Blog archive.

[Wayne]

The Bible scam.


No, I’m not saying the Bible is a scam. What I am referring to here is a scam that involves a request for Bibles coming from Nigeria. The scammer will receive them and sell them on the black market. Unbelievable but true. Here’s an example. Now, remember that my baiting email address is set up in such a way that the only things I ever receive on it are scams and spams. It’s not in any directory and certainly not on any sites other than ones created for catching scammers.



Subject: GOD BLESS YOU
From: Michelle Erhun <michelleerhun@gmail.com>

Bro. U. Osamwonyi
P.O.Box 5923
Benin City .300001.
Edo State,Nigeria 23452

Dear Friends in Christ,

I greet you out there in Jesus Lovely name. I am the way, the truth
and the life, no man comet to the Father but by me John 14:6. Jesus
Christ is our salvation! I was searching for a study material when I
came across your email and convinced you are a Christian.

The Lord led me to your email and I know I am blessed having to know
you. I am a member of Hope Alive Ministry By His grace I am a
believer born again. I am married with 2 children. I have a great
passion doing the work of the master especially now I work on my own
having not to be disturbed like when I was working 10 hours in the
clerk office work.. I am not rich in this worldly riches but rich
spiritually in Christ. I came to know Christ in 1994 and since then
serve Him with commitment. I live in an area where there is much
hunger and crisis but the Lord keeps us from them all. Our church is a
small church with about thirty people. I am the church secretary as
well as Adult Sunday school teacher. As you can see I can speak and
understand English well as we are British colonized country.

I am writing you because I need your help for bibles. Bibles are
costly here and many Christians do not have bibles. Most get theirs
from people in other countries when they can reach to other Christians
there. My friend told me to go internet where I can get some to help
and I know the Lord has directed me to you. So I am using this medium
to request for 21 giant print holy bibles for the aged ones in the
Sunday school class. king James Version would be preferable as we
mostly use this during service. If other version is what you have we
would appreciate them. The bibles could also be used bibles as long as
the pages are correct we would use them. All bibles are needed in
English and please you can send them through registered or insured
air-mail through post office. Post office. Please kindly help us and
sow this seed to lives here. Where a seed is sown, harvest will
surely come and it will come to you. I would prayerfully wait to hear
from you.

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon
thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon
thee, and give thee peace.

In His service
Bro. U. Osamwonyi



If you do want to send a Bible abroad, then please do so through legitimate contacts, not someone who emails you out of the blue.

[Wayne]

The craziest thing I’ve ever been asked for money by a scammer for.


We will often phone up loan scammers asking for money for crazy things. Of mine, my favourite was a call when I claimed to need the money for a sex change and then arranged to have a threesome with the scammer and his wife once it was done only to speak to his wife and tell her that her husband had agreed to a threesome, but missed out the whole sex change part. The best one I’ve ever heard is a scammer that agreed a 16 trillion dollar loan so the baiter could build a death star. For those unaware, it’s a spaceship made famous in Star Wars.

But how about what the scammers have asked for money for? There were all kinds of silly ones, but the one that I find funniest is the request for $50 for tampons for the month. This scammer (who was definitely a male pretending to be a female) seemed to think that a period lasted 3 weeks with a gap of a week until the next one. It was a crazy bait that ended with my first signed underwear trophy photo. If you want to read it, check out http://www.romancescambaiter.com/loveyayo.htm but beware that it does contain very adult humour and content.

[Wayne]

BBC news articles on sextortion.


We’ve been working with the BBC on this for ages. It all started with a message to me 6 months ago. Good to see the finished result at last. We should also be able to announce another big media article in the coming weeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30544685

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30538819

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30532438

[Wayne]

The reason we ask for the blackmail scammers’ YouTube account links.


We’re not getting any kind of joy out of seeing your video, believe me. What it does is give us the chance to report not only the video given but any others we find on that account. YouTube has a “3 strikes and you’re out” policy, so if we can report more than one video at a time, we can get the account shut down much quicker. We also know the best way to get a video removed as fast as possible. Most people we’ve spoken to will report their video but not any others. We report every one we see. We’ve managed to report hundreds of videos and get dozens of accounts closed that way. Getting the account removed also gets rid of any hidden or private videos, which can take days to have deleted otherwise. Sometimes they’re removed within 5 minutes of reporting them, which is always a good result.

