I notice there’s a lot of new readers on the feed, and also a lot of new visitors to the site. Welcome to Life In The Country – please feel free to comment and de-lurk and let me know where I can find your blog to check you out.
Those of you new to the blog probably won’t be aware of this but for the past month I have been a part of a campaign run by a small group of scambaiters to collect scammer bank account information which is then passed along to the police. You can read more about the campaign if you like – A Journey Along The Road To Stopping Online Scammers – so far we have collected thousands of bank accounts many of which have already been passed along to the authorities.
Once we send them the initial email the scammers are baited by the *computer for as long as the scammer will keep sending emails, which can be a lot of emails. We don’t have to worry about what they’re saying, and any bank account information is automatically put aside by the computer. Yep, it’s a smart computer!
Today one of the baiters responsible for passing the bank account information on to the police contacted me on Skype. He let me know he was baiting one of the scammers manually now, after seeing an email the scammer had been sending to us because it was quite well written and he thought the scammer might turn out to be a fun bait. The email went like this –
I sent this directly to you via The Curse Of The Wicked Soul. Cradling the powers of the Orunmila to Wizard Of Ingoni, I have unleashed an army of seventy-two spirits and demons. The Eiye Efe will gaze from above as the summons of the spirits appear before your eyes.
My cosmic powers have grown from the fears of deception and will reek havoc and spill the blood of the guilt. I have carved marks of evil into your conscience and your spiritual blindness will direct you to fall into the hands of proper authorities. The curse will begin when I attach this written segment of your soul “hope you are Christian, in the name of the almight God. help me thanks”.
For you have only made me wiser. Money is just paper in which I used to buy your soul. If you would like it returned unharmed, you must make ammends to the deception you have brought amongst yourself. If you do not, you will live for eternity in the firey pits of hell and in fear of Bytor, Light of Darkness,
Centurion Of Evil, Devil’s Prince.
The Police and the FBI will be on this case if the funds are not sent back to my friend who gave us loan by today. Did you think you’ll eat somebody’s money? and walk away with it.
“Wizard” Waskowiak Owner of Your Soul
One wonders – if he has “the powers of the Orunmila to Wizard Of Ingoni” and he has “unleashed an army of seventy-two spirits and demons” then precisely why does he need the Police and the FBI?
However, a visit to Scrooglelater and the truth was revealed – this scammer stole this threat from somewhere else and just modified it to suit his purpose.
I checked to see if he had written any more emails to the computer and it turns out he did send one more –
Hello,
You have to listen carefully,i am not here to play with you if you don’t send the pay slip to show my bank as an evidence that you have made the transfer to the account then i promise you that my actions will start today if you do not harken to my voice, So be it.To aviod the wrath that will follow suit you have to go immediately to the bank to collect the pay slip, scan and send it to my email, so that all these botherings will stop
It seems he’s not quite as literary with his threats when he has to make them up on his own rather than steal them from elsewhere.
It’s funny because I haven’t noticed any botherings but now that my soul is owned and my conscience is smarting from the carving of marks of evil into it, perhaps I just didn’t notice the botherings?
I already had a fair idea I would be spending eternity in the firey pits of hell. It’s nice to have it confirmed for sure though – because there is no way I am sending him any money! ;)
Sometimes as a baiter you will get these scammers frothing at the mouth and threatening all kinds of unusual things. It is champagne comedy. However it is even more fun when you get them on the telephone. I don’t know if this lad sent a phone number but if he did I’ve got some Skype credit burning a hole in my pocket. I might give him a call.
*Note – these aren’t computer tools that regular humans can get access to – this is something only long time scambaiters can use. So if you want to use it, get into baiting – when the time is right you’ll be given access.
Listen, Beyonce, you are going to blow up the entire deal! I do not want any involvement!
Hahahaha! That is too funny. For scammers, it is really pretty amazing how naive they can be themselves.
Classic stuff. It must be really annoying to have the tables turned for them.
Very enlightening listen. I hate the notion that people have and do fall for these guys’ rap. Loved your American accent : )
Do you ever worry for your safety? What if they found you?
“Be a good girl?” MWAAA hahahahaha
Unbelievable!
Daisy – I just love how he says “Oh My God” with such despair.. ;) I did have the previous call somewhere, where Beyonce agreed to pay the $240,000. He was shocked into silence and couldn’t find words for about a minute. So for him to now lose his massive payday, he was so upset! ;)
Colin – Especially when they are paying for the call to have the tables turned on them! ;)
Tornwordo – I think it’s got a little “New Yawk” in there. Must be all that NYPD Blue I watched. ;) Sipowicz is one of my all time heroes when it comes to putting a sentence together.
Emily – In some ways yes, and in some ways no. It is fairly rare to have a 419 scammer in Australia which is a shame because our police would be thrilled to arrest them. I’ve tried to be very careful how I go about things so they can’t trace me. The phone number they call to speak to me is usually a UK telephone number so they think I am in the UK.
But still, I know they are criminals and I know what they are capable of. So there is that small element of fear in the back of my mind. It is what prevents me from letting go of my cautious scambaiting ways here on the blog. ;) Probably that is a good thing.
