Giving a public speech about 419 scams

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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:48 am

I was just curious if anyone had experience in giving presentations to the general public about the 419 scams? Here is the reason I ask this. I am one of the youngest members of my church (yes, I do go to church between insult and Asem emails. I'm even a Lay speaker in the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Church)and the older congregants keep asking me why do all these people from other countries keep emailing me about dead relatives with a lot of money? I was thinking about doing a short 5-10 minute talk in one of our coffee hours after church to show the older members of the congregation about the email scams and those that work to fight them and how to avoid them. Any advice?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Excellent of you to consider doing this. I recommend reading at ScamWarners. There is a ton of information there that will help you give an overview and basic advice.

Master Baiter Joined: 27 Jun 2009 Posts: 172

Personally i think if you have the chance to explain, in a responsible manner what is going on, DO IT

As already stated, it is commendable that you even think of it, but to actually do it to an audiance that are already asking about it, you cant do any wrong, given the same chance with the right community, i would do it.

+1 to you

(plus i can prepare a script for you, just send $5000 buy west3rn Onion and gimme the MT7N and its yours, Honest)

sorry for the joke, but if you have a genuine chance, do it, i know i would.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:24 am

Yeah definitely, do it!
But I fear 5-10 minutes will seem you far too short Laughing

Once you begin, it's hard to stop...
I tried with collegues once on a lunchtime, one had told about something he received in his pro mailbox, and I began to explain.
We arrived late back at work, and I had to continue via e-mails Rolling Eyes

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

Keep it light, keep it simple. Select three or four typical scams your audience are likely to connect with and briefly explain the scam.

I've found it very difficult to explain about baiting so aaian keep it as simple as "to waste their time and distract them from potential victims ...."

You run into trouble if you've got a hooked victim in your audience .... they're right and you are oh so wrong!

Make it amusing if you can, but simply making people aware that there are sharks in the sea is important. And no, cousin Minnie didn't die in a RTA on the Sagbama highway leaving millions of dollars in a trunk box for you.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:23 am

It might be worth preparing a hand-out with a brief summary, and referring them to Eater and Scamwarners for more detailed information.

419Eater is my life Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 351

What a fantastic opportunity, I would love to have the chance to do this!

I probably wouldn't mention getting lads tattooed though Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:21 am

Quote:

I probably wouldn't mention getting lads tattooed though

Or setting up fake chuches!

Seriously, to get into baiting would just muddy the waters, the main message has to be 'if it looks too good to be true, it invariably is'.

If you save just one person from sending their life savings to a lad, it's time well spent, and encourage your audience to spread the word.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

In a 5-10 minute slot I would avoid all mention of baiting. It would take longer than that to explain the baiting concept without sounding like an smug racist prat. Concentrate on the various scamming formats that your audience is likely to engage with, and how the scam progresses. Explain about fake cheques. I'm sure someone here could give you a scan of a good fake cheque.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:01 am

I've done a bit public service work on scam awareness, and definitely the best thing to do is to avoid mention of baiting entirely, but instead focus on the existence of scams and how to avoid them. That is, paying more attention to awareness/avoidance than to actual scam-fighting.

As mentioned above, you'll also need to pick certain types of scams that may be most likely to affect your audience. "Dead relatives with a lot of money" is a popular one, and maybe a good one to start with because this particular scam theme is fairly well known by now (although most people don't understand quite how it works).

Depending on your audience, some other scams you might want to talk about include

"Work at home" or job scams (especially those involving making payments on someone's behalf, or anything involving receiving and re-sending goods).

Fake lotteries

Fake charities

Overpayment scams (I know a lot of elderly people who are active on ebay and run into this kind of thing a lot).

It's also very much worth being prepared to answer questions like: "Why don't the police do anything about it?" (brief answer: it's often international, and scammers tend to operate from places where such crimes are not taken seriously), and "Why are the scammers contacting me?" (answer: they are contacting everybody they can find).

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:42 am

firehouse5 makes a good point about trying to pre-empt questions.

Finish your talk with a quick "Stay safe on the internet, and if it looks too good to be true it probably isn't" ..... and .... "spread the word to your family and friends""

...and it might be worth pointing out that Western Union and Money Gram are really intended for transferring money to people you personally know and trust.

Good luck with your speech and please let us know how it goes after the event.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:08 pm

Thanks for all the advice. I have a lot of work to do.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:48 pm

What a great thing to do!

I echo all the advice above, especially the part about keeping it simple. In a short time like that, just skimming the surface should be enough to get your audience to pay attention to what's coming into their inboxes and to ignore and delete appropriately.

Do keep us posted. Smile

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:24 pm

Thank you Titania. I feel this is the most time efficient I can help fight 419. Between being a full time dad and planning on joining the US Navy, all I really have time to do "bait wise" is the ASEM insult stuff I do. I am not very web oriented, and that is probably why I only have 240 some posts for being here for 2 years. I wish I could do more, but I hope I can be one of the little leaks that brings down the 419 ship.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:40 pm

To older people, some who may not even be on the 'net, I'd stress that they never know who they are actually in touch with on the 'net, and possibly combine it with the phone, also.
(Lots of phishing scams on the phone, also.)

419Eater is my life Joined: 08 Aug 2008 Posts: 475

hi, you already got your concept - print out this thread, read it to the audience, and time is over, having said the essencials.

honestly, when I have chance to talk about scamming to some people, I have made the experience, that not so evident (as NoK, trunk boxes, lotto, etc.), scams like fake job-offers, fake rentals of houses (overpaiment) or other answers to craigslist-ads are points of high interest.

best wishes.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:19 pm

^^ All is said, keep it on topic of creating awareness of AFF, that should be the main goal. Once your audience knows you're having fun baiting lads, your inbox will be clogging up with forwarded scam mails they received: 'here's another one for you'. Trust me Smile

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