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.

Crossword puzzles

I tried my hand at creating a Scamorama-inspired crossword puzzle, using Crossword Forge.

The result is here: www.scamorama.com/scamology1.pdf

Libraries

A few dozen radio interviews have come and gone. I'm getting used to this.

A Kindly Librarian told me about a cool tool for finding out which libraries have your book:
http://www.worldcat.org/

Universities from CU Hong Kong to UCLA have acquired the book. Wow! Who'd a thunk it?

Chris Hansen's candid camera

Chris Hansen of MSNBC did a series of scambusts on television:

He and his crew set up stings in hotel rooms, in a bar, and on the street.

Picture guys in sharp suits sweating and trying to look low-key while edging toward the exit.
Or better yet, visit dateline.msnbc.com.

Beats 'reality' TV hands down.

KGO Interview

The KGO Scamorama interview has been broadcast and can also now be found, I believe, on YouTube.
Principally it features "Pedro Martinez" (aka the brilliant Adam Casey).
Baseball fans, you will love this.
Thanks to Sarah Wornick of KGO for publicizing the scam on her consumer show.

Interviews Galore

About a dozen radio interviews in the last month and some tv spots (air date unknown) with ABC Boston and NBC Miami (The Today Show).

All kindly hosts with styles ranging from jokey and punchy, to mellow, and all asked smart questions.

Most asked "how does anyone fall for this? don't you have to be greedy?"
I continue to reply - no, it's enough to be naive (not a crime last I heard), or charitable, or chivalrous. Different people respond to different packaging.

All of the hosts are doing a service by publicizing the scam.

I'm enjoying all the accents.

Tings Dey Happen

Passed through San Francisco recently and saw a terrific one-man show by Dan Hoyle called Tings Dey Happen.
It's about his time in the Niger Delta, working on a thesis about oil politics,
with beautiful impersonations of Nigerian Ijaw revolutionaries, American and Scottish oil men, and pretty much everyone he ran into.
The show is sold out through February, extended through March.

Dear Landlord

Started the DEAR LANDLORD page.
So many people write in with tales of trying to find roommates or tenants, only to receive scam offers.
It's on the right-hand side of the main Scamorama page, along with the DEAD BANK CUSTOMER, JOB SCAM, LOTTO and other digests.

The Wrath of Wikipedia

I took another step into modernity and signed up as a Wikipedia editor. My tenure may be shortlived.

It was prompted by this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud

... which includes a list of terms used in scamming.
One term was "Modalities".
I added the comment that this may reflect roots in an older French version of the scam. (Modalités in French just means ways or methods.)

At the end was a list of books, including Scamorama, with such a nice comment:

"The emphasis there and in the book is on the amusing, as some folks retaliate against the scammers. Quite a lot of it is hilarious."

Gee! (No I *didn't* write that, but I'm certainly grateful. Also glad that not all of it is thought hilarious - I did try to be serious here and there.)

The other books in the list were accompanied by ISBN numbers, but not mine.
So I added one. Silly me! This resulted in the complete removal of all mention of the book.
I have received a "caution" and whoever did it is apparently 'away'.
Oh well. Adieu Wikipedia...

Walking the hyena

Once a Brazilian correspondent e-mailed me photographs he'd taken in Nigeria.
Here's one - for more, visit Scamorama.

Then the people who did the cover art for the Gorillaz album "Demon Days" asked to use one of the pics.
It's there, you can see it :) pretty cool.

Then The Disinformation Company came calling. My publisher-to-be.
They wanted to use a pic for a book called NO HOLIDAY: 80 Places You Don't Want to Visit... A Disinformation Travel Guide.

Then they said, have you thought of writing a book about all this?
I had :)

press: interview on the Leonard Lopate Show

My first lengthy sound interview.

Being interviewed by Leonard Lopate is a great interview experience. He knows his stuff, asks good questions and provides a generous time slot. Plus he has a nice relaxing voice.

The Scamorama interview (MP3) is posted at WNYC along with other Lopate interviews which reflect wide-ranging interests and an eminent list of acquaintances. It's flattering to be included.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/12/21

I'm getting an education in how to be interviewed.

Previous interviews: five minutes live on the BBC (Up All Night, run by someone with a lovely voice and the gift of making me feel very intelligent), a few print interviews (some involved much repetition, another felt more like a late-night bull session with a friend), and taped radio interviews, to be cut up and used as needed. All interesting, all different in pace and tone.

I'm grateful for these opportunities.

The book

So this is what the book looks like. If you buy it, you can see how gorgeous the cover really is. Try wiping the little hair off the keyboard. Heh heh.

It has been seen in bookstores; it can also be ordered from Amazon et al.
[If it's not on the shelf at your local bookstore, demand indignantly that it be ordered at once, and in bulk!]

press: info today

Syndicated columnist Reid Goldsborough has written an article about Scamorama with a technical slant in InfoToday.

Reid is the author of the book Straight Talk About the Information Superhighway.

press: north adams transcript

John Mitchell of the North Adams Transcript has written a generous and thoughtful article about the Scamorama book:

http://www.thetranscript.com/entertainment/ci_4747390

John is also blogs at Last Visible Dog.

november was cool: book readings in brooklyn

In November I was invited to give two book readings in New York City, both in Brooklyn.

One was at VoxPop, a cozy, bright and friendly little bookstore / cafe / music space a bit south of Prospect Park. The other is Sunny's Bar in Red Hook, a lovely place run by the charming Sunny, where novelist Gabriel Cohen hosts a monthly reading series.

At both venues I spoke for a bit, then invited audience members to join in dramatic readings of correspondences between scammers and people who love to yank their chains. Some material was from the book, some was from the archives.

People enjoy reading out loud. It used to be quite a family and social thing to do. At VoxPop we were graced by the presence of Claire Beckman, artistic director of Brave New World Repertory Theater. An actual actor! But everyone who read was good, and fun was had by all, especially with the story of the prankster who tried to sell a *scammer* the Brooklyn Bridge.

Readings are fun. I'd like to do more, suggestions for venues are welcome. [not Lagos, sorry! although come to think of it, there are Nigerian scambaiters, and they may be hella funny - certainly they'd have the best foundation for stringing a 419er along. Somewhere a Nigerian is probably writing a terrific novel about all of this.]

Welcome to Scamorama on Blogspot

I run Scamorama and this is the Scamorama blogspot page. Gotta keep up with the Joneses, and the Abachas.

Scamorama is about '419' scambaiters.
The '419' scam is a form of advance fee fraud.
Scambaiters are people who write back to '419' scammers just to yank their chains, waste their time, or as the British say, wind them up.
The resulting correspondence amounts to a literary genre, which is curated at Scamorama.

This scam has been around for centuries in various countries - the current version is going great guns under the management of a certain crowd in and from Nigeria. [They may soon have to give way to experts from Eastern Europe, who are less funny but equally driven.]

The well-known independent publisher, The Disinformation Company invited me to write a book based on the Scamorama web site.

It came out in September of this year.
It's called Scamorama: Turning the Tables on Email Scammers.
You can find it in bookstores, and at Amazon et al.

Disinfo set up a Scamorama page at MySpace. I will be adding to that as well.

For an in-depth introduction, come on over to www.scamorama.com.