Anybody still get Nigerian scam email?

[Jophiel]

I have about six on the front page of my spam folder (plus another six “lotteries” I’ve won) but only one is nominally from Africa. That one is from the anti-fraud department at the Bank of Africa offering to send me reimbursement of $4.5mil on a Visa ATM card. Man, I hope it’s one of those new chip & pin cards…

The others are from (supposedly) either the UK or US, including someone at the airport in Atlanta who wants to send me three large trunks full of cash. Three trunks full of cash sounds unwieldy but maybe I can have them added to my Visa ATM card.

[Colibri]

I used to get ones that said a relative of mine had been killed in an accident in Nigeria or wherever and they wanted to know what to do with their large bank account. Considering I have a very unusual last name it was pretty hilarious.

In 1993 I took an extended trip through Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, and Kenya. Since it was official business I had to give my email on all kinds of forms. I imagine that address, which I no longer use, is still circulating in spammer networks.

[Mangetout]

I get them on a daily basis on my hotmail account. All in the spam folder when I care to check.

Every now and again, I pick one out to play with. Most recently, I kept replying back “I don’t really need the money… what should I do next?”

[CheshireKat]

@Urbanredneck

I have heard of scambaiters that have gotten them to make phone calls (on their dime) or even to set up personal visits. Have you done this?

The scammers almost always give out their phone number and want to talk, but I only deal with them through email. A lot of my characters are deaf, or only have a land line that doesn’t accept calls from out of the country.

I have (fake) traveled to their country many times and had them wait for me at airports, restaurants or hotels. But somehow something always goes wrong…

I do a lot of research on plane tickets, airports and on the cities I’m supposed to be visiting so I can throw in details that are verifiable.

The elite members (IMO) of the scambaiting world convince these criminals to travel to other cities and even countries, paying thousands of dollars for the trips with their own money. They call this a safari, and it’s a long, complicated bait. You can read about them on 419eater.com.

There are also stories of people who have fallen for scams and lost money on the sister site, scamwarners.com.

[ftg]

I have an aggressive setting for letting stuff into my inbox. So I check my spam folder for non-spam stuff on occasion.

419 spam is very bursty. Nothing for weeks and then a half dozen in a short time. Same-old-same-old for the most part with occasional twist of the FBI/Interpol “agent” wanting to help me recover my funds.

[Tamerlane]

I’ve only rarely gotten them ( somewhat to my disappointment ), but I did get one in the junk file a couple days ago from The Contract Tenders Board, For Contract Tenders/Awards Approvals In The Eskom South Africa. I rather enjoyed it as they were quite upfront about their plans to defraud a Japanese firm building a power grid in South Africa ;). Apparently they are going to inflate the bid numbers and then split the proceeds with the enterprising individual willing to wash the ill-gotten gains for them with their nice clean account.

[Leaffan]

@CheshireKat

The scammers almost always give out their phone number and want to talk, but I only deal with them through email. A lot of my characters are deaf, or only have a land line that doesn’t accept calls from out of the country.

I have (fake) traveled to their country many times and had them wait for me at airports, restaurants or hotels. But somehow something always goes wrong…

I do a lot of research on plane tickets, airports and on the cities I’m supposed to be visiting so I can throw in details that are verifiable.

The elite members (IMO) of the scambaiting world convince these criminals to travel to other cities and even countries, paying thousands of dollars for the trips with their own money. They call this a safari, and it’s a long, complicated bait. You can read about them on 419eater.com.

There are also stories of people who have fallen for scams and lost money on the sister site, scamwarners.com.

I love this! Keep up the good work.

[Kenm]

@DCnDC

And oh look, he wants to send me $20 million in cash in “2 security proof boxes,” whatever that is, “arranged through diplomatic preference carriage scheme.” Ah, the ol’ diplomatic preference carriage scheme. My favorite!

I think I’m supposed to send him a receipt for it, then he’s going to send me another 2 boxes, and of course he “will advice that you let nobody know about this method to avoid people eyebrow.” Indeed. Beware the ever-watchful eyebrow of EVIL!!!

You should send him two or three letters of transit to facilitate the boxes fleeing by carriage.

[Mr.Miskatonic]

Checked the spam email and have one from Thursday. Slight variation on the usual theme:

I am delighted to contact you on a private note based on the confidentiality of this deal, my name is Lukeman John of International monitoring fund unit, i work with the united state department of treasury, but i was sent to John F.Kennedy international airport New york for official Inspection, while i discovered An abandoned shipment by a Diplomat , your name tagged on it, when i personally scanned it, it revealed an undisclosed sum of money, I move the consignment to oceanic security company.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

I got one recently with a minor twist: hey, I know you’re not entitled to the money, but once I give the inheritance to a guy with the same last name as the deceased, my work here is done – so maybe just gimme a name to play fill-in-the-blank with, huh? I never wanted this stupid job; please take the cash so I can call it a day.

[CheshireKat]

When baiting these criminals, once you get them off their prepared script they can be quite funny. I’ve kept this loan scammer waiting almost a month now for a measly $300:

I DONT KNOW WHY YOUR THINGS ARE SO HARD.PLEASE THIS IS AN UK ACCOUNT
AND THERE IS NO ROUNT NUMBER THAT IS REQUIRED AND AM SICK AND TIRED OF
ONE EXCUSE OR THE OTHER, IF YOU CANT DRIVE TO THE BANK LEAVE THE CAR
BEHIND AND FIND A WAY TO TAKE A TAXI AND PLEASE SAVE ME THE TIME AND
STRESS BECAUSE I HAVE BEING SO REASONABLE.