<nettime> Nigerian email conmen fall into their targets' net

["eveline lubbers" <evel@xs4all.nl>]

http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1086308,00.html

Nigerian email conmen fall into their targets' net 

Tony Thompson, crime correspondent
Sunday November 16, 2003
The Observer 

It has been described as the internet's first blood sport and is fast
becoming one of the web's favourite pastimes. Fed up with having their
inboxes clogged with emails from Nigerian fraudsters promising untold
riches, the victims are finally hitting back.  Scam-baiting - replying to
the emails and stringing the con artists along with a view to humiliating
them as much as possible - is becoming increasingly popular with more than
150 websites chronicling the often hilarious results.

(...)

The ultimate aim of many anti-scammers is to turn the tables completely
and get the 419 gangs to send them money. One of those who has succeeded
is an Australian who baits under the name of J Cosmo Newbury and
specialises in creating characters and situations that border on the
surreal. After months of correspondence, one of his characters even
received a marriage proposal.

(...)

Newbury has now published some of his favourite exchanges in the form of a
book, Dancing with Thieves. It includes letters where he poses as a
terrorist by the name of Princess Tikka Masala, a Chinese restaurateur
called Hu Flung Dung and a retired mariner by the name of John Silver.



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