Apalled at the behavior of baiters on This American Life

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

I don't know what good it will do, but I was apalled at the behavior of baiters chronicled on This American Life.

Having been lucky enough to do a fair bit of travelling, I have seen how poverty and famine can alter ones sense of ethics. From the radio broadcast, I got the feeling that you all are ignorant of the socioeconomic conditions in the world.

Sending people to a part of the world where they can get killed is shameful, even if their greed mitigates your sense of guilt.

If you want to stop these scam emails either (1) ignore them, or (2) encourage an economy in poor countries that makes honest work more profitable. Having scammers killed in Chad should not be in any ethical human's toolbox.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Split from the Welcome New Member. Please Introduce Yourself Here topic.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:57 pm

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Look Ethel, another (*&)(^%)*&@)$_ Ethics thread.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Hi pained heart and welcome here. Very Happy

Ignoring the scammers will do nothing to deter them, that's just preposterous.

I'm curious, have you read any victim's stories and worried about their plights or just that of the scammers?

Edit to add: http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32877&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

The sticky topic I linked above is required reading before lecturing us on ethics. Also please visit our sister site, ScamWarners and read the victim's stories, particularly the one from a man who was almost beat to death by scammers in South Africa.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

I'm not religous in the slightest, but the rule of "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." is a maxim I hope I live by.

Read some of the victims' stories, or the baits where mothers are told to send the money they need for their dying childrens medicine.
That bait pushed the boundries, but they are adults capable of making their own choices.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:07 am

pained heart wrote:

(2) encourage an economy in poor countries that makes honest work more profitable.

Wrong, in many places scamming and earning money by doing as little work as possible is encouraged and seen as clever. No economy boost is going to stop this. In fact it's the same crap the lads trot out about 'exploitation by westerners' and it's total bullshit.
The lads have murdered people, they target the old, disabled, children etc, anyone they can make a fast buck out of, their victims have committed suicide. Write to one, tell him you'd love to send money but it's the last little bit you have for life saving medicine. He'll tell you to send it anyway as 'soon you will be rich', hows that for morals?
These guys are scum of the earth criminals who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, we extend them the same generosity but we don't make them do anything, whatever they do is of their own free will no matter how stupid or suicidal.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Welcome to Eater. Bait safe, and look into a mentor, I believe JoJo is available. Wink

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:30 am

I can assure you that most of the scammers that I deal with are Russian or from some other Eastern European country. These are intelligent criminals, not people to be pitied.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:30 am

Newdonym wrote:

That bait pushed the boundries, but they are adults capable of making their own choices.

It pushed boundaries perhaps, but didn't go far enough in my opinion. If Adamu had died in the desert, the only sympathy I would have is for the vultures that had to eat his stinking corpse.

By the way newbie, I also sent a scammer to Abeche. He thought he was going to steal money from a charity that was helping starving children and refugees in Darfur. The saddest part is that he made it back alive.

I wish I could run a bait so controversial, it would still be the subject of an ethics thread months later. Rolling Eyes

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

SSA: All of your baits disgust me, I hope you die in a fire for wishing harm on those poor, defensive, sea kitten-esque scammers. (Is that better)

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Quote:

encourage an economy in poor countries that makes honest work more profitable.

So, countries that have functioning economies don't have crime?

Really?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Quote:

(2) encourage an economy in poor countries that makes honest work more profitable.

I'm wondering what this has to do with the scammers in Canada, the UK, Amsterdam or the US, along with the vlads mentioned by billmcdill. Can we still bait those?

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

^not whilst they're in a recession.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:41 am

I'm pretty sure there are bad germans too.

No, Harry. SP already researched that. Very Happy

TS

Yeah, I could get a Ph.D. for all the research I do if I submitted a paper on it, and I would be writing on a subject which I knew something about, unlike some knowalls who know nothing Very Happy

- SP

Hey guys! I just wanted to add a mod edit as well - NN

Hey! All the cool colours will be taken soon - RC

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:44 am

Newdonym wrote:

SSA: All of your baits disgust me, I hope you die in a fire for wishing harm on those poor, defensive, sea kitten-esque scammers. (Is that better)

Much better, thanks. I thought I had turned into a *cough* lad hugger *cough or something.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:48 am