Chani – That bit was hilarious. ;) The thing is, when I am taking a call and speaking to them I’m not even thinking about what I’m saying – I’ve been doing it for so long it happens completely automatically. But when I listen back to the calls I sometimes hear things they said that I missed which I could have really reacted to. That was one of the times I caught what he said and spontaneously that W O M A N song popped into my head. ;)
The scammers are fairly predictable, and I tend to have a lot of prepared responses to what they say. In their country they call people “Madam” which causes my characters to go into a fit about whorehouses. We often play hello tennis, where I say hello, and then they say hello, and then I say hello, and it goes back and forth until I say “Ok, we’ve said hello now, let’s not say hello anymore” – then at some point in the call they are bound to say it and I scream at them for saying it again! ;)
I’ve always been good at keeping my composure and not laughing while on the call but there are times when I have to unplug the microphone and laugh out loud, just to get it out.
Ya;all can find more of my audios on my Fraudstars space – just be aware there is often a lot of language in my calls, sometimes from the scammers too!
Thanks for the comments all. :)
I still have a hard time understanding how these guys sleep at night. I feel funny picking up a coin on the ground. However, I know this exist..hope you do phenomenal at getting as many of these guys or girls you can..
Great job…
Dorothy at grammology
remember to call your gram….
Dorothy – In their country this is an accepted way of making a living. The people in Nigeria feel as though they have been scammed and cheated, and to do it back is the only way to survive. I’m not saying this is right or anything and I’m certainly not making any excuses for them but that is how they sleep – they don’t think it is wrong.
The scammers believe if a victim is “stupid” enough to be scammed, that is their own fault. That is why when I see anyone saying “Oh, they deserved to be scammed if they fell for something that was so clearly a lie” or something along those lines is often like a red flag to a bull to me and I’ll usually write a long reply to their remark – it’s not about intelligence. The truth is, scammers might catch those people out one day – if they can work out exactly what to say to that person in order to get them to believe.
What the scammers do is fraudulent. It is against the law even in their own country though nobody in their country seems to enforce those laws. They are criminals and they should be treated as such.
Champagne comedy indeed. I actually laughed while reading that. He can’t seriously expect people to believe this stuff? (Yes, I know, sadly, people do.)
You won’t be spending eternity in the fiery pits of hell, you’re on the side of goodness and light, so your soul is safe.
Dorothy, coins on the ground are gifts from the good luck fairies. Go ahead and pick them up.
Snoskred.. you did not! You really crack me up when you used the name Beyonce. lol
It’ll be fun though if you continually get creative using different names.. is Shakira and Madonna in the list? :-P
Hey, I just found Google’s M.C blog and read the comment section. Phew.. what was I missing! I found your comment exchange with the other guy about links. I sure hope he reads your blog too.
Hey, just in case that guy is reading, I enjoy this blog therefore I link. Didn’t get paid to comment either… shoot me.
You actually used the name Beyonce? And they didn’t sniff it? Oh, priceless! I love your American accent by the way. And I love it when you went drama on them. Oh man, I love you, you know? LOL
Just to advise, we too almost became victim. The following, is an actual email received just a few days ago:
I sent this directly to you via The Curse Of The Wicked Soul. Cradling the powers of the Orunmila to Wizard Of Ingoni, I have unleashed an army of seventy-two spirits and demons. The Eiye Efe will gaze from above as the summons of the spirits appear before your eyes. My cosmic powers have grown from the fears of deception and will reek havoc and spill the blood of the guilt. I have carved marks of evil into your conscience and your spiritual blindness will direct you to fall into the hands of proper authorities.
The curse will begin when I attach this written segment of your soul “hope you are Christan, in the name of the Almighty God. help me thanks”. For you have only made me wiser. Money is just paper in which I used to buy your soul. If you would like it returned unharmed, you must make amends to the deception you have brought amongst yourself. If you do not, you will live for eternity in the fiery pits of hell and in fear of Bytor, Light of Darkness, Centurion Of Evil, Devil’s Prince.
The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI will be on this case if the funds is not sent today. Did you think you’ll eat somebodys money.
Jim “Wizard” Waskowiak
Owner Of Your Soul
Now this was sent to me only after we at the company had received a check in the mail delivered via UPS in the amount of $26,000.85 which we were suppose to send partial payment to 2 different “travel agents” in Atlanta GA. The rest was suppose to be used towards services rendered by our company. I have maintained a printed log of emails from the time of inception (October 30th, 2007) including the UPS mailer & fraudulent check. They are very convincing & the red flag came up when they wanted us to immediately send funds to Atlanta prior to waiting for the bank check to clear. I in turn called the telephone number used on the UPS mailer & the gentleman that answered advised that we were scammed & he had received approx. 10 similar phone calls. Kinda felt bad for the gentleman. Amazing what people will go through to get to your money. BEWARE! About 1 week prior to getting this email, I had placed a call into the Boston Field Office of the FBI advising of what was happening. My response back to the curse email was merely “An open case has been filed with the regarding this matter”.
The site in which the FBI diected me to was http://www.ic3.gov. The IC3’s mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 aims to give the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism.
Good luck & be aware!