The Iceland Challenge

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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:58 am

Hey everyone. I've been lurking on these forums for a while now and running my fair share of baits.

I've noticed something interesting. Whenever someone tries to think of some crazy, far-off, impossible place to send a lad on safari they come up with Antarctica. But a close second is Iceland. Wink

Well I live here, and it's not as far away as some people think. So I want to offer a challenge to all you pro and wannabe travel agents out there.

Get your lad to Iceland!

I'm willing to help you all out as much as possible. I can offer you:

So there it is. Not so easy but well within reach for some of you I dare say. If you need help convincing your lad that they must make the trip remember, Iceland is a neutral country. Regan and Gorbachev met here to work out some little problem they had as well as Bobby Fisher and Boris Spassky. What better place to exchange large numbers of unmarked bills? Though you might not want to mention that Reykjavik is one of the most expensive cities in the world and that our customs agents are unnaturally thorough.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:07 am

Hmmm... now I might just see if I can get one of my lads to Iceland to pick up some of the nice ponies you have there. Maybe I can get a nice eight legged one called Sleipnir for Yastreb's Astratu worshipping character Smile

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:19 am

Perhaps someone can organise to take a Lad geyser-riding -- you know, where you sit over the hole in the ground and wait for the geyser to erupt... Razz

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:21 am

Sounds great, DJ!

One of my characters is from , Iceland.
He is quite secretive and even I don't know very much about his backgrounds though for some reason I have his bank account information. Very Happy

No lad has heard from him for a couple of months but you never know when this sleeper agent is back in action again Cool

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:58 am

I can only imagine the phone calls from native aficans, trying to pronounce the names of these places (bonus: name confusion) especially when your in a place where tans are impossible.
You gotta teach us dirty icelandic words Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:03 am

sunshine wrote:

Hmmm... now I might just see if I can get one of my lads to Iceland to pick up some of the nice ponies you have there. Maybe I can get a nice eight legged one called Sleipnir for Yastreb's Astratu worshipping character Smile

Now that would be cool ( Wink

). If you should start such a bait and want to play up the Asatru angle, drop me a line

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:43 am

Excellent idea. Oðinn is sitting right outside my office at this very minute so Sleipnir can't be far behind.

In fact the religious angle might be a very good one to hook your lad with. There are several groups here who still worship the old Norse Gods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_gods) Who's to say there can't be a few more? Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 74

Excellent modality, if I may say so Thumbs up

And not too unbelievable for a Lad as well, as there are many Transatlantic flights who make a "pit stop" in Reykiavik for re-fueling and stuff.
So a baiter could easily set a stage where the character is stranded on Iceland due to technical problems/bad weather/customs issues etc. etc. and it would be so, SO much easier for both parties if the Lad could get up north (all expenses paid on arrival, naturally), since the WU/MG offices at the airport seem to only deal with domestic transfers... Twisted Evil

The only "obstacle", as I see it, is that (AFAIK, haven't checked) there are not many direct flights to Reykiavik from major cities outside Europe, hence a non-European Lad would have to try and bypass passport/customs control in an European city. Alone the thought of that would cause a not-too-convinced mugu to twig already. But then again, if a lad is truly and deeply hooked, then hilarity would surely ensue, no matter whether he makes it all the way to Reykiavik or not Laughing

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:19 am

Eressea wrote:

there are not many direct flights to Reykiavik from major cities outside Europe, hence a non-European Lad would have to try and bypass passport/customs control in an European city.

He could stowaway on a fishing trawler.... Laughing

@DJ Hypnotiq - Its a very generous offer, but it hard enough getting some lads to take a walk down the street to the WU office, let alone getting them to fly to Iceland. Thats not to say that I wouldn't love to see it happen... Laughing

I really think you could develop a great modality using uniquely Icelandic problems to throw at the mugu, as Eresseda already aludes to.
Maybe something about buried Viking treasure.

I'm looking forward to seeing what havoc you can create... Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:19 am

Very true. Flights are going to be quite the hurdle for an aspiring uber-travel agent. Our main airline, Iceland Air, flys only to the US and Europe (http://www.icelandair.com/home/travel-information/travel-tools/route-map/) though British Airways has now started flying to Keflavik out of their London terminal. It may be possible for a lad to take a BA flight to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow and catch a connection to Iceland without the hassle of changing terminals.

Of course, avoiding hassle isn't really the name of the game. But the challenge is to get all the way to Iceland, not locked in a London jail cell. Twisted Evil

(Don't most US cities have segregated international terminals? A stopover there might not be a problem if that were the case.)

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:11 pm

To my knowledge, when a lad in West Africa for example, offers to meet you in say Amsterdam, it is not the West African lad that does the traveling. An accomplice who is already in Amsterdam will meet the victim; either posing as the lad himself, or as an associate. I would imagine that getting a travel visa is extremely difficult, and finding a lad who is willing to risk expensive airfare on a victim who has not yet paid would be a major barrier. That isn't to say it's impossible, but it seems like an extreme long shot to me.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:26 pm

Don't know about trying to send a scammer to Iceland. Hell, it's somewhere I wouldn't mind going myself. [Which might be why I've used it as the home base for one of my baiting characters over the years]. And actually, I like that Norse God angle; might see if I can't do something with that.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:35 pm

I baited a Lad as a devout Asatru worshipper (Odin and Freyja especially) and a godi (priest) of Odin for just about all of last year. I had a lot of fun with that one; let's see what we can put together.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:15 pm

This is indeed something to hope for. However, as others mentioned, getting lads to leave their own country is difficult. Getting them to leave their own continent verges on impossible. I have only seen a small handful of baits that have gotten a lad to do that.

