Longest lotto straight-bait? Finished at 43 weeks

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:00 pm

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:54:08 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention, Mr M00re (VERY URGENT)
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

What is happening at the bank? I tried to send them an email and I got a return message saying that the address no longer exists. Is this some problem left over from the upgrade? Please get back to me as quickly as you can about this. I'm worried, especially since you have given me only until Monday to sort this out.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

That's a lie. I didn't get any returned message or anything at all to tell me that my email hadn't been delivered, but Ke1vin isn't to know that. I try to put some urgency in my email. Remember that he's given me an ultimatum of getting this transfer done by Monday

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:56:49 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: Attention, Mr M00re (EVEN MORE URGENT NOW)
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin M00re,

I've just checked the website for the bank to see if they have a telephone number or another email address I can use, but I can't even load up their website. Please, contact your man at the bank and find out what is happening here. I'm getting a little bit concerned now, and time is ticking on towards your Monday deadline.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

And a few minutes later I panic a little more as I find that I can't get on the bank's website. Oh no, where has it gone?!?!!?

And then silence. It's always worrying when there's silence at a time like this. But, a few days later and he's back . . .

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Attention, Mr M00re
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:31:54 -0400

Thanks Mr. R1ch4rd for writing me and sorry for the late response to your mail. There are talks on changing me to another department here so I have not be allowed into my office for the past two days. I'm happy now that all is well now. I have been given access to my office now. My chance of remaining here depends now how best I can carry out my duties that I'm been paid for.

I think to the best of my ability, I have worked really hard on this issue and I desire to remain here. In regards to your transfer, I called Mr. Harris0n today to know what went wrong and why the bank email is not working. He told me that due to security reasons, the site and the email access has been temporally closed down to customers. I was also informed that this will not stop the bank for activating an online account for you. Even with the side close down to customers, with your online pin and pass phrase, your funds can be transferred from a special security login that will be given to you.

To that regard, I was given a new email address with which you can contact the transfer manager. Please see email below.

Email address: [email protected]

I have forwarded your emails to him and I believe he has responded to you. Please watch out for that email address or the name Harris0n Doug1as.

We still have time to do this. I have faith that this will be a reality for us soon.

Thanks for your understanding to this matter.

Ke1vin M00re.

So, he'll only remain where he is depending on how well I get this transaction finished? Is this lad trying to use guilt now? Ha! As if a baiter has a conscience when it comes to what happens to a lad's fictional character!

"Security reasons"? I could, at this point, push him further about what the "security reasons" were, but notice he's also given me an email address for another character. Another character = more time wasted as we dance around a little establishing trust, asking questions, smoothing over the little problems that always arise when you start working with someone new. Thanks, Ke1vin!

Also notice that he isn't giving me another site just yet. He's gone the sneaky way and said that it doesn't matter that the site and email access are, um, temporarily closed to customers. I'm hoping that either it would have cost him too much to find another fake site to use or that he's been having serious words with his fake-site suppliers. After all, he's lost two sites in the past few weeks (the one he sent me originally was closed by someone else---whoever that was, I owe them a big bunch of thank-you). What this means is that I can't do the rinse and repeat sequence with the site-killing, and I'll have to manoeuvre my way around some requests for payments sooner than I expected. However, first there's Harris0n Doug1as to get introduced to.

Talking of which . . .

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Dear customer!!! (Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx)
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:36:04 +0000

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

I received a forwarded copy of the email you sent to Mr. Ke1vin in regards to your account activation. Please note that we have closed down our website and email services temporally for security reasons. For now, this will be the best way to contact the bank. Be rest assured that our team of engineers are working hard to restore back the site and email services. We are trying to improve on the security of the site and online service.

In regards to your account activation, my department has been told by Mr. Ke1vin M00re that you have been given an ultimatum to make payment on or before Monday next week. We don't know if you can meet this deadline. We just hope all works out to your favour.

Please note that you are to send payment only as I have advised in previous mail to you. As soon as your payment is acknowledged and confirmed, an online account will be activated for you within 12 hours with full details sent to you.

We do hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as
Transfer Manager,
London Scottish Bank.

The lad's words themselves: "We don't know if you can meet this deadline." That's a lovely sentence! He's given me some room to wriggle about, which means the deadline could be very flexible. Of course, if Ke1vin M00re loses his job, that's fine. I now have another character to communicate with. This is something that a baiter can use, too. If you introduce a second character and play him/her completely innocent and compliant (as far as that character's role goes---he/she normally won't be required to make payments or be the main contact, but can do smaller tasks), then when it all goes horribly wrong with your primary character, the secondary character can step in with a relatively clean record with the lad, sweep out the old, and promise to get the transaction finished in a much more professional manner. Of course, things will go wrong with this character, but from the lad's point of view it's a new start, a chance to begin fresh, and the two of you might even discuss and come to the conclusion that the previous character was just some joker and that your new character won't be like that, honest, he won't. This all takes time, stretching out the bait a little longer. As I said, it works both ways. Whenever there's a change in the cast, it's like a new chapter begins and you can start all the delaying tactics again.

Which is exactly what I will be trying to do with Harris0n Doug1as. But not yet. I'll wait a day before replying, getting much nearer to the Monday deadline. If this is a typical lad, he'll be reluctant to work both Saturday and Sunday, so there are some more days wasted. Before we know it, Monday will be here and we've only sent introduction emails. How could I have possibly got the transaction finished in such a short time???

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:28 pm

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Attention, Mr M00re
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:08:58 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

How are you today? I have been told by Mr. Harris0n that the bank site and other online services have been reopened to customers. You can now view the website and contact Mr. Harris0n as provided below.

Website: http://london.lydsecured.com/
contact Email: [email protected]

Best regards
Ke1vin M00re

Another site? How nice of you, Ke1vin! Of course, I reward his generosity by posting the details in the Fake Sites forum for the people there to deal with.

What this also means is that I can put the "getting to know you" tactic on hold for now and concentrate on diverting his attention away from the fact that I'm the informant who's causing his sites to vanish. I don't want him to suspect that I have any part to play in this, so I will try to act extra innocent, at least until I can confirm that this site has gone, too.

I wrote:

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:21:42 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Attention, Mr M00re
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin M00re,

Thank you for telling me about the re-opening of the site.

Ke1vin, I have to get on my knees and beg most profusely with you here.

You know I went to Scotland last week? Well, I left my daughter (she's 17) because I thought it's about time she proved herself to be responsible enough and adult enough to be unsupervised for so long. I thought so, anyway. First, as you know, I asked her to send an email to Mr Harris0n Doug1as and yourself, and she didn't. Fair enough, I could get that sorted out when I found out she had not done it.

