Messing with Internet Scammers for a Reason (and Fun!)

"SteveLehto" (stevelehto) 01/13/2015 at 13:00 • Filed to: None

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Do scam emails annoy you? If everyone targeted by an email scam spent just a few minutes messing with the scammers, we might make it not worth their while to continue. Plus, it's fun. Here's how.

I am an attorney and have my email prominently displayed on my website. This means that I get a certain amount of spam and also the inevitable scam emails. In the old days, it was the typical Nigerian 419 scams but in the past few years, the scammers have tailored their approach to lawyers. They go like this:

An email arrives, usually with a mismatched sender and a blank or bulked "To:" The subject line is usually simple as is the body. See one (of two) I got yesterday.

Now, I know this is a scam and I could delete it and move on with my life. But why spend 3 seconds and have no fun when I can spend 5 minutes (cumulative, over a few days) and have a lot of fun? I opt for fun. Plus, it's for a good cause.

To this email, I always reply "Yes." No more, no less. Yes, I handle breach of contract cases. I don't even sign the email.

To that, I then get the longer email which tells me how the sender has a contract with a business right around the corner from me and that they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and simply want to hire me to collect the money. The scammers find a huge business nearby on Google and even dummy up some documents to make it look like there is a contract. But the documents are never on the forms of the defendant – they are purchase orders created by the "Client." I have done this dance about a dozen times now and can tell you that several of the "defendants" were large companies that had their own purchase orders – or would have, if the process was real.

Now, there is an ethical dilemma. I can't actually send a retainer agreement to the scammer because I don't want to actually enter into an official relationship with them. So, when they ask for a retainer, I just keep asking for more documentation. Do you have a contract? Yes, they do. Do you have a purchase agreement? Why, yes. Do you have a contract acknowledgement? Again, yes. It's amazing. I can invent a form that doesn't exist in real life and they can make something with that caption, print, scan and email it to me immediately. Clever folks, these scammers.

I'm guessing they are running so many of these scams that they lose track of who has sent who what. Eventually, it happens. I get an email from the proposed defendant – saying they are aware of the claim and that I represent the scammer and they want to pay. What is my address?

I give them my "Detroit office" address. I find an abandoned house – not that hard to do in Detroit – and send them that address. I personally like the Ransom Gillis House but I hear they are restoring it so I may have to change that soon. I then receive a tracking number and can watch the Fedex as it leaves Montreal (it is never sent from the US) and travels across the border to Detroit and then as it bounces off the bad address.

I then get an email from the scammer – with whom I still have no official relationship since I never agreed to represent them and I also never provided them with a retainer agreement – saying that Fedex claims my address is bad. What?! How can that be? I am sitting in that very office right now. No one knocked! Try again!

Before you feel bad for our poor out-of-country scammers, keep in mind that my office address is on my website, right next to my email. They are just running so many scams they cannot keep any of them straight and they haven't got the 30 seconds it would take to figure out what my address really is until after they have invested the money to have the international Fedex package sent.

A day or two later a package shows up. One that has clearly had a rough time as it bounced around Canada, Detroit and finally made its way to my office. Inside is a counterfeit money order or cashier's check. I take the check, scan it and email it to the bank it is purportedly drawn on and so far I have a 100% success rate. That is, 100% of them have been counterfeit.

The scammers are hoping I will deposit the check into my client trust account and then wire them two-thirds of the amount of the check, keeping one-third for my fee. Yes, if the check below was real, I would be getting over $216,000 for having read and sent a couple of emails. This law thing is really paying off!

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . They are told by the bank that the funds will be available in so many days and they wire the funds before the bank calls them back to let them know the check has been kicked back as counterfeit.

This check has been modified (by me) since I do not know if the names or numbers the scammers used were real. So the payor's name was longer, as was the name in the Memo line and the routing numbers etc. I have several to choose from but I always thought The Bank of Nova Scotia had a romantic sound to its name.

After I get such a check, I get an email from the scammer, asking me if I have received their money. "No, I have not received any money." This is true, by the way. I have received a counterfeit check but it has no value.

At this point, I have gotten silence and I have also gotten threatening emails. "We know you signed for the funds. If you do not send us our share forthwith, we will go to the authorities." I kid you not.

I email them the phone number of the local police department and also for the FBI. I tell them to start calling. Then, silence.

