Scam with eggs, fried scam.... uh, spam.
Really though, what's on the brain is "scam" rather than Scientifically Produced Animal Matter.
Every one of us has, at some time or another, been approached via email by a Nigerian prince / politician's wife/ Lagos cabinet member who is in "dire need of your help, dear friend!!" to shuttle several million dollars out of the country and into our personal bank account. Phew. Nothin' smells quite like a 419 scam (so named because of the Nigerian law pertaining to how it's not allowed.).
All that to say... I have highly entertained by the turn of events over the past few years that has led to people working to waste scammers' time by stringing them along to waste their time, often with hilarious results.
There are several websites dedicated to "scam baiting," as well as the satisfying practice of virtually flash-mobbing the fake bank websites scammers use and bringing them down. I realize this is something that could result in some jail time, were it being done to legal regular-joe websites, but the fact that people are getting together to crash websites used to commit crimes... it warms the old heart a bit. It's like some sort of vigilante justice, and it's poetic, in a way. Many countries do little to stop internet scams, and it's nice to know someone is paying attention, and pissed off.
Artists against 419 and Scam-o-rama are intersting sites to bumble around in for awhile. If you're feeling particularly ruthless, you can browse through the galleries on 419 Eater.
Those people are crazy pissed at scammers. They've compiled hundreds of photos they've convinced the scammers to send them in the process of pretending to be a rich little old lady who's hesitant to send money to someone she's never seen...and who inexplicably requests that the scammer be holding a sign that says something as classy as "Ben Dover" or "Phil MacCrackin." Or something much, much less classy.
As entertaining as wasting scammers' time can be, I'm not sure when it comes to the hundreds of photos of people balancing fish on their heads, holding signs that declare various potentially embarassing things, etc. Some of them are rather hilarious, but sometimes it gets to the point where it feels as though it's more about humiliating someone than stopping a potential crime. I don't know if that makes any sense. Maybe I'm overly sensitive, or being too "righteous" about it all. It's just that these people have no idea they're being humiliated. They carefully hand lettered the sign that says "Ima peta file" and put on a nice outfit, stood in front of an ugly backdrop, took their picture, and sent it to someone in a far off country.
I guess the part I need to remember is that they sent the picture, hoping they could lie well enough to convince that person to fall for their scam, sign over their nest egg, and potentially ruin their life.
1 comment:
I'm totally with you. I hate seeing people humiliate themselves, especially unwittingly, but then...they're scammers. I don't know. it's all awful.
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