Zero Tolerence for Scammers

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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:04 pm

I'm sure scammers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are probably desperate, and some are making a tidy living off of their crimes. It makes little difference to us: we're equal opportunity baiters. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:21 pm

African Princess wrote:

Well, you would understand the mind of a scammer better than me. Until two days ago, I didn't even know this site existed. They just seem desperate from what I read in your archives.

What you've got to bear in mind is that lads like those shown in the archives are few and far between and that it takes an incredible amount of skill and luck to get them to do those things. I honestly believe that if we turned our "talents" against people in our own communities and baited them, we could probably get the same results. The scammers themselves are certainly able to achieve something similar by the very fact that people pay them.
In that respect, what's the difference between someone paying a scammer money and a scammer posing for a photograph for a baiter?
The victims who give scammers their cash could just as well be placed on scammer websites in their "archives".
Bearing that in mind, would you class all those victims as desperate?

Like Luckey says - we're equal opportunists. True, there are those in poverty who scam but there are also those who are doing pretty well and are some of the richest people in their communities yet still they steal.
Each individual scammer is different, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are criminals and are therefore open to be baited.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 9

I can't argue with that...

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:34 pm

Welkom Princess Very Happy

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 518

Thank you for your insightful posts. It was a very interesting read, and I agree with you on most if not all your points. I can not imagine how if must be like to live in a country bathed in corruption and crime, but I try to understand how you feel.

It is good to hear that the honest citizens of these countries share our contempt for the scammers.

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:49 pm

African Princess wrote:

In fact, I personally only ever buy locally made stuff. It's a very good habit to get into. Firstly, it helps our economy. Secondly, I know that the stuff imported from China and South America can only be cheaper if necessary corners were cut.

Sometimes there is no choice. Just recently, the ANC ordered all t-shirts for the current campaign from China. Sad

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:09 pm

FrumpyBB wrote:

^^You would´t have throught this realistically, would you? Smile

No

, but I wished to be able to be proud of my country and I dreem of living in a perfect world. Somehow it seems to be more able to ignore shame, crime and suffering as long as it is far away from me (either in time -as with holocaust- or geographically -as with Nigeria-). That makes local scammers so hard to bear. This is just a personal feeling, and I know its silly, as crime is crime whereever it takes place (and that holds true regardless of globalisation or its effect on a single unimportend person like e. g. myself).

Thanx for your appreciative mentioning of the HH-H safari Cool

Mr Tambourine Man wrote:

African Princess wrote:

They are so desperate that they will do the silliest things for you.

I'm not convinced that's the case. Certainly there are very many poor and desperate people in Africa, but they aren't the ones spending hours a day in Internet cafes.

I fully subscribe to luckey's and Slightlyoutofit's post here Thumbs up

. And indeed I had some (few) lads in my inbox who were very desperate. Perhaps not because they were poor below mere subsistence, but more because they desperatly wanted the sweet feeling of success.

African Princess wrote:

I really sympathise with this as well. When I first found out about that man who was murdered in my country when the scammers got hold of him, I wanted to believe that it was the Nigerians here who had done it. But the truth is that our crime is perpetuated by locals and immigrants alike. It's quite likely that the murder was committed by locals. It's a pity you can't target scammers in a specific country because I'd like to clean up mine.

Yes, I guess that’s what I meant about "being proud of my country" in my responce to FrumpyBB above. This feeling fuels me in my attempts to improve the world. I feel locally but I act globally. Fighting crime in two ways: Bringing criminals to justice and transforming the world in a way, that distributes wellware in a fairer way and hence makes criminal actions less attractive.

Btw, what is said about Nigerian’s sympathy for money without work: As I understand it, this attitude might be influenced by the West African God Edshu, whom I understand as a kind of trickster archetype. I took me some time to see, that as a baiter I am influenced by this God, too. So it seems that the same energy can effect in good and evil courses alike.

lotta wrote:

Sometimes there is no choice.

I don't agree on that one. Mr. Green

It is dening your responsibility. I believe that there is a choice. Only sometimes the choice is not easy and the tradeoff might include to deviate from a sound principle (e. g. when I buy a Japanese car instead of a locally produced one, because I favor convenient product within my budget over contributing to employment in my country– I had a choice although keeping my budget might feel so imperative, that I tend to deny responsibility for my decision).
This is said with all due respect for my fav. mod. bow_down

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:14 pm

Welcome to our weird and wonderful world African Princess

Corruption and scamming isn't confined to Africa, and I have involved myself in taking on white faced scammers. We always have to repeat it, but we don't care about the colour of a person's skin, and I have warned Africans about scammers and Russian, Chinese and Arabs too. Losing money to thieves hurts you whatever the colour of your skin.

Of course the worst harm done is that it taints Nigerians, and hence most Africans, with the suspicion of being dishonest. I retired from a bank and I never saw a cheque or document bearing the word Nigeria that wasn't forged or part of a fraud.

I have viewed many Nigerian forums and know that the view of most Nigerians is that 'yahoo boys' are despised. Many people don't realise that they target other third world countries, with the spread of the internet providing new markets for their scams.

At the outset I felt some concern at what I had the power to do but having seen the scammers target charities like the one NOMA assisting horribly children in Africa horribly disfigured by disease, I no longer have such qualms.

If I could reach every thief and criminal using the internet, I would, but it's only 419 scammers who allow me to reach them through baiting.

I don't claim to be Holy and I don't claim to be perfect, however I do promise to give anyone coming into my inbox with the intent to steal my money, a bloody nose - and to be fair I'm quite rude to my doctor and bank too, when they annoy me. Very Happy

(don't get me started on doctors and banks)

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