I know most people are inclined to ignore these emails, or the phone calls from "Rachel" at "Card Services." I get that call at least once a day, sometimes twice. I dial "1" to get a live operator and then mess with them for a few minutes until they hang up on me. The point is that 99% of the people out there ignore the calls and the emails and it leaves the scammers plenty of time to work on ripping off the 1% who answer or respond. If we raised that 1% to 5 or 10, we might be able to waste enough of their time to make these endeavors not worth their time.

But if not, it can still be a lot of fun.

Follow me on Twitter: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Hear my podcast on iTunes: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 23 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! He wrote !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

This website may supply general information about the law but it is for informational purposes only. This does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not meant to constitute legal advice, so the good news is we're not billing you by the hour for reading this. The bad news is that you shouldn't act upon any of the information without consulting a qualified professional attorney who will, probably, bill you by the hour.

cazzyodo > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:07

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I love MsPaint.

Please print this and keep it by your desk for future endeavors.

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:08

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You are my hero!

Leadbull > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:10

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My sister's brother's congress representative's mother used to be unemployed, but now she makes $5,000 a week sitting at home ... enough to buy a new Chrysler Turbine Car!

Click here now !!! ————————————————>>>

www.workforfree.com

SteveLehto > Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. 01/13/2015 at 13:10

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Join me! We have much work to do!

SteveLehto > Leadbull 01/13/2015 at 13:11

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Tell me more!

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:14

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I try sometimes, I only really run in to them on Kijiji when I'm trying to sell something. Lots of "I'll give you (115% asking price) if you will ship it to me. I need urgently, I will send you the money on paypal." If you respond you will get a reply from an entirely different email address (sometimes even a different name!). It's like they aren't even trying!

SteveLehto > Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. 01/13/2015 at 13:15

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That's the scary part. This must work on some level - even when they do it so half-assedly. Which is why I think we can screw up their operations by just throwing a little more work at them to slow them down.

Thanks for the note.

Tohru > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:15

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Keep being awesome, Steve.

Leadbull > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:19

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www.more.com

jariten1781 > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:21

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I tell them to call me and give them the phone number to one of our conference rooms (which has no incoming capability). They get to sit there and listen to lovely hold music. It also has a 'Press X for operator' prompt but we have no operator so it just sends them to another box which has different hold music.

Normally it ends there but occasionally I'll get an email telling me they tried my number and were on hold. I tell them to call me back at Y time and to email me if they get put on hold. Record is 40 minutes of a guy emailing me over and over telling me he's still on hold with me responding 'I'll be on in less than five minutes' every time.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:24

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I had a couple things posted up on craigslist, I kid you not, I literally got 40-50 of those scams where they say that they will give you a money order for more than you are asking for, I got so tired of it, and about a month later, I got an actual call from someone who was genuinely interested, i was so annoyed, I sold them the thing I was selling for far less than I was asking, (I kind of would of felt bad if i hadn't because they drove 3 hours to get to my house).

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:24

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You should start referring them to your associates "Huggins, Huggins & Huggins, Attorneys at Law" I'm sure Thomas, Bertram and William would find this right up their alley!

My Tolkien mania is showing haha.

SteveLehto > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 13:26

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That one is amazingly common. I still wonder how many people have never heard of it.

WisconsinGus > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:27

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Steve Lehto is my spirit animal

SteveLehto > WisconsinGus 01/13/2015 at 13:28

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That's what she said!

BAM!

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:31

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my moms sisters mothers fourth wifes husbands daughters husbands dogs pet lizard makes $123123123 a month on the internet working 2 hours a year.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:32

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enough to make it worth the scammers while.

SteveLehto > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 13:32

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"Ooh a talking moose wants my credit card number , that's only fair."

-H. J. Simpson

SteveLehto > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 13:33

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Sadly, that is the truth.

macanamera > Leadbull 01/13/2015 at 13:41

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Never gonna gonna scam you up, never gonna steal your cash, never gonna turn around and 419 youuuuu

macanamera > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 13:44

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If I was you, I would email them upon the receipt of the check and say:

"Ha! Now I'm rich! And you won't see a penny of this cash!"

Then attach like 10 stock photos of bikini-clad models and Lamborghinis, and every once in a while email them a stock photo of some Caribbean island resort captioned with "Thanks for all the money, suckers!"

Stephen the Canuck > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 14:04

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I got this one today. So sketchy. Pegged it for a scam right away.

thebigbossyboss > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 14:06

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They could never fool us Canadians steve. Everyone knows it's Nouvelle-Ecosse!

They are missing the E!

thebigbossyboss > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 14:08

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Dooooooode! That is one rich lizard.

thebigbossyboss > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 14:08

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Steve, here are people who take it the next level.

http://www.419eater.com/

Go to the trophy room if you want to see all the things they have gotten scammers to do.

