Question: where do scammers come from?

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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:54 pm

Hey folks

I've got a question for all you experienced baiters (I'm new, obvi). I see that most of the scammers come from parts of Africa, but where else do you find them? Do you ever bait American or European scammers? What proportion of the scammers would you say are non-African?

This certainly isn't an accusation of racism. Just curious about where the rest of these a-holes are hiding out. Ideas? Question

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:00 pm

Most are West African. Specifically Lagos, Nigeria. However, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, etc. have high rates of scammers too. South Africa and Kenya are blessed with them as well.

They are not specific to Africa though. London and Amsterdam have a high population as well. Asia also has their gangs as well.

Every once in a while we are lucky enough to find a scammer in America. Dallas, Atlanta and New York are among some of the places where you can find them around the US.

So, basically, they are all over.

EDIT: By the way- welcome aboard. Nice to have you with us!

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Hi and welcome to the eater.

Firstly, there is no racism in what we do, and we do not tolearte racists or their views.

The simple fact of the matter is, when emails are sent out, we have no idea who is sending them, black, white, who knows, then when we check the IP address of the sender, more often than not, the scam email was sent from places like Nigeria, Ghana, Togo etc, for every 100 emails I receive, about 95% are from African scammers, we just bait the emails that we receive, it's not our fault that they mostly come from Africa, if they mostly came from a group of white people in London, they would be baited exactly the same, and no doubt people would say we are being reacist towards whites, a lot of people can't seem to graps the fact that there are a lot of black people in the trophy room, that is simply because they were black people pulling scams, if we get a white person doing the same thing, and someone gets a photo of them, that will also go in the trophy room.

I don't bother being politically correct, so whilst scams come from many countries in the world, such as the UK, Canada, Spain, Netherlands etc, you could be mistaken for thinking it is a national from one of those countries sending the scam emails, except that somewhere along the line, the people from those countries will either have an African IP address, or will require a fee paid to someone in Africa, or if you talk to them on the phone, it is quite obvious that they are African, there are heavy West African scamming communities in all those countries I listed.

They you have the vlads, what we refer to as Eastern European scammers, such as the Russians and Romanians, which are a completely different ball game, those scammer tend to have websites for fake couriers, escrows and employment websites etc, these scammers are not as likely to send photos as the African scammers, vlads are a lot more internet/computer savvy than their African scamming counterparts, so you will see less of them for that reason.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 5727

Well, let's see now.... A momma scammer and a daddy scammer love each other very much.....

Oh, that's not what you meant?

There was an article in the KC Star a week ago Sunday concerning a man who lost $300K to Canadian lottery scammers. They come from everywhere.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:28 pm

It seems to me that the more law enforcement agencies of a given country ignore the activities of scammers, the higher the scammer population tends to be.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:05 pm

Hi Gillian, welcome to the eater.

I think Scam Patroller has made an excellent post there, there's probably not a lot I can add.

Yes scammers come from all over the world. And yes, rather a lot come from West Africa. Proportion wise, I have no idea what it would work out at, but from running my phone service I can tell you that I have had maybe 30 callers who were obviously male and African (3 of which were using UK numbers), one who was female and African, and one who was female and Russian.
(I don't do many love baits so that explains the 1 Russian!)

Draw what conclusions you will from that, there's certainly a visible trend! But yeah, it's not exclusively African.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 19

I currently have scam letters originating from China, Turkey, Canada, and the US as well as letters originating from African countries.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:51 pm

Like everyone above said, it's a fact. Scams originate from wherever there are lots of people. Nigeria may be famous for the 419-ers, but one has to keep in mind that (I think) Nigeria is Africa's most populous country. The ones you'll see in your inbox are often variations of the classic "Nigerian scam" or 419, but many other regions have their scammers that are almost as well-known.

For example, Russia and the Eastern Bloc are known for the romance scammers, Romania is known for the vehicle scams, etc. I believe (though I could be wrong) that many of the phishy scams originate in the western world of US, Canada and the EU. And let's not forget Asia. Other nationalities and groups have their little niche scams too, all of which cost the honest public. I think the first recorded scam in history involved a farmer and some magic beans - I think it took place in Pittsburgh maybe.

On-line scammers have been arrested in just about every major city on the globe, from Lagos to Toronto, from NYC to Moscow. There was even one busted in my little town a year or so ago.

As you see, scammers aren't racist and neither are we. They come from every corner of the planet, and they'll be around as long as there is money. And so will we. Very Happy

419Eater Admin Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7469

Technically speaking, the answer to your question is, a womb.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:19 pm

I'd like to elaborate on what Shiver said.

While their bodies may come, in most cases, from West Africa (i.e., wombs in West Africa), their minds come from the rotten pits of Hell.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:31 pm

I think there may be more afro ethnic scammers, but they are nothing like as dangerous as those from the Eastern Block who are multiplying very fast.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:34 pm

SP summed it up pretty much perfectly. They are here, there and everywhere.

Tommo once met one socially where one lived- small village in England -although at the time I didn't realise he was 419 until somebody told me afterwards. He was, surprisingly, Nigerian but a guest living and 'working' in London.

Internet 419 fraud knows no geographical boundaries - every continent apart from Antarctica, because there are no Western Union Offices there yet as far as I know.

Tommo.

[Edit] Bugger, I'm talking in the third person again. Shocked

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