If you’ve checked your email anytime in the last
twenty years, you’ve likely been subjected to
appeals from mysterious foreign nationals
promising you money for nothing. Or, more
accurately, a whole lot of money for only a little of
yours — wired internationally to someone you
don’t know. Most of these scams involve you
supplying seed money, or disclosing confidential
data used to deplete your savings account. While
these cons are usually recognizable and safely
ignored, enough suckers are fooled to make the
effort profitable for the criminals who have no fear
of legal retribution. Fortunately, a new breed of
counterspy, the scam baiter, has risen to our
defense. Aware they can’t stop the legions of
online con men, these brave souls do their best to
waste as much of the scammer’s time and
resources as is humanly possible. The results are
often hilarious. Submitted for your approval are 10
clever and involved scam baiting operations. Be
sure to follow the source links if you can, because
the transcripts are too lengthy to publish in this
format.
10 Maryam Abacha Letters
Included because the online documentation of this
full-on runaround is so user-friendly it’s a great
introduction to scam baiting. Seriously, this guy
could have taken notes in law school. Fully color
coded email entries and annotated notes detail the
plan of, and correspondence with, Maryam Abacha,
wife of the late military head of State for Nigeria.
According to her unsolicited email to a total
stranger, she has $30 million in cash and needs to
get it out of the country but doesn’t trust her
family. She even includes hyperlinks from
BBC.com to bolster her credibility. However, our
scam baiter, Mr. “Dick Heyd” feigns interest and
begins “the game”, as he calls it. Heyd proceeds to
complicate a deal for a transfer of $20,000 from
him in exchange for ‘the
consignment’ (presumably the money), and he
claims to have already sent $7500 to a Mr. Mbeki
at Global Security in Amsterdam, who he believes
is in the employ of Ms. Abacha. (Ms. Abacha has no
idea who Mbeki is — Heyd made it up). The
preferred drop site is London (where Abacha
obviously has contacts), so Heyd fixates on
Amsterdam and won’t budge. Finally they relent,
but Mr. Heyd has security concerns. Appearing
spooked in emails and using a fellow scam baiter
in Amsterdam, he feigns travel to Amsterdam and
concocts a last minute cancellation of the
exchange, citing security protocols for him as the
CEO of Bovine Excreta Custom Manufacturing. Via
the fellow scam baiter in Amsterdam, he is able to
describe the very people sent to fetch him from
the hotel, since they were casing the lobby at the
prescribed time and making ‘massive amounts of
phone calls’. Heyd then plays Mbeki and Ms.
Abacha against one another and swears to never
work with Mbeki again or the deal’s off. The
annotated notes indicate the scammers are now
VERY confused, and they propose a new dropsite in
China with new contact John Kuma. Heyd agrees
but secretly emails Kuma with an offer of a 50/50
split and a Green Card for US citizenship. To top
things off, he also fakes an email from Mbeki
threatening Abacha, telling her to stop ruining his
scam. Ms. Abacha (and I’m sure her whole scam
gang) is now totally flummoxed, so Heyd slips her
Kuma’s incriminating email response to the offer of
US citizenship. Then he lets her know that Kuhn is
trying to have her bumped off, with an itemized
payment schedule for the assassins. After that,
there haven’t been any more emails from Ms.
Abacha. I’m worried for her…aren’t you? [ Source]
9 To Catch a Con Man
This scam baiting operation is unique in its scale—
backed by an American network news budget, full
camera team, and travel expense account,
investigative reporter Chris Hansen decides he
wants to follow a 419 scam all the way through,
and expose the criminals in this ‘faceless’ crime.
To do this, his team answers a lot of scam emails
and send seed money early in the conversations.
The scams are simple— the victim is promised
millions of dollars for helping someone supposedly
in need, but first the victim must pay thousands in
processing fees (and of course the millions never
arrive). Again, because Hansen sent money early
in his communications, several separate scammers
offer to do something they rarely do— agree to
meet him in person. So Hansen and his team fly to
London to meet their defrauders in public places,
local bars, and even hotel suites, filming the
confrontations in a fashion similar to his
groundbreaking “To Catch a Predator” series.
8 Painted Breast
“Prince” Joe Eboh, the purported chairman of the
“Nigerian Delta Development Commission
(NDDC)” promised millions to anyone who could
help him siphon off excess revenues from the late
head of state, General San Abacha (does he know
Abacha’s wife is trying to do the same thing?).
