Turn the tide on '419' scams... get into 'scambaiting', or maybe NOT!

This internet is a vast frontier as wild as the wildest experiences of the wild, wild, west! Outlaws abound! Among the most notable of these are the Nigerian (and other) '419' scammers who prey on unsuspecting and kindhearted people to rob them of their life's savings... You all know the letters "Dear beloved one, I am Mrs XX wife of deceased diplomat YY who was given a $1 Billion... Please can I access the money through your bank account?"

I had heard about 'scambaiting' previously, but now there's a book on the subject. In short, scambaiters turn the tide on the scammers by getting them to perform hilarious acts to 'prove' their trustworthyness to the persons they think they are scamming. These include things like sending stuff from Nigeria, posting photos of themselves in certain places, or doing certain things... In short, the scammer gets scammed...

Here's more from Cory Doctorow - (Warning! This could be dangerous! So, don't try it at home!!!)

Sadly, for persons such as myself who deal with fairly substantial ammounts of donor funding that gets directed to social upliftment programs, there is a need to be incredibly discerning about requests for assistance and clear and verifiable credentials... It is sad that I need to be so untrusting, but it is a reality that has to do with my own safety, and the safety of the funds in my care.

Every idea implies its opposite, and there's no clearer proof of this than the amazing Internet practice of "scambaiting," well-documented in Eve Edelson's Scamorama: Turning the Tables on Email Scammers.

You know those ridiculous fraud emails you get from deposed princes, corrupt bankers, desperate widows (and so on), with weird capitalization and punctuation, asking you to advance them some money so that they can liberate a giant, multibillion-dollar sum and give you ten percent for your trouble? These "419" letters originate from all over the world, but Nigeria's perfect storm of connectivity, corruption, lawlessness and poverty meant that the "Lads" of Lagos have elevated ripoff letters to a high art.

And for every Lad, there's a scambaiter. Scambaiting is a vibrant internet sport that involves turning the tables on 419 scammers, getting them to undertake ridiculous rituals, expend money and energy, humiliate and debase themselves as they seek to ruin their "victims'" lives through fraud.

Scamorama is a popular website for scambaiting, and its creator, Eve Edelson, has put a lot of thought into the nature of the 419 con and those who seek to disrupt it. In Scamorama (the book), Edelson traces the history of scamming back to the middle ages and forward to the present day, giving practical advice on not getting taken in and scam-proofing your friends and family.

But where Scamorama really gets going in as a HOWTO manual for scambaiting, with long, hilarious email exchanges between baiters and scammers, and good tips for running your own reverse con.

As hobbies go, scambaiting sounds like a pretty fun one -- and it has redeeming social characteristics, since the 419 con artist who is busily whittling you a Commodore 64, sojourning to Amsterdam to meet an "eccentric clergyman" who will front him $20,000, or re-enacting the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch is a con artist who is not ruining the life of some more trusting soul. Scamorama on Amazon, Scamorama.com

See also:
* 419 scammers tricked into re-creating Dead Parrot Sketch
* 419 victim shoots Nigerian diplomat
* NPR "Xeni Tech": Scambaiters and Monty Python, 419-style
* Laura Bush's 419 letter
* Dick Cheney's 419 letter
* Dutch court locks up 419 scammers
* Busting a 419 scammer spammer
* Nigerian Letter scammer convinced to carve replica Commodore 64
* Man loses money trying to double it by marinating
* Nigerian letters fuel Lagos's Internet Cafe boom
* Nigerian legit email hard to distinguish from 419s