Posted on 02/20/2007 7:47:22 AM PST by dead
Scambaiting began as a grassroots effort to bring online fraudsters to justice, but it is fast becoming a spectator sport.
Greedy scammers will readily fulfil the most outlandish demands in their quest to swindle you out of your money, and savvy internet users are now harnessing that greed for their own entertainment.
The website 419eater.com targets the notorious Nigerian "419" fraudsters. Its owner, Michael Berry, submits clips of his most hilarious conquests to YouTube.
One video, which has been viewed almost 40,000 times since it was uploaded earlier this month, features two supposed scammers acting out Monty Python's famous Dead Parrot sketch (see below).
"The scammer was fooled into creating this video after attempting to scam what he thought was an unwitting victim," reads the scrolling text introducing the clip.
"The scammer assumed the identity of a dying cancer victim, wanting to distribute his wealth to charity before he died. The scammer was not sick of course, it was a scam to get money from his victim."
Berry flipped the script on the scammer, telling him he was the CEO of a video production company that was handing out scholarship payments to anyone who could send in sample clips of themselves acting out scenes from famous TV programs.
While entertaining - the scammers filmed the scene in a liquor store and used a wooden duck as the "parrot" - the clip is a testament to the lengths today's cyber criminals will go to in order to make a buck.
The fraudsters are called 419 scammers because that is the section of the Nigerian criminal code their actions violate.
The scams are typically conducted over email, with the scammer offering potential victims large monetary rewards in return for help. This often includes embezzling money and posing as the next of kin of a high level official.
But once hooked, the victim is persuaded to part with smaller amounts of cash to cover "administrative fees", after which the scammer disappears.
Despite being easily recognisable, the schemes continue to net millions of dollars globally. That is where vigilante scambaiters such as Berry come in.
Their job is to play the scammers at their own game, by pretending to be hapless victims. The goal is to waste as much of the scammers' time and money as possible.
Berry said 419eater.com alone had 21,000 registered members who volunteer their time to protect other internet users from being defrauded.
"I would say our biggest membership percentage comes from the US, then Europe, and we have many members from Australia also," he said.
Another global scambaiting community, Fraud Watchers, also has a high percentage of Australian users.
Taryn, who lives on the NSW North Coast, is one of them. She has been part of the Fraud Watchers community since October 2004, and her personal website is brimming with whimsical reports of her scambaiting adventures, which mainly involve Nigerians.
"My favourite bait would be my butterfly guy - I told him that I was a nun from the Church Of The Sacred Butterfly, and I got him to facepaint butterflies on his face," she said in an interview.
"The scammer paid an artist to have his face painted, and he paid a photographer to take the photos."
Other baits take advantage of the scammers' poor English skills, by convincing them to send photographs of themselves holding up humiliating signs such as "I shag sheep" and "I recommend 419eater".
In fact, there are so many hilarious tales of scammers being fooled at their own game that Berry decided to compile some of the more amusing ones into a book, Greetings in Jesus Name: The Scambaiter Letters.
"If you hadn't nailed him to the peg, he would have been pushing to the daisies!"
:-)
bump for later
Tagging for later read.
I am amused by the amount of righteous indignation on the part of the YouuTube commentators.
Not a scammer "exactly" but well worth a listen.
http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/
Freeper lowbridge got a photo of a scammer wearing underwear on the head and holding up a sign, "FReepers rule, DUers drool, I'm a DUer"
I've seen Lowbridge's work - it's funnier than hell, and so satisfying to see these cyberjerks make complete fools out of themselves.
AND SO RECORDED !!!!!!
bump for later
Now, now we mustn't damage the self esteem of these 3rd world people trying to provide a living for themselves ;)
Bump for later. Lowbridge, you are a true artist.
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