The lad that writes handwritten essays!

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 27 Dec 2011 Posts: 6

This is my first bait. I picked this fella up about a month ago. Long story short, he claims to be a coordinator of a charity in Ghana looking after young kids, and is asking me for a donation. He comes up with the usual stuff, like how I'll burn in hell if I don't donate.

Looking for some fun, I came up with this reply:

Quote:

To whom this may concern

I thank you for your email regarding the <censored> Charity. To be frank, your message really touched me. I would definitely love to help, in whatever way possible.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Charlie Patterson, the Managing Director of Maple Publishing, which I co-founded with my brother, Robert Patterson in 2004. I am proud to inform you that since we started in 2004, we have sold over 24 million books to 56 countries worldwide, spanning across 5 continents.

Do you happen to have a skilled writer under your care? The reason why I ask this question is because my company gives out scholarships ranging from 40,000-250,000 USD to aspiring writers with potential. If one of your charges happen to have a gift for writing great essays or short stories, please do let me know. I would be most interested to provide monetary assistance to give him a better learning opportunity and nurturing his talent.

Our scholarship programme, the Maple Gifted Writers Scholarship Program, was started in 2007 and we have given a total of 3.4 million USD to children who are less fortunate, primarily in African and South American countries.

CRITERIA FOR THE MAPLE GIFTED WRITERS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM (rev. 2011)

1) If you or one of the children under your care are interested in participating in our program, I would require you to fill in a form as a way to prove your identity and to ask a few questions. Do not think of this as a hassle as the form only contains a few questions and acts as an agreement between you and my company.

2) Before we make any monetary payment to the beneficiary, his standard of writing must be evaluated by my team of experienced writers. I would require you to send in proof of the candidate's writing capabilities, in the form of essays or short stories. I urge you not to send in any pre-prepared work, as we would require you to provide a brand new sample for us to evaluate so as to ensure that the essay is indeed done by your candidate.

3) My judging panel, made up of experienced writers, will choose five different topics. Your candidate would have to write and submit five different essays, one for each topic. His or her work would be judged primarily on his use of the English language, and creativity.

4) The judging panel would then evaluate the five essays and determine the amount to be awarded to you. The payment option would be entirely up to you and would be transferred to you by three working days.

If this is of any interest to you, please tell me. I would be pleased to provide any assistance. I look forward to your reply.

Charlie Patterson
Managing Director
Maple Publishing

... And what do you know? Two boys under his care are good writers, he says.

And so the fun starts. To waste his time, I got him to fill up this form (pretty short and simple, not one of those 100 questions).

This lad is pretty resourceful, I must say. He finished two of the forms in no time at all, making this all too interesting for me.

And then we get down to business. I sent him another letter, which serves as an 'examination paper' of sorts.

Quote:

Maple Publishing Pte. Ltd
Maple Gifted Writers Scholarship Program (revised 2011)
Essay Questions

To the Candidate:

Greetings! I am Ryan Cole, the head of the five-member judging panel that would be evaluating your essays.

Below are five themes for you to write your essays from. You are free to write in any style you want, as long as your essay pertains to the given theme. Please take note of the following:

 Each essay must be no shorter than 850 words
 You are expected to write in clear, accurate English
 Your handwriting must be perfectly legible.

If your essays fail to meet one of the conditions listed above, you will be penalized accordingly.

These are the five themes your essays should be based on:

1. Friendship
2. Anger
3. Lust
4. Nature
5. Globalization

Do not be afraid to let your creativity run wild. You are free to include your thoughts, opinions and feelings into the essays.

Yours Faithfully
R. Cole
Quality Management
Maple Publishing

That's a pretty tough task, if you ask me. And this lad is working hard for his 80,000 USD. As of today, he's already sent in three essays, 850 words each, handwritten!

And here they are, for your enjoyment!

There's more to come.

Lastly, a big thanks to my mentor, Raga Man! You're awesome Smile

-Crobat

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:33 pm

You are too kind, Crobat. Embarassed

All credit to you, my friend. This is excellent work.

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:39 pm

Wow Crobat! Getting lads to fill out forms on your first bait is outstanding. While they are busy writting essays for imaginary money they may not be emailing a victim. Great baiting keep up the good work!

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:46 pm

Excellent job! I think I need to get a mentor. I always lose lads and their trust really quick.
These stories are great trophies, and I'm hoping the lad put the writer's payments on a "tab" so that later, he'll really do anything for money.

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:46 pm

EDIT: Sorry for double post, I'm posting on mobile and it's glitchy.

Not Totally Ignorant Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 11511

OUTSTANDING! clapping

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:05 pm

Excellent trophies Crobat

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:26 pm

Nice job, Crobat! I bet you have a nice big smile on your face! Very Happy

Kariko wrote:

I think I need to get a mentor.

A mentor can make a big difference.

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:33 pm

Now you need to have another lad edit for grammar, etc.

Great work, Crobat.

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:20 pm

outstanding!!!

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Jan 2012 Posts: 38

Fantastic work!

This lad is a real go-getter.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:18 am

Crobat wrote:

This is my first bait.

Wow !!!!! .. and a great first result. boxer

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:09 am

Wow, a hard working lad for a change. I see bright (read: dark) things for his future.

Very cool for a first bait, Crobat, even if you did annoy me to great lengths as a Zubat. Smile

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:11 am

Brilliant baiting !
Think of the time this idiot spent in writing and scanning Laughing

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:32 pm

Moved from SCAMBAITING HELP, HINTS & TIPS with the kind premission of Crobat for the benefit of visitors from Twitter

ADMIN Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Posts: 7420

Lovely piece of art. Smile

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 31 Aug 2011 Posts: 13

You must PAY this little " go getter " for his efforts.
Why not send him to a " neighboring country " to collect his scholarship in cash.
I am sure you you can find a " diplomat " to deliver the package and MEET up with him

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:49 am

once again I must give my admiration...truly excellent!!!

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:39 am

Great baiting! Thumbs up

Now he'll need to write it again in proper (British/American/Australian) English, then send you a clean copy (preferably leather-bound) and a recording of him reading it for an audio book.
Do keep us posted. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:46 am

Excellent trophy work here, well done Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:53 pm

Crobat -- Excellent first trophy, congratulations.

Problem: The form should have been filled in using BLUE ink. Sadly, he will need to do it over.

Bruin

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:10 am

That is a beautiful, beautiful trophy. So great in fact that it even lured site member #1 Shiver out of hiding (Shiver did some great handwriting baits back in the day). Fantastic baiting, and welcome Crobat!

However..... unfortunately your lad made a slight mistake - worse than writing in the wrong ink color. It seems he has plagiarised large chunks of his essay which is clearly in violation of the terms you stated early on. I googled the exact phrase: "And so there are far better ways to cope with hurt and insult" and guess what..... Or "it is to start where we are". Or many others.

This doesn't make your trophy any less of an achievement from a baiting perspective, but it certainly provides you the basis to continue the bait by responding in a very disappointed way and asking the lad to submit essays that are not plagiarised. Rather than pointing out exactly how you found this out (thus allowing him to make very minor changes from original copied material), just tell him that your policy is to run all submissions through a plagiarism detection service (such things do exist, turnitin.com is the one my employer uses).

419Eater is my life Joined: 05 Oct 2011 Posts: 281

Raga why was I not told about this other mentee of yours... and well done Crobat...
FYI Crobat - You might enjoy joining this... http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1799986#1799986

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:13 pm

If this is your first bait, my biggest hats off to you!
Outstanding man! Not only you have the luck to find a gullible enough lad, but you have found a way of extracting pain out of him.
Congratulations!

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