Mangetout
You are a genius. There is no other word for it.
Might I suggest you attemtp to contact the South African authorities? I’m sure they’d love to pick this guy up, even if they couldn’t ultimately charge him.
And just think if they did! Can you imagine this e-mail exchange being introduced into evidence in court? At the very least, you’d get a free trip (legitimate this time) to South Africa. You’d probably also become an international comic hero!
Indeed Mr ‘Wemba’ - it must be safe, otherwise how are you to actualize the project?
Good stuff, Mange! 
I would like to share a similar attempt I read a few weeks ago. This person got the scammers to actually show up on a webcam in Amsterdam.
Nice one! What an attractive young lady is Wendy!
I’m wondering how he will react when the penny drops - either impotent threats or simple withdrawal.
No further contact from him today - this could be interpreted in a couple of ways:
-He thinks I’m on my way and thus can’t be bothered to get a photo
-He asked someone to take a picture of him holding a card with the wording I specified and they understood the joke.
Assuming he’s still not wise, I’m going to wait until Wednesday evening and tell him my connecting flight was diverted to somewhere improbable. - This should buy me a few more days to really build up the pressure for a photo.
Why don’t you just tell him that because of your “great fearing,” you delayed your flight because you hadn’t yet received the picture?
Can you trace his ISP from the e-mails or is he using hotmail? Either way, when you decide to drop the other shoe, it would be hilarious to send him a very official looking e-mail from another e-mail address announcing that the International Fraud Union Committee (IFUC) has been monitoring the transaction and that by opening the e-mail he is currently reading, the “relevant information” has been “copied from his computer” and that his computer is now evidence in a criminal investigation. The e-mail should instruct him to not to erase any data or files and that he is forbidden to physically damage the computer. With a bit of luck, he’ll feed his laptop to a shredder.
If you could track down his ISP (even if it’s hotmail) you might be able to get them to disable his account. That would definitely leave him in need of clean shorts!
I think I’ll tell him that my flight was diverted to Spain because of Hurrican Ringo, but that I’m going to spend a few days there in search of pigeons, while I wait for him to send the picture (good idea of yours).
I very much doubt he has his own computer - his email address is a Yahoo one (and conspicuously a disposable address) - all but one of his emails were sent within the same hour or so (but on different days), except Sunday, when there was none - I think this pattern points to him using an internet cafe or a computer in a library.
Excellent! Pigeons are orginally natives of North Africa but spend much time in Spain where there are many statues of Queen Isabella.
This thread is one of the ten best things I’ve ever seen on this board. I can’t imagine why it hasn’t made thread spotting. Maybe Tuba is afraid that too much publicity might give the game away!
Well, the game is still afoot, or so it would appear…
Odd that he doesn’t want me to take the extra ten thousand dollars, perhaps he feels this adds to his credibility, or maybe my statement that I embezzled it gives him concern that he might be pursued legally.
I’ve decided to tell him that my flight was diverted into Lagos, Nigeria due to some implausible event, but not yet; if this was true, I’d be unable to contact him straight away until I found my feet.
I don’t think he has any intention of actually sending a photo, so I’ll stay a few days in my Nigerian hotel, watching the pigeons until he can allay my fears.
Ooh, I know, I know!
Tell him that your flight was diverted because of migrating coconuts!
Are you trying to tell me coconuts migrate?
[sub]Please don’t turn this thread into a Monty Python Recite-a-thon (Pytha-cite-on?)[/sub]
What surprises me is the unbelievable gullibility of the scammers. This thing has been around for a long time and there has been more than one ‘scam th scammers’ scenario yet they continue to believe it will work?
Has it ever? Is there a record of anyone actually getting caught up in this crap and giving these guys money? I still get these all the time only now they’re not always from Africa.
I loved the Wendy Wilcox story. Can’t believe that got that guy on camera. Sucker!
On the scamorama website, there are a few accounts of people who were taken in by the scam - and these are just the ones that owned up to being stung.
Apparently the advance fee scam is something like the fifth ranking source of income in Nigeria, which would seem to suggest that a large number of people get taken in by it (although how these figures were calculated is anybody’s guess).
I find it incredible that anyone could fall for the scam simply because you never receive just one of the emails - once you’re on the mailing lists, it isn’t just Austin Wemba pleading for your help, it’s Mariam Abacha, Dada Guei, Mobutu Sese-Seko and the whole crew - why anyone would take one such message seriously while ignoring all the (very similar)others is a complete mystery to me.
Not at all. Wouldn’t dream of it. I’m trying to tell our mark, Austin Wemba, that coconuts migrate.
Is the mark gullible enough to fall for a completely ridiculous explanation for why the OP isn’t present in person?
IMHO (oops, wrong forum) Monty Python references are about as completely ridiculous as you can get. 
Well, this is a bit of a long shot; if he falls for this, then he’s either really gullible or living in a hole, as the flight on which I said I was coming will have safely landed in Johannesburg, however, the detail about the fire in Lagos is a real news story, to add a little authenticity:
hee hee
My plan now (and tell me if you think I’m going too far) is to break off contact completely as Dick Dastardly, leave him to stew for a day or so (he may actually send the photograph), then contact him as Penelope Pitstop, claiming that my fiancé (Dick Dastardly) was murdered in Lagos and left behind a sealed envelope including instructions (although he said he was going to SA) to contact Mr Wemba and tell him what has happened.
I want to see if he will stoop so low as to try to lure a widow (of a man in whose demise he has been instrumental) out to complete the scam.
To say the very least, this thread has made my like significantly less drab.
I am subscribing to this thread. I can’t wait to hear the next installment of the adventures of the soon-to-be-late Dick Dastardly and his berieved fiancee.
–SSgtBaloo
I am much humour of this thread. In the mornings of my work if boring I am finding to laugh for it. I have subscription to and can many enjoying. I hope Mr Austin is reply soon! I want to see his beautiful face with the picture email.
Oh no! Please don’t kill off Mr. Dastardly! Let him go missing for a while, as Miss Pitstop enters the game. Then later you can get the mark to play Dastardly against Pitstop, and see what he promises each of them!