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The Courts Government Spam News

Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice 345

Posted by Zonk from the for-once dept.
KaushalParekh writes "Almost all of us get those junk emails from someone in Africa usually promising millions of dollars if you give them your bank details. Finally good to know that they are being caught by the authorities and punished. These are also known as 419 emails named after the Nigerian penal code for fraud. As an interesting aside, fooling these scammers by responding to their emails is a fun passtime for quite a few who call themselves baiters. Check out the trophy pictures of these spammers.. pretty funny."
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Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice More

Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice

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  • I can imagine the next nigerian spam now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:47AM (#13091770)
    Prince Wathisname is in jail and to pay his bail, we have to get rid of this US$14.2 from his bank...

  • This has nothing to do with email though. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Hidyman ( 225308 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:47AM (#13091774) Homepage
    The 419 in the article says the most common for is email fraud, but the person arrested didn't use email, it was a bank job.

  • What do we call a dodgy "sales order" (Score:4, Informative)

    by CdBee ( 742846 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:48AM (#13091776)
    Recently I received a mail asking for a quote for delivery of a crate of a particular Texas Instruments integrated circuit to a location in Lagos, Nigeria

    It was blatantly not a misdirected mail as my email address couldn't be confused with any major electronics retailer. Is there some ongoing scam that relies on getting goods sent and not paying for them? (Escrow fraud?)
    • t was blatantly not a misdirected mail as my email address couldn't be confused with any major electronics retailer.

      You would be surprised how many people manage to click on wrong addressess in address books and send emails without checking....

      Jeroen

    • Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order" (Score:5, Informative)

      by panaceaa ( 205396 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:57AM (#13091810) Homepage Journal
      Beware of anyone who offers payment in the form of a cashiers check. Craigslist.org has some good details [craigslist.org] on the scam. Basically, the cashiers check looks like it goes through, you mail out the product, but meanwhile the check bounces. Your checking account goes back to its original balance (minus a bounce fee), but you happen to have mailed the merchandise already!!

      Another variant involves wiring money to an account in order to refund the balance of a larger check. Craigslist has the details.

    • Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order" (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No, there's no such fraud going on. You can now proceed with sending the goods. However, because of your suspicion, I must ask you to send me anvanced payment for processing the preparations of the upcoming large orders - this is just a formality and you'll get $5.600.000 (five million six hundred thousand US dollars) in cash next monday if you succeed to act promptly. Okey?
    • Or it is really smart phish mail.
      You will try to be helpfull, provide them with some of your data to take care that you do not get blaimed for this wrongdoing, et voila, you end up being scammed.

      Same as in the "e-Bay account messages". At the bottom they now place a line saying that there will be a reactivation fine of $350 if you do not respond. Smart, try to deceive and scare people into your fraud.

  • Getting rid of the scammer money. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tatarize ( 682683 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:51AM (#13091786) Homepage
    The Nigerian Scammer has used all of his money he got from scamming people. I am Blahahe Blahemoni and managing his financials. I hate him. I think he might actually beat the charges so I want to make sure his money isn't here when he gets out. Please send me account information to dump this large pile of ill gotten money. You will have the last laugh. If you got ripped off by this scammer also include how much he got you for and your account will get preference. Although, judging from the account balances there is plenty of money to go around.


    T-3 days. Just you wait.

  • I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:53AM (#13091794)
    "Hello I am a rich computer businessman! I am in currently in jail for rich money making schemes and have money to make bail but it is being tyied up in mutual funds! To being make bail I must deposit it in your bank account and..."

  • Takes time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Swedentom ( 670978 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:55AM (#13091797) Homepage
    Scambaiting is a fun hobby, but it takes time and patience. Often, the first few responses from the scammer are made from templates. However, when you start to talk about more specific areas, the man has to write you the emails himself. It's very clear when this happens; the language goes from quite proper and polite to sloppy and personal. To take the thread to this point can take weeks in the worst cases.

    Some scammers have also become used to scambaiters, and stop the conversation when you start asking strange things. But it's amazing how far you can get these people to go. Fooling them to travel to another continent and being shown on public webcams is nice.

