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Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Hello Everyone:

After ages of just deleting messages such as that below, I recently started to play along and waste their time. That is when I stumbled across this forum and have had some good laughs at what you folks are able to construct.
This arrived the other day and I replied and rec'd this info listed below. Since this is a new scheme, I was wondering how you would proceed. Bear in mind my computer skills are rudimentary. I figured to ask simple questions such as verifying which currency, asking for verification of spelling, stating it's a holiday here and no offices are open etc etc. At some point in my fictional small town the post office will ask questions about wiring money and will seek proof (copy of certificate or whatever else).
Being new to all this I'd love to have some fun with it and string it out as long as possible.
The email I'm using for all this is not under my name so it's not a personal one.
In theory once I send the money one of two things will happen: either I will get millions of dollars sent to me or I will be $55 poorer! I'm guessing it is the latter option!

Any ideas are welcome.
thanks

Receiver's Name Lusha Hugo
country Benin
City Cotonou
Amount $55
send through western union or money gram and then get back to me with
the details of the transfer

Purpose for the fee is to obtain the Stamp Duty of the Paper attached
to the your fund

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:17 pm

First - are you baiting safe???? Completely fictional info? An e-mail address that does not lead back to you?

Second- Ask questions - one at a time, to get the mugu off script. Ask him to explain "x" or provide documents for "y". Ask if he can do the transaction in Euros rather than dollars - haggle over exchange rates. Ask about taxation on this transaction.

Third - see if you can get him to fill out some forms! www.scambaitingtools.com provides lots of fun-filled forms that your lad will enjoy filling in.

Fourth, he will want you to send him money via Western Union. Alas, you were banned from WU several years ago after an unfortunate incident ("How was I to know she was only 12? She looked much older.") Can you send him money via wire transfer instead? This will give you his real banking details. You can report these to a mod (the folks with the green names) who can contact the appropriate people and get the account closed. You get a "piggy" for closing an account.

Bait from there ! Good luck.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

The account is a gmail account under a made up user name with no details linked to me.
That is great if I can get the banking info required to close him out. If that happens I'm guessing he will know who did it (the reporting?) If he doesn't know who did it, then I guess I can tell him the bank won't accept that info. since the account is closed.

Will play along and see what happens. In my first attempt I googled a WU image, shrunk it, and sent it as proof and he couldn't read it....which was the whole point.

Lots of questions forming up in my mind already!

thanks

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:33 pm

It's about (aboot, surely) time we got a funny Canadian in here. Pastor Frank isn't funny at all.

It sounds like you're off to a great start. If you have questions for your fellow baiters, "Help, Hints, and Tips" is the place for to throw them.

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:16 am

^^^ Once you've gotten a bank account and reported it, I wouldn't mention anything to your lad later about it being closed. Even if you could be 100% sure it's actually gone, there's no reason to tell. And the lad almost certainly won't suspect you were the cause of the account shutdown anyway.

You, the victim, are clueless. You have no idea why the wire transfer failed (you're not technical, make up a fake error code you received on your phone, or some bs) but it just didn't work. He should really look into it and/or give you another account, a proper one this time that actually works.

419Eater is my life Joined: 27 Jan 2015 Posts: 331

Welcome, sparky!

I don’t know where you are in your bait now, but if you want to go for a bank account then tell the lad you will gladly pay any additional fee for using a bank wire transfer. It’s always good to dangle more money in front of a lad. Twisted Evil

Good luck!

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

He was pushing for the money so I have been sending simple questions one at a time. Things like what currency do you want it in? Oh you want American? I can send other currency if you wish it is no trouble at all! Oh, still American? Okay, last chance to confirm this.....
With my first bait (and only one so far) I offered to hand deliver it and buy the guy dinner. Too bad he was so busy.......

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Just heard back from my contact Mr. Clement. I am supposed to use WU to send the money not to Mr. Clement, not to his company (DHL Delivery Company), but make it out personally to Lusha Hugo, his assistant. It must be nice to have that level of trust between boss and assistant that transactions involving handling of potentially millions of dollars can be trusted to one's assistant.
So I just replied I will make a personal cheque out to Lusha Hugo, c/o DHL Delivery Company in US$$$. Problem is that I need a mailing address......

I'm hoping he'll reply with insisting on some form of electronic transfer of funds though. He won't want to wait for snail mail!

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:56 pm

good going so far!! If Lusha Hugo is in the US (or Canada or Europe, etc) he/she/it could be a "mule", a dupe being used by the scammer to forward funds to him.

Report any details on a possible mule to the moderators. (the folks in green!) They will notify the appropriate authorities, get the mule warned, etc.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Lusha Hugo is in Cotonou Benin. I heard back that the $55 was "too small" for a personal cheque. However, I can send one for an even $100 to a guy (complete mailing address provided) in Louisiana. He says this guy will forward the funds to Benin for him as it will be "faster". So Bruin just as you wrote, this sounds like a you described.
So what direction to take now? Report this possible mule? Or go back to try to get him to provide banking info for a wire transfer?

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

bware419ers wrote:

Pastor Frank isn't funny at all.

You paged?

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:00 am

It sounds like you have a US mule there, sparky905, so you should go ahead and report the name and address to a mod.

Lads tend not to offer bank accounts for small dollar (i.e. <$700) amounts, but sometimes they're more amenable after a few failed Western Union transfers. In order to bump up the amount into piggy territory, occasionally I 'misread' the amount of money involved e.g. $250.00 somehow becomes $2500. You'd be surprised how often the lad corrects you (!) but sometimes he just runs with it and then offers you a bank account.

