web time killer
I've sent the better part of my time on the 'net today perusing the letters archive of 419eater.com. The website is a gloriously documented account of several reverse-scam artists battling, humiliating and sometimes profiting from baiting 419 scam artists into do all manner of things for greed.
A little background: if you've ever had an email account (which I'm sure you have) you've more than likely received a 419 scam email, also known as "Advance Fee fraud", from some fine Christian gentleman who has some obscene amount money that only YOU can help release, and he promises to share a huge chunk of the proceeds with you when the money is released, providing you send several thousand dollars in advance. Anyhow, the people most likely to be taken by these scams are the elderly, the web-unsavvy, and the less-than-bright, but the dominant theme here is greed and money for nothing. Given the proper circumstances, more than few have been bilked from their hard earned savings by these guys, and they need to be stopped.
419eater.com has a hilarious, detailed and clever take on bilking these guys BACK, absorbing their resources and time over a long period and generally making them jump through flaming hoop after flaming hoop, until the whole affair collapses in exhaustion.
One episode had a guy being duped into joining a false religion, sending $80 of his own money, and being lead around by false emails, personalities and companies for 5 months. Another was duped into recording, on his own dime, perfect mp3 copies of himself reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe (now available in one zipped copy of all 36 chapters read by a Nigerian scammer, free for download). Another had two Nigerian scammer buddies being induced to re-enact a Monty Python skit "The Dead Parrot" -with props- on video.
Each "case" is lovingly detailed, often with the goal of acquiring something physical from the scammer, such as a works of art, photos, documents etc. In the case where he duped the scammer for $80, he donated it to charity. Photos, "documents" and other schwag are scanned and posted.
One almost begins to feel sorry for the scammer if you even begin to forget that they are heartless criminals who routinely steal from people, often forming cohesive organizations and threaten their fellow countrymen by forcing them to sit in place of them in photographs in order to escape detection.
Give it a read if you're finding yourself short of things to do on your computer sometime...
A little background: if you've ever had an email account (which I'm sure you have) you've more than likely received a 419 scam email, also known as "Advance Fee fraud", from some fine Christian gentleman who has some obscene amount money that only YOU can help release, and he promises to share a huge chunk of the proceeds with you when the money is released, providing you send several thousand dollars in advance. Anyhow, the people most likely to be taken by these scams are the elderly, the web-unsavvy, and the less-than-bright, but the dominant theme here is greed and money for nothing. Given the proper circumstances, more than few have been bilked from their hard earned savings by these guys, and they need to be stopped.
419eater.com has a hilarious, detailed and clever take on bilking these guys BACK, absorbing their resources and time over a long period and generally making them jump through flaming hoop after flaming hoop, until the whole affair collapses in exhaustion.
One episode had a guy being duped into joining a false religion, sending $80 of his own money, and being lead around by false emails, personalities and companies for 5 months. Another was duped into recording, on his own dime, perfect mp3 copies of himself reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe (now available in one zipped copy of all 36 chapters read by a Nigerian scammer, free for download). Another had two Nigerian scammer buddies being induced to re-enact a Monty Python skit "The Dead Parrot" -with props- on video.
Each "case" is lovingly detailed, often with the goal of acquiring something physical from the scammer, such as a works of art, photos, documents etc. In the case where he duped the scammer for $80, he donated it to charity. Photos, "documents" and other schwag are scanned and posted.
One almost begins to feel sorry for the scammer if you even begin to forget that they are heartless criminals who routinely steal from people, often forming cohesive organizations and threaten their fellow countrymen by forcing them to sit in place of them in photographs in order to escape detection.
Give it a read if you're finding yourself short of things to do on your computer sometime...