But when I came back on Friday (I had to stay a little longer than planned), I found that she had FLOODED the whole of the ground floor of my house. I am furious. No, I am beyond furious. She couldn't even call to tell me when it happened (something about the washing machine downstairs --- I won't bore you with the details). She waited until I came back and found out for myself. I am SO angry with her right now, you just wouldn't believe it. This is beyond shouting and being upset, this is ... I have no words for it. Everything downstairs is ruined, including my desktop computer (having to use the laptop for now).

Now for the begging part... Ke1vin, I seriously need to get this transfer done, like in the next few days. I mean... SERIOUSLY. Yes, I'm insured, but the insurance company said it will take a few months to get my claim sorted out. A FEW MONTHS?!? In the meantime, we've got to live with damp walls, rotting floorboards, and a whole heap of stuff that is dripping wet and most of it unusable. I really really REALLY need my winnings to sort out this mess. If you come back to me tomorrow or Tuesday or whenever and tell me that your boss has decided to withdraw the fund, I'm going to be so distraught and at the end of resources, I won't know what to do. Yes, I know, it's taken a little while to get this far, but they were mostly things that no one, not even the most gifted psychic or soothsayer, could foretell would happen or avoid.

So, I'm begging you... please, if your boss decides to pull this deal from under me, put forward my case, show him this email, fall on his mercy and tell him what a horrible sequence of bad luck has befallen me over the past couple of months. I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does, I also hope you will be enough of a friend and decent human being to plead my case for me.

hoping to hear some good news for once,
R1ch4rd

That email is to serve a few purposes.

First, I want a fairly quick excuse for why I hadn't replied sooner (I've stated that I'm worried about the deadline, but real life interfered and I couldn't reply until now, so to stay consistent with my 'worried about the dealine' character I have to make up something to cover for my silence).

Second, I want to reinforce the need I have for this money. I really really want it, not just because I'm greedy but because there's a practical and essential cause it will put to use on. And why would I be so needy about this money? Because I believe it's real and I am trying to do everything I can to get it transferred. I definitely want to give him the impression that I am putting a lot of hope and expectation on my winnings so that my faith and sincerity is reinforced.

Third, I'm laying the groundwork for future 'convenient' delays. Why did such-and-such go wrong? Well, it's leftovers from the flooding, see. Why can I not scan and attach the WU payment slip (assuming we get to that stage)? Because I put it down on the still-damp desk and now it's barely readable from soaking up the water. Why... and so on.

Finally, I want to tackle the boss/dealine issue. My character believes it's real, but I know that it's a gimmick to make me pay up more quickly. If I want the lad to think he's dealing with a genuine person who is fully caught in the scam, it's best that I stay true to character this way. I, as a baiter, know he can move that deadline any way he wants, but my character doesn't, so it's time to act as such and grovel for mercy and compassion.

At this point in a bait it's going to be okay to load lots of details in a reply. The lad has invested a lot of time, money, and expectation in me (he's even stated this himself in an earlier mail!) so you can bet that when he's within a hair's breadth of getting the payment he's going to pay attention to everything I tell him.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention, Mr M00re
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:07:55 +0000

Thanks for writing me Mr. R1ch4rd. I'm really very sorry about your house. Children will always be children you know. I have pleaded with my boss on your case. Please note that all you have to do now is send the required amount for your account activation to the bank. Be informed that you have limited time to do that also. The ball is on your court now. I have done my part now do yours.

Please contact the bank and send the payment as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Ke1vin M00re

So much for compassion! He offers barely any sympathy for my flood disaster, and what is worse os that he knows I'm relying on the fictional money to help me sort out the mess. This is not the lowest that these people can go to but imagine if I were a real victim bringing a real story like this to him. I do wonder if to become a scammer you need to have a surgical procedure to remove certain parts of your personality.

The deadline appears to have been moved, but he's being vague about what it now is, only that I have "limited time". The last two sentences also show that he's starting to get impatient. If I keep up the current pace and tactics, I think he will drop me very soon. At this point, I will have to start thinking of something more drastic to prolong this bait, something more long-term possibly as these small hit-and-run skirmishes are starting to take their toll on the lad's patience. A more long-term delaying tactic will change the pace (so he doesn't detect a pattern to what I'm doing) and also let me plan things a little more carefully in advance, giving us longer-term goals to achieve. At the time of writing this, I have no idea about what I might try, but before I have to worry about that . . .

Scammer wrote:

From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:26:50 -0400
Subject: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx

Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

This email comes to you as a notification of our reopening of a more
secured bank site and email services. Please note that you are to send
all
email directly to the bank now.

Be further informed that your account is still pending activation. You
are
required to send the activation fee as we have provided to you in our
previous mail. Incase you have forgotten, please see below

Payment should be sent only by Western Union Money Transfer to our
accounts
department in favour of our accounts officer.

Name: Mr. Victor Wheal
Address: Mount Street
Manchester
M2 3LS UK

The following details should be sent down to us after payment is made
as
evidence of payment. Amount to be sent for your account activation is
600
pounds.

Sender's name
Sender's address:
Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN):
Text question and answer if any:
Amount sent:

You are to attach the receipt of payment if possible for confirmation
and
documentation purposes.

Please note that you have limited time to send the required payment

Mr. Harris0n Doug1as
Transfer Manager
London Scottish Bank plc

It's an email from the bank's shiny new account. Yes, Mr Doug1as, I know my account is still showing pending activation. I assure you, I'll sort it out just as soon as I can!

You have to admire their dedication to changing the site so many times in order to keep customers' information secure. I was going to play on this fact a little more if I hadn't checked the new site and found---would you believe it?---it's gone! Thanks to scam_the_spam and justjay in the Fake Sites forum, the site has been killed, thus saving me having to stall with some "Security? Is there a danger of hackers getting my money?" questions.

However, my character is not aware that the site has been removed, so I dutifully write to Mr Doug1as and inform him about my plans to get the payment to him as soon as I can.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:17:41 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: [email protected]

Dear Mr Doug1as,

Thank you for informing me about the new email and the site with the better security. It is terrible that people will abuse the trust of others to get a few pennies in their own account instead of earning it by hard work and honest toil. I welcome your efforts to keep these criminals under control.

I received an email from Ke1vin M00re at BetterLife Promotions and he told me that he has spoken to his boss and gotten the Monday deadline moved back a small amount. I had a small emergency at home that needed to be dealt with so it is good that there are still some decent people in the world who understand this and accommodate their business to other's needs.

As the time is currently 5:15pm, the bank here has closed for the day, which means I cannot make the Western Union payment right now. Tomorrow, however, during my lunch break from work I will pay the '600 activation fee and inform you when it is done.