    On the other hand, scambaiting can be rewarding. Getting a picture you requested of the scammer bathing in milk with a goat is pretty priceless! :-D
    • okay you can't tease us like that. Put the goat pic up, if you can not host yourself there are plenty of free image hosts out there.
    • There was one scammer who claimed to be from England, with untold millions in gold bullion. (Well, unless he's the guy who stole it all from Brinks-Matt a decade or so ago, I doubt it...)

      Anyways, those of you familiar with a certain Terry Nation science fiction series might enjoy knowing that I had a great time as Kerr Avon, from the Liberator Group.

      For those unfamiliar with the series, Kerr Avon had a penchant for trying to walk off with the contents of the Federation banking system - and any others h

    • First off, by the way most 419's work .. the 419'ers in Nigeria think they are taking advantage of people who are already willing to do criminal activity.

      Please think about the design of the scam.

      Second, these are people living depressing lives in a country that's pretty screwed up. From their perspective, every westerner is super rich (makes 100 times more than they do).

      Why not just ignore the emails? Are you the law to know what's appropriate punishment? How would you like it if your picture was put up
      • Maybe you should read item 5 ("But the scammers are only trying to get ahead & feed their families. If the West hadn't raped their country of its wealth they wouldn't have to do this") on http://www.419eater.com/html/ethics.htm [419eater.com] .

        I agree that scambaiting doesn't really lead anywhere and probably just endangers you, but I don't exactly feel compassion for the scammers, either. They're criminals who're only acting out of greed.

  • Glad to see those scammers are arrested ! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Arthur B. ( 806360 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:55AM (#13091799)
    Dear Ms Slashdot I, for myslef, am the widow of Dr. Muembe from Burundi. My husband was killed by a coalition of rebels, corrupt militaries, 419 scammers and AOL suscribers. He left me with assets over 1,000,000,000,000,000 US$ in a bank in Cape Town. I heard you were a very reliable person an seek your help...

  • They are NOT "being caught and punished" (Score:4, Informative)

    by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:55AM (#13091801)
    The case in this article is a large-scale bank fraud, not the spam-based crap we all get. "Amaka Anajemba admitted helping her late husband to persuade an employee of a Brazilian bank to transfer millions of dollars into overseas accounts." Additionally, this all happened in 1998. Don't hold your breath for any relief from the 419 spam.
    • Agreed. 242 million dollars was just too much to pretend "we cannot help you, go talk to this other office". Stealing that much money would get Interpol and the various countries embassies to actually notice, and cut off Nigerian bankloans and aids.

      The Nigerian scams will continue unabated as long as Nigeria is so poor and fraud one of their main sources of good solid foreign currency.

  • The tables have turned.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by raehl ( 609729 ) <raehl311.yahoo@com> on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:57AM (#13091811) Homepage
    Looks like the 419 scammers submitted the 419 baiters' website to Slashdot.

  • Dear Guards, (Score:4, Funny)

    by theheff ( 894014 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @03:58AM (#13091817)
    When they're serving time in their jail cell, be sure to slip them messages like: "Get it up in seconds- for your cellmate Butch!!" "Free keys to YOUR cell!! Limited time offer!!" "Refinance your confiscated home today!!"

  • Where are they located? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by riflemann ( 190895 ) <riflemann@Nospam.bb.cactii.net> on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:00AM (#13091822)
    It's rather interesting to see that they were caught in Nigeria. Nowadays it seems that more and more of these scammers are actually based outside Nigeria.

    Many of the scammers are based in Amsterdam [theregister.co.uk] and though they might be originally from African nations, the easy access to technology and communications in more modern cities brings them there.

    Let's hope that the more modern policing in western countries helps to catch more of these scammers.

    --
    BB
    Travel the world - virtually [googletouring.com]
    • Outside of Nigeria indeed. I maintain a large email system and while I think I have most of the Nigerian ISPs already in firewall, I now see all of these 419 guys accessing from Ivory Coast. Actually all other types of scam (lottery & co) were accessing from various countries in western Europe.

    • The Amsterdam scammers... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jd ( 1658 )
      ...are probably broke students who can't afford the Red Light District -or- the drugs. (You don't seriously think they're there to spend the money on tulips, do you?)

