SUBJECT: URGENT!!! Please read
I am soliciting your assistance as to enable my family round up the remains of our life. Following the death of my husband Sani Abacha, former head of state of Nigeria, the new president has turned the country against us . . . I will be grateful if you could receive my last $50 million for safe keeping. I will give you 10% as a commission and to cover any expenses . . .
Everyone has no doubt received these “419†emails in their in-box; most of us immediately delete or trash them. However, groups of people around the world have taken it a step further and turned the tables on the scammers, leading them on with their own nonsense, strictly to waste the scammers’ time––a practice known as scambaiting.
This psychological warfare for clowns is being waged on the internet between criminals and comedians. On one side are fraudsters, usually from Nigeria, who con their victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars each year, and on the other side are pranksters from around the world writing them back merely to yank their chains.
This book documents a weird form of cultural exchange made possible by the internet. It is a hilarious introduction to the “419†scam, with serious information about the scam and correspondences between the scammers and the people who mess with them–liars telling lies with compound interest to other liars.
Learn all about the “419†scam–how it started, how it’s done, who’s behind it and what can be done to fight it. The book also provides tips on how ordinary people can join in on the fun and bait these scammers.
Author Eve Edelson is the owner of the leading scambaiting website scamorama.com
SCAMORAMA: Turning the Tables on Email Scammers
Written by Eve Edelson
Disinformation Books * September 2006
Trade Paper * 216 pages * ISBN: 1-932857-38-9
Now available at the The Disinformation Store