says Mike. This is the message that the scammer sent back:

Dear Father Hector,

If joining your faith is what it takes to help me of course, I am ready to join you. I'm from a good Christian family. I will do anything you want me to do in the faith. Don't forget that I have to transfer the money to your account as urgently as possible. Send me your account details. I hope to read your mail soon.

Prince Joe Eboh

Read the whole thing here.

Mike, the Scambaiter, even got a photo of this Prince Joe Eboh. Fully converted to the faith and complete with painted breast.

 

[E-Raser]

I think this was one of the best 419 scambaiting stories I heard of:

The Church of the Painted Breast Counter Scam - brilliant
Read the whole thing here.

Mike, the Scambaiter, even got a photo of this Prince Joe Eboh. Fully converted to the faith and complete with painted breast.

Read this one already, it a 12er

One is awfull read but this man has more talent than anyone else on figuring out a real soap opera!

http://www.angelfire.com/ns2/drinkwater/Table.of.Contents.Page.htm

this is incredible! Like Beverly Hills 9411

 

[Narz]

funny

10char

 

[ainwood]

I remember reading a case of a woman here in NZ who was up on fraud charges - she had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars.....



....And then lost it to a nigerian scam.

 

[Yom]

I've never gotten one, but they are hilarious (except when some idiot falls for it).

Here's a funny site that tricks them: www.419eater.com

 

[Cheetah]

A year or two ago I got lots of mails asking me to help a bank-owner in Nigeria to take over some millions of dollars form some accounts. Just had to send my card-number, passport, driving-license and a few more things.

The funniest I've heard of though, but which I never got, is of the Nigerian atronaut and millionair who has been stranded on the russian space station Mir for 8 months, cause the russians don't have enough money to get him down. Please send enough money to this account and the astronaut will send you 10/20% of his money or something...

Nigerian astronaut stranded in Mir for 8 months!

 

[Renata]

I've only ever gotten one that I'm aware of, on an email addresss I was a bit careless with a while back. It cracked me up; I called my then-boyfriend right up to chortle about it. My current yahoo account serves as spam-bait now, and their filters are pretty good, so I never see 99% of what comes through. The stuff Yahoo has missed has all been either porn or ridiculously transparent phishing attempts. Phishing is nowhere near as entertaining as the 419 stuff, sadly.

The anti-scam people can be devastatingly nasty, but the scammers deserve what they get.

Renata

 

[Rambuchan]

The funniest I've heard of though, but which I never got, is of the Nigerian atronaut and millionair who has been stranded on the russian space station Mir for 8 months, cause the russians don't have enough money to get him down. Please send enough money to this account and the astronaut will send you 10/20% of his money or something...

Nigerian astronaut stranded in Mir for 8 months!

You gotta hand it to these scammers. That is some very imaginative (and funny) story weaving! And they certainly are optimistic!

 

[Grisu]

I was going to start a thread up about this when I received my first 419 about a week ago.

you lucky guy, I get at least one 419 a week. unfortunately, I don't seem to get the funny ones, only the unimaginative 08/15-scams....

 

[Rambuchan]

you lucky guy, I get at least one 419 a week. unfortunately, I don't seem to get the funny ones, only the unimaginative 08/15-scams....

Yes, I was quite surprised I hadn't got one earlier. However my personal email does have a very good spam filter on it. Everyday at least 10 spam emails get deleted without me ever seeing them. So I might have received more. This was the first that made it through the filter.

 

[wit>trope]

You could however post that e-mail all over the internet. It attracts spam like nothing else... I sure hope Nigerians are fond of penis enlargement pills

From what I've heard and read (i.e. not seen), Nigerians generally don't need penis enlargement I heard this from a potentially biased source though. But there you go

 

[Steph]

From what I've heard and read (i.e. not seen), Nigerians generally don't need penis enlargement

Once upon a time in Nigeria, before the white man came, a familly was lazily taking the sun outside. As it was very hot, they were all naked.
Suddenly, the little boy asked "Dadday, can I play with your penis?" "Yes, but don't wander to far"' answered the father

 

[E-Raser]

INCREDIBLE-

I spread around a fake e-mail in various guestbooks and just one hour later I got the first scammer already
Guess I'll have a bit fun lately- keep you informed...