[wordup] Nigerian Revenge. The 419 scammers.

[Adam Shand]

From: 
http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1086308,00.html

Nigerian email conmen fall into their targets' net

Tony Thompson, crime correspondent
Sunday November 16, 2003
The Observer

It has been described as the internet's first blood sport and is fast 
becoming one of the web's favourite pastimes. Fed up with having their 
inboxes clogged with emails from Nigerian fraudsters promising untold 
riches, the victims are finally hitting back.

Scam-baiting - replying to the emails and stringing the con artists 
along with a view to humiliating them as much as possible - is becoming 
increasingly popular with more than 150 websites chronicling the often 
hilarious results.

Known as 419 fraud, after the section of the Nigerian penal code that 
it contravenes, the scam generates millions of pounds each year. 
According to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the average 
loss in the UK stands at around £35,000.

Mike, a 41-year-old computer engineer from Manchester, runs the 
scam-baiting site 419eater.com, which started two months ago. 'Almost 
always the scammer will think you are a real victim and try their best 
to extract money. It started because I used to get a few emails, and 
although I knew it was a scam I never knew how it worked. I did some 
research, found out about scam baiting and decided to have a go. It's 
now almost a full-time hobby for me.'

Like most baiters, Mike replies in the names of made-up characters. His 
sites specialise in collecting pictures of the scammers in order to 
make it more difficult to find new victims. Using the pretext that in 
order to believe they are real people they need to take a photograph 
holding up signs with the name of Mike's character, he has succeeded in 
getting one fraudster to pose with a piece of paper stating: MI Semem 
Stains. Other sites feature similar pictures with signs reading 'Iama 
Dildo', 'Mr Bukakke' and 'Ben Dover'.

Taking a leaf out of the 419 gangs' book, most of the scam baiters keep 
their true identities secret. There have been at least 25 murders 
linked to the 419 gangs. Last February a retired Czech doctor who had 
lost more than £400,000 stormed into the Nigerian Embassy in Prague and 
shot dead the leading consul.

A scam-baiting site run by 'Alexander Kerensky' focuses its efforts on 
419 gangs based in Amsterdam. Adopting the persona 'Lillith Cova', an 
attractive but desperately lonely 27-year-old advertising executive 
from London, Kerensky exchanged emails with a man by the name of James 
for more than a month. During this time he received authentic-looking 
documents, including a power of attorney, entitling him to a 20 per 
cent share of $18 million.

'The site started because I managed to lure James in front of an 
Amsterdam webcam and I wanted people to know what these scammers look 
like. I don't have anything against Nigerians. These people are, quite 
simply, outright criminals.'

The oldest anti-scammer site is Scamorama, which aims to educate the 
public about the latest trends as well as waste as much of the 
fraudsters' time as possible. The original emails often claim the 
author has suffered a personal tragedy, usually the loss of a parent. A 
typical Scamorama reply claimed the recipient has also lost a parent in 
shocking circumstances, having witnessed their own father being shot. 
The email was signed 'Alfredo Corleone'.

The ultimate aim of many anti-scammers is to turn the tables completely 
and get the 419 gangs to send them money. One of those who has 
succeeded is an Australian who baits under the name of J Cosmo Newbury 
and specialises in creating characters and situations that border on 
the surreal. After months of correspondence, one of his characters even 
received a marriage proposal.

'I have a long history of writing loopy letters, so this was just an 
extension of that,' says Newbury. 'I think I was as surprised as anyone 
when the Nigerians fell for my stories, but I guess they are as 
gullible and as greedy as their victims. I know my efforts won't stop 
the scammers, but I have had emails from people who were tempted to 
reply but searched the internet and found my site and they thanked me 
for "saving" them.'

Newbury has now published some of his favourite exchanges in the form 
of a book, Dancing with Thieves. It includes letters where he poses as 
a terrorist by the name of Princess Tikka Masala, a Chinese 
restaurateur called Hu Flung Dung and a retired mariner by the name of 
John Silver.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003