SteveLehto > thebigbossyboss 01/13/2015 at 14:09

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I looked at that a while back. They do great work.

thebigbossyboss > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 14:12

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Yeah. Wait till you try to sell jewellery haha.

blah blah blah Oil rig yadda yadda yadda. "My agent". I should have told the agent to show up then called him a scammer to his face. That would have been interesting.

Party-vi > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 14:13

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I don't recall where I heard it first, but I used to answer telemarketer calls with "Hello, Maryland Abortion Clinic, no fetus can beat us, how may I help you?"

Lots of dropped calls from that one.

BJ > thebigbossyboss 01/13/2015 at 14:32

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Oh snap! I saw the name and didn't even notice the speeling errur... to whom do I surrender my official Nation of Quebec citizenship membership card? :(

BJ > Party-vi 01/13/2015 at 14:33

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"Hello! House of Lords, Jesus speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hello! Mort's Butcher Shop - you stab 'em we slab 'em. How may I help you?"

thebigbossyboss > BJ 01/13/2015 at 14:34

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Sadly, to someone who is from BC and struggles with elementary french.

BJ > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 14:36

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I see 4x4s (Land Cruisers and 4Runners mostly) posted all the time on the local AutoTrader. They always miss a few details and have prices about 1/2 of the lower end of what the market is doing. Sometimes you can find the original source of the stolen pictures they use, but not always.

Sometimes I string them along, sounding very interested in their car and their story about how they're in the military, and I ask questions about how the eBay escrow works for an AutoTrader ad and then, when I ask for the VIN, suddenly they go quiet.

Idiots.

BJ > thebigbossyboss 01/13/2015 at 14:38

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I've failed at life...

thebigbossyboss > BJ 01/13/2015 at 14:41

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Send in the language police.

brianbrannon > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 15:37

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I had many many fake travelers checks from a roommate ad. Love to scam the scammers

FocusedMark > Party-vi 01/13/2015 at 16:10

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"Hello Roadkill Cafe, you kill em we grill em"

"Thanks for calling the Rhode Island abortion clinic, you fuck em we suck em!"

RazoE > macanamera 01/13/2015 at 17:00

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This. A thousand times this.

Cebu > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 17:07

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Given that 90% of our calls come from Card Services, I am going to have sooo much fun with this...

RazoE > Party-vi 01/13/2015 at 17:10

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I always go with "Pancho's tacos, what's your beef?"

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > SteveLehto 01/13/2015 at 17:43

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I once got a call from an unknown #. It was obviously a bunch of teenage boys, who figured out how to make their # unknown, and they called me (in an Indian accent) saying that my phone was out of date, and I should send it to them to get a new one. (They then proceeded to laugh, and say how bad that was).

I wish I had their #, otherwise I would've texted them "I'm pregnant".

Twism > BJ 01/13/2015 at 19:44

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You get it back for mentioning Nation of Quebec, and not Canada ;)

Architect > FocusedMark 01/13/2015 at 20:26

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Every single one of these are GOLD

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > thebigbossyboss 01/13/2015 at 20:58

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I know someone who did sell jewelry for a year, and to sell it, they had to host parties, she never ended up making any money at all.

in fact every party she ended up losing money.

thebigbossyboss > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 01/13/2015 at 21:03

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Haha oh yeah. One of those avon things or whatever. 100% of the time those work 0% of the time. I am pawning my engagement ring. Only point in keeping it is if I wanted two ex fiancees.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > SteveLehto 01/14/2015 at 08:18

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I don't think you can bug them enough to make it not worth it. Also always destroy your hard drive.

SteveLehto > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 01/14/2015 at 08:42

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Well, that is why I pointed out the "fun" aspect of it. I am probably not going to make them stop. But I will keep doing it as long as it is fun.

JWLane83 > SteveLehto 01/14/2015 at 15:25

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I can't believe other attorney's have fallen for that. You people are suppose to be smart!

I do this too though. I had a similar issue with a motorcycle I had for sale. Some African guy wanted to buy it, then shipped overseas. He was going to give me more than I asked for the bike, then extra to deal with the shippers who would pick it up the day I had the check in my hand... He also wanted the title notarized beforehand so it would be easy for the shippers. I had them send the forged check to me. The address I gave them was my local police department. I watched the tracking number and told them I received the check. I got a text message confirming 'my' address. I would have loved to be at the police department if they actually showed up.

