Get even with e-mail scammers

2003-07-24 12:47

Johannesburg - The e-mail scams, often from the widow of an African dictator, or a bank official, promise untold wealth in return for helping to transfer millions of dollars, but now the "scam-baiters" are hitting back.

They have even succeeded in scamming the scammers: one persuaded his contact to send him $5 as a sign of good faith; another induced a scammer to send him a sample of the gold dust they were planning to launder - and used it to buy beer for his friends. And one even got a photo of his contact holding up a sign saying "I am a dildo".

They do it with humour - one anti-scammer said his funds would be available as soon as he had sold his shares in the Brooklyn Bridge - but they warn amateurs to be careful.

Victims of the scam have lost tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases been attacked and robbed. They frequently fail to report their losses to the police - out of shame at their gullibility, and because they had been planning to act illegally.

"This could become a dangerous game, and some of these syndicates can be ruthless," said police spokesperson Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, who added that in South Africa alone some 60 cases of advance fee fraud were reported every day.

The message from the "widow" or the "official" will ask for your name, address, bank details, passport and telephone numbers and a promise that in exchange, you will receive a major cut from the deal.

Simple principle

But first, you will have to pay large amounts of money "to grease palms", for transfer fees, to open a bank account and in many cases, you must travel to the country from where the letter originated.

If you answer, chances are good that you may have just become the latest victim of what is known around the world as the 419 advance fee scam.

Named after a penal code in Nigeria - from where many of the letters originate - the scam works on a simple principle. The victim is being kept on the hook for as long as possible, paying money, with the carrot of a huge return at the end.

The cash never materialises and the scammer disappears into thin air. In some cases, victims are lured into a trap, kidnapped and held hostage for ransom.

Many of the victims are from Europe and Japan, some even from the Caribbean.

"In one of the latest cases, an operation was conducted after we received information that syndicate members lured a female Jamaican attorney to come to South Africa for a fictitious business venture," Senior Superintendent Martins-Engelbrecht said.

"Overall, police here have arrested more than 130 people in connection with the 419 scam," she said.

But now a group of people calling themselves "scam-baiters" are stringing the scammers along at their own game.

One referred a scammer to the west African division of his country - an address that turned out to be the section of Britain's serious fraud squad dealing with the 419 scams. Another set up a fictitious bank account named "BITROPEY".

"A big part of scam-baiting is the humour but we recognise the seriousness of this fraud. We have to become bigger liars than the scammer to be believed by them," said Neil, a scam-baiter operating out of Australia.

"Some baiters decide to use a theme for one bait, others use made-up pathetic circumstances to tell the scammer, just to show how heartless they are," he said.

He gave an example where a baiter ran an imaginary "home for handicapped children" (the baiter also "confessed" he took regular advantage of the young girls in his care) and where "the roof was in bad need of repair but it would take two years before it could be replaced".

Despite the fact that the baiter told the scammer he only had £12 000, the scammer persisted with the deal to steal the money from the "children's home".

But Martins-Engelbrecht warned e-mail users not to enter into any correspondence once a 419 proposition has been received.

"It just gives the criminal more information to work with. Rather alert the police and help us catch the scammer."

And, adds one of the anti-scammers, who asked to remain anonymous: "I would not, considering the fact they are criminals, recommend anybody write to them."

"If someone does feel the urge to do this, exercise extreme caution. Under no circumstances give them your real e-mail, phone number, nor go to meet them."

- AFX