Pardon me for asking the question...

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 08 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

I'm sure this has been asked a few hundred times before, but 15,000+ messages with no obvious search capabilities comes across as a bit daunting.

Here's my question: how is it that after so many years of your documenting the 419 scambaiting, that the lads haven't cottoned to the back-scams? You'd think all it would take was for one unusually bright representative of the community to figure out that they're getting baited and tell the others not to respond to Shiver or the other aliases because it's a waste of time.

Does Nigeria not get Google? Or is it akin to pirates letting each other hang so as to get to the treasure themselves?

Granted, I'm probably smarter than the average bear, but how bright do you have to be to realize you have to make sure your cover hasn't been blown?

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:47 pm

No obvious search? There's one quite close to that big 419 Eater logo...

Back to the question...I'm not sure. My guess is that they get suspicious a lot, but Greed outweighs Common Sense.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:55 pm

You're clearly suggesting that Lads are cleverer than fish Shocked

Greed, stupidity, and it is not in Lads interest to share information - so they never learn.

Some Lads are smarter than the average cod, but they are the ones you yearn to meet. I met one once who checked my ip's when I was baiting him as two separate people - bleedin' Eintsein Laughing

but he still threatened to beat me up in Paris - DOHHHHHHHHH. As Einstein said, it is all relative.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:56 pm

Hold on... How come everyone has Shiver's avatar?

Anyway, in response to the question: The reason that the lads don't cotton on is because they see the promise of money and they want to believe it's real, much like the victims who get scammed again and again. Sure, some will see a sign request and think "he's messing with me, he get get lost", but some will think "Money, money, money".

It's also been discussed (and I've seen evidence of this myself) that a lot of the lads can't grasp the concept of what we do, and why we do it. The only way they can rationalise us using our time to screw with them if we get money out of it, and therefore assume that we're rival scammers trying to steal their jobs.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:29 pm

I suppose another factor is that the Lads probably don't network too much. I doubt that the Nigerian Lads compare notes, and the Ghanaians don't send tips to the Burkinabe... and so on.

Too, if we don't burn the Lads, they won't realise they've been baited, and assume it was just a picky or stupid maga each time.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 08 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

Nitroglycerin wrote:

No obvious search? There's one quite close to that big 419 Eater logo...

Back to the question...I'm not sure. My guess is that they get suspicious a lot, but Greed outweighs Common Sense.

Meh, I was looking in the page itself for an obvious search input box, not up in the title area--which reminded me too much of the site heading itself. Wasn't at all clear to me that it searched the forum contents--but I haven't had much caffeine today.

These things happen.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:42 pm

^^^

Also, we put a pretty small dent in their scamming activities. Perhaps if the majority of people they dealt with were baiters, they would change their plan of attack

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:33 pm

I think it would be funny if in internet cafe's the lads posted on the bulletin board names of known baiters to warn their other lad friends. However I somewhat doubt this, as there is no honor among thieves.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:41 pm

For the same reason that people in the west have been falling for 419 scams for decades.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:11 pm

Basically, time is money for the lads. They probably only have an hour so at the internet cafe to score with their next victim. Consequently, most of them are not going to waste their time Googling this site.

They are all basically lazy thieves in my opinion. All they want is the maximum reward for the minimum of effort. That is their Achilles heel. Long may it continue.

Just my 10c worth.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:58 pm

Quote:

back-scams

They are not "back-scams". That would imply we scam them back. We do not scam. We bait. It is called scambaiting or baiting. Why do people need to make up their own names for it when we have perfectly good names already in existence?

Quote:

I'm probably smarter than the average bear

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:45 pm

Out of interest, in my internet searches I did find a reference to this place in a Nigerian forum entry - it's the very bottom entry

http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-1467.0.html

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:53 pm

They go through those discussions every once in a while. There is always one who claims the maga deserves it and a few who say the scammers are giving Nigeria a bad name. They agree it isn't right. That site is a good source of info on Nigerian concerns.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:03 pm

Don't forget, a guy who gets baited doesn't have time to be competition to another scammer.

No way are they going to swap notes, as it leaves the "real suckers" out there to the scammers who find them first.

These are decieteful, greedy, bastards. They will stoop to any level.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:08 pm

GeneralAbacha wrote:

For the same reason that people in the west have been falling for 419 scams for decades.

^^ Exactly, as long as there are ignorant victims out there....business is "good"

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:42 pm

I think the answer to this question must also take into account the type of bait used.
Although I consider trophy baits to be the most enjoyable, they do tend to be the hardest to pull off as the hook has to be either pretty original or the lad has to be one who hasn't been baited too many times before.

Because these baits are easier for experienced lads to sniff out, I also tend to run a few straight baits alongside. And these are the baits that normally work. You have to remember that when you run a straight bait, you are generally trying to act like a genuine victim and therefore, the lad doesn't really have much reason to think that something is up. Google really won't help him unless the baiter veers away from the straight bait and tries a different direction.

So although a lot of lads may be wary of "Church baits", "Charity baits" or whatever, they have no way of knowing that they are being hit with a straight bait. And in my opinion, it is the straight bait that hooks the majority of lads and is the most successful. They may not be as spectacular as some of the more outlandish schemes you see on this site, but you can be pretty sure that they take up the vast majority of the lads' time as a whole.

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