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Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

research.microsoft.com

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Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#41

Post by durrrrrrr »

kinkora wrote: post #39
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself. It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them…

I remember this, is it this site?

http://www.419eater.com

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#42

Post by vitamen »

kinkora wrote: post #39
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself. It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them…

One example: http://oddorama.com/2008/02/11/scamming-the-scammers-5-brill...

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#43

Post by cgio »

I am writing an article about the "art" of business writing, where I use this analysis to refute the usual consulting wisdom of making everything simple to grasp, even if that means taking things out of context. My argument is that sophisticated meaningful writing on difficult concepts acts as filter to identify the readers (and potential business relationships) that will be more willing to pursue visionary projects and supportive of different approaches. In this domain, you do not need or want to address the whole market, just the businesses that want to lead. Individuals who take the time to read and understand or comment, emit signals of active and insightful engagement.

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#44

Post by thmorton »

kinkora wrote: post #39
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself. It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them…

419 Eaters, possibly? There are quite a few people who contribute their stories there: http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#45

Post by eukaryotia »

S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

The complexity/frequency ratio (As in, complexity of the bot over frequency of spam) seems a little low to spend time writing something like this. A manual solution would probably be better.

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#46

Post by S4M »

eukaryotia wrote: post #45
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

The complexity/frequency ratio (As in, complexity of the bot over frequency of spam) seems a little low to spend time writing something like this. A manual solution would probably be better.

Not really, the goal is to have lots of emails responding to the scammers, so they don't know who to pay attention to, so that's hard to have a manual process for that (and there's already 419eaters).

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#48

Post by deciplex »

kinkora wrote: post #39
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself. It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them…

If you automated it though, and scaled it enough, you could effectively spam the scammers, reducing their profitability.

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#49

Post by aaron695 »

kinkora wrote: post #39
S4M wrote: post #38

One thing I have been wanting to do for a long time about Nigerian like scams, but never got around doing it, was the following: 1. create some bait email accounts from gmail, yahoo, and so on, and expose them somewhere on internet so they get harvested by scammers. 2. write a dumb program that is able to do some primitive parsing of the emails from the scammers, and reply to them. For example, let's say the email fr…

I can't remember what the website is exactly and I am currently at work now so I won't be able to google it up but there was a person that use to do this except that he didn't use a bot but "bait" the scammers himself. It is utterly hilarious. What he does is he replies to a "scam email" and most of the scammers will do anything once they see an actual human being replying to their spam email. He obviously leads them…

I use to think it was funny messing with people from poor countries who participated in activities that wasted our time for little $ benefit to themselves but not so much any more.

Humiliating other humans beings for enjoyment isn't a great trait to encourage.

These sites are also, whether that say they 'aren't' or not, are racist on some level.

I'm sure there are some real a@#holes participating and running these scams but often the people on the ground are just human beings who have no other way to earn money.

Re: Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)

#50

Post by logicchains »

cgio wrote: post #43

I am writing an article about the "art" of business writing, where I use this analysis to refute the usual consulting wisdom of making everything simple to grasp, even if that means taking things out of context. My argument is that sophisticated meaningful writing on difficult concepts acts as filter to identify the readers (and potential business relationships) that will be more willing to pursue visionary projects…

Interestingly, I've seen the same argument applied as a refutation to the traditional argument that dating site profiles should be kept short and simple. Perhaps it's applicable to writing in general.
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