I am so very glad that this business is finally ended, especially now since the money will come in very useful for sorting out the emergency that I spoke of.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Again, as before, there's a very small chance that the lad reads the email. Vanishingly small, but I don't take the risk and I write as if everything was okay and normal.

No hint or mention that I can't access the site. I really don't want him to have even the smallest inkling that I had anything to do with its demise, so I write as if everything were fine and that I fully intend to send the money tomorrow when the banks open. I also only refer to the flooding incident in a rather oblique way. First, the lad behind both characters already knows the relevant details so I'm not going to waste time writing them all again. Second, my character barely knows the Mr Doug1as character, and their relationship at this point is purely a business-like one, unlike that between my character and Ke1vin, who have been through some tough times together and communicate on a level that is slightly more relaxed now because of the length of time they've known each other. I do mention it, however, to give the impression of a consistent character and what is occupying his mind at the moment.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:20:22 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention, Mr M00re
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

You are a gentleman, and no mistake about it, sir. Your understanding about my daughter's exploits are beyond compare and I am so VERY relieved that you managed to argue the case in my favour with your boss.

I have received an email from Mr Doug1as and I have replied to him, letting him know that I will pay the fees he is asking for (the bank need some money to set up my account, they say). I expect to do that tomorrow lunchtime, when I take a break at work, and when it is done I will email both Mr Doug1as and yourself so you are aware of what's happening.

Thanks for everything you've done,
R1ch4rd

I email Ke1vin to keep him informed. The real reason here is that I know the email to Mr Doug1as will most likely not be read, it being sent to an account that has been killed. So to make sure I am seen to be keeping in contact and pushing things forward, a short email to Ke1vin serves the purpose here. Again, no hint about the site going down. I want him to discover this for himself. I won't ever be able to know his true reaction to finding yet another of his sites being killed, but it's nice to imagine how he reacts to it.

So now I will sit back and see what the lad does next. At this point, I don't know what he will do. Giving me a fourth site is way down on my list of expectations; not impossible or improbable but quite unlikely compared to his trying something different. I'm expecting a bank-to-bank transfer modality will occur to him, as that removes the need for another site and its accompanying risk of disappearing yet again. But then, he may try something totally unexpected. It really wouldn't surprise me if he returned to a courier delivery once more. I can't say what will happen, so it's time to be passive and wait for the lad to make the next move.

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:19 pm

Unbelievable. Congratulations on yet another site killed. This guy has to have pulled all his hair out by now!

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:30 am

i started reading this this morning and have been glued to the computer al day. (i read kinda slow i supose) when you finaly got a bank website, i was as elated as when roland got laid in the steven king dark tower series books. (guse im freaky too) i immedatly kliked the link, and the site apears to be up again, of course i didnt try to email them oranything. i don't want to interfear with your bait. i will be watching this thread and using your insites in my futer indevors.

thanks,
slow reading kinda freaky midnite driver

Master Baiter Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 127

Thanks for pointing that out, I got a report started on it already, it's another mirror.

~STS

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:35 am

^^^ Interesting! He hasn't sent me that link and he's insisting on lots of "offline we can still access your account" nonsense to cover up the fact the website went down. That was on the 17th, so he should have known about the mirror. Maybe, I'm hoping, whoever let him use the previous sites doesn't trust him now!

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:06 pm

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:20:41 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

Thanks for writing me. I do hope to receive the next update from you soon. Mr. Harris0n has informed me that if you try to email him and the email doesn't do through, you should have not worries because the bank will be lunching a software program to automatically read and respond to customer as the contact the bank.

So please feel free to contact him on [email protected] if the present email fails to work today.

Please do send to this office your payments details too for documentation.

Best regards,

Ke1vin M00re

If the email fails to work today? Too right it fails! I get the undeliverable notification and it's a joy to behold.

I like the fact that I'm making him think now . . . he's come up with the idea that the bank are lunching (launching, no doubt, although dollar chopping/eating is something that might come up in the future) a new software process that means I won't receive a reply to any email I send to their (dead) accounts. Ingenious! I'm loving this lad more and more as the months go on.

I, in real life, might think he's an absolute star, but my character is not happy. Time to get serious . . .

I wrote:

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:53:28 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
CC: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin M00re and Harris0n Doug1as,

I am writing this letter to both of you because I want both of you to receive the same message from me so there is no confusion or mixed signals.

I have to say that I am VERY concerned about what has happened over the past few weeks. I have been given email address after email address, and they have all failed, and I have been given website address after website address, and they too have all failed (being active for a very short while then failing when I go back later to check on something).

This is very worrying. How many times will I be passed on to yet another email address and website? What is happening? Can't the IT people at your bank, Mr Doug1as, keep the same website and manage to leave it running for at least longer than a day? This is very unprofessional work and it causing me a great deal of worry about whom I am dealing with here. No offence to you, Mr Doug1as, please be assured of that, but it does give me pause to wonder how secure and professional that company is.

As you know, Mr M00re, I have a small emergency at home that I really want sorting out. My winnings from the Betterlife lottery would be the most amazing thing right now, like a stroke of good luck after all the bad luck that has befallen me lately. I am relying on the winnings so much and I will do anything to ensure that they are not jeopardized by bad security and very unfair deadlines being imposed on me for no apparent reason. This is not just because I am greedy and want the money for the sake of having it... I want to return my house to an inhabitable state. I have two daughters who still live with me and my wife, and I do not want them being disgusted and inconvenienced by the situation here when it could be easily put right once the transfer goes ahead.

All I want is to restore my house to its former state. I now don't care about any riches or excesses or fancy holidays and cars and all the trappings of a big lottery win... I just want a house that my family can live in. Will you promise to help me do this? I don't want to be passed on to yet another website and email address... that is just adding more worry and concern about how secure this transaction can be. If previous website addresses were shut down because of security issues, then how safe is my data and my money? I hope you see my worries here and why I have to write this long letter to the both of you.

Waiting for your kind response,
R1ch4rd

Everything that's happened is not my character's fault---none of it!---and I let him know that all of these mysterious site closures and returned emails are starting to make me feel very worried. Bascially, this is a variation on the "The lad is always wrong, you are always right" approach. However, I'm not blaming him directly, but using the 3rd-party tactic that I've mentioned before. Someone or something else, outside of our relationship, is making this transaction fail, and we are all innocent victims of that outside force. This way, I keep my character's innocence intact in the matter, and the lad can act all apologetic and will have to think up excuses not for himself (which often leads to righteous indignation and accusations of "not being serious", etc) but for the mysterious outside party who is making our life difficult. The key is not to attack the lad's character directly but obliquely. He's not the direct cause of these difficulties, but he sure should be acting in a way to make sure they don't happen again, or have even happened in the first place. Not an abusive slap, but a sly one. It makes me feel a little better and it also reinforces the idea that my character believes this whole charade of lies and falsehoods. He is so entangled in the lad's story, he must be ready to pay! (Yeah, right.)

