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It's funny. Laugh. Spam Your Rights Online

Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers 341

Posted by timothy from the and-throw-away-the-key dept.
davesag writes "I just came across this fine site, 419Eater, wherin people counter scam the Nigerian 419 scammers that have been plaguing our spam filters for the past few years. The UK paper The Guardian is also running a fine article on this site. The site author, and several other contributors, have taken to responding to the scammers, using obviously fake names and so forth, and then string the scammer along for as long as possible. In many cases they get the scammer to pose for a photograph! Amazingly the scammers are just as gullible and greedy as their typical victims, and fall for the most obvious ruses hook, line, and sinker. 419eater welcomes contributors, so if you ever wanted to get your sweet revenge on these low-lives, here's a channel for you. The 419 refers to the section of the Nigerian criminal code under which such scams fall." We've linked to a few such fraud-baiters before, though few with as amusing a photograph.
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Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers More

Sweet Revenge On Nigerian Scammers

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  • 419 (Score:5, Funny)

    by ZeekWatson ( 188017 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:08PM (#7488750)
    They look just like I'd imagined too!

  • You missed the best photo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrystalFalcon ( 233559 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:14PM (#7488796) Homepage
    In one of the letter threads, he requires the scammer to identify himself on a photo, With His Chosen Password! [ntlworld.com]. Of course, this password is carefully chosen in order to positively identify the business transaction partner.

    Hilarious. :-)

  • Further Sites (Score:5, Informative)

    by graveyardjohn ( 672128 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:14PM (#7488798) Journal
    There are a whole host people replying and stringing along the thieves and potential kidnappers - the Lads from Lagos [scamorama.com] have some great stories and images, Scamjunky [geocities.com] (be kind, he's on geocities), and the obligatory Snopes [snopes.com] link. There are also tons of links at Google Directory [google.com].
    • One of my friends has been trying to introduce them to each other.

      "I don't think I can help you, Mr. D---, but I think you might be interested in meeting Mrs. L---, recently a widow, who has a business proposition similar to yours..."

    • Heck, I even made it a company service offering:

      http://packetvision.net/money/

  • Funny... but be careful! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kneecarrot ( 646291 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:14PM (#7488799)
    Just a friendly reminder to everyone that the criminals behind the Nigerian scam emails are just that -- criminals. There have been several murders involving those who have become involved with the scammers. Granted, these are people who went to meet with them foreign locales with pockets full of money. However, this is definitely a "better safe than sorry" scenario. If you really must contact these people for pestering purposes, guard your information carefully.

    • Re:Funny... but be careful! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nodwick ( 716348 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:48PM (#7488992)
      It actually seems like the victims are a pretty scary bunch too. The one murder quoted in the article was the shooting death of a Nigerian consul by a scammer victim:
      Last February a retired Czech doctor who had lost more than 400,000 stormed into the Nigerian Embassy in Prague and shot dead the leading consul.
      The point you're trying to make is a good one, though. I'd be a little more cautious about how much I mocked dangerous criminals in a public forum, especially when posting them to the internet using my personal domain. With the amount of information that's online these days, it's not that many more steps to reverse-engineer your identity from there.

    • Re:Funny... but be careful! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MidnightBrewer ( 97195 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @05:26PM (#7489492)
      Someone willing to commit fraud is not automatically capable of murder.

      Considering that the great majority of computer users on the web probably pirate software, music, and other forms of media every day, that makes us all criminals (at least, according to the RIAA.) Do you feel like killing anybody?
      • Do you feel like killing anybody?

        Just spammers and RIAA members.

      • that makes us all criminals (at least, according to the RIAA.)

        Uh, not "according to the RIAA," but according to the law. Not to mention the moral issues.

        I love how Slashdot tries to force the issue into some sort of legal gray area when it's very simple. You're getting music without paying for it like you're supposed to. It's like pirating software, which is for some reason not as trumpeted around here. Why isn't that in the same legal gray area? Oh, that's right, because of Slashdot double standar

    • Nice made-up story. Please post a link to back it up if you want to be taken seriously.