Pickup_man > BJ 01/14/2015 at 17:55

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I flag CL adds every once in a while because some of them are just too easy, the most recent one was someone selling a 2004 Dodge 1500, description read, runs good, 4x4, long box, good shape call Bob, with no phone # anywhere, no information in those little side bars, and 1 picture of a 2001 Dodge 1500 with an extended cab short box, and no license plate. The biggest giveaway though is the crazy low price with some odd number like $1517, really? No one is that specific on CL.

Pickup_man > Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion 01/14/2015 at 18:00

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A few years ago in college a group of buddies and I actually started a conversation with a girl on chat roulette, I think she was like 16 or 17 at the time, and don't worry nothing inappropriate happened , we actually had a genuine conversation. She told us about this guy at school who was bugging her a little and doing the whole rude flirt kinda thing and she was irritated by it. She actually gave us his number and we trolled the crap outta that guy, telling him to be nice and leave her alone. He had no idea who we were haha.

Eddie Brannan > SteveLehto 01/14/2015 at 18:20

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I read a really interesting article once about why the "419"-type scams are so transparently fraudulent that you wonder how anyone could possibly fall for them. Apparently the psychology is that the scammers need to weed out all but the most gullible people, literally the top percentile of gulible-ness, so they pretty much flag the scam to everyone who might at some point in the process say to themselves "this is a scam—screw these guys," to get them swiftly out of the way so that they can focus on that tiny percentage of idiots that will actually make the work involved in an advance-fee scam worthwhile to the scammer. It's intuitive and unintuitive at the same time. The best thing we can do to try and end this type of fraud is to do as you do—waste the scammers time on unproductive interaction. It significantly degrades the cost-benefit ratio for the scammer.

SteveLehto > Eddie Brannan 01/14/2015 at 18:23

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Great article. Thanks for the link!

E39FTW > SteveLehto 01/14/2015 at 18:23

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I don't have to deal with the type of scam that Steve lays out above but a large portion of my job is detecting fraud for a company with a n online presence. I am always amazed at the amount of effort people will put in attempting to defraud my company. They actually make themselves easier to catch. Among my favorites:

- Sending the same item to consecutive addresses (100 Fall St, 101 Fall St, 102 Fall St, 103 Fall St...)

- Trying to make the purchase with 14 different credit card numbers (One attempt is expected. Two attempts is fat fingered/card declined. Twenty attempts is nefarious and you are trying to guess a correct credit card number)

- Using a credit card with an issuing bank in Nigeria or Eastern Europe

I'm not sure what these people would do if they snuck one past us anyway. they would be awarded with fresh fruit. There isn't exactly a secondary market for that.

SteveLehto > E39FTW 01/14/2015 at 18:26

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The number of scams out there is amazing. I used to get the phone call asking me for the Make/Model of my copier so they could send me a "catalog." When you get that call from a blocked number, it's because they are going to wait a few weeks and send you an invoice for toner they never shipped you (hoping your office is large enough that no one would notice it).

Herr Quattro - Has a 4-Motion > Pickup_man 01/14/2015 at 18:44

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wow. You have won.

sssjjaajjj > SteveLehto 01/14/2015 at 19:00

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There's a sort-of-scam here in the UK that works similar to that.

A company phones the office and just speaks to whoever answers (usually some low level receptionist, says they're calling from 'the office supplies company' and asks them to check stocks of franking machine/copier supplies etc. The person then dutifully does this, and then (through very carefully worded statements) the caller takes an 'order'. Next thing you know, a whole load of office supplies turn up with a bill (their stuff is, not surprisingly, expensive). Then the debt collectors start to call...

It's only a sort of scam in the sense that they do actually send out stuff, but the whole thing is very shady. They've got through to me a few times and I can spot them a mile away, so now I just play with them. My last call with them went something like this:

Caller: Can you check your franking machine supplies for me?

Me: Sure. Hold on. (Puts phone on hold, carries on with what I'm doing for 5 minutes)

Me: (Picks up phone) Yeah, we've got a few labels. Not many.

Caller: OK, you probably need some more then. That's no problem. What about ink?

Me: Hold on, let me check (puts them on hold for another 5 minutes) No, we don't have any ink.

Caller: Ooh, it's a good job I called then! Can you confirm the model of your franking machine?

Me: Hold on (on hold again for 5 minutes) Yeah, we don't have one.

Caller: I'm sorry?

Me: Sorry, I forgot to mention. We got rid of our franking machine 2 months ago.

