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Tricking Spammers
wired.com — They pilfer nearly $200 million from Americans annually and drive some of their victims to suicide, but Nigeria's notorious e-mail scam artists may finally have met their match -- and the results can be hilarious.
NJShadow- 1168 diggs
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- Switch22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I've got to get started on this right away
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3"They pilfer nearly $200 million from Americans annually and drive some of their victims to suicide, but Nigeria's notorious e-mail scam artists may finally have met their match -- and the results can be hilarious."
This article and scambaiting are both ridiculous.
Since when is a laugh the equivelent of $200 million dollars?
Why does Wired believe scammers have met their match when they're still rolling in cash, raking in cash, and a couple have some dumb photos circulating on the net?
Why do scambaiters pretend (or worse, actually believe) their jokes are actually helping the problem? - Nuhaus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Why do scambaiters pretend (or worse, actually believe) their jokes are actually helping the problem?"
Scambaiting obviously takes a scammer's time and energy away from trying to dupe an unsuspecting victim. The more people know about these scams the less likely they'll be fooled. - r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Scam baiters audience isn't the people who are stupid enough to fall for scams. They waste a fraction of the scammers time and then circulate the stories to the same audience youtube caters to.
Any time and energy the scammer wastes is largely irrelevent. I'm sure a scammer can reply to more than 1 email a day, and if they take a photo or whatever I'm sure that leaves about ... 15 hours of their day free to continue scamming real victims. - pardonmedoug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8They also give the spammers' information to law enforcement. Read the article. How could this be anthing BUT negative for the scammers? They sure don't want the publicity, and public humiliation probably has a similar deterrent effect to jail time. Plus wasting time is something no business can afford to do much of, even illegitimate ones.
- Murphys, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't know about the scammers, but I know I'VE wasted an entire day reading the stories. Best entertainment I've had in months.
- skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com
I love that site.
- r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3"They pilfer nearly $200 million from Americans annually and drive some of their victims to suicide, but Nigeria's notorious e-mail scam artists may finally have met their match -- and the results can be hilarious."
- dixplay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I loved the church of fish and bread, that was priceless..
good that someone has the time (and patience) to waste these guys times also, touche i say - RichPowers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15This guys an E-Hero.
*salute* - ashley91, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I've done this myself. I might post what happened to digg. But as far as they know, I am now dead.
- Veamon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I've done this too, and still keep up with it. Just make sure you have an anonymous account like gmail, no personal info, and try not to have too many baits at one time. There have been a few people killed by these guys, and I doubt they would have any problems killing a scambaiter if they could.
They are pretty gullible, I had one believing I was a Jedi Master, in the market for mogwais. They even said they had it in stock and would ship me some.- klaymen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2people have been killed by them you say?
source? - r2d7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://www.google.com/search?q=419+murder+dutch+guy
- klaymen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2people have been killed by them you say?
- Nullo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27It's not really hard to scam the scammers...Here's my nigerian scammer trophy:
http://madsenblog.dk/?p=366
You guys should really try it...it's lots of fun!- bluebri, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3OMG. I can't stop laughing. Nice job. :D
- georgelogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That was hilarious. I can't believe how gullible these people are.
"Thanks for you response and may the good lord continue to shower his mercy and blesing upon the royal danish society for the deaf and earless (amen)."
- bluebri, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I can see the spin from this in a new Reality TV Show now, ASI. Anti-Spam Intelligence.
- nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0"... may finally have met their match ..."???
This is ancient. I understand some people may be seeing it for the first time, but I don't understand how.- kent1146, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Because some people have better things to do with their time than scour the internet for obscure little stories that have nothing to do with the news, politics, finance, sports, or technology?
Isn't that the entire purpose of Digg? Go to a single website, so that obscure stories have been found and ranked for you?
- kent1146, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Because some people have better things to do with their time than scour the internet for obscure little stories that have nothing to do with the news, politics, finance, sports, or technology?
- tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Hehe, I have a few trophies of my own, I should put them online. It's a good feeling getting these scummy scammy people to do utterly ridiculous things because an e-mail says so. You could say it's a taste of their own medicine.
- mzwaterski, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4mugu was here!
