Motorbike Race

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Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:38 pm

A promised $500 at the end of the race vs. a guaranteed "advance fee" $500 before even climbing onto a bike? Tough choice!

Yeah, I'm being pessimistic here, I do realize.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:38 pm

Sorry about the delay responding. Busy day. Been thinking about this plan and my points are:

Type of Race

Rally type will be great, but what are the chances of these guys actually managing to soort out some kind of timing system. That, and there will be less 'action shots' as I like to regard them. I'm pretty sure that I can get an organiser to create some kind of random dirt track somewhere. And it'll be easier having a podium and things built, and being able to convince the organiser to sort it out himself. that, and it'll keep it off public roads and things, which as we all know my approach to ITPs, would suit me a lot better. This could result in carnage, and should remain in a private, not public area.

The other theory is that I could say we have both types, and the organiser is responsible for deciding what type.

Equipment

I agree with you otter. The motorbike part will be the tough part to convince, but I'm thinking that if we have a crack at 20-30 lads, surely we can convince at least a third of them. Pushing the fact that we will be paying the insane entry fees for them to have a crack at making an easy $20k or so should be more than enough to convince some. If someone offered me free entry into a race I'd take them up on it, at least just to kill the timee that they have spare in their lives.

Convincing them

I think the best way to approach the bait is to see if they know of anyone who wants to do it (which will no doubt be themselves) and to say that they have to pay half the entry fee. Then, they can negotiate you down to paying the entire thing yourself, so it'll be a small victory for them.

The scenario

I'm going to establish a mock promotional company, and this is going to be the second year of the comp, which runs for charitable purposes. Basically a bunch of companies sponsor riders who race and win prizes. 20% of all entry fees goes to charities (less the administration fees of course for my organiser) and the remainder is split over the entrants. There is alsoa corporate trophy and boasting rights (Like F1 constructor championship) which is why the companies do it.

I'm going to set up a website (hopefully it'll look okay, but I'm no expert so you guys can look over it first) listing previous events this season, and the results from last season. So, if your 'companies' do want to enter, create a logo and post it in here, or send me a link to it, and I'll include it in the website for added authenticity.

Timing

Just thought I'd warn you all, the wife was due to give birth yesterday, so I may have to put this hold at any sudden time, and just wanted to give you a heads up.

And, I think it'll be a round of safari points all round if we pull this off.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:59 pm

@ otterfan.

I already addressed that issue in my last couple of posts. With all due respect, did you miss what I wrote? Confused

@ Foss

That's another great idea, make them think that they argued YOU down to paying the entry fee yourself, so it'll feel like a victory for them that "all" they have to pay is the small fee for hiring/purchasing the bike and they're sitting pretty.

Oh, and say that the entry fee is $2500 dollars, so that they get REALLY happy over the fact that they're going to get the whole thing "back" at the end, all for the low, low investment of whatever it costs them to hire the bike.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:04 pm

FOC: I'm not sure what I'm meant to have missed, to be honest.

My whole point is that any experienced lad will see this as a quick-n-easy way to score a short con, and that's it. If you think many will really be dazzled by promises of winnings, etc, when there's a much easier gain from a bit of effortless advance fee scamming, then I don't know... my short experience of baiting (since August last year, and much more full-on since I joined Eater in March this year) and taking note of how these guys operate, makes me very skeptical that many will fall for the promised cash compared to the easy-to-grab cash.

It's a great idea. But I think reality will get in the way.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:10 pm

We will not dangle any easy-to-grab cash in front of their noses, as I have said before we will let them think they're arguing us down into paying the advance fee for them, but we will make it quite clear that they will not see a penny of that advance fee, and they will have to provide their own motorbikes.

There is no easy-to-grab cash for them to think that they're getting, all they think they can get out of us is to deal with the formalities for them and prevent them from having to pay the entry fee.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:16 pm

@Otter, Thanks for your support.

If it is a rally, they will have to check in at the start point. Then to collect their refund of the entrance fee they will have to show up at the finish line. At a minimum we have several safaris' with a chance at some good video.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:23 pm

FOC: The easy-to-grab cash is there in the form of needing stuff in advance of doing any work.

In a long-term project that I've made reference to a few times elsewhere (and I feel so guilty pimping it again---see sig), I'm trying to get a lad (or two, or three...) to do a task for me. I have entered into dozens of exchanges so far and they all grind to a halt at the same place: they want money in advance of doing anything for me. The reasons for the advance fee might change, but the underlying method is still there: money up-front. It's what their whole scamming MO can be boiled down to.
One asked for an advance fee so he could consult a shaman/witch-doctor. Another wanted a fee for a "police investigation" form. Many want a "mobilization fee", whatever that might be. Several want me to pay for their airfare. One said that to cross the border into Ghana he would need a police bribe.
All of them have been asked to do the same job, yet they all come up with these excuses to squeeze money out of me before they have even lifted a finger. (Metaphorically speaking... they probably lifted a finger to click the "Send" button.)

