419 Scammer Gets Scammed 295
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."
Finna keep ge'in paid (Score:2, Interesting)
When they get counterscammed for a significant amount, let me know.
It's a reverse scam, but not for personal gain (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Artists Against 419 (Score:5, Interesting)
Similiar site on 419 emails (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, meet the Nigerian death squad (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably not good people to have your home address and phone.
Re:Two wrongs don't make a right! (Score:3, Interesting)
BUT - fraud is a punishable offence, and in this case it was committed IN a western country, and as such, it would probably be sufficient to tip off the local authorities (district attorney, or similar) about the scam. In countries like Switzerland or Germany (and I would suspect in most western countries) the district attorney would be OBLIGED to follow up on this, since it is a CRIMINAL offence.
The Nigerian might probably not even have to come to the US as a witness (but just bear witness at an embassy) if he would face prosecution himself!
Re:Artists Against 419 (Score:2, Interesting)
hurting the scammers in this way (presumably slightly illegal) is good imho - make them costly. (just as spams)
Do you part to fight scams, scam a scammer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Two wrongs don't make a right! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
My favorite scambaiting (Score:1, Interesting)
Who would pursue it? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the old "you can't con an honest man" (not entirely true, but often enough so). People will be hooked in on something that doesn't sound legit, but they're too greedy for sound big-bucks or quick-cash that they fall for it. When they get scammed, they don't go to the police because to do so would be basically admitting they were duped while trying to circumvent the law.
Of course, there are some notably stupid exceptions. I believe police once arrested a woman because she claimed she'd been sold sugar instead of cocaine. They arrested the dealer, and the woman (it was cocaine).
If you think that it's fake... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've not yet conned money from anyone, but I have managed to get two scammers to be 'baptized' in the name of my church (the Church of the Golden Shower), and you can see the pics linked in a previous posting of mine [slashdot.org] (the pics are also in the 419eater.com Trophy Room, along with two other trophies that I received previously, one of them a Father's Day card for my dad, but right now the site is slashdotted). The "Golden Shower" baits are still ongoing, and I'm tempted to get the scammers to send me something via snail mail. Perhaps not money, but maybe hardcopies of the photos.
At some point I plan to document the email exchanges that led up to me receiving the pictures. I'm not as funny in my presentation, but it would at least give other baiters who haven't had luck getting pics an idea of how to convince the scammers to send one (in my case, I played along until they asked for money, then confessed that I personally couldn't afford what they wanted, but I could appropriate church funds ONLY if they agreed to join the church).
I have no reason to doubt the Church of the Painted Breast bait. The guy in the pic was successfully baited by others (note that one of the pics that Shiver/Mike/David sent is of a group of clowns with other pictures of "Joe" photoshopped in -- those came from other baiters, and you can see one where he's dumping water on his head and holding a sign that reads "SOAKED!") and Shiver is a resident expert amongst the baiting community.
Damn you could have flashmobbed them instead (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Do you part to fight scams, scam a scammer (Score:3, Interesting)
(and before you telemarketing
Without ever actually buying anything, I take up as much of their time as I can so they can aggravate the fewest people (overall) at the highest expense and with the least payback possible. How does this "help"? By starving them (eventually) out of existence; they know there is only a certain amount of "gold" in them-thar hills, and their chosen method of retrieving it has shifted over just the last few years from the equivalent of "panning" a small stream to "sluice-mining" the entire mountain down to a puddle -- if it takes just as long for them to retrieve all the gold in the mountain using one method as the other, even they will eventually choose to use the least expensive method (and that business model isn't going to involve paying a ka-hundred college students, retirees, and bored housewives even minimum wage to sit in rented office space and use rented telephone lines to bother you and me, it's going to much more closely resemble doing some actual market research and targeting their customers -- think rifle -vs- shotgun.)
Under Sharia law, the scammers get a hand cut off (Score:3, Interesting)
Islam doesn't have a unique claim to this sort of barbarity. According to the Bible [crosswalk.com], if you find a thief breaking in, you can simply kill him. If he is caught later, and doesn't have sufficient funds to make restitution, he can be sold into slavery [crosswalk.com].
The people the scambaiters need to fear are not the proponents of Sharia law, but the scammers themselves. The scammers are, after all, simply organised criminals.
Re:Under Sharia law, the scammers get a hand cut o (Score:5, Interesting)
According to the Bible, if you find a thief breaking in, you can simply kill him.
That's how it is according to Oklahoma law, too, and many other states.
It's called the "make my day" law: if I find you breaking into my home (castle doctrine), you are presumed to be there with the capability and intent to do me harm. Accordingly, I can employ lethal force in my own defense. And, for the record, I don't consider this barbaric at all: if you're invading my home, why should I have to stand at grave disadvantage and risk of grievous bodily harm while determining what your plans are? Out on the street, in public, etc., yes--circumstances are open to interpretation, and I need to be sure that the threat actually exists. When you break into my home, though, you're explicitly demonstrating some threat, even unarmed. There is no confusion about your intent when you've broken into my home: you're there to break the law, and you've demonstrated that by doing so (B&E is illegal). How many more laws you're going to break, I don't know, but I'm not obliged to wait for you to start assaulting/killing/raping/etc. me/my family before I act defensively.
Anyhow, no, Islam is not unique in how it deals with home invasion, but I don't consider that barbaric, just good defensive practice. As for hand-chopping, well, I don't care for the practice (I think it is barbaric), and I don't like the idea of selling him into slavery, either (though I'm quite fond of the idea of restitution), but I don't get to make those decisions (at least not until I take over the world).
The funny thing (Score:3, Interesting)
Stringing along 419ers. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Under Sharia law, the scammers get a hand cut o (Score:3, Interesting)
The food bit was suprising to me. I wonder how we can live in a society where people must steal food in order to live. I felt sorry for him because worrying about eating has never been a problem for me.
Does he deserve to die for a few crusty bit of bread? No. Death is not a suitable punishment.
"Make my day"? I feel sorry for you too.