  • No fun (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:04AM (#13091837)
    ... a fun passtime ...

    Kids, do not do this at home. These people may seem stupid (at times), but they are full blown criminals and quite probably organized criminals at that. From the 419eater website: "Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to further pressure victims. In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing."

    This is not fun. Really.

    • The lesson here is that if you're going to bait the scammer, don't do it in his fucking home town!

      Or at the very least, go armed.

      Max

    • A suggested correction (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jd ( 1658 )
      If you're going to bait scammers, do it from someone else's home (but not that of the scammer's) so that you can't be traced, even if the scammer wanted to and knew how.

      Seriously, if scammers tracked down and killed every baiter that came their way, the human population would have halved in the past few years. That hasn't happened, so my guess is that scammers only go after vigilantes who actually get physically in their way, pose an actual threat or who have managed to convince the scammer that there is

      • If you mess with a scammer involved in an "Organized Crime" gang

        Which is what most of them are these days. The Belgian and Dutch police came around last year after a crackdown in Amsterdam sent the scammers scurrying for other countries. Some of them were so desperate they would drive up to the front of web hosting centres with a car full of old PCs and a few switches, and start asking around for contacts. After getting an icy reception in Belgium and France, their operations have started up again in Spai
    • I would agree that it is a dangerous pastime. Do not underestimate the organized crime behind this. Before you know it, some big unfriendly dude is standing next to your car, and he ain't got a fish on his head.

    • Re:No fun (Score:3, Interesting)

      by sita ( 71217 )
      In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing."

      Of course, Nigeria might not be the country to tourist in at all. As Lonely Planet so eloquently puts it, the highlights of Nigeria include "Live to tell about it".

  • It happened to me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grumpygrodyguy ( 603716 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:12AM (#13091850)
    This happened to me last year. I recieved an e-mail stating that I had won $500,000 in a cash giveaway drawing sponsered by a jobsite that I was a member at. After 5 days of e-mailing and lots of international phonecalls I finally learned that it was a group of nigerians operating out of amsterdam trying to get me to send them a money order. I was totally hooked at first...making long distance calls to switzerland to open a swiss account for my 'winnings', booking plane tickets to Amsterdam, etc.

    Luckily I figured the whole thing out in time, I nearly sent them a western union money order for $1200 to cover the 'financial legal fees' involved in processing and transferring the 'winnings' into my back account.

    I'll admit that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but these guys had a pretty convincing and elaborate scheme going. I forwarded all of their contact information to a bank in Amsterdam whose name and letterhead they were using. Hopefully they took action.

    • Re:It happened to me (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tim Browse ( 9263 )
      Remember the scam detection rule - it's pretty simple:

      "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

      Being told by a website that you've randomly won half a million dollars would fall under that category, I think.

      • "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

        So Google and GMail are a scam?
      • Being uber paranoid....

        A company called up and said if I write down my viewing habits I would recieve 5 dollars.

        I thought, this is silly, they want something from me other then my television I watched. So I told them quite nicely to remove me from their list and never call here again.

        Turns out Nielson handles unmetered markets with diaries.

        Just goes to show you can't call me and offer me anything for free.
    • There are several things to remember, with such scams. Firstly, if it isn't a person you know -or- the information doesn't quite add up (eg: they claim to be from Switzerland, but the e-mail address is from Russia, things like that) then there's a good chance they aren't who they say they are.

      Secondly, in order to win a contest, you must first enter. This is one time where "nothing for nothing" really does apply.

      Thirdly, if you don't supply someone with your e-mail address, then they don't know who you

    • It happened to me too (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Fahrvergnuugen ( 700293 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @07:31AM (#13092485) Homepage

      Had a 1986 BMW 318 for sale for 1600 bucks on a few online classifieds sites. I hadn't really heard of 419 scams before.

      I get an email from a guy saying he wants to buy it and have it shipped to him overseas. He says he's going to send a cashiers check in the mail. I figured, yeah right - this guy is totally nuts, so I ignored him and forgot about the whole thing.

      About a week later, a certified bank check shows up via fedex at my apartment for $10,000.