Using a familiar “church” theme, scam baiter
“Father Hector Barnett” responded to the email,
since he was looking to provide financial
assistance for new converts. Barnett spun a story
of how the ministry was founded in 1774 by Betsy
Carrington, who spent years spreading the holy
gospel to the Masai. In fact, they even initiated her
into “The Order of The Red Breast” via a ceremony
where she had to mark the top half of her nude
body with red paint as a gesture of faith. As a
result, she was immediately accepted, and
remained one of the most trusted westerners
known at that time. As a qualification to enter the
Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast,
Barnett told Prince Eboh that all converts must
also complete the initiation that Miss Carrington
did. Barnett even included a photograph of four
young men going through the procedure. Eboh
predictably jumped at the chance and supplied a
photo of himself with a spray painted ‘9’ around
his nipple, and even sent $80 in processing fees
for the promised $18,000 (which has never been
sent). The $80 received (most likely stolen) was
later sent to a children’s charity in the north of
England. The email correspondence goes on to this
day, even through the traumatic death of Father
Barnett’s good friend Minny Mowse, his doomed
plans to spend church money exporting snow to
Siberia, and failed dreams of joining the circus.
Since then, Prince Joe Eboh rockin’ his ‘9’ has
become an icon in the scam baiting community.
[ Source]
7 Carve This
The primary goal of scam-baiting is to distract the
scammer so he can’t rip off anyone else. And that’s
what happened when scammer “F. Williams
Smith” from the “Special Committee for Budget
and Planning of the Ministry of Petroleum”
contacted scam baiter “Derek Trotter”. Smith
offered 25% of $10.5 million in exchange for an
“account in which the funds will be transferred.”
What he got instead was a carpentry assignment
from Mr. Trotter, who posed as an arts dealer.
Through clever emails and the promise of
$100,000, Trotter lured Mr. Smith into creating
elaborate wood carvings–some of which were
pretty good, and obviously took time to construct.
In the end, after weeks of paperwork,
disagreements over shipping fees, and the
untimely “death” of Derek Trotter, the deal fell
apart, and everyone parted ways. Later, scammer
“John Boko” also fell for the Derek Trotter
treatment and also submitted a wooden replica of
the sample figure. But due to “shipping shrinkage”
Trotter claimed the piece didn’t meet the agreed-
upon specifications and the submission was
refused. So Boko was given a second chance, only
this time he had to carve a replica of a Commodore
64. Which he did. [ Source]
6 Handwritten Harry
After offering millions of dollars for a few
thousands in advance, alleged attorney for “the
late President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”,
Barrister Mussa Issah, fell deep into the clutches of
mastermind “Arthur Dent.” Dent claimed that his
company was conducting a research project on
“Advanced Handwriting Recognition and
Graphology systems”, and offered Mr. Issah $100
per handwritten page of any text. Dent demanded
a strict minimum of 100 pages, and anything less
would be rejected outright. Issah fell hard, and
transcribed all 293 pages of “Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets”, each page meticulously
handwritten. Sadly, the deal fell through for some
reason. [ Source]
5 Skeleton Coast
From July to August 2006, scam baiter “Troy
McClure” weaves a story of ready cash at the NASA
compound he cleans in Namibia. However, if the
money were to go missing, Troy would be the first
suspect. He needs a partner like Steven Okama–
the scammer–to come and get it. A month of
emails, Internet phone calls, and visits to a fake
web page keep Mr. Okama breathlessly engaged,
until the two decide to stash the money in a
watertight GPS-enabled cashbox on a deserted
beach. Okama’s brother-in-law, Tony, agrees to
pick up the money using online GPS coordinates
(from Troy’s fake website), and the pickup will be
confirmed when the online location of the cashbox
changes. Then Okama will deposit the money in a
South African bank account for dispersal. Tony
dutifully heads out to the beach and is horrified
when he discovers that the box is not there.
Okama is livid. Fortunately, Troy convinces them
that the box was swept out to sea and he’s
tracking its movement up the Namibian coast.
Okama keeps asking for money to hire a boat, and
begins complaining of medical problems that
prevent him from retrieving the box. Eventually,
the baiting loses steam as “Troy” plans to get the
money himself now that the box is out of Namibia.
And since Steven won’t spring for a boat, he’s cut
out of the heist. [ Source]
4 Mikel Bolton Loan Scam
This elaborate bait is as complete as it is lengthy,
and I confess to getting lost in places— which is
why it probably worked so well. The scam baiter
pretended to be “Calvin Huckle”, a naïve scam
victim just ready for the taking. The original goal
was to just run up a scammer’s long distance fees.
But then Huckle (and many of his other online
identities) came into contact with British banker
“Mikel Bolton”, who was willing to lend him up to
$150,000 without ever meeting him. Posing as a
fellow scam artist making a good living sending
fake checks, Huckle co-opted the scammer(s) into
contacting former 419 victims. Unbeknownst to
them, Huckle had the real victim’s permission to
assume their online identity for the duration of the
sting. Hollywood thrillers have nothing on this: the
counterscam involved a boggling 11 separate
storylines and several times Huckle contacted
other scam baiters by accident, but they agreed to
corroborate one another’s stories to the real
criminals. Luckily, during the operation, our hero
obtained a list of 86 intended victims, and he
notified each of the plans to defraud them. Of
course, some believed him, and others thought he
was running a scam (which is progress, I think).