Then I get onto a lot of story. Earlier emails like this, especially within the first month or two, would have either killed the bait or gone totally unnoticed, having no effect at all. In short, something like that at the start would have been a total waste of my time. Here, however, because we've been communicating for so long, and because we're coming so close to the lad's payday at WU, he's more likely to read it and for it to have some effect. The effect here is to make my character really need this money, as I've mentioned before. I CCed the email to both Ke1vin and Harris0n at the bank because I want to concentrate more on Harris0n from now, and my character knows that I haven't told him about the flooding. So, this is a convenient time to give him the details so I can use that story when I switch to Harris0n as my main contact. Yes, it's the same lad behind both email addresses and of course he knows the story already, but to keep it realistic (and that's my style of baiting; others may and will vary in how real they wish to keep their characters) I think about what each character is meant to know, and write and act accordingly.
It could be argued that this is totally unnecessary, and I would agree that long and successful baits can be carried on without all of this close attention to detail. In my defence, all I can say is that I enjoy this sort of fine-detailed stuff (and it comes quite easily to me, anyway, so it's not like extra work) and it works. As I've mentioned before: Each to his own. There is no baiting-by-numbers, and finding your own style is all part of learning how to do this so it's enjoyable and effective.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:42:52 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Your email was received with content noted. Please be informed that the email and site was closed down temporary to customer not because of security reasons. The bank is lunching software to automatically respond the customers as they contact the bank via email or directly from the site. Your case is special so I have to give you my private email address to facilitate transfer of your funds. Right here at the bank, we can still access the site with special codes and make transfers online from there. This will be given to you as soon your account activation fee is received.

Our engineers are working day and night to ensure this process is completed soon. Be rest assured that your funds are safe. Our online service is at the best of online protection.

As soon as your activation fee is received, an online account will be activated for you with a pin and pass phrase. This will be sent to you via email. With that and a special login from the bank, you can access your account and transfer your funds to your preferred bank account.

All you have to do now is send the required amount as soon as possible.

Thanks for your understanding, we do hope to hear from you soon.

Harris0n Doug1as
Transfer manager,
London Scottish Bank.

What a nice email from Mr Doug1as! The content is quite pleasing to read, showing no obvious signs that he is twigging to the fact that I'm an online joker. I am, however, not pleased with a couple of things:
1. He's mentioning the payment a lot more now. I sense his patience is wearing thin and this is not a good sign. Nothing to worry about just yet, mainly because of the tone of the rest of his email, but something that I should keep in mind.
2. He's not offering me another site. The cycle of site-killing gets you some extra weeks for free, and has the benefit of giving you an excuse to get indignant/angry/worried/etc. He appears to have given up on providing a real site and is relying on some 'behind the scenes we can access the site' stuff. Inventive, yes, but not the direction I want because it's forcing me nearer to the payment stage/modalities.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:04:14 +0000

Hello my dear friend, thanks for writing my office once again. I have spoken with the bank in regards to the mail you sent me. Mr. Harris0n informed me that he has responded to your mail. Please note that I'm always here to check on the bank operations in regards to your transfer. In the past few weeks, the bank has handled three transfers to better life winner but in this case the amounts were 6, 10 and 14 thousand Pounds.

You have nothing to worry about Mr. R1ch4rd. You are the reason why I still remain in this office and I must make sure every thing works out well for you. Once again, I'm sorry about your house. If the bank receives your activation fee this week before Saturday, by Monday, you should be ready to transfer your funds to your account.

Best regards,
Ke1vin M00re.

An email to make me smile!
"dear friend", "You are the reason why [...]" and the rest of it: all very reassuring words and phrases.
He's also mentioned the house thing, so that's definitely had an effect, laying the foundation for further excuses if I need them.

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:10:15 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: RE: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Ke1vin M00re,

I must offer a big apology for not being able to contact you before now. I had called in the electricians to sort out my water-damaged wiring, and the job they had to do was much larger than anyone could have thought. We were living without electricity for most of the week and I sent the two girls off to my own parents so they weren't inconvenienced by the mess and lack of power.

I see the email that Mr Harris0n Doug1as has sent and I will read it after I have sent this.

thanks for your understanding in this difficult time,
R1ch4rd

How to gain almost an extra week to the length of a bait? Easy: Don't reply for almost a week!

This is a big risk I took here, not replying for so long and with so many requests for payment. Sure, he's not looking like he's about to lose his patience just yet, but it might have triggered a change in his attitude. I took it anyway, and didn't reply for five days, ignoring another of his deadlines. I notice, however, that this time it was not a strict and official deadline but rather it's a gentle and friendly suggestion that I get things done by "before Saturday". Sometimes, my baiting is really a gut instinct thing. I use my own intuitions about how people behave based on how the lad has behaved so far, and act in the way that I can just about get away with. Occasionally it works, occasionally it doesn't. The important point is that the longer you've communicated with the lad, the more experience you have to draw on about how he might respond to your actions.

I've also built up a fairly solid "excuse foundation" and I'm using in full force here. Of course, without electricity I can't use my computer so I can't email! Also, note that sometimes it's not necessary to fill in every detail. I don't specifically say that I can't use the computer because... blahblahblah. I just say that the electricity has been off because of the flooding. The lad can fill in the rest himself.

I end with my tried-and-tested tactic of talking about progressing forwards, giving the impression of moving things along quite actively with a plan, but really I'm just stating the obvious that I will read Mr Doug1as's email and reply to it. I mean: Duh! But it sounds good, and it makes my character like a proactive, enthusiastic go-getter. Go R1ch4rd!

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:20:22 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Your email was encouraging. I was really beginning to worry about everything, with so many website and email addresses being given to me, first working then not working. From an outsider's point of view, it really looked like something unprofessional was going on.

When I was first notified about my winnings, I was also contacted by a man from the American CIA, warning me about fake lottery wins. How he got my name and knew about my win with Better Life Promotions... I don't know. It seemed very suspicious at first, but all the advice and information he gave me was about identifying fake lottery wins. I expected him to demand a fee for his services, but it never came, and I did a little bit of research and found he was a genuine American CIA man. That experience must have planted a big amount of doubt and cynicism in my mind, and that's what is influencing me now. I do apologize if I seem a little bit cautious and I hope you can understand where this is coming from.

