Scamming -VS- Begging

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Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:06 pm

So my current lad seems to be sincerely only interested in someone to pay for him to come to the States to work. Has not asked for money yet, although I suspect that is coming. According to everything I have checked, he is exactly who he says he is, with the exception of adding an American-sounding name to his own. (However, in all of the identifying paperwork he has sent he lists his proper African name and even signs his messages with it.)

I am just curious to hear what experiences others have had with straight internet begging instead of scammers. Is it possible that I have found a lad who would really like to pull himself up out of the mire if only he can find someone generous to give him a hand up? Has anyone else ran into this kind of bait?

Don't think for a minute I am thinking of dropping the bait! I expect him at any minute to break out a dying relative who needs some money ASAP via WU. This is not a "feeling sorry for the lads" question. I just got to thinking about this because this is my first time dealing with a beggar instead of an obvious scammer.

Thanks!

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:15 pm

If you want to be sure, send him an ASEM and see how he replies.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:18 pm

My opinion is that it's not different from the standard scammers, instead of going for greed they are targeting pity, not unlike the charity scammers. Also, if someone is begging for financial aid on the internet, the first questions I would ask is "How do they get the money to pay for the internet cafe fees?" and "Why are they not spending that money on food and other things?" Begging on the internet, seems counter-productive if you are in a state of needing to beg.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:24 pm

By coincidence I recently posted this. Started with begging e-mail into my scam mail collector account.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=102017

I don't know how yours started, but I am not convinced by my lad. At the first contact with a pretty girl, all his problems, ailments and poverty disappear. mine is fair game. He lied to me, and I bet he'll get advised by an older lad how to get round to squeezing me for money later on.

I would bet yours will start making demands too. It won't take long.

Some of my 'fraud stars' use their real names too. I should be able to prove it when I get family photos of the guy I believe is the brother of one of my other lads. Don't ask me why they do it ?

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:32 pm

His identifying paperwork could all be fake as well. These guys hide behind false identities when claiming their Western Union money.

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:44 am

Your lad wouldn't happen to be called S F would he?

419Eater is my life Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 356

I sort of had the same question when I started on my lad David. He seemed to honestly have no clue what to do, and just talked about wanting out of Azerbaijan. Never asked about bank details, never asked for contact info, never told me what he wanted me to do, just wanted to know how to get out of the country. It started feeling a little bit weird baiting him, even though I knew odds were highly against him being genuine.

Then, several dozen exchanges in, he sprung on me that I was going to send him $5k USD immediately for some unspecified legal fees. This is after establishing that a plane ticket out (to NY) would cost roughly $1k USD, which even that he hadn't said he expected me to pay.

I looked back over the old emails, and it turns out I'd skimmed over another big tip-off: the part in the initial email where he said the US Embassy told him to find someone over the internet to help him leave the country. Laughing

I'm now pretty thoroughly resolved not to ease off a lad without a really, really good reason to.

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:30 am

@ Slightly - Good guess... I guess we ought to exchange some PMs on this topic eh? Edit- Also, could you possibly the name of our lad? No need alerting him that he ain't gettin no job from me!

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:22 am

DoloresOnTheDottedLine wrote:

I sort of had the same question when I started on my lad David.

I'm baiting this too.

He has promised to send me his Papa's cheque for 1.2M which is now with a security company that needs to be sweetened with 5k. I am now having it out with , the manager of this security company who has asked me to send the 5k to account in a bank in AZ ... dierct transfer - bank to bank !!!

419Eater is my life Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 356

^
Awesome. Very Happy

I'm giving him tons of trouble with proving he can legally get into the U.S. and whatnot (hey, he's only a kid, so I have to watch over him, right? Wink

), so he hasn't even gotten me to the point where we're battling it out over money yet. It's just been mentioned in passing.

I love how prompt he is about responding! I think he stayed up most of the night (in his time zone) talking to me today. Laughing

[/thread hijack]

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:50 am

@ DOTDL
You have him in a complete mess Laughing

With such benevolent benefactors, must be rubbing his hands in glee ... the poor young boy ...

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:50 am

Schmoebob.

I've sent a PM but it's not showing in my list. Let me know if you don't have it. I've also edited our friend's name, although I believe him to be too thick to be able to think to come here.

You say that you aren't employing him? Well, I am. But first he has to pass the online interview. I've started him on a straight bait, but this is soon to descend into a slapfest when I pass him over to another one of my characters.