Request for advice

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419Eater is my life Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Posts: 329

An interesting scenario for you all to consider:

Last week, my grandparents got a scam letter through regular snail mail. We found out because grandma was in hospital and we've been popping in regularly to make sure my 91-year old grandfather's all right.

The letter is more or less exactly the same sort of classic 419 scam we see in our catcher accounts all the time, written in proper pidgin-speak, except of course that it was sent through the regular mail and it has grandma's name on the address (but not the letter). I've absolutely no idea where they got her address from, although I suspect it was part of a mass-mail.

Anyway, my initial thought was obvious: bait them to all hell. Then I wondered- would there be any safety risks associated with trying that? Normally, it doesn't matter, because all they have is my baiter email address. But in this case I know they have my grandparent's name and address, and I don't know how many other people they've mailed. If it's only a couple, and they suspected something, then I could, I suppose, be putting them at risk.

I know I'm being over paranoid, but as much as I want to see these guys experience some pain, who knows?

What are your thoughts?

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:29 am

These scams started by letter, followed by fax, now email, but you're right, they're all the same.

As long as you make no connection with the address they used (you say the letter was a form letter?) Then just email back saying "I'm not sure how you found me, but thank you for doing so - tell me more about your proposal please". Never refer to the address, never to anyone real, they send out hundreds of these things, but for them to work, the victim must believe they were singled out for attention! Leave them guessing, if they ask you for your address for any forms, etc, laugh and tell them it's the same address as they wrote to you at - after all, they contacted you. If they try to press you for an address later in the bait, just get all nervous that this must be some kind of scam as the *real* <whoever> wrote to you personally...

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:49 pm

i agree. just make sure that the scammer cannot connect your reply with your real life details or those of your grandparents.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 503

I had a few you've won the Spanish lottery letters, same idea. It is very unlikely that they will connect any email reply with your grandparents at all. They send out many of these letters.

It's also no different than replying with an ASEM that some baiters like myself do.

You start with something like why haven't you got back to me about the deal and then your off and running with your bait.

The scammer thinks you have replied to one of his emails when in fact your are just possibly choosing him at random or going back to an old bait

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:20 pm

If the letter has no email, use a rented postal box that has a street address. Keep all of the letters as evidence and if they used the US Postal system for fraud, the Post Office is interested. They investigate fraud. You may get something baiters only dream of. Jail for fraud using the US postal system.

Use snail mail if you and the scammer are both in the US. Nail the bastard. They often avoid this by using DHL instead of the USPS.

See if they trust you enough to use less expensive postage, maybe certified letter?

I love it when they have a check for them and handcuffs to pick up. Rolling Eyes

Please tell me you are in the US and this came by USPS!
Exclamation

See this for more info. http://www.uspsoig.gov/investigation.htm