BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: Slag
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 01:12 PM

...I 'd buy THAT for a dollar!

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 06:51 PM

kat -

I was afraid to put it up top. We have too many musicians here with music saleable (even if they're folkies and nobody buys).

And the guy did get caught.

Publicising the method might be hazardous to our friends(?).

John

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 05:19 PM

This is hilarious!

JohninKS, I think it warrants its own thread up top!

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 04:31 PM

They've been reading bits of this on Radio4, with Brian Cox as the main protagonist. Very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 02:46 PM

Not exactly a new Nigerian scam, but a new form of scam, is reported recently:

Thief steals his own music from iTunes reports a novel(/) method of stealing using credit card fraud that doesn't require the scammer to touch the money taken from the credit card accounts.

And (maybe this belongs upstairs) as used in this form, only a musician(?) could use the method.

John

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: Amos
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 11:54 AM

Some have a long history of pranking the scammer in very creative ways.

Chacun a son mauvais gout I always say.


A

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: kendall
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 11:43 AM

I can't imagine wasting my time answering such a letter.

Some years ago, some wag gave a dating service my phone number. I kept getting calls from them trying to get me to join the club and I kept telling them I wasn't interested.
Finally, after at least half a dozen calls the woman asked if I was seeing anyone and I told her yes. Then she asked if it was serious! Fed up, I said "It will be if her husband finds out."

She flipped and said "Oh my, oh dear" Never got another call.

Hell, I didn't even lie to her.

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 11:03 AM

You can't cheat an honest man?

That is one of the silliest things I've heard in years. Honest people get cheated all the time.

As for scammers, I think it wisest to have as little to do with them as possible. Delete their e-mails before opening.

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:44 AM

excellent, a lot of laughs

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: EBarnacle
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:43 AM

They deserve any abuse they receive. As Bill Fields said, "You can't cheat an honest man."

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:29 AM

I did this some years back, with a number of the typical scams; I even got one fellow to set up a meeting in Addis Abbaba, or was it Bahrain (didn't go, of course). Now, one of those who had written sent a very impressive looking screen, complete with a picture of himself (he stated) and an exterior shot of the Bank of Uganda. If you "Reply" to such E-Mails, but don't "Send", instead click on "Save as Draft", you can then edit this draft and change the original wording (you do get a blue line down the side of the screen, but so what). To cut a long story short, I used this guy's picture in a reply to another scammer, this time purporting to be the widow of an assassinated African politician (and, she claimed, a devout Christian). In keeping with the kind of grammar & spelling encountered in these scams, I wrote to this purported widow in a style reminiscent of Joel Chandler Harris; I'll not quote it here just in case anyone takes offence, but I think I can claim to be one of the few who have ever got anything out of these scammers, namely, some amusement and a couple of good stories to make friends laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: Crowhugger
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:19 AM

Thanks for the great laugh, Lox!

Subject: RE: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: gnu
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 10:11 AM

Good stuff!

Subject: BS: HILARIOUS - pranking the e.mail scammer
From: Lox
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:30 AM

Thought all of you who post on here about ridiculous e.mail scams would enjoy this.

A Guardian reporter decided to lead a scammer down the garden path.

These are the Hilarious results