- ifonly, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3http://www.419eater.com/images/luthman2.jpg
Best one ever.- georgelogy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Doesn't work. 404 Error.
- dgh1973, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This has been going on for quite some time now, I read a couple of years back about some guy claiming to be from the "Church of the red breast" getting similarly stupid photos.
- limpbizkitt0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Damn that was a good laugh
- redfox2600, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How the hell does one convince someone else to get a tattoo for money?
- cody50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He spends seven hours a day doing this? now thats dedication.
- Shananra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't know why 419eater keeps getting plugged everywhere, I find thescambaiter way more funny. eater just seems bland in comparison.
My two favorites:
http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6797 (House of Self Worship, you have to see to believe!)
http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1132 (Anus Laptops, it's long but you won't want to stop reading until you get to the end)
It could be a matter of taste.- MrDarkSim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anus Laptops was one of my favorites as well.It shows you that some of the scammers are just as blinded by greed as the people they rip off.
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm wondering how many of these photos are of the scammer doing stupid stuff, and how many of pictures are of local people who were paid $1 by the scammer to pose for the picture.
The whole premise of getting the scammers to quit via embarrassment doesn't work if it's not actually a picture of the scammer. - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I usually reply back to these guys with derogatory comments. I don't have the energy to bait them, but thanks for those that do!
- whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is great!
not only is it funny, it informs people of the danger for those who are less then web savvy.
Plus the submitter has a great icon! - Nuhaus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's unfortunate that the amount of time and effort required to bait one of these scammers is double what the scammer puts in. But wow, what an evil genius creative writing assignment!
- OAKsider, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These are truely some of the most interesting reads on the net, add to that the 'good guys' kicking ass and [quite easily] outsmarting these scamming fools. Beautiful. +dugg. Classic.
- btipling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This was on digg's front page like last week. WTF
- hamstereater, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some of these are hard to read :(
- jbft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Here is the funniest and one of the first reverse scam artists: http://www.reversescam.com
- daharris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The ANUS LAPTOPS scambait was the funniest ***** ive ever read on the internet
The bloke who done it and went through with it deserves a medal - takeda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nice, but wasn't it posted in wrong category? Also, I'm sure a lot of people already know that website...
- chess007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 I posted a long time ago about this, it didn't get too many digg's. Its hilarious what some people do to scammers.
http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com
Is the best site. Its not safe for work...(due to pictures from some of the female fans of the site). But its hilarious. :) He also has pictures of the scammers. - hosiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OK, I automatically downvote anything that links to "Wired". If I want "Wired"'s level of journalistic integrity, I'll go to the quickie mart and pick up a copy of Weekly World News. Bonus bad taste points for mentioning "suicide" and "hilarious" in the same sentence. Besides, spam/scammer-baiting has kind of like, uh, BEEN DONE. Like in the year 1995.
- hosiah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1By the way, I don't get it. I have never read a scammer-baiting story that was the least bit amusing. They're boring as hell. Even a brief description of the techniques is boring as hell.
This is nothing but "MTV's Jackass" or perhaps "BumFights" in slow motion. - VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Who commits suicide over getting conned? I've been piss-broke and in debt for years, you don't see me killing myself. At least these people had money to lose in the first place. I've NEVER had more than a grand at one time in my 24-year life.
- Cyberdactyl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hehe, dude, admitting you're a low income loser who can't hold on to cash past $1000 surely isn't something I'd readily admit to the world.
- hosiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Hehe, dude, admitting you're a low income loser who can't hold on to cash past $1000 surely isn't something I'd readily admit to the world."
Well, then, maybe that says something about you? Subtract DEBT from your personal balance; average US citizen hardly tastes $1000 (above the balance of their debt and tax burden!) all at once at any moment in their lifetimes. This is most of a decade experience in the banking industry talking here. The average citizen is born in, lives in, and even dies in debt. Student loan, home mortgage, car payments, owed taxes, credit cards. That job you work at is just to pay the cost of keeping you as a slave. Those "savings" you deposit to earn a crummy 2% interest do nothing to offset the 25% interest you're paying on your cards. In fact, much of percieved wealth of even those well-to-do is on paper only.
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