With that said, I would LOVE to see a lad do this. I just want to set a realistic expecation so that you don't get upset when he doesn't travel there. But, by all means, get them traveling there!

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:37 pm

DJ Hypnotiq wrote:

Flights are going to be quite the hurdle for an aspiring uber-travel agent. Our main airline, Iceland Air, flys only to the US and Europe (http://www.icelandair.com/home/travel-information/travel-tools/route-map/) though British Airways has now started flying to Keflavik out of their London terminal. It may be possible for a lad to take a BA flight to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow and catch a connection to Iceland without the hassle of changing terminals.

Who says the lad has to fly?? He has legs doesn't he?

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:37 pm

jojobean wrote:

This is indeed something to hope for. However, as others mentioned, getting lads to leave their own country is difficult. Getting them to leave their own continent verges on impossible. I have only seen a small handful of baits that have gotten a lad to do that.

So true. Iceland is really the pinnacle of difficulty for a safari. I don't put forward this challenge thinking that everyone's going to give it a shot and have a fair chance of success. And it's not going to happen next week either.

Though after reading through all these amazing baits, witnessing some of the genius applied to them, and running several of my own I am optimistic. I know that within our group are a few highly dedicated individuals. Given the right assistance and support, enough time and intense focus they will pull this off. I'm here to help no matter how long it takes. This challenge is really pushing the envelope of what you can do with scam baiting.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:40 pm

notobescammed wrote:

Who says the lad has to fly?? He has legs doesn't he?

And in the middle of winter you can directly walk from Scotland to Iceland! (Not really true, but a funny image. Lads on dog sleds!)

Not quite a Newb Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 74

After reading Jojo's post, I tend to think that a safari like this would be most suited for Vladettes located within Europe (Poland, Romania, Czech Republic etc.) who don't need a visa for travelling into Iceland (I believe that Iceland has signed the Schengen treaty... maybe DJ Hypnotic can answer to this?)

But then again, I haven't yet read a safari bait thread where a vlad was involved... they're even lazier than our average mugus when it comes to leave ones "comfort zone", right?

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:07 pm

I have a feeling that vlads are a little more Western...and thus a little more clued-in to our Western mindset. Whereas I've been able to get lads to bend over backwards, especially in the last few months, vlads are stubborn and usually pretty intelligent. Even though they're closer I seriously doubt they're fanatical enough to take you up on the venture.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:28 pm

Eressea wrote:

...who don't need a visa for travelling into Iceland (I believe that Iceland has signed the Schengen treaty... maybe DJ Hypnotic can answer to this?)

You are correct. Here is the list of countries who do not require a tourist visa to enter Iceland:

http://www.utl.is/english/visas/no-visa/

And here are the documentation requirements for a tourist visa:

http://www.utl.is/english/visas/tourist-visa/

Doable for a standard lad, but most likely a twigging offense.

You'll notice on the list of countries that almost everywhere but Africa and the Middle East are free to travel to Iceland. I'm not sure of the statistics but if there are many South American lads out there they shouldn't have to much of a problem, and the bonus is that the trip is that much further.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:36 pm

Getting a Euro lad to travel is VERY hard. The problem is, they are far more intelligent than African lads. They have more money, but they have more money because they are smarter. You have to have a fantastic story to get them to do stuff.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:16 pm

@DJ Hypnotiq - Tell you what. You could bait me into a safari, I've always wanted to visit Iceland.... Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:43 pm

My thinking is that we need to establish the Asatru as a church that can rival TWAT. Why should they have a monopoly on the Lads? Hmm... The Worldwide Church of the Asatru is headquartered in Iceland but has holdings (?) in most continents.

Among other things, we need to work out what rituals the faithful must perform!

Oddly enough, the Asatru are a component in a current role-playing campaign that I'm in - especially Odin, Freyja, Skadhi, and Tyr.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:49 pm

DJ, you have been lurking for ages, haven't you? Smile

Welcome out into the open, and thanks for the great offer of resources for the baiters who are using Icelandic characters. There are quite a few, it seems, so I am sure your offer will be very handy. And here's hoping for the first ever lad safari to Reykjavik, a place I too have on my list to visit. Very Happy

Not quite a Newb Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 74

Yastreb wrote:

My thinking is that we need to establish the Asatru as a church that can rival TWAT. Why should they have a monopoly on the Lads? Hmm... The Worldwide Church of the Asatru is headquartered in Iceland but has holdings (?) in most continents.

Among other things, we need to work out what rituals the faithful must perform!

Well, IMO a good ol'fashioned "blót" (featuring a goat and loads of wine, unless the goat is reguarded as an ITP) could be a test of faith. I bet Yastreb has a whole lotta skills into Asatru, but if more details are needed I can check with some friends I have in my local Asatru community.

Edited to clarify: a normal blót consists in making a blood offer and then party the night away (in short terms, that is). Now, if one could convince a mugu into drinking himself senseless and THEN try to catch a goat for the sacrifcial ceremony all by himself, preferably with video evidence.... Laughing