THE WIND OF DEAD HUMANS

THE WIND OF DEAD HUMANS

Camille White, Odin-worshipping Australian supermodel, gets on Yahoo chat with a scammer who insists that Anne Frank is alive and wants to give Cammy US$4.5 million!

There are complications, of course.

Get a friend and read this very funny exchange like a playlet. Preferably at a party. With drinks all round. Warning, not child-safe (lots o four-letter words).

HOWDJA LIKE THEM APPLES

Some excellent scambaits on the site recently.

HOWDJA LIKE THEM APPLES.

Frank Larzlo, European fruit exporter, in a tough negotiation with scammers over bins of apples.

He wasted weeks of their time and had a lot of fun!

Article - latest '419' scams

From the inflight magazine of Emirates Airlines: Last Exit to Lagos

An article about the latest '419' email scams - sons of Mubarak! cronies of Qaddafi!
The Lads keep up with the news.

Vocalo...

another good interview in July 2009 with Radio Vocalo, 89.5 Chicago. But doesn't seem to be posted now. They did a series on con games.

This Way Up

Interview with This Way Up on Radio New Zealand.

I paid my props to Wally Jersey-Heifer, New Zealand's International Man of Mystery (DANGEROUS LIAISONS).

The Dead Memorial Bank Customer page: Statistics

The Dead Memorial Bank Customer page lists some of the many offers to pose as next of kin to who have passed away without next of kin. Plane and car crashes are still the leading causes of death to (mostly) imaginary people.

Plane crash : 254
Motor vehicle crash : 162
Unspecified : 59
Earthquake/Tsunami/Hurricane : 17
Illness/Natural death : 11
Explosion/Bomb blast/Oil blast : 14
September 11 : 6
Assassination : 4
Nautical : 2
Cosmetic surgery : 2
Torture : 2
War in Iraq : 1
War in Liberia : 1
Kidnapping : 1
Rebel attack : 1
Suicide : 1
Murder by spouse : 1
'Normal' death : 3

This list, along with digests of the Imaginary Job Offer and other examples of the scam genre, is updated at Scamorama

Hyena Men: not just out for a walk

Way back on December 28, 2006 I posted about how Scamorama attracted a publisher's attention: a Brazilian traveler had sent me photos he'd snapped of guys walking hyenas and baboons along a street in Nigeria. He and others thought they might be robbers, circus performers or debt collectors. Or all of the above. Which had nothing to do with '419' scams but was so interesting that I put it on the web site.

Several entities asked to use the pics: the agency designing the cover art for the last Gorillaz album (Demon Days), and then The Disinformation Company, publisher of such books as Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong and 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know. Which led to publication.

I just stumbled across Hyena Men of Nigeria.
They are a wandering troupe of performers (or strong-arm robbers, according to some locals - robbery at hyena-point).
Photographer Pieter Hugo had apparently stumbled across a Scamorama pic, re-posted (without permission or acknowledgment) by someone else. Intrigued, Hugo went to Nigeria, was lucky enough to hook up with journalist Adetokunbo Abiola, and they did a book together.

So, lots of stumbling:
- Brazilian guy stumbles across hyena men
- Brazilian guy stumbles across Scamorama and sends pics
- art agency & publisher stumble across Scamorama and ask to use pics
- somebody stumbles across Scamorama and simply takes the pics
- Pieter Hugo stumbles across that person's posting
- Adetokunbo Abiola stumbles across Pieter Hugo
- They publish a book through Michael Stevenson, a gallery owner in South Africa with a web site
- Someone stumbles across Michael Stevenson's web site and writes about it
- I stumble across that posting

Serendipity - it's so random.

Punk TV Canada Interview

A really good, in-depth interview by Dixon Christie:
The Punk TV Interview

Prague Rock

I gave a talk about scambaiting at IS2, the Information Security Summit in Prague. It was held on the grounds of the Prague Castle, was beautifully organized, and included a completely unexpected treat - a performance by the excellent Czech string band, Poutnici (Pilgrims), who do a mean cover of Telegraph Road (yeh really).

The talks were interpreted between Czech and English in real-time, and I suspect the interpreter had a hard time with my talk, judging by the stunned silence in places. The good soul on the program committee who translated my paper told me later that he had a hard time finding an exact translation for 'scam-baiter'. Everyone was familiar with the basic subject, though, if nothing else because of the tragic incident in which a Czech '419' victim shot the Nigerian consul in Prague a few years back. Apparently the consul had tried to warn the victim not to proceed with a '419' deal, and was not sympathetic enough after the fact.