Potential Nigerian Scammers/ Safe Purchasing advice

[kiwigeo]

Like it or not Nigerian 419 scams thrive in Nigeria and are effectively part of that country's economy.

[charangohabsburg]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009 ... or-profit/

But when you hear stories like this, it makes you wonder. "I get death threats on regular basis," a student who goes by -C- told Ars. "Death threats are not uncommon and are actually considered achievements: they are a testament to the fact that the baiter managed to annoy his/her scammer nicely."

[DarwinStrings]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009 ... or-profit/

I enjoyed that article, towards the end there was a quote that said something to the affect of "live by the sword dye by the sword", regarding 419 scammers being baited, fair enough.

Jim

[colburge]

The "point" Perry is to waste as much of the spammers time as possible. If you get lucky as I have on a few occassions you may even get the tossers to waste a bit of their own money on phone calls..I usually give them the front desk numbers for the AFP or ASIO. While theyre busy emailing me and making phone calls its less time theyll be spending trying to scam others less knowledgable about their modus operandi.

Supplying fake information to a 419 scammer is quite acceptable if the aim of the the prime aim of the exercise is to hinder the scammer's operation. On occasions the scammers will actually start to supply their actual contact details and scans of stolen/fake passports which I forward to the relevant authorities.

As for Stu's integrity and character....I'll vouch for those

I understand that. I just dont understand how the funds going into your bank account can be called a scam? Paypal, western union, etc, yes. Bank account? I cant see it.

Generally the scammers don't deposit the money into your Paypal account. They do however send you a fake email from Paypal stating that the money is in your account or awaiting clearance - all you have to do is enter in the tracking number for the parcel on the website, which they have provided in the email, and the money will be cleared! You can't get a tracking number without having sent the parcel of course, which they are pressuring you to do. The unsuspecting victim runs to the post office and posts his parcel before coming back and entering the number into the fake website - they never get their money of course, and they have lost their goodies, which the offender can on-sell later.

Of course we all know that Paypal doesn't hold payment for a tracking number and all the seller would have to do is check their account for the money, but people fall for it. Same thing with the Bank as well, fake email from bank stating funds will clear shortly...blah blah blah, I can tell you a million more scams as I work in this field, and I can tell you that it all comes down to having common sense, and some people just don't have it I'm afraid.

Listen to that little voice in your head when you think it is a scam, it probably is. It is the same voice that tells you to put the riving knife back on your table saw, before ripping a neck blank, of course you don't listen and it kicks back and goes through the shed wall


Cheers

Col

[charangohabsburg]

Like it or not Nigerian 419 scams thrive in Nigeria and are effectively part of that country's economy.

While this well may be true, the following is also nice to know, especially for 419 scam baiters.

According to this techrepublic.com article by Michael Kassner, most of that kind of scams claim coming from Nigeria, but only about 20% really come from Nigeria and other African countries. The most plausible explanation for this at first sight contradictory situation is, that scammers don't like to lose their time on victims that might get suspicious after responding to the scammer. The scammers only want to deal with the most naive ones, filtering out all those who already have heard about Nigerian fraud mails.

[kiwigeo]

I'm still sending weekly emails to Mr Gidados asking where my $20m is. If he doesnt cough up Im sending Kim over to sort him out

[Kim]

Since my last post in this thread I've changed the tac on how I deal with the MS Help Desk guys. I now prefer to directly engage them by refusing to turn on my computer until the caller has successfully guessed which colour underpants I'm wearing?....They never correctly solve the mystery of course, because if and after they've gone through the rainbow, I will then call them a naughty boy and announce I don't actually wear underpants. I then laugh loudly and hang up, and for some reason that same operative will never bother calling our number again Wife hates my imaturity but the daughters love it.

Cheers

Kim

[colburge]

my wife would also not appreciate your sense of humour but my girls would have laughed along. Is this what you mean by not wearing undies?


Col

[kiwigeo]

Wife hates my imaturity but the daughters love it.

I dunno...I'd consider that quite a mature way of handling a scammer