Friday, May 14, 2004

Scamming the scammers?

You know about the "Nigerian Scam" or "419 scam" email stupidity. As hard as it is to believe, it must be something that people fall for, because reportedly people are having bank accounts emptied and are traveling to Nairobi and all that as the result of scams from these idiotic emails.

Well there are some clever people who have been fighting back in a very humorous way, by baiting them, leading them on, posing as willing scam-ees with names like
Klench Mychiques, Shiver Metimbers, and the like, with the goal to at he very least waste their time, and at the best, get their names and details and report them to government agencies. But it looks like making them look like buffoons and stringing them along making them reply with embarrassing photos, phony signs, and spoofs that would be obvious to a child of 5, but not to these third world scammers, has become a real sport.

There are some examples on this site: and many others.
Here is a picture of scammers in Nigeria sending a photo back to the 419 baiter to respond to the "church" of his intended victim.