Why doesn't law enforcement do more of this?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Aug 2012 Posts: 1

Me and several family members have had our email accounts hacked by scammers trying to get money from members of our email directory. I've reached out to my email providers, FBI, and scam law enforcement offices to try to catch them, and never even received a reply. I would have been happy if they just told me: "Sorry this is small potatoes and we have our hands full with big cases where people actually fell for it and lost money"...

So why do us citizens have to do law enforcement's job? All we can do is just hassle the scammers but for someone with a badge how hard would it be to send some bait money, and have the Nigerian police wait for the scammer to pick it up, and throw on the cuffs? Am I missing something?

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:15 pm

im not quite sure what your asking, you dont have to do LE's job, you can just delete any emails you get....., when it comes to hacking and so on, get a better password.

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:53 pm

Welcome to Eater!While scammers do get arrested sometimes,it does not happen very often.There are a number of reasons.Officials overseas may be corrupt or inefficient.Domestic law enforcement seldom gets involved even in cases where victims have lost large sums of money.
You are not missing something-it is a jurisdictional and legal nightmare.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2009 Posts: 1440

Quote:

how hard would it be to send some bait money, and have the Nigerian police wait for the scammer to pick it up, and throw on the cuffs?

The problem is the magnitude of the scamming going on. I believe I read that scamming is Nigeria's 3rd biggest industry, so you can imagine how difficult it is to even begin to address it.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:47 am

doc holliday wrote:

You are not missing something-it is a jurisdictional and legal nightmare.

This nails it. Also the authorities in the countries where most scams originate are not inclined to cooperate. They take a blame-the-victim attitude. "If they are stupid enough to fall for this . . . ."

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:07 am

It's very frustrating I know. It's a complicated problem. As already stated most of the scammers are under the safety of home countries that cannot or will not prosucute the criminals. When arrest do happen its usually the scammers that make away with hundreds of thousands of dollars and even then it's when they are in a country that LE can take action in. It's very unlikely that the Nigerian government will extradite for prosecution. LE also has limited resources. They are going to use the resources to go after criminals they can catch and prosucute. A scammer stealing a few hundred dollars is sadly not justification for their resources.

That's why education like what is done at scamwarners and baiting we do here is the best offense and defense. We expose and waste their time and hopefully help keep a few people from getting scammed.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Hi.

I'm sometimes accused of being wordy, so I'll try to keep it short.

Quote:

....have had our email accounts hacked....

As LG said, get a better password. You can find some very good password generators online if you look.

You most likely have far worse things to worry about than a lad or spammer getting access to your email addresses, though. I would encourage you to not click links from unknown sources, make sure that you have good anti-virus programs and a good firewall system.

Everyone here has their preferences. I prefer AVG and Zone Alarm, both of which are free and fairly uncomplicated to use.

Quote:

So why do us citizens have to do law enforcement's job?

We don't. In no way, shape or form is Eater set up to do LEO work. It is a site for education and baiting or site killing, and nothing more than that.

Quote:

Am I missing something?

Yes.

Lastly, I would like to point for the benefit of everyone, since I don't really want people getting fixated on it - Nigeria isn't the only country that participates in advance fee fraud.

Please keep that in mind.

Carry on.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Great comments above. I will only add THIS to the mix, I've been virus and malware free for years with it, and being smart with what I click on.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:55 am

^^ You only think that you're virus and malware free.

What do you think those donkey porn links I sent you contained?

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^ Donkey porn, delicious donkey porn.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:26 pm

Anyone clicking a link that was sent to her or him by SOOI is asking for it.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:57 am

Welcome to Eater Mr bradcorey. I hope that you will come back long enough to read some information from here about safe baiting, which also applies to being safe on the internet.

As mentioned above, having a strong password is important. The one I always use is 123456 because it is easy to <strike>guess</strike> remember.

Another important part of being safe on the internet is to NOT use your real name of forums and sites scammers might look at. Personally, I like to switch my name up. My real name is James Smith, but some times I go by Jim Smith and other times I go by Jimmy Smith. If I want to get real crazy I go by Smith James.

Once I went by Semaj Htims, but that was too hard to remember.

Seriously, do be save on the internet. Scammers hate it when people are safe.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:05 pm

Tips

1) Get a decent anti viral programme - have look here http://free.avg.com/es-en/homepage it is FREE

2) Use decent Passwords using numbers and upper and lower case letters e.g. Not1nMyb4ckyArd Easy to remember but impossible to guess.

3) Never give your real name, birthdate, mother's maiden name, address or any other real life info to anyone you have not positively identified. And even then try to obfuscate the information. I use a different birthday on each site I visit so in the event my identity is stolen, I know which site was responsible.

4) Never use your real data or photo on facebook, Skype or other social network sites.

5) Never click on links in e-mails even from people you trust (their e-mail accounts may have been hacked). Hover your pointer over the link and it may well show a completely different site. If it does delete the e-mail immediately. Copy the link and paste it in your browser - then at least you know you are going to the real site.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:05 pm

Oh I forgot Buy an Apple Mac Computer!!
Very Happy

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:11 pm

Never open emails from strangers in your RL accounts.

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