      These email scammers are not strong-armed thugs. If they were, they would be kidnapping people in their own country and holding them for ransom. These are wimp-ass criminals. The kind who can't hold a pistol straight enough to steal money the old-fashioned way.

      Screw with them by all means possible. The more people that absorb their time, the more of a tarpit their scam becomes and they won't be able to operate as effe

  • lack of vision: courtesy of GREED (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dandelion_wine ( 625330 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:15PM (#7488806) Journal
    Having conned some con artists, myself (in other contexts), I am always amazed at how blind they are to the game. I mean, isn't it cliche that those who can't be trusted are always suspicious, because they expect the world to have motives like they do?

    I once conned someone ten minutes after he conned me, in exactly the same way, to teach him a lesson, and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

    Apparently the cartoons of my youth were right -- evil defeats itself through fatal flaws of its own design.
    Lack of vision: courtesy of greed.

  • A confidential message (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:17PM (#7488813)
    Date: November 16, 2003, 3:05 pm
    From: "Deeoni Chow" (address classified)
    To: Slashdot

    Dear Sir.
    My name is Deeoni Chow, and I am the Lawyer of Son of Marcos Jacobs, the recently Assassinated President of Nigeria. Your contact information was referred to me by one of my trusted contacts, whose name I am not at liberty to compromize. I would like to approach you with reguards to a possible lawsuite. Please to remove my clients picture from your internet immediately or we shall sue for $16,000,000.00 (SIXTEEN MILLION) US DOLLARS.

    Having a nice day, Hope this helping
    Deeoni Chow

  • "Mr Bukakke"? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From the article:
    "Other sites feature similar pictures with signs reading 'Iama Dildo', 'Mr Bukakke' and 'Ben Dover'."

    They misspelled "bukkake". This is an offence against my sexual orientation!

  • Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:19PM (#7488829) Homepage
    I wonder how far you could get them to go. If you sent one of the scammers a plane ticket to the US, would they come? With a little bit of work and a few hundred dollars, you could probably put them in a US jail.
    • Rather than just delete the email, I'd sure like to spend thousands of tax dollars to import, house, and feed a foreign nuisance to society. Our jails and prisons are so over populated as it is, sure... why not just take on the burden of the entire WORLD's criminals?

      sheesh.

    • Re:Hmm. (Score:3, Funny)

      by Geraden ( 15689 ) *
      Why raise the spammers' standard of living?
    • The FBI did something like that to some Russian credit-card theives.
    • They probably wouldn't be able to get a US Visa though, without co-operation from the gov't.
      • They'd have to apply for a B-1 visa, to do business in the US, but that's routine. It does, though, mean that they get photographed, identified, and put into US Government files.

        Remember, they're pretending to offer a legitimate business deal.

  • What revenge? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mabu ( 178417 ) * on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:20PM (#7488837)
    I'm amused that people think they're getting any sort of revenge against these people. When you can milk them out of US$19M then you have revenge, otherwise it seems to me the scammers are still winning as the time anyone spends to string along these people is not worth it.

    This is one of the few scams that I actually don't mind, as anyone foolish enough to think they're going to get millions of dollars in some sort of spontaneous money-laundering scheme, deserves to be penalized for their naivety and perverse sense of greed.
    • I was always wondering what those emails were all about, assuming it was just some stupid kids having a laugh... I cannot possibly imagine how stupid you'd have to be to actually believe it, leave alone send them some money in advance!!!

      • "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein
      • I cannot possibly imagine how stupid you'd have to be to actually believe it[.]
        Although it is absolutely hilarious to read about the hoops and hoaxes Nigerian scammers are put through, the flip side is really depressing: when you read these stories and realize how stupid the scammers are you realize, as corollary, how almost insanely stupid the scammed have to be.