      I took it to the state police barracks down the road from my house and asked what to do. They gave me the number of a secret service agent. I asked if there would be any harm (or if I would be doing anything illegal) if I deposited it into an empty account to see if it cleared - they said no.

      So I called the secret service agent and explained the situation to him. He said that there have been a lot of fraudulent emails coming from nigeria, but most of them involved scamming people out of their bank account numbers. I asked him if there would be any harm in depositing the check to see if it clears. He said that there shouldn't be any harm in doing so as long as I wait to see if it clears first (duh).

      So I did.

      A few days later, I went back to the bank and asked them if the check I had deposited had cleared. The teller told me, yes, it cleared. I said "Are you sure it cleared" and she looked again and said "Yes, it cleared the system."

      I couldn't believe it.

      I told them I wanted to withdraw the money. The teller gets the manager to approve the large withdrawal. The manager checked the system, shook his head and then went into the vault. They gave me 10k in cash and I walked out.

      I got home and called the secret service agent back. I said "You're not going to believe this, but I have 10,000 cash in my hand right now. - What should I do??" He said, "Well, the check cleared, nothing illegal has been done, proceed with the transaction." So I had the bank telling me that the check cleared, handing me 10k in cash and a secret service agent telling me to proceed with this transaction.

      So I did. I had not witheld any information from anyone. I felt uneasy at first, so I went directly to the police. The confirmed that what I was doing was okay. So I sent about 8,000 via western union to the "shipper" who was supposed to pick up this piece of shit 1986 318.

      Three days later the bank account went 10k in the red. There was no way I could pay them back. I explained EVERYTHING to them, emphasizing the fact that THEY had told me that the check had cleared and I acted on that premise. Their response basically was "too bad" and they sent it to a collections agent. I called the secret service agent back. He felt really bad about the situation, but basically said "there's nothing I can do".

      I've felt angry, embarrassed, and stupid about the situation ever since. My credit is completely screwed and I don't think there is anything I can do about it.

      It's too bad that it took a million dollar scam for them to start going after these bastards.

      • Re:It happened to me too (Score:5, Interesting)

        by chhamilton ( 264664 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @09:10AM (#13093154)
        And myself as well. And as for the cheque clearing thing, there's a little piece of legislature that was passed to make cheques more convenient. Essentially, banks can only hold cheques for so long before they have to let the funds clear (if they have no reason to believe it will bounce). Meanwhile, the cheque continues to take it's time to clear, and finally will bounce. This will happen a few days after you get the money.

        Or, the other situation is that the cheques are forged as coming from a large commercial account. When the cheque is 'cleared', the bank system replies 'yes, there are sufficient funds in this account'. However, when the bank physically receives the forged cheque and gets around to looking at it (often not until the end of the month), THEN they will say it bounced, and go back to your bank for the money. This can take weeks potentially (in my case it took 2 weeks for them to get back to me).

        The stupid thing is the banks are allowed to get away with this, and there is NO recourse.

        Myself, I took action. I spent a few weeks tinkering with Yahoo Mail until I found an exploitable flaw. I then started tracking backwards (sending fake login screens via email) through all of the accounts until I got to the central account. This account was a personal active account, used for various purposes. By monitoring this account for a while I eventually got the guys full real name, his girlfriends name, the addresses and names of his family back in Nigeria, his address in London, the name and address of the place he worked, the school he went to and student number, a copy of his resume, and even his application number for a US greend card. However, no law enforcement agency (specifically Canadian or British) will do anything with the information, as it was 'ill gotten'. I wish there was something to do to chase the bastard down but I doubt it'll ever happen.

      • Go see a lawyer. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Gallowglass ( 22346 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @09:34AM (#13093372)

        Caveat: This anser deals with Canadian law, not US.

        About 10 years ago, a lady went to her bank with her statement that showed C$10,000 (I think) deposited to her account. She informed the bank that they had made a mistake. She told this to the teller and the branch manager. They both informed her that she was wrong and the money belonged to her. She withdrew the money and put it into another bank. (She also got the names of witnesses to all this.)

        Shortly after this, (You know what's coming.) the bank discovered they had indeed screwed up and asked the lady for the $10K. She said, "No!"