I am very sorry for you Xxxxxx, davey
is a pity that this is how your life is going to end as soon as you don't comply. As you can see there is no need of introducing myself to you because I don't have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL you and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that. Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told me that he wanted you dead and he provided us with your name ,picture and other necessary information's we needed about you. So I sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary investigation needed for the operation on you, and they have done that but I told them not to kill you that I will like to contact you and see if your life is Important to you or not since their findings shows that you are innocent. I called my client back and ask him of your email address which I didn't tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me and I am using it to contact you now. As I am writing to you now my men are monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you. Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? As someone has paid us to kill you. Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life, $15,000 is all you need to spend You will first of all pay $8,000 then I will send a tape to you which i recoeded every discusion i hade with the person who wanted you dead and as soon as you get the tape, you will pay the remaining $7,000. If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my job straight-up. WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELLING ANYONE BECAUSE I WILL KNOW.REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANT YOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHING FUNNY. DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7M UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND GIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKE ANY LEGAL ACTION. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY ON MY PRIVATE MAIL.
[email protected]
DEATH HAS NO SECOND CHANCE
RESPOND TO THIS MAIL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
REGARDS
AGENT KILLER

Now try to put yourself in the position of someone getting this e mail.Can you justify the terror?Poverty is a worldwide problem as we all know,but it is insulting to those who work their tail off to get by,using honest means,to justify this
The people in this forum are neither ignorant or unsympathetic.Quite to the contrary,I think you will find the members here more aware of what is going on in the world than most.Sorry,they ain't stealing bread because they are hungry.They are greedy selfish bastards who are too damn lazy to contribute anything to their stillborn society.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:51 am

I was just about to mention the hitman scam. You beat me to it.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:55 am

I saw something about you being a lad hugger,and thought I was in an alternate universe.Does Spock have a beard here?

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:02 am

I like to hug lads but it's more of the kind of hug around the neck that happens right before a quick snap that severs the spinal cord.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:04 am

OMG are folks still streaming in ranting about that Chad bait?? Still?!?! Shocked

Wait. Really??? Shocked

Oh cry me a river. Rolling Eyes

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I suppose I might as well get a plug in for my site, if Pained Heart wants to see what happens to some victims at the hands of scammers, they should see my site link below for some items where scam victims were robbed, kidnapped and murdered:

http://www.scam-info-links.info/scam_victim_news.html

In particular, read the news story titled, Greek man murdered by 419 scammers, it's very enlightening, here are a couple of snippets from the item, and you expect us to show scammers some mercy when they do things like this?:

Quote:

He was apparently lured to the country under the pretence that he could earn hundreds of thousands of rands. He was then kidnapped and summarily killed when his family refused to pay the ransom.

Quote:

The ransom was not paid. A day later, police found George's body in Durban. Both his legs and arms were broken and he had been set alight - probably while he was still alive.

"This was a blatant execution after a failed demand. Mr Makronalli's suitcases full of clothes and travel documents were found with his body. Robbery was not the motive," the police spokesperson said.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:16 am

Jail is the usual consequence for habitual criminals. Did anything happen during the Chad bait that was worse than jail?

(No offense Prof., Jojo and YW, I know you tried your best.)

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:24 am

Actually I sort of side with pained heart. I, somewhat, feel that we may really be wasting our time with baiting these lads. Sad

Instead, I feel we should just terminate the bas**ds with a very efficent head shot. you Know -- one round,one down. If I win the lottery two things that I would love to do is go to
Abeche in chad and go to the Internet Cafe and get on the internet and take pictures while downloading them to 419. I think that would be fun,what with instant live pics of your lads trying to scam the baiters. Second, if you can get them to move around a little, I'm sure a Mosin-Nagant in good shape can be found in that peaceful country to pratice pot shots on the lads head. Now, doncha' think that would be more fun and to help the problem, Mr. Faint heart? Confused

I suspect Mr. Pained Heart is a P.C. Socialist. Razz

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:39 am

Hello pained heart and welcome to Eater!

I know someone that is going to be very happy to see this thread in the morning. However, in the meantime, here is some light reading for you:

Did you read the whole Chad bait? No? Take your time. It is only 165 odd pages: Clicky

And to read other people's thoughts about the ethics of the bait here and here.

A nice thread about the radio show here.

And last but not least, here is a nice sticky about ethics, with even more links!

Please, when you are finished, let us know if you have changed your mind at all.

Very Happy

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:57 am

The lovely Dora summed up the existing literature brilliantly! Wink

pained heart wrote:

I got the feeling that you all are ignorant of the socioeconomic conditions in the world.

I find it a bit troubling that you accuse us of ignorance, pained heart, but you did not take the time to see what we are about. As has been said before, I would love to hear your reaction after reading a few stories of the victims of these criminals.

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