A group of zany pranksters is taking on those infamous "419" scammers, who continue to rip off consumers world wide with emails requesting assistance moving large sums of money. The scams usually end with the victim paying large sums of money to cover "expenses" involved in the phony transaction.
"419" refers to the section of the Nigerian penal code that covers advance fee scams. Most of these scams are run from Nigeria.
419eater.com is an online resource for the recruitment of "scambaiters," volunteers whose mission is to scam the scammers. And what, exactly, is scambaiting?
"Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources," the pranksters, who go by screen names line Shiver Metimbers, explain on their Web site.
"Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves."
For anyone ever burned by a scammer, or simply annoyed with all the spam email filling their inbox, the idea of toying with a scammer might seem like great sport. But it might not be for everyone.
The site operators point out that the scammers youll be dealing with are criminals and should be treated as such. Would-be scambaiters are cautioned not to enter into any communications with these people unless you feel you are adequately prepared to deal with them.
"Under no circumstances give them any real private information about yourself. These guys may appear dumb and clueless, but I suspect it wouldn't be so funny if you were to come face-to-face with one of them," the site warns.
But 419eater.com does provide plenty of advice for those who want to take on the mission. Among the advice -- use an email address from a free service like Hotmail or Gmail to communicate with a scammer; use a free online fax service if the scammer wants to send you a fax; tell them you are hearing impaired if they want to call you on the phone.
The objective of any successful scambaiting operation is to string the scammer along for as long as possible.
If you want to hear how others have done it, 419eater.com has a hilarious collection of audio clips of scambaiters having fun with their victims. In one classic clip, the "victim" speaks with the scammer as he is supposedly arriving at the Western Union office to wire more than $100,000. But before he can get through the door he is killed in a horrible accident, complete with highly produced sound effects.
Even though these "419" email scams have been around almost as long as the Internet, people still fall for them. It has been estimated that there are well over 250,000 scammers involved in 419 scams worldwide and that they reap in over $1.5 billion annually. The average victim pays out about $20,000.
Getting in touch with a scammer is never a problem, either. As anyone with an email address knows, you just have to wait a couple of days.
