I must be "Vera" stupid, or, first post from a noo

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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:51 am

I found this site while looking for a scammer that sent me an email message. I realized I have already begun baiting, and, though I have probably made noob mistakes, I wanted it to be "submitted for your approval", or, evaluated for errors.
I am happily married, but somehow the scammer got my email. The hell of it is, the scripts are numbered in the subject line! That is first giveaway. Here is the text of the first one, from [email protected]:

Quote:

Hi How a u ?? I have find your resume on datiing site. I thinnk you good man I hoope I be interesting for u Now I'm in Russia and Ill come in USA I don't have friennds to North America & i waant search one for spend my holiddays. I have all for visit USA If you are interested, write me to e-mail Good-bye "

I replied something like, "yeah, i will show you around town, blah blah." And being a noob, I immediately asked for a trophy- holding a sign. 4 days later, I get this, subject re:2 :

Quote:

Hi,
How are you? Probably, if you have guessed, this is Vera Smile

I'm very

glad to get your answer,

First of all, please let me apologize for the delay in my response to

you, , but I was busy in last time. I'm happy so much that you

have written me, believe me,

Also, I'm hoping that my e-mail was so big surprise for you too,

really? For First, If you want that i can tell you about me more.

I was born in Russia, Moscow and now I live at my own flat.

I'm planning to visit the USA in few weeks. I'm 25.

Now I'm keen on web design. I started with making sites for acquaintances and friends,

but now I'm making sites for clients in different countries.As for my interests,

I like Alpine skiing and driving! I adore high speed!!!! I have good salary.

It's approximately $600 per month. All money earned I spend for myself.

I don't like to limit my desires=), that's why I spend my money for new clothes and jewelry=))).

I won't tell you much about myself, coz I'm planning to visit the USA in next 3 month.

Now I have my visa and reserved tickets to the USA.

Maybe, you will ask: "Why have you written me? Why are you talking about it???"=)))

I will answer this question. So there are two reasons I wrote you. I have seen many profiles.

I suppose there were 100 profiles!!! I have chosen you, coz you seemed to be very interesting man for me.

And I would like to spend my holiday in the USA with you. I'm afraid, nothing will come true,

coz we have never seen each other. And maybe I was mistaken, when I had chosen you. But anyway...

So I will arrive in the USA in 15 days, and after that I will return to Moscow.

But for first we should learn each other better. You agree with me?

Also I want to say to you that I have learned the English

Language when I have studied in the university, I can speak English

without any problems, I think so... But I can see that I'm making many

orthographic mistakes, I think so, I hope that you'll can to

understand my English without any problems?

Wowww, I have written so much! I didn't think that I can to write

about myself so much, really. Probably, I'm finishing my e-mail to

you., I'll be grateful so much, if you'll write me about

yourself so much, as I did it. I would like, if you'll tell me, for

example, about your family, is your family large? About your city

where are you living, I have never been in other countries and in USA

too, and I'll be glad to know about your country. Ok, let me to finish

my e-mail, I hope to see your answer soon! I'm attaching my photo, I

hope you will find my photo good. Ok, good bye, hoping to

see your message soon!

Take care,

Sincerely,

Your new russian friend,

Vera.

BTW, she sends pics with every message. Kinda looks like a Vlad version of Heather Graham, but without the rockin bod. I send a one line reply, and the next day get this one, [4], of course:

Hi ! First of all - Thank you! I am very glad that you have decided to answer. I had big hope that you will answer me, but I hadn’t big belief that it will happen. Therefore thank you., I hope I write my thoughts clearly. Please, if I write with mistakes, do not be angry with me. English language is my second language and though I adore this language, I nevertheless do not know it ideally.
I wanted to tell so many things, but now I sit and I do not know what to tell. I am simply glad. I know that I simply should tell more about me, about my character, about my interests as I promised. And I really hope that it interestingly for you, because for me as well would be interestingly to learn about you as much as possible.
I really hope that it interestingly for you, because for me as well would be interestingly to learn about you as much as possible.
I am very glad that I began to study English language because it has opened for me the broadest world of the finest music and poetry because all greatest singers and bands are English-speaking. My unconditional favorites - Roger Waters and David Gilmore. I very much like Mark Knopfler, Queen, Witney Houston, Roxette, Sting and many other singers, including Russian, but I think, their names for you will be not the most familiar (smile). I like classical music. And of course I like movie. American movie outside of any doubts - the greatest. Castaway, Pretty Woman, Dragonfly, the Scent of a Woman, Stepmother, K-PAX are some my favorites. I very like the American culture and is very glad, that I can visit the USA soon. Now I have all necessary for this purpose. BUT now I should finish work for my client. This client lives in the USA.
Now I project design for this client. This is very difficult work . This project is estimated in 3000 USD. When I will finish it, my client will send me payment. I will use this money for travel to the USA.
[], can I ask you, what are you looking for in a woman? And are you looking for a soul-mate? How many times you already tried to find a friend or soul-mate in such way? And how many friends you have on the Internet? (I think in the greater degree I ask about women (smile)). Do you love your family []? How often you meet your family? Forgive me please if I have asked something personal. With sincere pleasure and gratitude for your letter. Vera.

More pics included. These are very well done scripts. Note the setup for the punchline, the work in the US. I already expect this will result in falling through, and the need for money to make the trip, etc. I asked a question about the work to try to get him off script. Note how he deftly dodges that in [6], and smoothly drops back into the script:

Hi my friend []!
I'm glad so much to receive your answer again! It's very interesting
for me to read your messages, from them we are learning more about
ourself, and I begin know more about you, [].
Unfortunately, I am more about the work to you I can not tell.
It is the latent information at will of the client.
But I can ask you why you so a little to write to me?
I do not like you?
I thick??
Or you do not love blondes??
Or you simply correspond with me simply so??
I can know answers???
My dearest friend[], I would like to tell you about my family. I
want to say to you that I have a large family too. This are my mom
Marina, my daddy Pavel too. Also I have two sisters. They are Katya and
Masha. My sister Katya is 21 years old. But Masha is smaller sister
between me and Katya too, Masha is 10 years old.
On professions my mom is a seller in the shop, and my dad is an
engineer on the factory. My sister Katya is a student of the
university, she is studing on the lawyer, and Masha is a schoolgirl.
Our family are living without any conflicts too, we have a good
understanding between our members of our family. Because, I think that
our parents gave to us a good education. I think that it's so good and
I'm so proud that we have my mom and my daddy.
And still, I wish to tell you good news: have almost finished my work for my American client. I very much love my work and I spend for it 10-12 hours a day. In my free time, we are with my girlfriends. I like my girlfriends very much, and what do you do in free from work time? Well, I must to finish my sholt e-mail to you Because I should work now, I hope that we will continue to correspond with each other and you will tell me much more about yourself, and I will try to tell about myself as more as possible in future e-mails. I want to ask you about more things,
. I hope to see your
message soon. Bye-bye...

more about the work. So, I sent this phony heartfelt reply, trying to sound needy and desperate:

I am not sending a lot of information because I had a bad experience in the past, someone wrote to me and turned out to be a scammer. They only wanted money in the end, and it was a group of men who had used a Belarussian photo model's picture. So I will ask you to do something for me. I know it may be an inconvenience for you, but I need for you to do it so I may know you are honest and truthful, and not a scammer. Please take a photo of yourself holding a sign, and put my name on it. Lee. That is the only way I can know you are real, and that you are reading this message and not just sending responses that are cut and pasted. I need to know there is a real Vera, and not just Sergey and Androv taking advantage of lonely American men. I am reserved about sharing personal information and pouring out my heart to a crook. It is okay if you are a real person. That is the reason I ask you to do this. I know that crooks only use pictures of pretty girls to steal a man's heart.

