Scambaiter
Somewhere,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, June 04, 2009
This is a 419 scam. In fact, it's a very typical one. 419 scam's are Nigerian (usually) scammers who cook up these ludicrous emails promising insane amounts of money fo very little or no work on your part. Usually this is a sob story about a dead spouse who had an inheretance and they can't access it for whatever reasons and want you to be a middle man. Often they pose as: -Church Officials -State Officials at some weird embassy or foreign government that couldn't POSSIBLY know who you are. -lawyers -doctors -scientists -they are never any sort of common person, they always choose respectable-sounding disguises. Note their English is not great. This is a #1 clue that this is a scammer. You'd think someone as well educated as they purport to be would be able to speak better and write a more professional letter. #2 clue is they ALWAYS want their prospective pigeons to use Western Union or Some sort of wire transfer service. #3 clue is that as a head of whatever it is they are, you'd think they'd have better resources to call upon for getting things done then sending out random emails to total strangers in America. There are many breeds of these vile scammers, but they all only want one thing: TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. Don't send them any money! DON'T BY ANY MEANS EVER SEND THEM ID OR PERSONAL INFORMATION It is best just to trash these sort of emails. BETTER YET, you can join the resistance force known as scambaiters. These are people who purposely bait these scammers and toy with them. They drag out exchanges between themselves and the scammer, leading them on to believe they've hooked another sucker. -Usually this results in nothing more than wasting a scammers time. But if they're being held up by a scambaiter, they're not out there swindling innocent victims. The best baiters (who call themselves "master-baiters") can even con money out of the scammer, and get them to take and send degrading photos of themselves. None of these people are really very intelligent. They might be smart enough to swindle folks, but they're ignorant as hell. The best account I ever read was of a baiter by the handle of "SHIVER" who got a Nigerian scammer to get a big tattoo on his arm that said "Baited by SHIVER", and send pictures of it! See: http://419eater.com/html/okorie.htm It's long, but I laughed my a*s off. Anyway, hope that clears things up for you. Good Luck