        Naturally a law suit followed and was fought all the way up to the Supremem Court of Canada. The court declared in favour of the lady, and she got to keep the money.

        The principle of law that the Court invoked is (and I paraphrase), "You can't profit from someone's honest mistake, but if you're going to be stupid about it, tough noogies!" The success of the defense against the suit, in other words, turned on the fact that she had done her best to inform them that she was in error. (The witnesses helped to prove that.)

        IANAL, certainly IANAAmericanL, but I'd go see an attornery and see if this principle hold in your jurisdiction. Sure as beejezus the bank won't tell you this, and your friend is not a lawyer.

      • See a Lawyer (Score:5, Informative)

        by xeno-cat ( 147219 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @10:44AM (#13094204) Homepage
        Gather up all the "evidence" you can: bank statements, receipts, mail, emails, etc.

        Get all the names to all the cops/Secret Service people you spoke with.

        Get all the names to all the bank staff you spoke to.

        Get dates/times for as many of the conversations you had.

        TAKE ALL THIS TO A LAWYER!

        The lawyer will weigh your situation and make a determination as to how to proceed in your best interest.

        The bank says you owe $8k. Frankly, that is not a lot of money to them, but to you I'm sure it's quite significant.

        One thing I know for sure. If your lawyer even files a dispute, you will owe nothing until the dispute is resolved. Filing is easy. Don't roll over and take this lying down. The bank is playing hard ball in hopes that you simply cave in and feel helpless. If you show some back bone they are going to have to make a cost/benefit analysis as to how much they want to fight for this $8k.

        The Bank got screwed too. Bringing the law enforcement officials into this in the context of a legal case may actually put everyone on the same side.

        It may also prompt a settlement.

        Get a lawyer, play hard ball, but keep an open mind. Your going to have to be the bigger person in this situation.

        Oh, and BTW, talk to a lawyer.

        Kind Regards
      • One great advantage of accepting cashiers checks is that they're very easy to verify (anytime you get one from an untrusted source, you should basically do this).

        On all cashiers checks there should be a number that you can call. Probably not toll-free, it will take you to the "Official Checks" division of that persons bank. It's very easy to look at this number, and then verify that it actually is really connected to this bank (and not someones home number).

        Then, just call the number. After going throu

  • Another "scam" - Canadian style (Score:4, Informative)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:21AM (#13091873)
    I have seen another "scam" this time in Canada. Ads are placed in news papers inviting people to work at home assembling products and stuffing envelopes to earn at least CAD$529.00 (about US$430) weekly. I never believed this at first. They ask you to send a self-addressed envelope to some address. Later on, you are asked to send CAD$29.00 for "materials and more information".

    I have heard that once you go for the bait, you are typically asked to send more and more small sums of money for information. But they actually do mail you some documents which can be typically reproduced free at the many government run social centers. The thing is, they never do actually send any useful information till you give up. Remember, you always send a self addressed envelope so they do not lose. As I write this, a colleague tells me a similar ad exists in todays' free Metro news paper! These Canadians - What are they good at?

    • That one's not new. Well from what I understand the 419 scams have been around longer than the Internet has. Back in the day they just sent you a snail mail instead of an email. The art of the con has been around since the dawn of time, for that matter. As long as there are gullable fools for someone to take advantage of, someone will figure out a way to take advantage of them.

  • 419eater.com's birthday is in September (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dimensio ( 311070 ) <darkstarNO@SPAMiglou.com> on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:21AM (#13091875)
    The website will celebrate two years of baiting scammers this September. No word if there will be a contest this year, as there was last year [iglou.com] (plugging my prize-winning contest entry there), as Shiver is running a Christmas contest (and already has killer entries).

    If they're not, you can always get them to join a church [iglou.com] or two [iglou.com].
  • As an interesting aside, fooling these scammers by responding to their emails is a fun passtime for quite a few who call themselves baiters.

    I myself have quite a bit of experience at leading these folks on. Yes, I'm quite the master baiter... but I figure they deserve it because they keep jerking me around. They're such wankers!