Regards,[]

Now of course, this is all crap. But I am going for the trophy. Sadly, the clever bastard dodged it. He thought he could throw me a sop by changing the title of one of the jpegs to my name. A couple more have come through, essentially in the same vein, always with pics. I expect the bomb to drop pretty soon, ie, the sob story about the client welching , etc. I guess I need some help on how to handle that. I figure I am at least wasting the Vlad's time by stringing along the emails.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:45 am

Biggus Dikkus wrote:

the scripts are numbered in the subject line

Some vlads do this… the less bright ones. Wink

Welcome to Eater. Smile

I'm happily married too… with a Russian girl. Very Happy

If you could post the headers too. That would be useful for us to identify which vlad is playing the part of "Vera". A few pictures would be nice too. Just avoid posting too many of it's letters (and especially your's) here in case "Vera" knows how to use Google. If it finds your thread here, it will ruin your bait. Wink

A good trick is to do a search and replace on your text, and replace all the "a"s with "4"s and "e"s with "3"s. Especially important with its eMail address. That will make your post nearly impossible to find with Google. Better to only publish your bait once you're finished. There's a special section here for that. I'm putting together a vlad database at the moment. With the headers I might be able to associate "Vera" with a specific "office". As you suspect, there's a 90% chance that it is a he. Female vlads are fairly rare, and usually pro daters, not travel scammers.

Quote:

being a noob, I immediately asked for a trophy

Don't sweat it. Vlads rarely read the eMails they receive until they start asking for money, or shortly before. Until then, as long as you send it something, you'll get the next letter in the series with your name pasted in. The best time to ask for a trophy pic is after the vlad starts asking for money. That's when it's logical that you'd want "her" to prove itself. Of course you'll get a photoshopped pic. Or the runaround if the vlad has no photoshopping skills. You might get a genuine pic if the vlad has access to a real girl. But that's pretty rare and you can usually tell from the first pics you get. If they look like they were stolen from a modelling site, or are more the "girl next door" type. Don't push it. Wait until it starts asking for money. Then you have the big end of the bargaining stick. Make it prove it really loves you. Just don't overdo it and always keep it under the impression that if it satisfies you, it will get it's money.

Quote:

she sends pics with every message

That's normal. They're guys, so they know guys like pics of cute girls. Wink

Best way to keep the victim hooked.

Quote:

Note the setup for the punchline, the work in the US. I already expect this will result in falling through, and the need for money to make the trip, etc.

That's my impression too of the direction this one is headed. Some last minute catastrophe will happen just before the trip, and your financial assistance will be neccesary to solve the "problem". I've got one on the hook that is likely playing this script.

The letter that started with worried questions shows that it started reading your letters. So the catastrophe is coming real soon now, likely in 1 or 2 letters. Followed by the cry for help of course, usually accompanied by tears and declarations of love.

You're doing fine. Just don't go for the trophy too soon, or it might drop you as a problem case that's unlikely to pay up. Just remember to bait safely. Don't give any real information about yourself. Lie about everything… that what it's doing. Wink

Don't use your regular eMail address. Better to use a disposable account just for baiting that doesn't contain any real personal details. Read the stickies. Lots of useful information in those.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 65

I'm just gonna say it before anyone else does, are you safe baiting? Making sure you aren't giving them real details, your real email, those things? Otherwise happy baiting, I'd suggest straight baiting for a while, and have you gotten yourself a mentor yet? Also make sure you read the Eater University Forum, some useful stuff on there.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:40 am

Sadly, my real yahoo email is in the mix, because the vlad contacted me first. I need to study up on interpreting the headers and posting some of the pics. I tested some of the ip addy's in the headers, and one showed up in California, another in New York. I am assuming I am not doing it correctly, because I really suspect this is coming out of Russia. Otherwise, no personal info yet. As it gets closer to the money request, I am going to ask for nudes, signs, etc. to see what that produces. I had a lad in Ghana (the new Nigeria! Very Happy

) that hit me up on messenger and wanted to get married right away, and brazenly requested the money in the second message. I requested nudes, and it posted them! Of course, the faces were not in the pics. The vlad, so far, has been much more subtle.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 65

As long as you aren't emailing from your real address, you're fine.

Use this tool to find headers.