    • Re:What revenge? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MysteriousPreacher ( 702266 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:44PM (#7488975) Journal
      Well not really. If 1000 take 2 minutes to send a fake reply, that means a lot more work for the fraudster. How can they easily tell who's the hoax and who's the genuine victim, Agreed, you'd have to be by far the bluntest tool in the box to fall for this kind of scam, but anyone who tolerates or accepts this kind of crime has a fairly odd outlook on the world.
    • Actually if you read the stories (the Gillian Anderson [419eater.com] one is priceless!) on more than one occasion he managed to get the scammer to actually *pay* for a hotel room (he confirmed this by calling the hotel) for an "in person" transaction, and as a bonus he make them run around the airport and hotel expecting him to show up, which is pretty entertaining to imagine.:)

      Also many of the scammers seem to be using internet cafes for email access so waisting their time conning conners cost them (a little) money.

  • thespamletter.com (Score:5, Funny)

    by Drakonian ( 518722 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:21PM (#7488842) Homepage
    I highly recommend checking out this site. This is a guy that replies to spam and leads them on for as long as he can. It's completely hilarious, his sense of humour is wicked. Here is the page dedicated to Nigerian Scam spam [thespamletters.com]

  • Wouldn't do that myself (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GauteL ( 29207 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:22PM (#7488848)
    These are rather unscrupulous people, and if they realize they have been played like this, they may very well try to get some sort of revenge that is less funny than these photographs.

    Personally I would just stay clear of them completely. Making fun of hard core criminals is not always that funny in the end.
    • How would they know where to find you? First of all, you likely live thousands of miles away from the scammer. And, you use a fake name, paperwork, photo, etc. in all your communication with them, sending it all from an email address that cannot be traced to a specific location.

      Sure, you don't want to give out real personal info, but other than that, you're fine :)

      • Re:Wouldn't do that myself (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AzureLunatic ( 628957 ) <silenceshadowNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:46PM (#7488987) Homepage Journal
        If one's communicating with these scammers using one's most common e-mail address, and one has a significant web presence and hasn't always been careful about leaving personal information elsewhere, it's conceivable that someone with a grudge and a lot of time on their hands could do something interesting.

        For example, if someone were to Google my primary e-mail address, they could very well come up with a page that contains my real first and last name. With some of the information on that page, they could track me all over the web, where I've left my original hometown, the city I live in and the general area in that that I'm in now, and the school I attend. They could also find out who some of my online friends are, and could perhaps social engineer more information out of them. All of this is information that I wouldn't want shady characters getting their paws on.

        Even though my e-mail address cannot itself be traced to a specific location, I would definitely recommend using a brand-new address if playing with scammers' heads.

        • If one's communicating with these scammers using one's most common e-mail address,

          Even though my e-mail address cannot itself be traced to a specific location, I would definitely recommend using a brand-new address if playing with scammers' heads.

          Well, by specific location, I guess I meant in a broader sense...Online or offline. You definately hit it right on the head, though. For instance, my Hotmail account is currently registered to "Anakin Skywalker", thinks i'm 76 years old, and that I live in
    • Making fun of hard core criminals is not always that funny in the end.

      Hard core? They run a computer program, and take trips to the local Western Union when suckers send them their money. Hard core over there is same as it is here. Shooting, raping, home invasion, carjacking, robbery...

      If that's hard core- lesse, I run computer programs of all sorts and kinds all day, and I stop at the ATM+bank all the time. Egad, I must be Hannibal Lechter then!

  • Not New (Score:5, Funny)

    by KrispyKringle ( 672903 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:27PM (#7488878)
    I know its a shameless plug, but I did pretty much the same thing to one of these guys a while back. I even got him to tell me what kind of boxer shorts he wears (flannel multicolored). I logged it all here [radioactivechicken.org]/

  • Been there, done that. (Score:5, Informative)

    by rylin ( 688457 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:33PM (#7488918)
    A swedish reporter (from Expressen [expressen.se]) did this a few months ago.
    After a while, he ended up meeting one of the people behind the scam.. in amsterdam. For anyone able to read swedish, the article can be found here [expressen.se].

    The best part is definitely the 26th of April.

