Posted on 03/13/2008 10:26:34 AM PDT by SmithL
Martin Lee knew all the reasons you shouldn't respond to spam e-mails. As a software engineer who studies how to block such messages, he'd warned against answering them himself. But he couldn't resist.
Lee was struggling to figure out how to stop an especially persistent form of spam - the type that informs recipients they've won the lottery or are sought for a new job, which can masquerade as legitimate e-mails and evade spam filters.
As Lee pored over the messages, he wondered who was sending them and who would be tempted to answer them. And he decided to find out - by engaging the scammers in their own game.
For his fake persona, he drew inspiration from Mr. Benn, a cartoon character from the BBC program he had watched as a child, a businessman who would change out of his suit and bowler hat and have adventures dressed as someone exciting - a zookeeper or a knight.
"I thought this was a nice metaphor for my scam victim," said Lee, who works for MessageLabs, a company in Gloucester, England, that monitors e-mail traffic for corporations.
He created a new identity, complete with mother's maiden name and bank account number. And in early December, Mr. Alistair Benn began replying to messages.
For weeks, he chatted with various spammers on e-mail and over the phone, first as the winner of the Pepsi lottery, then as a new collections agent for "Ricoh Co. Limited Product & Manufacturing (RCL)," which he was told was based in the United Kingdom.
But in January, the charade went too far for his liking.
That's when Mr. Benn picked up his postal mail and found an authentic-looking check drawn on the Bank of America from WGBH - a public broadcasting station in Boston - for $78,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Isn’t there a way to block e-mail coming from Nigeria? Blocking them from contacting anybody in America should put a huge dent in their wallet.
http://www.419eater.com/html/john_boko.htm
enjoy
Mary Winkler was scammed, and she wound up murdering her husband to cover up her stupidity. And she was rewarded by a jury composed of morons.
“Isn’t there a way to block e-mail coming from Nigeria? Blocking them from contacting anybody in America should put a huge dent in their wallet.”
Detonation of an EMP device above Nigeria should solve the problem for years to come.
I called the police to see if they were interested. They weren't to say the least.
I let them spend $20 FED-EXing me the check, verified that it was totally fraudulent, and then made fun of them for falling for my feigned gullibility.
From their grammar, they weren't native English speakers.
EMP or.........
My typical email scam to them involves sending a message similar to this:
Greetings, Your wire transfer of US$1,283,000 was received in our account in the Seychelles.
Your order of small arms and etc. will arrive on the ship (name) at the port of (name) - the release code is (xxxx).
Good luck with your revolution.
I figure the oppressive secret police of whatever country they hail from will deal with them after that.
too funny.
LOL!
Now that’s good!
Ping!
Actually this is a particularly good Q & A computer site that has weekly podcasts out of Grand Junction, Colorado. For example see: Links and Resources and Tips Archive on the previous paragraph's HelpMeRick link page.
The main site is worth bookmarking as http://www.helpmerick.com/. The site covers a number of areas including: Ubuntu installation, Vista issues, etc. In addition to archived podcasts, there is a live video cast and forum most Thursdays at 9:30 Mountain Time (11:30 PM East Coast time.)
Regards
Not really, they can just route through a proxy server so it seems like it's coming from anywhere they like.
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