*Edited for clarity, I hate un-clarity

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:02 am

^^^See.

sparky905 wrote:

I can send one for an even $100 to a guy (complete mailing address provided) in Louisiana...Report this possible mule?

Yes. You can send the mule information using the "Messages" button at the top of the page. Send it to me, Pastor Frank, or any other Moderator (we wear green).

Quote:

Or go back to try to get him to provide banking info for a wire transfer?

And you can do this, too!

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

https://ibb.co/fghfHF

A few days ago I rec'd an offer almost too good to refuse, so have been stringing him along. Today I asked for some paperwork to show my wife that it was all legitimate and that we were getting millions of dollars! Tonight I rec'd this certificate of authenticity. I scratched out my username (not my real name anyway) for the scam just in case, but notice how below it states Mr Richard Estrada is the beneficiary of this sum! I have no idea how two different names would appear on the same document......but I am rather new to this. The paperwork is dated Feb 2016, which would mean that it took them 18 months to "find" me. I should in theory be getting interest on this money for all that time wasted!

At this stage the guy is expecting me to forward money since I now have proof of this amazing sum of money. How would you proceed? Would you draw attention to the fact that two names were on the certificate? The dating of it? If I call him out on it, he might just disappear. Maybe I should be offended that he couldn't come up with a better document and not just re-use an old one?[/url]

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:09 am

If anomalies on lad documents are things that would make a real victim twig that it's a scam, don't point them out. Let them pass, otherwise you might be helping your lads become better fraudsters in the future.

Pointing out how long it took lads to find you and asking whether or not they've been availing themselves of the interest accrued on your money is a fair question, though. It could lead somewhere interesting, who knows?

One thing you might want to consider doing is putting a big red "Used by scammers" or similar text through any lad documents you upload to image hosting sites. This will help prevent lads from reusing them.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

https://ibb.co/bPKHWa

Today I wrote the lad and said I was so excited about getting the money but my wife was concerned about the 18 month lapse between issuing the certificate, and today's date. I explained to him that in my country, documents over 12 months old such as a cheque will not be honoured at a bank, so I needed assurances that this proposed transfer of funds would be honoured.
He sent me the above document and I feel so much better! I am particularly pleased that the IRS has cleared this sum to be transferred....but wonder why they need to get involved considering I'm in Canada and we have our own tax people! Hmm, maybe that is my next question!

He did tell me in an email that I have already asked too many questions and that this must be resolved now. His assistant is standing by. I told him that I wanted him to understand that it's not everyday that I get offered millions of dollars and that since this involves an international funds transfer, I want to proceed slowly and make sure nothing gets messed up. I paid tribute to his professionalism, but told him it is the Canadian gov't officials who will mess this up so please be patient.

I think all the money gram offices are closed for renovations in my fictional small town hours from anywhere...............[/img]

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:11 am

You're a baiter, sparky905. Smile

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:55 am

Lads just don't understand jurisdiction. In their world, FBI agents can make arrests in any country, the United States Coast Guard operates off the coast of Nigeria, and the IMF regularly intervenes in bank transfers all over the world.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

I had an earlier "document" where the IMF was headquartered in Nebraska. Obviously its reach is far longer than I knew......

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

https://ibb.co/f3meCF
https://ibb.co/d2USzv

I am confused......I have a nice man named Leonard Moore who is a bank executive who wants me to send a small fee. When I did an image search of him though I found he has a twin brother who is a minister. Wondering what the odds of this are? Maybe the one can pray I send the money to another and they can split it? What's half of zero????

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:47 pm

Try this - you went to the bank to get money to send to Leonard Moore - but there was a problem at the bank - something about their computer was screwed up - you will try again tomorrow.

A few hours later, using a NEW e-mail address, you write : "This is the president of the bank. Your victim came in to get money to send to Leonard Moore. He showed me all the e-mails - I knew at once it was a scam. But I didn't tell him. You see, your victim is RICH and STUPID. If we work together, we can both get rich. We will use my bank to wire money to you (but I will keep half). I will work on my end to keep him paying you. PLUS I have lots of other depositors in my bank who are just as RICH and just as STUPID. If you work with me, I will give you their e-mail addresses, too. If you don't work with me, I will tell the victim this is a scam!"

This gives you the opportunity to recruit other baiters to be the "other depositors" and do a group bait.

When I have tried this in the past, invariably, the scammer tries to warn the original victim about the duplicitous banker. When that happens, the hapless victim is caught in the middle - the banker did not use his real name in the e-mail to the scammer, so victim does not believe the scammer actually received e-mails from his banker....

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

I was going to try this for starters, what do you think?

There are no WU outlets within a day's drive of me.....(???) but local post office will do money gram. To comply with Canadian rules (on their website conveniently!!!) I need their full name with matching i.d. plus his bank name and account number. I wonder if he'll send that info? I also read on this site the technique of saying (if he is reluctant) I can "only" do a minimum of X dollars which would greatly inflate the asking price from him. He might like that idea too, which would persuade him to send the info.
One good thing is that in our small town where everyone knows everyone else's business, the lady at the post office will be making sure all details are known up front...and I have a feeling she might decline to do the transaction. Why she might even send me home a few times to check my emails for details I forgot.
If things go wrong I can try the bank manager angle. I already told him that I can't do anything till Monday since small town facilities shut down on Fridays. I've got some time to mull it over.

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 8:53 pm

Sounds like a good plan! In fact, if you want, there is no reason you could not incorporate my idea into yours - substitute "postal clerk" for "bank president" and see what happens!