But why not do a bit of market research? The next 10 lads that come into your catcher account, try giving them the story and see how far you get with them.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:25 pm

otterfan, look at what Shiver did in "Art for Art's Sake," he got lads to hire artists to do that stuff without sending a penny to them.

In any case, moving on. Foss, I'd be glad to handle making the entry forms, and some funny company logos for the lads to draw on their shirts.

(of course we'll need trophy pics of the lads in their shirts beforehand).

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

I think you guys are spending to much time thinking about it, fact is if you want 20-30 bike riders you need as many baiters plus guys to bait the organisers. If, and its a big IF you get 30 baiters up for this the chances of actually pulling off one or two stupid enough lads to get on motorbikes is pretty unlikely, trust me it,s not easy getting a lad on a motorbike and its even harder to get him to fall off one, i speak from experience Wink

If its going to work you need to set a date and let the guys here know when and where their lad needs to be, forget about how much they will get in advance and all the rest of it, its down to the individual baiter as to how he,s going to get his lad there.
A website is always a good idea to back up a big bait so good stuff there but on that site you will need to have the date, time, place of the race from the start.
It is a good idea for a mass bait but in my opinion is a bit to big and complicated, I,ll support it and enter a lad for the race but to be honest i will be surprised if it happens.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:29 pm

Fat Old Catt wrote:

Oh, and say that the entry fee is $2500 dollars, so that they get REALLY happy over the fact that they're going to get the whole thing "back" at the end, all for the low, low investment of whatever it costs them to hire the bike.

$2500? For a corporate thing that goes to charity. Bugger that. The entry fee is going to be around $20k. That'll make the pot a whole lot more tempting to win.

Say 10 entrants at $20k a pop, you are looking at prize money of around $180k after you take away my organisers expenses. Its a bargain.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:30 pm

bombardier, I don't think any of us are picturing 20-30 bike riders, I apologize if we gave you that impression.

I think 8 or 10, or even 6 should be prime story material, and we don't need that many baiters, just that many characters.

Besides, like I said, the race doesn't have to actually happen. Just getting some of them to the locale is a successful bait, it's a safari, a trophy and a whole lot of time-wasting all in one.

Anyway, Foss, good idea. 20k at the least, with a million-dollar grand prize.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:38 pm

Can't remember if I mentioned it, but its for charity. So the entry fees are going to be held in a lawyers trust account to be released after the race. Therefore, I cannot release any money early, but it will be after the race results have been confirmed. (Maybe by the Journalist person)

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 8:40 pm

Precisely.

Of course, if the race official is too inept to organize the thing successfully, we'll be sure to slap him good and hard for stopping a million-dollar race.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 9:56 pm

Okay, the way I see it, we have to approach this in stages, and I'd like as much help as possible from some people, depending what their skills are.

Stage 1

Develop a website.
- to create authenticity
- to outline the rules of the competition
- to provide a background story, so that we don't have to

Find our organising lad
- pretty self explanatory
- get him to set a date and location

Stage 2

Get the racers to sign up
- Create fake companies
- Create entry forms
- Create legal disclaimers

Develop the race
- Nature of the race
- Start time(s)
- Create course map (hand drawn of course)

Get photographer(s)
- to record in detail
- perhaps get a couple to add to the authenticity
- not sure how we will justify them going to take photos. Can we use the TWAT or Opus Dei lads maybe, who go filming people anyway?

Get official
- I was just thinking, and perhaps we need to get someone to act as an offical of this league and to verify the results.

Stage 3

The race. This bit should be easy. All we need is to get them to have it and get evidence of it. Lovely.

Though I will need to finalise what equipment we'll need at the site, but that is not urgent.

Requirements

So, what I need to know is what skills people have. Might need some people who are good with photoshop maybe, because I have only just started teaching myself, so I am not too special at it (I'm actually using GIMP, but you say tomato, I say tomato - that doesn't work when writing does it)

For the website, which I don't mind doing, I'll need:
- a few photos of people on crappy off road/dirt road motorbikes, that may look like something they could do in Nigeria
- Some corporate logos for the companies you are going to represent.
- Links to any fake company sites that you may have (added authenticity)

I'll do stage one, as long as I can get a bit of help with the company logos. You'll need them anyway for your racers, so get searching. Just steal it off some random company website if need be, and then give me a company story to put on the website.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Apr 2007 Posts: 16

I've been following this with interest, and I think if anyone can pull it off then you lot can judging from the stories I've read here before.