    Back in stockholm
    I call Lucas up:
    Hi, it's Ingvar
    -Where did you go? Are you trying to con me?
    Lucas, I'm not who you think I am. I'm a reporter from a large newspaper, I'm just investigating your business.
    *silence*
    *click*
  • Has consisted of forwarding massive quantities of penis-enlargement spam to the perpetrators, signing them up for various loans, and otherwise innocently trying to fill up their mailboxes.

    This is much better. I wish I had nerve to try it.

  • Without Nigerian Scammers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:44PM (#7488973) Homepage Journal
    Without Nigerian scam artists The Spam Letters [thespamletters.com] would just not be the same [thespamletters.com]. Keeping the above in mind, please reconsider your revenge. Thank you.

  • ..how do you know the photos really are the scammer, and not just another scam?

    • I was sent one of these images, but from a scammer using a completely different name, than noted on the webpage. [419eater.com]

      Here it is, fourth image from the top.

      I received this image as an attachment from "Ibuchi Ibuch". I think that many of these "family photos" are shared and recycled between scammers; they could be of any family who looks a bit to come from the place that the scammer claims to be coming from.

      I have over 200 E-mails from these people saved. Here is my favorite way of wasting their time:

      1. I se

  • Worth a Visit (Score:2, Interesting)

    by unkamunka ( 724655 )
    Well laid out and commented [whatsthebloodypoint.com] - with a different set of links.

  • Just because their black, ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:57PM (#7489038)
    ...doesn't mean their dumb.
    From what I know (and can tell from the pictures), the people on the pictures are just puppets. Some really literally poor petty crime sobs draw into this to pose for some drug and weapon running band of Uberthugs that will kill you on the spot if they don't like your face. Don't think that anyone of the Nigirian Mafia or whoever is pulling these stunts, would be as dumb as to pose for such a photo. The people behing these scams have contacts to higher bank interns and whatnot, they shure as hell also have the infantry to take care of the 'paperwork'.
    • Just because you can't spell they're, or sure, doesn't mean you're dumb either.
    • Just because their black, doesn't mean their dumb. [sic]

      I thought maybe you were replying to someone's post saying that because these people were black, they were dumb. But no. Looks like you just put that out there yourself, and then refuted your own statement. Not quite sure why that makes you "insightful". To me it makes you -5, racist.

      • In the U.S., there still exists a stereotype of blacks as dumb and stupid. While these people (the believers in the stereotype) represent only a small minority, the image of them is burned into the memory of most Americans.

        It's not difficult to imagine that these "scam the scammer" types believe in the stereotype. So the parent poster wasn't necessarily being racist, but merely responding to his perception of the site.

        The last few years, I've had to undo the racial indoctrination that I was taught i

  • Encourage international business. Most of the spammers will provide you with convenient contact details such as phone and fax numbers. When you receive other spam, reply and pass these details on as your own. I get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking about the Lagos criminals who are now busy sending faxes to a chinese car part manufacturer.

  • In the Soviet Union (Score:5, Funny)

    by someguy456 ( 607900 ) <someguy456@phreaker.net> on Sunday November 16, 2003 @04:04PM (#7489064) Homepage Journal
    In the Soviet Union, Nigerians are spammed by you!

    Oh, wait... D'oh!

    Maybe reversed?
    In the Soviet Union, Nigerians spam you!

    huh?
    My head hurts...
  • On occasion, I will respond to the 419ers by requesting a deposit of US$10Million so I can get them started over here for an easy move. I have received one response - basically telling me that what they wanted was much simpler - out of about three dozen of these sent.

    They are slightly smarter than they look, but they are no foxen.

  • They might have stopped some of the Nigerian spam problems and announcing it might help others find out who is responsible fro the scam.

    But other problems crop up too..... like 404 errors after being /.'d is one of em.
  • For me this kinda seems very karmic. They have produced such a waste of time and effort by ordinary people that now they have their own medicine returned to them...

    Now if we could just get them to transfer 13.1 billion (or proportion thereof) out of their bank accounts we could knock em out of business for good...

    ;-)

  • I just came across this fine site, 419Eater, wherin people counter scam the Nigerian 419 scammers that have been plaguing our spam filters for the past few years. The UK paper The Guardian is also running a fine article on this site.
    You mean you got the link from The Guardian?