As for pics and everything, don't do it when they ask for money, delay longer and longer and longer, and then pics. Start with some straight baiting, rather than trophy, also, make sure to go get yourself a mentor, and while your waiting make sure you read Eater U.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:55 am

Ok, the header tester says the likely origin is Brooklyn, New York! Could this be possible, or is there some spoofing type thing going on? I figured that this had to be of Russian origin, based on the "Russian looking" pics (my avatar is one of the pics from the vlad) and the pure crap English that obviously has been ground through a free translation utility. For some reason, the possibility of having this vlad on the same continent is a little unsettling. Has there been any evidence of vlads operating in the US? So far, the pretense has been set up as the scammer being a Russian citizen writing from Moscow. Any ideas?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 65

I can almost guarantee you they are not in the US, it's possibly but highly unlikely. Was that the last IP it gave you? If so, then they are probably using a proxy, or maybe satellite internet, I don't know.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:46 am

Fich80 wrote:

I'm just gonna say it before anyone else does, are you safe baiting?

What do you mean, before anyone else? Razz

Biggus Dikkus wrote:

Sadly, my real yahoo email is in the mix

Best thing to do in that case is open another eMail account (preferably with a different provider, and that doesn't contain any real-life information about you), start over from the beginning, and drop it from your real eMail. Just stop answering its letters. It might send you a few "I miss you, why you not write me?" letters and then forget about you. It will assume you figured out what was going on or found an anti-scam site. Vlads use the mass mailing approach and are used to losing most of their victims. Until you learn how to use proxies; Gmail, Fastmail and Hushmail strip your IP from outgoing headers, as long as you send your letters from their webmail interface (using your web browser), not from your eMail client on your computer. That way the vlad won't even be able to know where you really are if it looks at headers (which they usually don't, but it happens if they suspect you're a baiter).

It doesn't matter if it wrote to you first. I'm baiting one now that was "donated" to me by a friend here. Just include its original letter in your first letter to it, use "RE: (it's original subject)" as subject line, and 99% of the time it will start sending you the series again. Vlads write to hundreds of potential victims every week. It won't bother checking if it wrote to that address or not. If it gets suspicious and asks questions (unlikely), tell it you just came back from a vacation / business trip / visiting your sick grandma / whatever, and just saw its letter.

Quote:

The vlad, so far, has been much more subtle.

Vlads are usually smarter, and more cautious, than lads.

Fich80 wrote:

Start with some straight baiting, rather than trophy, also, make sure to go get yourself a mentor, and while your waiting make sure you read Eater U.

Those are very good suggestions. Follow them Wink

Strait baiting is acting like a regular guy who doesn't know this is a scam. Wait until it starts asking for money before getting "suspicious".

Act like you're starting to fall for "Vera", especially if it starts sending you some sexy pics. I don't want to be an old nag… but if you ask for nudes make sure your wife is OK with that. I wouldn't want your new "hobby" to interfere with your marriage. Very Happy

Like I said before, don't get too ambitious too fast or it may drop you. Though that's not a big problem as vlads are very easy to find. If you know where to look, you'll have them coming out of your ears. And you can always pick it up again from another eMail account by acting like a different person.

Biggus Dikkus wrote:

Ok, the header tester says the likely origin is Brooklyn, New York! Could this be possible, or is there some spoofing type thing going on? For some reason, the possibility of having this vlad on the same continent is a little unsettling. So far, the pretense has been set up as the scammer being a Russian citizen writing from Moscow.

Just post the whole header and I might be able to tell you who and where it really is. More than one if possible because those that use proxies often have to switch when they get locked out. Just be sure to remove your eMail address from the headers before posting them, otherwise it could find you that way with Google and know you're Biggus Dikkus. Wink

Your address may show up in more than one place in the header, so look carefully. Read my examples in the Surplus Scam Letters section to see how it's done. Where you see "[email protected]" is where my address used to be. I don't recognize your avatar so I don't think it's one of my pets. But I might be able to tell which vlad is playing "Vera" with the headers. While it's possible the letters are originating from the US, it's very unlikely. But no matter where they are, bait safely and you'll be fine.