I am a bit slow in replying to your email because of the disaster I spoke of in my last message. Basically, we had a big flood in the house, and the damage is huge. Over the past week, I had the electrical people in and they were sorting out the wiring and fixing the water damage. I've been very inconvenienced in so many ways at the moment. This is why I would so desperately like to receive my winnings very quickly... there are bills to pay for all this repair work! I'm insured, but my claim may take a few months and the workmen (and my family) can't wait that long.

Anyway, can you explain how the process will proceed from here? I'm confused about how I can set up my account and perform the transfer if I can't access the website. I'm a little reluctant to pass my details on in unsecure email. Unless, of course, you know of a way for me to send my details securely and encrypted? Please advise,

thanks for your understanding,
R1ch4rd

Time to start working on Mr Doug1as. For now, the site-killing cycle has ended, so it's time to start on another delaying tactic. I will have to get acquainted with this new character Mr Doug1as, so I give him some more info.

The wording I use here is very . . . for want of a better phrase . . . obstacle-ridden. Things I wanted to do have been prevented, stopped, diverted, put on hold, won't happen yet, and I'm acting very cautious, wanting to do things, wanting this, that, the other, but not being able to proceed because of my own caution and the outside forces acting on me. What I want is to make the lad (in my relationship with Mr Doug1as) get a sense of my wanting to move forward but having so many problems to work through. The good thing here is that if I want more, I can just look back through this bait and pick out a handful of examples of such times---times that the lad will already know about, of course, and I can add my own spin to them to make my character appear even more innocent and picked on by bad luck. He won't ask for examples, but I can certainly bring them up when I need to reinforce any "Oh, my obstable-ridden life!" message from me.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:05:51 -0400

Thanks Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx for responding to my mail. Once again, we are really very sorry for your present situation. All this will be over as soon as this bank transfer is done. Please note that as soon as your payment is acknowledged and confirmed, a special login that is used only at the bank will be given to you within 12 hours to enable you access your account and transfer your funds to your prefered bank account. Please note that your details are 100% safe and secured as you login to transfer your funds.
All you need to do now is send the required payment for your activation as i have directed in my previous mails to you.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as.
Transfer manager,
London Scottish Bank.

He's still nice and friendly, but he's demanding payment quite forcefully in this email. I think it's time to start thinking about fake payment modalities. Not quite yet, there is still time to dance around with Mr Doug1as to establish trust, but I will definitely have to start thinking about entering the payment phase of this bait, and possibly laying the groundwork for whatever I decide to go with.

I'll also wait until the next day to reply. No need to rush things, is there?

** Retired ** Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 750 Location: Air

Remarkable. Ive just returned from a 9 month lay-off from the baiting scene and felt I needed to brush up on my old baiting skills. Ive read this thread from its beginning and have been very impressed - v well done Otter.

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 2:51 pm

Nothing earth-shatteringly cataclysmic has happened in the continuing saga of R1ch4rd and his lottery winnings, but I'm now embarking on the more direct payment-delaying modalities. The first is one that anyone can use no matter what the type of bait is. . .

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:42:37 +0000

Your email was received with content noted. Please you are to act as you have been directed by the bank. That is all you have to do.
Ke1vin M00re

I actually wait two days before deciding to reply, and in the meantime Ke1vin sends me a prod to make sure I'm still alive.

I wrote:

Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:07:34 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
CC: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for explaining more about the website and email addresses. I am still a little worried, but your explanation makes sense and I can see that perhaps I am being TOO cautious.

Please bear with me while I get various things in my house repaired or restored. It often means the telephone lines or the power is off and so I cannot send or read email. I hope we can work around these small delays as they are unavoidable while things are put straight again.

Sir, I might have a small problem but I'm sure it's not insurmountable. The workmen who replaced my window frames needed payment as soon as they had finished... they didn't want to send me an invoice for me to settle later. This means I have a little less money this month until either I get paid or my insurance claim is settled quickly. Therefore, I am asking you to consider two options for consideration and I would like your opinion about which I can put into action:
1. I will be able to spare GBP425 to pay your account activation fee. Would I be able to borrow the GBP175 balance from you until I am more financially secure?
Or:
2. Can I pay in the activation fee in instalments? Say, GBP300 now and GBP300 later when I get paid?

Or maybe you can suggest a better way for me to meet my financial obligations this month? I would be happy to hear any. This time last year I was very happily secure in my finances... what a change in fortune! But I'll rise above, especially once my winnings from the Betterlife lottery come through. It's like a light at the end of a very dark tunnel right now.

Looking forward to your reply about my situation,
R1ch4rd

P.S. I have CCed this to Mr M00re at Betterlife because he wishes to be kept informed about my progress.

The website and email address issue has run its course, I think, so I wrap it up, explaining that the lad's really bad excuses are adequate for my character and everything's great again. I really don't think he's going to be sending me any more websites for killing, so I'm going to draw a line under that episode and move on. Well, okay, it's sort of a dotted line. But for now, I'll concentrate on the direct payment-avoiding modalities.

One thing that's nice to do is haggle over what you can pay. Here, I have a great excuse/story that has a lot of supporting evidence (built up over the past few weeks) that makes it quite believable, but simply saying "I can't afford that much, I needed to pay XXX for YYYYY" will do just as well if you have no elaborate excuse/story. I like to think it's a little demoralizing for the lad to see that his payout is being reduced, and after waiting all this time! In this case, though, I offer him some alternatives that make it appear he won't lose out in the long run. So, even though he thinks he will be getting the full GBP600 eventually, what it effectively means is that the next bunch of delays and postponement will be over something even less than his original GBP600. It's about power and control for me!

Finally, I end the email with a reinforcement that I still believe my winnings are real and I desperately need them for practical and essential things.

I wrote:

Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:04:12 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

I have my internet connection here on for a few hours while the workmen are testing the telephone lines. Hopefully, this will be a major bit of progress and I will soon be almost back to normal with regards to electricity, etc. I thought I'd use this time to check my email and see if you had replied to my suggestion, but I see you haven't. Okay, you are probably talking this over with your boss or manager or someone, I understand, but please hurry up a little. My wife is complaining all the time about the damp and the inconvenience, and I'm starting to find it all a bit of a hassle. The winnings from the lottery will go a long way to making things okay again. Also, it will be nice to be able to have my daughters back here again. The house is so empty without them.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

My turn to apply the pressure! Again, it's reinforcing the idea that my character thinks the money is real and needs it now, and also shifting the blame for the delay onto the lad himself. "Look, I'm eager for an answer to my question, but you're holding everything up, sir!" is what I am really saying here. The lesson here is that you should take every opportunity: The lad hasn't answered your question? Then it's his fault that this transaction is not going forward!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:05:47 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Your email was received with content noted. Option two (2) is okay with us but will be required to send GBP350 now and send the balance of GBP250 later. If this is okay by you, please send the payment as soon as possible. Note that you are to send payment as I have instructed in my previous mails to you.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as
Transfer Manager
London Scottish Bank.

