Why don't scammers come up with some new scripts?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 15 Aug 2012 Posts: 7

Hi guys,

I use dating sites a lot and so obviously I get messaged by heaps of scammers: women (or men pretending to be women) living in Nigeria or Russia messaging me out of the blue and claiming they want to have a relationship with me, even though they have never even spoken to me.

I am not dumb enough to fall for it, and sometimes if I am a little hesitant as to whether someone is a scammer or not, I copy and paste lines from ther message and do a Google search on them: on every single occasion their letter to me came up word for word on countless scam busting sites, including this one.

They obviously use a copy and paste template, but what I don't get is this: since their scam can be found out with a two second google search, why on earth don't they come up with some new scripts that ARE NOT ON SCAMBUSTING SITES?? don't get me wrong, I am glad they don't since it makes busting them easy.... But from their perspective, why do they use scripts that can be discovered as scams with a two second google search? Anyone know?

And out of interest, whenever I get a message from a scammer in Nigeria, e never seem to use the word 'I', they ALWAYS introduce themselves as 'am Mary (or whoever)' instead of 'I'm Mary' or 'I am Mary'. It's a dead giveaway and after years yo would think they would learn not to do it but they don't.... Are they really THAT dumb?

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21158

Welcome to the board! If you dabble in this are long enough you will pick up on little hints. The lack of I or even using i are common. They are in no way to be called scammer if you see these small things but you should be aware of the possibility. Nothing is absolute proof until the full story is told.

A couple of great examples have shown up today. One from a man that helped me along my way and is far more experienced than I http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1919801#1919801

Another from a person that really was suspecting bad and still gave them benefit of doubt. http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1920053#1920053

Quote:

why do they use scripts that can be discovered as scams with a two second google search?

These have likely been successful for someone along the way. In the past, people did not have this avenue to seek the information and even now many of us are tech idiots.

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:34 am

Hi ordinaryday, and welcome!

They're not dumb, just mostly lazy. As in they are trying to run as many scam scripts past people as fast as they can. If one falls for it, that's their payday. As NV said (Hi, NV!), if it worked once, they'll use it again. The fact that you can Google it and find them is a testament to the people who post them in the various warning forums. Most scammers could care less, they would rather spend their time sending the scripts out than Googling. Remember, for them, time is money.

There's much to learn here, hope you stick around. Visit our sister site, Scamwarners.com, if you haven't already. Stay safe.

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

TheFae wrote:

Remember, for them, time is money.

Until we get hold of them that is Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:25 pm

I read an interesting article that discussed reasons why scammers stick to scripts like the 'dead President' and 'trunk box' which appear so preposterous and easy for most people to see through.

It seems quite possible that scammers are using these scripts to attract the least 'savvy' and most vulnerable potential victims, otherwise they'd be wasting their time if they attracted everyone. So their apparently poor scripts act as part of a filtering process.

Whether they do it on purpose is probably doubtful, but it is effective.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

Welcome to Eater!

As others have said, many times it comes down to a lad being lazy, and if it works, why change it? By "working" I mean that it manages to trap a person or two.

A while back I managed to convince a lad that I was also a scammer, and I worked with him to change his script. The resulting script was in Nadsat, a language that Anthony Burgess created in his book A Clockwork Orange. The script started out "My Fellow Droogie", and was actually quite successful as he mangaged to get other baiters on the hook. I have no idea if he continued using the script after we parted ways, but it would have been nice.

Just remember the basic rules of lads:

Rule #1 - Lads are lazy
Rule #2 - See rule #1

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:59 pm

It's also important to note that many scammers do develop entirely new approaches, scamming styles and scripts all the time, moving with the times to try and draw in people who may have sophisticated awareness of the old classics but who might be successfully victimised by a different approach. Some good current examples are the evolution of work-from-home scams, rental scams and au-pair scams.

All of these do tend to use "standard" scripts for the same reasons mentioned above.... scammers are dealing with massive volume and it's more effective on their part to reuse a script rather than trying to keep tuning it from one mail blast to the next. And to an important extent this is very useful to us -- you may see over at Scamwarners how the advisors are careful not to give too many specifics about what it is that identifies the writer as (for example) using west African English while purporting to be British, American etc. The "am Mary" is one good example, this is very natural west African English and it can be very hard to switch to another dialect even if you are aware of it.

It's also hard for scammers to keep their scripts off the scambusting sites thanks to all the baiters and others who work really hard to get new formats posted as quickly as possible. Again scamwarners is a good example - visitors are asked to post the updated versions of scam emails for this exact reason.

Many lads are not lazy, they are just efficient. Why waste time tinkering with a format that works at getting money from victims?

Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:31 pm

^ Yes: 'If it ain't broke, then why fix it?'

If lads believe their scripts work, then they won't change them. And we can help them with that. If you receive a scam mail that is ridiculous, or easily googled, then reply to it as a totally believing victim! And then the lad will use it again.

OK, so maybe there was just a slight problem with you getting the money to him ... but you believed all his silliness, didn't you? Of course you did. The worst the script, the more we can help him believe that it is worthwhile.

The good scams, the well-worded emails, the original sentences, the brilliant new idea .... they are the ones to disbelieve and question every part of. But those old familiar themes and irregular grammar ... let's encourage them.

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