Spam Baiters Rage War Against Fraudsters

Most often people tend to hit 'delete' button as they receive a seemingly spam message, which may read somewhat like this:

"Dear Sir/Madam,

I'm fine today...how are you? I am sure this letter will find you in the pink of health...I'm Prince Joe Eboh, Chairman for the 'Contract Award Committee', of NDDC (Niger Delta Development Commission) which is a subsidiary of NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation)."

Such emails promise to provide the recipient of vast riches provided he/she is ready to co-operate. But the truth is that this so-called co-operation can rob innocent victims of unexpectedly huge amounts of money.

But Mike Berry is not amongst those who can be cheated so easily.

This U.K. based software engineer launched into his detailed response on "scam baiting" in which he tried to convince the scammer to carry out his bidding, he even sent him money, as Canada published on 1 April 2007.

There was a hilarious correspondence when an email came from "Prince Joe". During the correspondence, Berry persuaded Joe to join the Order of Red Breast's Holy Church. He completed it by sending a photo along with the message. Before the conversation was over, Berry somehow convinced Joe to send him $80. For Joe, he had never seen a nickel of $18,000 he's hoping that his victim could ever be conned in to sending.

"Scam baiting" is one of the numerous tactics Internet vigilantes use today in order to combat cyber crime. The site www.419eater.com, named so due to the notorious 419 Advance Fee Fraud, is also called "Nigerian Letter". The goal of the website is to obtain pictures of spammers in poses/ holding posters or signs. Then the website will post these images in their trophy room. The pictures are completed with scam baiter's ID, website and his name and link to the real bait itself.

As per Berry, he has been receiving death threats regularly. At least one such threat comes to him once every month. Berry launched the website (419eater.com) 5 years ago. He launched this site so he could share his experience regarding spam baiting with others. Earlier just about 3-4 visitors to the forum would make him feel lucky. The number of hits has reached almost 15, 000 hits daily. There are more than 22, 000 registered members with the forum and a trophy room to display audio files and pictures they collect while carrying out scam baiting. This information appeared on Canada on 2 April 2007.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 4/9/2007