And go back and edit your original post and do what I suggested with the 3s and 4s. If if finds this thread it will also find all these tips. We want want to educate baiters, not scammers. Wink

It's better to only post intact letters on warning sites like ScamWarners.com or RomanceScam.com, but not on baiting sites. Don't post your replies, only the vlad's letters. That way it won't be able to know who posted them.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 65

Kobayashi Maru wrote:

Fich80 wrote:

I'm just gonna say it before anyone else does, are you safe baiting?

What do you mean, before anyone else? Razz

Well really I mean before you Razz

.

Kobayashi Maru wrote:

Biggus Dikkus wrote:

Sadly, my real yahoo email is in the mix

Best thing to do in that case is open another eMail account (preferably with a different provider, and that doesn't contain any real-life information about you), start over from the beginning, and drop it from your real eMail.

That's what I meant, put much more elegantly.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:45 pm

Here is the header data from the most recent email:

From Vera Sat Dec 27 07:23:54 2008
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Authentication-Results: mta339.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=gmail.com; domainkeys=pass (ok)
Received: from 209.85.220.17 (EHLO mail-fx0-f17.google.com) (209.85.220.17) by mta339.mail.re4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:25:25 -0800
Received: by mail-fx0-f17.google.com with SMTP id 10so691746fxm.12 for <; Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:25:25 -0800 (PST)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:date:from:x-mailer:x-priority :message-id:to:subject:in-reply-to:references:mime-version :content-type; bh=cDsHbeYbhIzTWXaTcal0umb0k+fHOYZCVuy8IdX9U/k=; b=FXNB0nddzdHpuNzrgjocuNr7pSQNWN/R+Gzf8Fms3LRKfyTuufh+C4CUKmBeASJ2Do HBn9vx0hiRcVA6nvPsnlBIkxQjUEkDHAXpM0h8u/wadrunHZf6/TFb2lLcZxD7ggMMlX 8ZRK3BWekwaoelsoND/jAlB93KSg+c8eYTkmo=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:x-mailer:x-priority:message-id:to:subject:in-reply-to :references:mime-version:content-type; b=BQl8rZ/8/5Vykp8NriFDYCZ9loanVsiZfqIc7ENs+bGDAvIBp2O8naA2zlRtojCOTw wxu3MuQXHMIrvCDtKvWvWCr3rI43J2rcbkbcNVJXkoJuv5Q1xawbDK56i3r16cnB9QSK cFLlUpnakDb0tAzFBhwEAMxq3N1UACgy4sR64=
Received: by 10.103.131.18 with SMTP id i18mr4231542mun.120.1230391525022; Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:25:25 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from ?192.168.1.3? (ool-18b9cbb7.dyn.optonline.net [24.185.203.183]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id s11sm26529428mue.42.2008.12.27.07.25.19 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:25:23 -0800 (PST)
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:23:54 +0300
From: This sender is DomainKeys verified
Vera <[email protected]>
Add sender to Contacts
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To:
Subject: Re[12]: Hi dear friend
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----------10A851A53E1BC091"
Content-Length: 77763
Message contains attachments
sp11.jpg (17KB), sp12.jpg (33KB)

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:55 pm

I too, get Brooklyn NY - but remember, she is using google so that's probably not an accurate location.

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:59 pm

Fich80 wrote:

Well really I mean before you

I'm in a good mood today so I'll let that pass. Razz

Quote:

That's what I meant, put much more elegantly.

Why thank you! Embarassed

@Biggus Dikkus
Thanks for the header. I can reassure you right now that "Vera" is not in the USA. It's in western Russia. The Brooklyn location is either a proxy or a spoof. Moscow is possible, but Yoshkar-Ola is more likely as that's where most Russian scammers are.

Unfortunately Yahoo! has a major problem for scambaiters… I thought it was only Yahoo! France, but it looks like the American version is the same. The problem is that it strips from the header one of the 3 most important pieces of information for scam fighting, especially vlads: the X-Mailer field. Strangely I have a Yahoo! Japan account and it doesn't do that. It might also be because "Vera" uses a Gmail account. Without the X-Mailer info I can't tell you more about your vlad.

Try baiting it from another account and getting more headers. Anything except Yahoo! Ideally one of the 3 that I mentioned before (used the way I explained it) because that will hide your location.

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