[Wayne]

What is an “advance fee fraud”?


The key word here is “fee”. Of course the other key words are “advance” and “fraud”. Basically, it’s a fraud that tells you that you need to pay a fee in advance. Makes perfect sense, right? Need a loan? Pay us the processing fees first, then you can have it. Found true love? Cough up the fees for her to travel with you, then she’ll do it. Won a lottery you didn’t enter? Give us the admin fees before we can release it to you. Someone offering you a share in Saddam’s millions? We need a fee to help grease some palms first. Simple isn’t it?

[Wayne]

You can’t cheat an honest man – or can you?


Today I want to talk about charity scams. These are scams that rely on a person’s kindness. For all the “scams rely on a person’s greed” talk, this is one scam that is 100% not about that. In fact, it won’t work unless the person is willing to give freely for no reward. The best example I’ve ever seen of this involved a horrible, disfiguring disease that literally eats away at the faces of children in poor countries. It’s contracted through dirty water. The scammers were asking for $1000 to pay for an operation to restore the child’s face. No financial incentive, just “for every $1000 we receive, we can pay to rebuild the face of a child stricken with noma”. This isn’t the only example, but it’s the one I remember the most. I will never forget the images sent with the emails. It’s easy to see why people would fall for these scams. Anyone can be the victim of a scam. It’s simply a matter of finding the right strings to pull. Sometimes the bait is money, but sometimes it’s nothing more than wanting to make someone else’s life better. So you can cheat an honest man. You just need to pull on his heartstrings.

[Wayne]

What can everyone do to help?


This one is very simple. Not everyone wants to bait or do victim support. We understnad and appreciate it’s not for everyone. However, everyone can help by either getting the word out or posting up any scammer emails they get. The more the information is put “out there”, the more likely people are of finding it and not falling for the scam. It doesn’t cost you anything other than a few minutes of your time, and makes a huge difference in the fight against scammers.

[Wayne]

I’m often asked if I were ever the victim of a scam.


Short answer, no. Long answer, not online and luckily I didn’t lose a large amount of money.

Back when we were first married, my wife and I wanted a new TV for our house. We saw an advert (a full 2 page spread advert to be exact) in the local paper for an auction and it had really cheap TVs. I bought a mystery item, which turned out to be useless to me. Fortunately it was just what someone else needed, so they bought it off me. Total loss, around £10. A few years later, I bought carpet off the back of a lorry. The old “we’ve got some surplus left from recarpeting a hotel” scam. I bought a roll of carpet from them at a pretty good price. It wasn’t the size they claimed it was, but it perfectly fitted the room I wanted it for, was in great condition and lasted until we moved. So it actually worked out the same price as the same sized roll of cheap carpet if I’d bought it in a shop.

So to summarise, yes, I was scammed but my losses were very small. As for online, no I’ve never been scammed. Maybe those two incidents around 20 years ago taught me the old adage “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is”.

[Wayne]

If you didn’t enter it, you didn’t win it.


Did you buy a lottery ticket this week? If you did, then good luck and please remember your old pal Wayne if you win the big one. If you didn’t then of course there’s no way you can win. It’s the same with the internet. No matter how many emails you get claiming the opposite, if you didn’t enter a lottery, then you didn’t win it. There’s no such thing as “we picked your email address at random” when it comes to these things. That would be absurd. It all comes down to the phrase “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.

[Wayne]

The “YouTube police”.


One trick used by blackmail scammers is to write to their victims claiming to be from YouTube and telling them they need to pay a fine for their video appearing on the site. Now obviously, reading that statement from an objective point of view it’s obviously a lie. However, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Their lives have just crumbled around them. The unthinkable has happened. They’re not thinking straight, scared, haven’t eaten or slept in days. You could probably tell them that the MiB have written to them and they’ll believe it. The one thing we always try to do is get people to take a breath, clear their head and look at the situation objectively. When they can do that, they can see through the lies and do what needs to be done in order to deal with this scam properly. It’s not always easy, but it is essential.