sorry;a quick question

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Jul 2009 Posts: 20

reading the letters from the 419ers, i've noticed that some are almost literate while others (supposedly from the same person)are almost unintelligable. Is there any reason for this? also scambaiting has obviously been going on for a while,havent these scammers caught on by now to the various baiting tecniques or are they just so greedy that dont catch on? thanx

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:55 pm

vonfalk

If one thinks for a moment or two, one will remember that English is not everybody's first language.

Another thought concerns the pot and the kettle! Laughing

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:57 pm

Some scammers start with very well prepared intro letters, and scripts that are already written for the first couple of responses, but then have to work on their own (and in many cases, they don't write so well).

Other variation can be explained by the fact that scammers have an extremely wide range of education - ranging from hardly any, up to serious academic qualifications.

When it comes to baiting techniques, some of them fall out of favour as it becomes known to many scammers that some kind of request is a sign of a time-waster. A good example is "take a picture holding a sign". It can still be done, but to many scammers is a sign that the requester is a time-waster due to the large number of baiters who took this approach over the years.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:47 pm

This is a big problem for me... sometimes i write like a Nigerian LOL because english is my "second" language.. and im still learning a lot....

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:55 pm

That's not even a bad thing Ana, at least they won't be learning english from you then Smile

As long as they suck at english, the less likely victims are going to fall for them. Most of us even type mistakes on purpose, it also makes them think they are smarter than you.

419Eater is my life Joined: 30 May 2009 Posts: 298

vonfalk wrote:

also scambaiting has obviously been going on for a while,havent these scammers caught on by now to the various baiting tecniques or are they just so greedy that dont catch on? thanx

Advance fee fraud has been going on for a long time to, yet they find new victims every month, despite some very widespread attempts to educate the public, and the obvious fact that these are scams. It's like chasing the elephant with a shovel; the smart folk just can't keep up.

Likewise, there are probably plenty of scammers who don't know that victims ask for pictures.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:02 pm

Caligula wrote:

That's not even a bad thing Ana, at least they won't be learning english from you then Smile

As long as they suck at english, the less likely victims are going to fall for them. Most of us even type mistakes on purpose, it also makes them think they are smarter than you.

Oh... well... you make me feel better ... Embarassed

But.. i think they can understand me ... i hope Lol

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

^^^ Here's some examples of what my lad is having to read from me.

Quote:

wi r u doin tihs to mi david sai u r teh thef he sai he has reset to prov it he show me reset it got stams on an evrythik

i got ur mail. wot r we gon do bowt david he has stol 300 from us i
still have 375 from ebay an i ask my nurs to send but i need to now
wot we do to david

i not sai nurs send it i sai i wil as nurs i did giv a da

wot iz 375? i touht it woz 300?

If he can read that, (and it seems he can,) you shouldn't worry about your English Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:35 pm

^^ Hehehehe ... thanks Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 15 Jul 2009 Posts: 20

wi r u doin tihs to mi david sai u r teh thef he sai he has reset to prov it he show me reset it got stams on an evrythik

i got ur mail. wot r we gon do bowt david he has stol 300 from us i
still have 375 from ebay an i ask my nurs to send but i need to now
wot we do to david

i not sai nurs send it i sai i wil as nurs i did giv a da

wot iz 375? i touht it woz 300?

lol i actually can understand that

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:34 am

vonfalk:

As Firehouse said above, often the well-written emails are a copied script. They may have been borrowed/bought/stolen from a scammer with a better grasp of English, or they may have been corrected and improved based on feedback received from English-speaking victims or accomplices. In some cases (especially romance lads) parts of the emails are copied straight from a website (love poems/expressions of love are frequently pulled from love sites). Of course, the better scripts are the ones we want to pick apart and use to de-educate the scammer. The poor scripts deserve nothing but praise.

When you see the grammar and spelling rapidly deteriorate, you can be happy knowing you most likely have got your scammer off-script!