  • Just here [ebolamonkeyman.com]. They have managed to pull some pretty funny cons on those people, but I personally don't like the way they finish them. Check out yourselves and judge. They even have a guy who supposedly works for the scammers telling his story (in pretty bad English, but oh well...)

    R.

  • How could you guys forget ?!?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by phoxix ( 161744 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @05:22PM (#7489467)
    The funniest Nigeria 419 scam [haxial.net] of all time ?!

    This was featured on slashdot a while back by another user on Slashdot [slashdot.org] Sunny Dubey

  • This is the way to combat spam ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 16, 2003 @05:36PM (#7489534)

    I regularly respond to spam. Then when they come calling I ask all sorts of sensible questions just like I was really interested. I try to lead them along for as long a period of time as possible.

    Then just when they think they have me, I say: "This is great. I think I am going to have to get one of these. Unfortunately, I am going to buy one from [competitor] instead." They of course, ask why and I tell them I don't do business with spammers and I've just been stringing them along.

    Boy do they get pissed. The responses are just classic. (Wish I had recorded them.)

    The only way to beat spam is to make it unprofitable. Filtering it out will not work since there is always a percentage of people without filters and spam basically costs the spammers nothing. But by stringing them along such as this, it costs them time and money -- it makes spam unprofitable. Just think -- if 1/2 of 1% of the people that spammer's spammed wasted 10 minutes of a spammer's time and the spammer sent out 30 million e-mails, that would equate to 1,500,000 wasted minutes the spammer would have to spend.

    It is awfully hard to waste 1,500,000 minutes and stay in business.

  • The Tasteless name thread! (Score:3, Funny)

    by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @06:11PM (#7489717) Homepage Journal
    Reading over these scams and their replies, I got a big kick out of some of the names. So c'mon all you sub-genius /.'ers out there, let's get together and give our knights in shining armor some creatively fun names for them to use in their ongoing conquests of the 419 scams.

    Kareem Incolon (almost sounds like lincoln)
    Juan Falacio (Has that zesty spanish feel to it)
    Alotta Fagina (Yes I know, Austin Powers)
    Barbera Cracklinbush(For the holidays! Chesnuts roasting on an open Cracklinbush)
    Celine Doush (Saline Douche)

    Ok I got 5, 4 originals. Lets see what the rest of the crowd can come up with.
    • Better yet, use the entire Bart Simpson list (names asked for while crank calling Moe's Tavern):

      Hugh Jass

      Pat Magroin

      Amanda Hugginkiss

      Mike Rotch

      Wayne King

      Isabelle Ringing

      Ivana Tinkle

      Anita Bath

      Oliver Klosoff

      Bea O'Problem

      Seymour Butts

      I.P Daily

      Holden Magroin

      Al Coholic

      Stu Pidass

      Jock Strap
  • Since mine, and my companies, since I am a sendmail admin ther :), spamassassin filters are doing such a great job, I have never seen these in email.

    But the other day, I walked by our fax machine to find a nigerian scam fax. *sigh*.

  • This one bets them all... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Handpaper ( 566373 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @06:49PM (#7489867)
    I came across this [pierweaver.com] page several months ago. The scammer is claiming to have a supply of gold, so the 'victim' demands a sample - and gets one!

  • They actually seem to have got one guy to believe Gillian Anderson was flying in, shell out for a room at the Sheraton, then wait at Lagos airport with a sign saying "I love fags"..
    I almost feel sorry for them..

    http://www.419eater.com/html/john_ademola.htm

    Maybe the best cure for spam, big groups that bombard them with fake orders, cheques etc? I mean if the police cant get their arse into gear..
  • I just realised that SCO learned their entire new business approach from a Nigerian e-mail!
  • So "Shiver Metimbers" feels he's wasting the scammers' time so they can scam fewer real victims. I wonder how he would feel if he eventually ran across a real murderer/scammer who decided that since he couldn't physically track him down, he might kill one or two of his mext real victims and email pictures of the process back to "Shiver Metimbers" as a special thanks for wasting his time?

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