Caller: *swears at me, hangs up*

You'll notice the phrasing there: Just enough weasel wording that they're not explicitly saying they're going to send this stuff out, while allowing them to claim later (they record their calls, or course) that an order was implicit.

The Compromiser > Party-vi 01/14/2015 at 22:04

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"RCMP, Narcotics Division. May I take your order? "

gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun > thebigbossyboss 01/15/2015 at 15:16

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I use Scotiabank and completely missed that too

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Party-vi 01/16/2015 at 13:10

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"Joe's pool hall. We rack em', you crack em'"

E36TitanM3 > SteveLehto 01/16/2015 at 14:34

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SEND THEM A GLITTER BOMB!!!!!!

maximusorama > thebigbossyboss 01/26/2015 at 04:12

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Actually, the correct spelling is "Nouvelle-Riche"

FrankAtlanta > sssjjaajjj 02/06/2015 at 22:54

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Brilliant!

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > SteveLehto 05/27/2015 at 12:51

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If you know French, you immediately know it’s fake, due to the misspelled words.

The Canadian bank commonly known in English as Scotiabank is Banque Scotia in French, and the full original name is La Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse.

#TheMoreYouKnow

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > thebigbossyboss 05/27/2015 at 12:52

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Also, wouldn’t it more commonly be known in French as Banque Scotia? I seem to remember that from the last time I was in QC.

horspowr1001 > Party-vi 05/27/2015 at 12:53

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“Joe’s Abortion Clinic, - you make ‘em we rake ‘em! This is Joe speaking, how may I help you?”

BJS > SteveLehto 05/27/2015 at 12:56

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My favorite one is the guys who have “detected a security breach on my computer”, and just need me to give them remote access to fix it. I always string them along for 15-20 min, as they talk louder and louder at me. Ultimately they start swearing and hang up.

thebigbossyboss > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs 05/27/2015 at 12:56

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Yes but the cheques may write the full name out.

tru > SteveLehto 05/27/2015 at 13:06

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Well, this is funny. I was selling a conversion van several years ago, and got a response from someone who said they were from the UAE embassy and were very interested in the van and were going to send someone out with a check. They wanted to ship the van to the UAE.

It had scam written all over it, so I had some fun with them, but eventually someone showed up at my house, in a car with diplomatic plates and a cashiers check that looked a little odd to me.

I took the check for around $25k to the bank. I told the tellers to check it out really carefully. The bank said it was good and cashed it, and gave me the money.

I was floored and didn’t know what else to do, so I signed the title and gave them the van.

It was the most bizarre thing.

staghounds > SteveLehto 05/27/2015 at 13:20

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Guerrilla war is all about increasing costs a little at a time, I do this stuff too.

There’s a whole world of baiting these crooks out there- my favorite was back in the early days of the internet, some target who assumed the name of David Lee Roth managed to get his spammer to drive from Lagos to Port Harcourt to meet him- TWICE!!

Gonemad > SteveLehto 05/27/2015 at 14:33

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The latest fashion in Brazil are some fake letters saying you owe money to a cell phone operator. (Coincidently, I had just cancelled a line to said phone operator, TIM) and that email or letter contained instructions for you to wire money for them to clear the debt.

EXCEPT... the phone company already has my all my contact data, doesn’t need a third-party debt collector, and they would just send me another bill if I ever stopped paying for a valid cell phone line, provided I had one in first place.

It dawned on me it was a scam when I called back to the phone operator, and they denied every bit of information on the scammers letter, from addresses to 1-800 service phone lines (these are not cheap here either and the scammers were running at least one known number). The most amusing part is that the phone company couldn’t care less if a scammer was using their name in fake documents to lure people out of their money.

Racescort666 > Party-vi 05/27/2015 at 14:50

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“Herman’s Urine Clinic, how may I specimen you?”

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > thebigbossyboss 05/27/2015 at 16:32

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Even so, they could have bothered to spell it right.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Party-vi 05/27/2015 at 17:41

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“City Morgue, you kill’em, we chill’em”

highwaytoheaven > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 13:50

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Ransom Gillis!

SteveLehto > highwaytoheaven 11/17/2015 at 13:52

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They went and fixed it up so now I need a new address for my scammers to reach me.

Ratracerunner > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 14:13

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I did something similar with a 419 scammer from Benin, but in reverse. I sent *him* a “deposit slip” on his bank account to show that I had put money in there. I had him running to the bank for three days before he cottoned on to the fact that there was no money coming. It took a bit of spade work on my part to get everything right, but it felt so worth it! Especially when he moaned that it was so “un-Christian” of me!

