Newbie question - where do I start?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

I know it might seem a silly question, but I have to start learning somewhere.

I've received a snail-mail letter of the typical 419 scam, promising my share in a name-sake's fortune.

This time, it's from China.

I've reported the Yahoo e-mail address to Yahoo (not sure if they'll care) but the phone numbers are +867 and the fax is +852.

It is 'From the desk of Lei Yong', so no mailing address.

My question is simply what to do as a start? Send e-mail or simply bin it?

God knows where they got my details from. It was posted with a UK stamp.

I'm grateful for all advice.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

Ahh Lei Yong, aka LIEING ONE

Welcome to 419 for a start, First place to visit
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=118738

And ask for a mentor, who are really great for helping you begin.

Never respond to snail mail - it has your real details, a BIG NO NO
Keep yourself safe.

Make up a baiter name: Big Joe Forfree something you get a personal laugh out of - and create a GMAIL account, then copy all the parts of the letter without your details of course!

And forward it to yourself! then reply to it lol, but instead of reply FORWARD it to there yahoo email - reporting to yahoo has usually little or no effect, and isnt good because it might kill someone elses bait,

so once you copy all the bits of the scam itself, then simply reply very basically
"Thank you for your email, can you give me some more details"

as simple as that.

Also dont get too impatient lads take a few days at first and they wont work sundays - well normally they dont! some do

if it all goes wrong -you have there email - start over with a different email addy lol,

Have fun - but remember to read all the important stuff before you create your email

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Posts: 90

^^ Get a mentor. Then read all the stickies in every forum - but start with Baiter U, as many of the things referenced elsewhere are laid out in loving detail there.

And welcome!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Hi Kalico and welcome to Eater! Very Happy

Getting started is easy and you've already received some great advice in this thread.

Read around the forum as much as you can, particularly the Forum guidelines in the Main Scambaiting forum and the sticky topics in the help/hints/tips forum.

Set up an email account with all fake information and write to a scammer as if you received his intro email yourself to that account. You can find plenty of scam emails in the surplus forum.

Sign up for a mentor if you'd like one and meanwhile, feel free to post your questions in the help forum.

Lastly, please don't report free webmail addies like yahoo for closure. It does almost no damage to the scammer as he'll just open a new one; it hinders our efforts because we spend time posting their email addresses on anti scam sites (like our sister site, ScamWarners) and if they are closed, we may not have their new address posted for victims to find.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

Wow! What an amazingly quick and comprehensive response.

Thanks a million to you all. I really appreciate it.

Off I go on my road to scam and spam expertise.

Thanks again and have a great weekend.