Great reply! He's been haggled down to GBP350. Although he's expecting GBP250 later and thinks he will still be getting the full GBP600, everyone except him knows that we'll never get that far, and effectively what we're now dragging out is his payment of just GBP350.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:46:31 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n.

That is a very kind and generous gesture you have made for me. It will help me greatly to know that I do not have to pay out the full GBP600 all at once. My family and I thank you.

I will visit the local Western Union desk when they open tomorrow and pay the GBP350.

May I ask when you require the second payment of GBP250?

regards,
R1ch4rd

Of course I thank him. My character is in rather tight financial circumstances at the moment, so this concession is a great relief to him. To stay in character, he replies with his thanks for a very generous offer.

The second paragraph should be a familiar tactic by now. Stating what I will do, giving a time when it will happen if possible, and throwing in another mention of money. All looking like I'm a go-getting sort of person who is always pushing this transaction forward.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:51:42 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

This is a short email to keep you updated.

Mr Harris0n sent me an email saying that I could pay his bank fees in two parts. I asked this because I am having to pay out a lot of money at the moment for the repair work. I just wish the insurance would pay out more quickly then I wouldn't have to be grovelling to Mr Harris0n and begging him for charity. But, I did and he was very nice about it and I think he understands my unfortunate situation. I will be paying him GBP350 tomorrow and GBP250 later. I just hope he starts the transfer when I have made this first payment and not wait until I've made both payments. I forgot to ask him so I don't know how that will work.

I hope you have gotten everything sorted out with your boss and managers. I remember you said that your job was in an unstable state earlier. Has that changed and become better? I do hope so.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Ke1vin gets an update from me. There's nothing here except time-wasting. It'll take him a few moments to read through my email, seeing if it contains anything new. It doesn't (or it shouldn't, anyway!), and that's a tiny amount of his net-cafe time wasted and my character looks like he still believes that Ke1vin and Mr Harris0n are two different people. How hooked is R1ch4rd? Very much so, the lad should still be thinking.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:27:33 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

How are you today? And your bank business? I hope all is going well for you.

Yesterday, I went to the bank where they have a Western Union desk and I asked if I could send the GBP350 to your payments officer (is that who he is?). Everything was going okay but then when the Western Union agent put in your man's name, it seemed to bring up some sort of notice saying that those details (I guess his name and the location I gave) were blacklisted on the Western Union computer. The lady wouldn't tell me why those details were blacklisted, and I held up the queue for probably 30 minutes arguing with her that I have a right to know why I can't use the receiver's details. It started to get a little ugly and I was annoyed and getting angry, but she kept refusing and offering me the company line in response to every request and point I made. People behind me in the line for the Western Union desk were also getting annoyed with me, as is understandable, so the manager of the bank was called and he took me into his office where he explained that the bank operates that service according to Western Union rules, even if he wanted to bypass it, he couldn't because he'd be in trouble with the Western Union managers and maybe they would remove their desk from his bank, and so on.

I was still furious but there was nothing I could do. I mean, I've waited all these months and I'm so close to getting my winnings, and here's this one man telling me that one silly little rule is preventing me from completing the payment? What the hell??!?!?

Sorry, I don't normally swear, I apologize. The thought of it is making me very annoyed again.

Well, I got home and I explained to my wife about it all, and she said that I could have tried Moneygram. I hadn't heard of that but she explained that it's very much like Western Union, same sort of thing. So... Mr Harris0n, would it be possible for me to use Moneygram to send this GBP350 to your payment officer? I really really really hope so, because yesterday, before the incident in the bank, I was very excited that I was only a few days away from getting this sorted. I so want this all settled and done with, and I really thought that I had managed it yesterday. I am checking with you first, though, because I don't want to waste my money sending through Moneygram and then find you can't deal with it. I hope you can because it's my only hope now.

Please reply soon,
R1ch4rd

Now we get to the start of the delays proper. This is a favourite of mine. Whichever payment method you try first, you find that something (your own name, the receiver's name, etc) is 'flagged' on the computer system. No need to say what the 'flag' means if it's not part of any plan you have in mind, simply say that the bank worker wouldn't or couldn't tell you. Show outrage, total and utter astonishment and frustration that (note the familiar theme here) an external force/person/entity/organization is preventing you from doing what you really want to do. The lad can't shout at your character for being a victim of that outside obstacle and, with any luck, can only empathize with the frustration you're feeling. Being pulled to one side by the manager is a touch I've found adds a little extra authority to the whole thing. You're not just dealing with some entry-level worker manning the computer terminal, but you've been to the top of the organization and still been frustrated. Will the lad want to argue with the bank manager? Probably not, so the story becomes more unshakable.

Then, at the end, to show that I'm still willing and eager to push this payment through, I suggest that I could try Moneygram. I waste some more time by asking for his permission to do this. A real person might have simply gone straight to Moneygram and tried sending the payment, but why would I want to do that?!?

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:33:35 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

Hello, it's me again.

I just want to say that the repairmen are switching off my power later today, so if you reply before 3pm BST, I will probably read your reply. If you answer after that then I won't read your reply until much later.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I'm still milking the "flood" story for everything it's worth. If the lad doesn't reply by the time I give him, then I have a great excuse to waste yet a few more days (and time to think about my next move!).

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 09:52:13 -0400

Sorry for this late response to your mail. Your mail was received with content noted. The content of your mail has been discussed with my bank executives are weGBPll contact the western union head office to be more informed on what you just told us.

To that regard, I have spoken to my superiors and have accepted your means of payment.

Payment should be sent by money gram to.

Name: Mr. Victor Wheal
Address: Mount Street
Manchester
M2 3LS UK

Details of payment should be sent to us as soon as payment is made. You are to remit the balance payment within three week after the first part payment is made.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as.

He would be stupid to refuse my offer to pay by Moneygram, even though it might be more work for him (can't check online, maybe the nearest office is further away; I'm only guessing here, but he didn't offer both payment options as a choice and only gave me WU originally so it's clearly he preferred payment method. I've now made him use his less-preferred method). I like the little extra touch of authenticity he adds, saying that he'll check with the head office of Western Union to find out why his payments receiver's name is 'flagged'. Of course, he might be genuinely concerned that this is the case and worried about other payments from other victims also being stopped, but the chances are it's simply to keep up the pretence of his character's position.

I now have to think about the next delay. With my last email, I have a few days to think about it before my character is reconnected and can access his emails. There are a few different routes I could take, and I'll have to decide which is most likely to keep up the image of pure and innocent R1ch4rd the Victim.