Wilson > Stephen the Canuck 11/17/2015 at 14:40

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Scam? But he’s away officially!

northernwreck > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 15:00

1

Wouldn’t his signature be “Matthew”?

strich > sssjjaajjj 11/17/2015 at 15:02

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Ok, I gotta ask. What's a franking machine?

special_k_side > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 11/17/2015 at 15:12

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Call me a redneck-Techno-weenie, put this far surpasses OPS-II Wipes!

FKA-RacecaR > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 17:12

2

Just noticed this is almost a year old after I starred it...whoops. LOL

In any case, I recently dealt with something like this for a car I had for sale. I gave them the address of the nearest federal penitentiary. Funny thing is, they emailed me back asking where their money was since they showed I signed for the package. They even gave me the name of the person who signed. AHAHAHAHA!

SteveLehto > FKA-RacecaR 11/17/2015 at 17:18

1

Well, this one is old but it is linked to one I did today - which may explain why it popped up in your feed.

A Nony Moose > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 18:48

2

This immediately brought to mind the story of the P-p-p-powerbook! Scammer got scammed!

Dake > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 19:23

1

I messed with a Nigerian one over the course of a few weeks to the point that I had them promising to pick me up at the airport in Nigeria so we could just go to their bank together. I put together a flight itinerary and hotel “confirmation” and everything. I like to believe that someone was actually there with a sign for me when the Scandinavian Air flight arrived.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 19:27

1

“Do you have a purchase agreement? Why, yes. Do you have a contract acknowledgement? Again, yes. It’s amazing. I can invent a form that doesn’t exist in real life and they can make something with that caption, print, scan and email it to me immediately.”

I think you need to start getting some of these guys to fill out your Stare Decisis Fahrvergnügen form... which is essential for every contract in the Kingdom of Michigan...

;-)

czargarble > BJS 11/17/2015 at 20:35

1

I got one of those guys to call me a “fucker mother”. I told him he needed to work on his English skills.

soundman98 > SteveLehto 11/17/2015 at 20:44

1

http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/index.ph…

coqui70 > tru 11/17/2015 at 21:44

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Ha they sucked you right into their scam. Now they’re going to to fail to register it and use it for human trafficking or some other nefarious shit. Your name will be listed as owner at the DMV.

beachfitrob.com > SteveLehto 11/18/2015 at 00:56

1

I hear you: I like to press ‘x’ then just put the phone down. Sometimes they cuss at you.

Once I said “Takemeoffyourcalllist.” You have to say it that fast because normally at “Ta..” they hang up so to keep you on the list. One day you’ll be interested I guess?

And the guy says: “I’m not doing that.” He then put me on hold. So I held. Took about 10 mins for the line to get hung up.

Imagine if we did as you said and took up 5-10x the normal amount of time it takes to go through uninterested call answerers...they’d be out of business.

ArtVandelay777 > BJS 11/18/2015 at 11:27

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Those are so fun. I’ve had 2 at work recently, and I’ve strung both along for at least 10 minutes. “Do you see the Windows key on the bottom left of the keyboard?” “Nope, I sure don’t. Alls I’ve got is CTRL and ALT and the spacebar.” I had another guy hold for 7 minutes while my computer “booted up”. I told him it was old, so it took a long time....

Jennifer > BJS 11/18/2015 at 13:59

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Ooh, I got that call recently and had fun. I sat with my back to the machine, answering the various questions randomly. I had him on the line for at least 5 minutes. Finally he got suspicious of me and told me “You think you are smart, but you are not smarter than a Windows tech!” To which I told him what I really thought, which was that he was actually a scammer. I’m not sure which of us hung up on the other. That was fun.

PaulCahill-Go2Fast > SteveLehto 11/18/2015 at 16:18

1

I do the same thing. Love messing with 419’ers.

hoffmanbike > SteveLehto 12/18/2015 at 12:46

1

Finally! Somebody else who messes with Rachel at cardholder services.

I hate her smug little comments about my account not having any problems. have you seen my balance and interest rate; that’s a big fucking problem!

Yes I would love to lower my interest rate, yes my name is Mike Hunt.

Yes the number is a random string of numbers i just rattled off; Oh? it didn’t work.

Huh must have misheard me let me read a different set of random numbers.

What do you mean that set of numbers isn’t the same as the first one; I’m reading it off of my visa right now.

Lets try again; 46go fuck your self.

bwahhahahahahahahahahahahaha!