Just one thing - someone further up mentioned writing a speech for the organiser to make to the crowd.. have you considered the audience side of things yet?

Obviously having spectators at the event will make it appear all the more legit, but that would require advertising locally in some way, and they'd be ITPs in a certain amount of danger.

However, without them the event might look a bit suss to the competitors.. just a thought thrown-in for something to think about..

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:04 pm

Hmmm... good point. Maybe that rally version of a race would be more appropriate then. You can blame the lack of spectators on them being somewhere else on the track I guess.

Hopefully the lads will turn up with some fellow scammers to make up the numbers.

But that is a good point. Idea anyone?

Could we do a mass bait to hundreds of scammers from a pretend lad saying that there is something happening giving away free cash somehow? Doubt that they'd belive it though.

Could we get the TWAT and Opus Dei clans to turn up? If we could get as many other scammers there as we possiby could it'd be brilliant.

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:45 pm

Okay, just found a free website builder, and it even lets me create logos. Lovely. So, any idea what we want to call it. I got bored and created this in about 5 minutes

But I cn do all sorts of other stuff. Give me a name, what you think the colours should be (though I quite like Blue and Black) and I'll try to whip a few options up for you to choose from.

By the way, the quality is better in the final version, but I had to cut and paste this into Paint to get it done quickly.

Right. off to bed now.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:01 am

Why steal logos from real companies online? Let's just make our own! Very Happy

Okay, I can handle the logos, the entry forms with legal disclaimers, as much graphic and writing work as we need.

Let's think of a name for the race...

How about "Charity Baitathon," put on by the "World Charity Racing League."

Now then, ' company, , will of course have their sponsored lad wearing a shirt with "BRICKBRAIN" printed on it (and ask for a photograph of him with the shirt on, of course).

Anyone else have some nice company names they can think of? I'll be happy to make some nifty logos.

Oh, and just one thing for us all to remember: If it doesn't go right the first time, we can always do it again with a new set of lads. Wink

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:54 am

I'm thinking Bombardier is right.

We need as many baiters involved as possible to maximise our chances.

Chances are roughly half of the lads baited into this probably won't rock up on the day or on time etc.

I also think he's right in not over planning this. Each baiter should be responsible for his/her individual lad(s).

That way, the organisers just need to focus on building a website and co-ordinating all the baiters so each baiter knows:

Where
When
How
What

at every stage.

Oh and last night I was thinking the next step is Mugu Amazing Race... but I think that should be left for another thread Very Happy

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:29 am

he's right, don't overthink it.

And yes, we do need several baiters on this.

Shall I make a sign-up sheet?

Organizing committee:

Foss
Fat Old Catt
red
B. A. Ware
mantadog

crossfire (?)
The Man (?) you two expressed interest, do you wanna help?

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:41 am

Quote:

As sad as this sounds, I was lying in bed considering the implications of this scam

Oh, not you too! Next thing, it's 3 AM!
However, this sounds like it has some good possibilities!

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:44 am

@ FOC

Lets concentrate on who is doing what re: organisation.

The most important thing is that Foss takes control of this project and delegates what needs to be done to whoever can do it. Too many cooks = untasty mugus.

Too early to recruit lads etc, let's get a solid plan together and take it from there.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:01 am

Well I didn't mean to jump the gun, I was just tossing some ideas out. Embarassed

But remember, red, we can always do with some trial and error. If we screw it up this time, we can always try again with a fresh batch of lads.

So no pressure, Foss. Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 37

Do we have a possible location yet? Reason i ask is that we might not manage to get 6-10 Mugus to ride half way across the country to participate?

I was thinking of setting up a phone number the lads could call to register their interest - Get them to provide me with the company they will be riding for and whatever else i can think up to make it seem more official...?

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:26 pm

Good plan Mantadog. that will add to the fun.

I am thinking somewhere just outside of Lagos would be the best. Though I am thinking that whoever is lucky enough to organise this will have to pick. If they can't pick the place, it is unlikely that they'll be keen to run it.

My current plan is to finish off a website this week, and then just proposition a lad in response to their spam asking if they know of anyone who can organise events, which I am sure that they can find somewhere.

As an a aside, I think that we will be called the World Charity Racing League (I like the sound of League better) and this event will be the West African N-Something K-Something Endurance Race so that I can have them put WANKER on their shirts for fun.

Red is going to do a group email to plan this puppy, so drop him a line and give him your details.