  • Which is worse - get a thousand spam emails or get slashdotted. Ohhh, well...I think for now we won't get answer from 419eater.com guys. :)

  • Here is the solution (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Shadez666 ( 736779 )
    Shut down all connections to Nigeria until they clean up their act.

    We do it with spammers and irresponsible ISP's, Why not a country ?

    I receive Nigerian mails everytime i sell something locally here in Sweden, their translations are laughable (Drunken babelfish) and i can't believe anybody would fall for it, but people do.

    I don't know why but i really feel pure hatred for the people who try to scam me with their rediculous mails, and it insults my intelligence as well.

    Where can one turn to do some vigil

    • Re:Here is the solution (Score:4, Informative)

      by orv ( 398342 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @05:40AM (#13092102) Homepage
      We do it with spammers and irresponsible ISP's, Why not a country ?
      What about an entire continent? No that would be just plain stupid wouldn't it...
      Oh wait isn't Verizon still blocking [theregister.co.uk] the entire of Europe from sending email to their servers?

    • I receive Nigerian mails everytime i sell something locally here in Sweden

      I'm just curious, but why do you get emails from them when you sell something locally? Are you talking about selling something on a website where they manage to get your email address through?

    • Because, and this is just a wild guess, there may actually be innocent people in Nigeria. There are kids studying there who would like to talk to parents, there are grandkids who would like to see their grandchildren before they die, there are even businessmen who complete legitimate transactions. I wish idiot moderators would stop modding up this sort of comment, it makes it that much more likely that some sysadmin with cotton candy between his ears would actually go ahead and do it. And they do! I wor
  • The next logical step is to represent themselves as 419 scam artists who have received enormous amounts of money from the scams and need to move large amounts of cash out of the country. In return for them transferring the money, say $20,000,000, to your bank account, you will be able to keep 25%.

  • Why Nigeria? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NumbThumb ( 468496 ) <[ed.etybthgirb] [ta] [leinad]> on Monday July 18, 2005 @06:47AM (#13092296) Homepage Journal
    is there any particlular reason that this kind of scam comes mainly from Nigeria? Is it related to the laws there, or a cultural thing? What makes that place different from 100 other countries?

    I have been wondering about that for a long time...

    • Re:Why Nigeria? (Score:3, Informative)

      by vidarh ( 309115 )
      They don't - they come from all over the place, though the most popular form may have originated in Nigeria. One of the reasons may be that Nigeria is well known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world (though apparently the government have started doing a lot to try to clean it up after they finally got an elected government again a few years ago), and is recognised as such even among Nigerians themselves. That makes some of the messages seem a bit more plausible - it IS after all well known that

  • How about reshipping? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by coulbc ( 149394 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @06:48AM (#13092300)
    I had a roommate who starting getting packages dropped off on the porch. There were GAP jeans, shoes, camcorders and other such items. The packages were not addressed directly in her name. She started taking them and sending them back out. I saw the packages were being shipped to Nigeria. A RED light went on. There was no way she could afford all this on her own. I confronted her and found she was reshipping packages to Nigeria for someone she met on the Internet. She told me the original "buyer" could not send packages to Nigeria from where he lived in Florida. I told her she was an idiot to even believe that. When the next package came, I opened it up and looked at the invoice. There was a Florida address and a phone number on the invoice. A quick check on Superpages.com revealed the area code of the phone number in question was in Texas, not Florida. She was like "it's a cellphone". I did the old *69 and called the number. A lady with a foreign accent but passable english answered. As soon as I started talking about the shipment, she hung up on me. I was now worried that stolen property was being sent to my address. I made my roommate get some of the boxes she had recieved. Next, I started looking at the tracking info on UPS. the packages were marked as "left on porch". So no one could claim I signed for them. I said fuck this, I'm calling the stores. I began calling the stores who were shipping the packages. I found a stolen credit card was used for at leat one purchase. Other merchants would not reveal anything and did not even care if the merchandise was returned. Next, I called the local police. They came, did the paperwork and told me just to ship it all back. They came back 1.5 hours later and arrested my roommate. She had already fallen for the Nigerian check cashing scam to the tune of 3500.00. She was already reporting to the court weekly to take drug test and was awaiting trial on the check scam/bank fraud. I knew nothing of this. The police said only "drug addicts" could fall for something so stupid. I kid you not. I guess the fact she was still involved was enough to get her re-arrested. Her sister came and got her stuff. I've not heard from her since. I shipped back what I could, If the merchant did not want it back, I gave it to Goodwill, and got receipts for it.
    • You had a stupid roommate. Question everything.