[ Source]
3 Mark of Respect
Scammer Ahmed Sadiq first contacts scam baiter
“Lance Myboyle” for airfare money to Mecca.
However, Ahmed’s lie of attending Weister City
University in London quickly fails — mainly
because it doesn’t exist– and British citizen Lance
tells him so in no uncertain terms. Oddly, Ahmed is
unfazed and continues to ask for money. Their
discussions ferret out that Ahmed lives, not in
London, but Nigeria, and if he really needs money,
he should contact Father Bruce Corbin, of the
Church of the Tattooed Saint. Email exchanges
with Father Corbin inform the scammer that a
donation can only be made if Ahmed converts to
the church and gets a tattoo of the Order
somewhere on his body. I think you know where
this is going. After many emails, Ahmed gets a BIG
tattoo “Baited by Shiver” on his left leg (other
scammers have used their arms). Tragedy then
strikes, as Father Corbin passes away from a
Tribble infection, and Ahmed is passed between a
jive-talking pastor and a disgruntled ex-con
volunteer. However, Ahmed’s demands for money
continue unabated, even when he’s passed on to
an “Inspector Morse”, who is investigating
embezzlement by employees of the Church of the
Tattooed Saint. Ahmed even sends a laughably
fake passport to the Inspector, who insists on
releasing the “owed” funds only after proper
identification is presented. The baiting ends when
the gullible Ahmed suspects the Western Union
email receipt from Frank Sinatra of 221B Baker
Street looks a little “iffy”. Realizing he’s totally
busted, Ahmed first gets belligerent and then tries
to play on sympathy. But make no mistake– this
playa got played for four straight months, and
even has a sweet “tat” to show for it. [ Source]
2 Gold Scam
Who needs Chris Hansen and his NBC budget?
Scam-baiter “Jack Ophten” doesn’t— he got the
scammer to come to him! Ophten and his pals at
419hell love “being jerks to those who deserve it”,
and no one deserved it more that Frank Owusu,
who was using email spams to sell phony gold
dust. Ophten was able to convince the scammer
that he was a scammer, too, and needed help
defrauding his aged father-in-law. In emails and
phone calls, Ophten played the parts of fellow
scammer and scam victim for Owusu and his
partners in crime. Unbelievably, Ophten even
convinced Owusu to pay for his own travel from
Ghana to St. Louis, USA, to defraud Ophten’s
father-in-law. When finally confronted in the lobby
of the St. Louis Crown Plaza Hotel, Owusu bolted
like a spooked racehorse. Too bad he was in such a
hurry: he left his bag of real gold dust behind
(appraised value: $200). Ophten documented the
entire operation on both audio and videotape, and
did everything he could to include cybercrime law
enforcement. However, despite email death
threats from someone he’s met in person, the
Missouri state attorney’s office, the local sheriff,
and the FBI politely refused to get involved at any
point of the operation. [ Source]
1 Anus Laptops
The mother of all scam baiting operations has to
go to scam baiter “The Failure”, who may or may
not work in a New York computer shop. Too bad
scammer “Cole” didn’t know his intended victim
was a regular at www.scambaiter.com. What
happens over the next several weeks was
documented day-by-day online, and even involved
many of the website’s readers. It all started when
“Martin Cole” sent a fake check to buy some
laptops for shipment overseas. Failure’s alias
“Warren Turnbuckle” protested he could not ship
overseas without all freight fees paid, in cash, up
front. Since he was paying with a fake check
anyway, Cole sends the cash, but cunningly
overpays the $4000 bill with a $4500 check, and
asks Turnbuckle to refund him the $500
overpayment within 45 minutes of receiving the
check. Turnbuckle responds that he can’t cash the
check for 5-10 days, but will sell the laptops
anyway if Cole sends a shipping courier to pick
them up. Turnbuckle also promises to refund the
shipping costs once the check finally clears. Cole
bites, and agrees to pay for freight for several
“Anus” brand computers, arranging for UPS to pick
up them the very next day (far ahead of the check
bouncing). So Failure packed 7 large boxes with
garbage, dead CD ROM drives, and two trashed
laptops with “ANUS” scratched on the screen.
Estimated shipping charges totaled $3,186.67.
UPS was in on the sting, and agreed to not deliver
until Cole paid them for shipment. Scambaiter.com
readers wanted in on the joke as well, and when
the shipment was suspiciously diverted to
Manchester, UK, a reader posed as city worker
offering to fix Cole’s house as part of an urban
renewal project. Cole then proceeded to show the
“damages” he did to his own house after receiving
‘a bunch of rubbish in the post”. Photos, audio
recordings, shipping labels, and hilariously
incoherent death threats from the ‘governor’ and
the dreaded ‘Clique Mob’ can be found on a now-
classic thread that spans 80+ pages. NSFW, but
worth an hour’s reading all the same.