Well, after a few days I e-mailed him back and told him that I was travelling over the holidays, and that he should get back to me ASAP. chowder, I didn’t mention anything about you yet just yet. He replied back with:
God be with us! Praise Cecil!
Anyway, notwithstanding the fact I don’t believe any of this for a second, I ain’t calling that number. I then tell him that because I’m constantly deployed I just don’t have a phone–“no sense in maintaining a phone and number if I’m never going to use them”.
This morning I get:
So unless anyone else has any other thoughts, I may wait a day or two and e-mail that last e-mail account from my Hotmail. Like you said chowder, I’ll string 'em along.
Tripler
Why is my name “Lamar”? Because ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ was on TV at the time.
You give him a slight slap at this point, why? for calling you “my dear”. Cannot having him getting familiar can we?
You should also ask him what do the words “refage”,“securtly and renson” mean.
I know you know but the object of the whole exercise is to irritate the hell out of him and get him to waste his time and money.
Another good ploy is to ask him which God he is referring to, ask if he is a religeous man and if so what religion does he adhere to.
Don’t forget the carrot of your small inheritance, guaranteed to have him salivating.
There is really no end to the number of times you can yank his chain, ask about his sex life, does he like cats or dogs…you get the drift. After a while the crap will just flow merrily from your PC to his cyber cafe and he will not have the foggiest notion that you’re winding him up.
Guys, I know you’re bright, but be careful. I just keep thinking about a case here in New York where an educated man (psychiatrist IIRC) was taken for hundreds of thousands of dollars. He knew full well that it was a scam, he thought he could play the players. Things got out of his control and he was too ashamed to admit that he had lost so much money in such a stupid way - so he kept trying to manipulate the situation to get his money back. Naturally, that only made matters worse.
So don’t take any risks even if you think you can handle it. These guys do this for a living, they are both more motivated and more experienced than you are. If they do trick you into doing/revealing something stupid, don’t let your ego stop you from calling the cops and fessin’ up to your own boneheadedness.
Um, yer preachin’ to the choir. Part of my bringing this to the Dope is to elucidate those that read/lurk, and educate them that this sorta crap actually does happen. Having a fairly global education (read, “I’ve traveled extensively and been visited by other scams” and “Yep, I’m somewhat streetsmart”) I realize there are two important critical events that will get me into trouble:
1: Careless handling of personal information: I use a Hotmail address which ain’t linked to anything important, I haven’t admitted anything personal, and I sure as hell ain’t calling anything or having him call me. You must keep everything as disconnected as possible, to include the use of ‘disinformation’.
2: The physical act of sending money: This includes the clicking on electronic websites that would allow the individual to access my bank accounts or have my bank access his (then allowing a reverse transaction). He will get no money out of me, and I out of him mostly because I believe he’s got none to give, nor does he have legitimate accounts for me to access and hack into (if I so wanted to).
The big part of this is information, and as chowder has already said, I give none of that other than a Hotmail account.
Tripler
It’s not like I’m sending the guy my SSN number.
Well Tripler thus far I’ve had no reply from his nibs but not to worry.
I’ve got another fish dangling and he’s in luuurve with me 'cos he thinks I’m a chick
I sent him a photo (face blanked out) from a model site, touched it up a bit with photo shop( bigger boobies)and as expected he fell for it. Anytime now I expect a proposal of marriage.
He also believes that I’m a model who travels extensively and will soon be going to Nigeria for a “shoot”.
It just remains to have him meet me…as far away from his home as possible
Of course my plane will have to return to Heathrow because of technical problems.
I realise your intentions are good but remember this, these guys may be motivated but they are far from experienced, believe me.
Streetwise they are not, their grasp of the English language is piss poor and their typing skills leaves a lot to be desired.
The original scam letter is prepared for them, after they get a reply it’s over to them to continue. This is why the first letter is almost readable with few spelling mistakes, after that it’s steadily downhill.
I’ve anti-scammed loads of these guys, some of them more than once.
Sounds more like someone who initially believed the pitch, then claimed he was ‘plying the players’ as a means of saving face - why would a scambaiter, who understands full well that it is a scam, part with any money? It doesn’t make sense.
If they know any way to find you, they can start leaning heavily on you. Claim that they’ve paid bribes in good faith because they thought you would cough up the money; could threaten your family.
In countries like Thailand, they often have local partners. One wealthy Chinese-Thai businessman that I used to be acquainted with would receive them periodically in his postal mailbox in the days before the Internet. Oddly enough, they would bear local postage stamps but had not been cancelled. Someone was placing them in his mailbox in person, maybe even the mailman himself!
Side note: I know of a wealthy Singaporean who fell for the scam a few years ago but after parting with a lot of cash and seeing no results, he got suspicious and started asking questions. They invited him to Nigeria to have a look at the operation he’d been “investing” in himself, even flew him there at their expende. Immediately upon arrival, they kidnapped him and held him for ransom!