      That's how you can effectively use your resources [time, money, energy] in this world.

      Skip past the rebate offers and get product service plans in your own words [tape recorders work wonders], etc, etc.

      People don't question shit anymore which probably makes life easy for scammer but not for the rest of us who get the side effects of stupidity.

      Tom
  • I understand that some have attained great skill in the application of this art...
  • When I reply to these scams, I usually tell them they need to fax me whatever "important documents" from "the bank" that I need to fill out, along with all of our email conversations "to save for my records." I then give them a random fax number at the FBI, and encourage them to send me as much information as possible.

  • You CAN MAKE MONEY from 419 E-Mails (Score:5, Funny)

    by CmdrGravy ( 645153 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @08:11AM (#13092735) Homepage
    I have personally responded to over 20 of these so called 419 E-Mails and so far I have made over £657,000 TAX FREE. I have researched the subject exhaustively and discovered that although some of the e-mails are indeed sent by fraudsters there are a proportion of e-mails sent by people genuinely in need of help and WILLING TO PAY BIG BUCKS to realise it.

    Learn my 10 SURE FIRE techniques to seperate the wheat from the chaff and set yourself upon the road to riches by following my ROAD MAP TO RICHES, a small investment now will pay off within 2 months as YOUR FIRST MONTHS EARNINGS WILL BE IN EXCESS OF £5,000 GUARANTEED*

    Already dozens of people who have read my book are enjoying the fruits of their success:

    Thankyou CmdrGravy,

    when my grandson red me about your book I cudnt belive wot I was hearin an I thought it cudnt be real but I thought about how nice it wud be too own me a farm and I made the best purchase I have ever made in my life. I fownd the plan easy to follo and in the first 2 weeks I waz already buyin the first sheeps and cows for my nu farm.

    Yors Truwly Chuck Jones

    I am Lorna Mitchell and I hold a high powered executive position in a leading New York company. I saw CmdrGravys ad in an in flight magazine and I am always on the lookout for a smart business investment so I didn't hesitate and sent off the small fee immediatley.

    The very next day the book arrived in the post and I sat down to follow through the plan it outlined. It was extremely simple, within 2 hours I had contacted General Mumbazo Agantwe who was trying to liberate $5,000,000 US Dollars from a bank in Argentina. Using the plan as my guide I helped negotiate the deal and earned myself $500,000 within the first 2 weeks.

    Now I only need to help out a few people each month and the money just keeps rolling in.

    Thankyou CmdrGravy

    My name is Jayne Praiselord and I am a housewife and active member of the local Church, I had heard about 419 scams before as many of our congregation had lost money to the evildoers previously so when my husband brought me back your book and instructed me to read it through I was a bit nervous.

    Within the first 5 minutes I quickly learned all the common mistakes my congregation had made and saw how, by following the 10 Step Plan, I could avoid these errors and earn some real money to put to use for the Lords good work.

    Now I have many happy African friends and am able to bring in $1,000,000 US DOLLARS every 6 months to help our church do it's good works.

    Thank you so much and Praise Be !

    You too can quickly begin to realise large sums of money by following my 10 Step Plan and infallable roadmap, for a single investment of just £250 you can begin to tap the large sums of capital which will be made available to you. As well as the Book you will also recieve FREE OF CHARGE 10 free e-mail address of Africans just dying to do business with you. Not only that you will also recieve ABSOLUTLEY FREE a guide to the top 1000 influential Generals, Clergy and Government Ministers in the African Continent which is an invaluable guide to yet more profit opportunities. But I'm not stopping there, as well as the Book, the e-mail addresses and the invaluable guide to African dignitaries I will also network your details amongst at least 150 influential people who are just looking to give you money.

    Do not delay, contact me today and begin your new life of wealth and comfort tomorrow !

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