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:16 pm

Quote:

Payment should be sent by money gram to...

I absolutely love it when this happens. Rather than saying 'sure, that will work' he makes it out like this is HIS idea.

For me, the Zenith of baiting is when your lads think that everything you are forcing them to do was their idea to start with.

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:47 pm

A very short update. This might be the end, but he has been known to keep me waiting before.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 10:40:42 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

Greetings to you, sir. I think that the major power problems and telephone lines are all sorted out now in my house so there should be no more silences from me. Sorry about not replying sooner, but you know how it is when workmen are trying to repair your house.

I have managed to get my old computer up and working again, but it's still a little damp in places. Not everything is 100% correct (e.g., the printer doesn't want to print anything blue) but the important things are working.

I made the first payment to your payment lady, and I have scanned and attached the payment form that the Moneygram worker gave to me. I hope this is want you need to receive the payment. Also, let me know when you are expecting the second payment and I will be able to budget my finances so I can pay you without any problem.

I hope to hear from you soon with details of my account being set up and the transfer of my winnings underway.

regards,
R1ch4rd

My plan is to delay him being able to get a valid MG receipt and to throw in a few delay tactics once he does get a good scan. If we get that far.
I always hate when a bait gets to this stage because it's when the "online joker" status of my character becomes most obvious. Which is why I like to play the build-up to this part so much. That's where I get the most fun from. Perhaps I should practice the payment modalities a bit more?

Anyway . . . payment! First, I get a blank MG form (available from a few places, can't remember where I got mine from as I downloaded a big batch of forms and dumped them in a directory for future use). I took some time in PSP to print the details correctly (okay, almost correctly!), then added some blur effects and a big splodge of over-the-top lighting. No artistic flair is necessary . . . as long as the text is messed up and unreadable it will do. You might be able to see in the blurriness that I've adopted bunnyrabbit's very successful "wrong name for receiver" modality, writing "Victoria Wheat" instead of "Victor Wheal". If we get past this stage, then that's the next delay in place. If you do a blurry payment receipt, remember to keep the original non-blurred version and save the blurred version as something different. If this were real, your character would have the original (non-blurred, obviously) as a real slip of paper, so a few attempts at scanning from the original can be tried---and guess what? They all come out wrong! Making the tampered-with versions from the original just saves a little time. In my case, when he comes back and demands I rescan the form, I can simply send him the original and the next modality is already there in the image. Who said it's only lads who are lazy?

The email itself has a few of my usual tactics thrown in (that I've described previously) to give the impression that I'm still genuine and trying to make my character appear as innocent as possible. Also notice that I put in "payment lady". I would bet a large amount of money that he doesn't even pick up on this and check on the receiver's name on the form. Don't say you weren't warned, Mr Harris0n!

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 13:55:06 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: IMPORTANT
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

What is happening? Why have you not replied to confirm that you received my scan? Is there a reason for your silence?

I have waited long enough for this prize to be transferred to me, and I am FURIOUS that I am being made to wait even longer after all the extra work and hardship I had to go through to make sure things went okay. I'm living almost on a building site over here, and I still managed to follow your instructions quite promptly, so why can't you---no doubt sitting in an immaculate office with a great filing system---be as quick in this very important matter?

Please reply promptly.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Oh no. Total lack of reply to a payment receipt?!? That can mean one of a few things:
1. He's realized I'm an "online joker" and has decided to drop me after all this time.
2. He hasn't been able to get to his email account for whatever reason.

I'm thinking this because if he had read my email and still believed in my character's sincerity, with a payment so near he would have replied almost the second he read my message. This is it, after all, the pay-out he's been waiting 5 months for. He's not going to be hanging around if he thinks it really is there. So... either I've been dropped or he hasn't seen the mail yet. Naturally, I'm hoping it's the latter.

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 7:37 pm

He comes back! The game's still on and he's looking just as happy as ever.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 11:53:46 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd,

Sorry for this late response to your mail. I have been very busy with work and other things that I had little or no time to attend to email messages. This is why the bank has lunched software to automatically respond to customers as they contact the bank.

Your payment form was received but the scanned copy was not clear for us to get the full details of your payment. To that regard, you are to send us in full your details of payment

Sender's name:
Amount sent:
Sender's address:
Reference number:
Text question and answer if any.

As soon as your payment is confirmed by this bank, you will receive a special login to access your account.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as.

It wasn't clear?!? Oh no, that's very unfortunate, Mr Harris0n.

Good news, though, because he's come back and he's still not accusing me of anything! This lad is so caught on the hook, he probably think it would kill him to wriggle off it. I would like to think it's all my own work, but the truth is that it's most likely a mixture of hitting on a very gullible and patient lad, and also the way I've treated him over the months. Nothing outrageous, personality remaining fairly consistent, and avoiding too much abuse (and even when I did, it was rather tame or subtle abuse). Maybe not as fun as some baits can be, but think of the time (= money) he's wasted on me now in net-cafe hours and fake websites.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 17:07:39 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

Thanks for informing me about the scan. I've just looked at the copy I sent, and I see that it is totally unreadable, I agree. It's probably because of the effects of the flood. I should really have checked the quality before sending it to you. I can't apologize enough about that mistake... I'm busy, as well, with the repairs and everything, so I just did the scan and didn't even check it properly. I'm sorry about that.

I'll try the scanner once more and this time I will make sure it can be read before sending it. I hope that's okay with you. Expect the scan sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I always get a little nervous when I send fake or obscured payment details. Probably because I'm so unfamiliar with getting to this stage! But also because it's a very fragile stage in a bait. This is the thing the lad wants most in the world, and here I am messing with it directly. This is the best test of his patience and willingness to believe I'm genuine, and a false move here costs much more than at most other stages of a straight bait.

So . . . I decide to be a little bit apologetic and obsequious. My characters are not below grovelling if it will help to strengthen a lad's belief in them.

Again, I end with a Statement of Future Action, which is basically me just saying the blindingly obvious, but because I pick positive-sounding words and phrases it makes me sound like I'm being incredbly proactive and eager.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 12:26:58 -0400

Thanks for this prompt response. Please do send me the details as i have listed in my previous mail to you. Please do that now if possible.
Harris0n Doug1as

Now? Nooooo.... I don't think I'll be doing that, Mr Harris0n! I'll wait until tomorrow before you get anything more from me. What, you think I'm in a hurry here?

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 2:46 pm

I wrote:

Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 17:22:59 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

Okay, I have scanned the payment receipt slip and it looks fine to me.

But I see that you only require the informations, not a copy of the receipt? Okay, there is what you asked for:
Sender’s name: R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Amount sent: £350 GBP
Sender’s address: 17 Lxxxx Mxxxxxxx Street, Padstow, Cornwall, PLxx xxE
Reference number: 51908767
Text question and answer if any. THEY DIDN'T ASK FOR ONE.

Those answers are taken straight off the payment receipt scan I'm looking at on my computer screen. If you need the receipt itself, then just ask and I can send that straight away. This time it scanned perfectly.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I've got the clear version of the receipt all ready and waiting to be sent, but to squeeze more delays from this, I respond only to his request for the information he asked for. I know from past experience that when he tries the false MTCN and it's invalid that he will ask me to send him a scan of the receipt. Knowing ahead of time what the lad's next move will be means things can be planned better. In this case, I get a couple more exchanges out of this bait by holding the receipt back until he asks for it (which I am fairly confident he will do).

I wrote:

Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 17:24:49 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Update
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Ke1vin M00re,

I have just sent the payment details to Mr Harris0n at the bank, so I expect things will be moving quite quickly now and my winnings will be transferred soon.

What a relief that is!

Thanks for your help through these tough weeks,
R1ch4rd

Update to Ke1vin M00re. He did ask to be kept informed, after all.

This is a chance to reinforce my character's gullibility. I'm emailing another character, so making it seem as if I really think all this is genuine, and I can add in that sense of pushing forward and making things happen again. Delays with the payment? Not my fault! Look, I'm doing everything I can with an enthusiastic and cheerful disposition!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 10:59:48 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

How are you today? we hope this mail finds you well. The Reference Number you gave to the payment of £350 GBP you made was invalid as our accounts officer enter it to cash the payment. To this regard, you are to send me a clear copy of your paytment receipt for verification.

We do hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as

What a surprise! I knew that this was going to be his next reply (mainly from having done so many baits before it), and things are in place so I can put my next stage of the plan in place.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 10:44:46 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

I received your email and I'm puzzled about why it should be coming up as invalid. I've just double-checked the number I sent against the receipt slip I've got here, and I typed the right number. That is very strange indeed.

Have you updated Mr Ke1vin M00re about this delay or should I do that?

I have attached the scan I made last week of the receipt slip. I hope you can use this to pick up the money. If not, let me know.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I attach a clear version of the payment receipt. It has all of the details I copied out in my previous email, but the receiver's name is "Victoria Wheat" (stealing heavily from bunnyrabbit's Wrong Name modality). If the lad had looked carefully at the blurred receipt, he would have been able to make out (vaguely) that the number of letters didn't match, even if he couldn't see the exact letters. Don't say you weren't warned, Harris0n Doug1as!

Again the by-the-way reference to the lad's other main character to keep up the pretence of being a believable victim, and the final paragraph is my character's trademark "let's get this thing done, I'm willing and ready to finish it!" approach.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 13:49:57 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for sending me a scanned copy of the payment receipt. The payment instruction i gave to you is different from what you did. I asked you to make payment to our accounts officer (Victor Wheal) but your payment was sent to a different person. Please correct this error as soon as possible and let me have details of it.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as.

I still can't believe how incredibly polite this lad is being. However, with no sign of my character being an online joker, he has no real reason (yet) to get angry and abusive. I would like to think that it's all down to my amazing straight-baiting skills, but I think some of it is because this lad just happens to be patient and well-tempered. These scammers are, after all, just as varied in personality as any other group of people you could meet.

I wrote:

Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 12:27:41 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for your informative reply. Did I put the wrong name? I can't apologize enough for that. I have a reason, though... some IDIOT is using this email address for spamming lots of stupid advertising and scams so I'm getting all of his "Message cannot be delivered" error messages. He's put MY address (this one) as the Reply-To address and so my Inbox is flooded with thousands of those error messages. I got so sick of it, I deleted almost everything, including your email with the payment details so I had to go from memory. I guess my memory is not as good as I thought it was.

I will correct the mistake and resend the payment when the bank opens on Monday. When I send that payment, will the transfer begin immediately, or will I have to wait until I've paid both payments?

Also... do you have any idea who might be using my email address in this way? I'm either going to have to shut it down (because it's unusable like this), or the people who run the email service will shut it down because of complaints that I'm been spamming people... I haven't, but the way this LUNATIC has sent out his nonsense, it looks like it is my fault. I'm getting very sick of this. I hope it's not that fellow from the delivery company before... Berry Morgan, I think his name was.

Anyway, again my apologies for the wrong information.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Excuse time! This excuse is actually true. I got into my email account that morning and saw about 150 "Address does not exist - message undeliverable" error messages. Checking out the body of the returned mail showed that someone had been using my address as the Sender's name (easily done with a mail spoofer or even more easily done with a standalone email app such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird), so I was the one getting the delivery status messages. How annoying! As well as the hassle of wading through page after page of such reports, there's also a chance my account could be flagged as a suspected spamming account. Which is why it's a good tactic to make a note of your current bait's contact information outside of whatever email service you use. If I had lost that account and not made a note, then there would be no way I could continue the bait... the lad's emails to me would bounce, and I would not know where to send my emails from any new account.

Anyway . . . valid excuse and I use it on the lad himself to justify why I used the wrong receiver name. I also throw out a possible new bait-loaded hook to see if I can divert him into the "who could have done this to me?" thread. It might work, it might not work. I won't know unless I try. If I try this on every bait when the situation allows it, it will eventually pay off on some of them; it's just a matter of numbers.

The tone of the email is very apologetic. Again, as I've said a few times before, if my character needs to grovel to push things in the right direction, then he is not above that kind of behaviour. Having a self-imposed "Never say sorry to your lad" rule is too restricting, I find, and unnecessarily cuts off one more method to get him to bend to your will.

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 10:07:58 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: Update
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

This is a short update on my progress with the bank and Mr Harris0n Doug1as.

There was a small delay in sending the first payment through Moneygram because I put down the wrong name for the receiver. I had to go from memory about that and I didn't realize it would be so important. Anyway, that was sorted out and I was given the correct name to use.

On Sunday (May 18th), Mr Harris0n sent one of his Payment Officers my way because, apparently, Mr Harris0n was called away on business. So, Mr Jim Edward is now dealing with my case, and he's a very decent fellow indeed. He gave me new payment information to send the money to, and I did that yesterday morning. Everything seemed to go well, and when I checked with Moneygram this morning, I was told that the payment had been picked up with no problems. I hope that Mr Jim Edward can get the next stage of the transfer done as quickly as he did this part. When Mr Harris0n comes back from his urgent business, I will tell him how professional and efficient his employees are.

So... I hope that you will be able to close this file now because I only have the small second fee of £250 to pay now, and that will be made in a few weeks' time.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Another update for Mr M00re, and time to put the next plan into action. The dollar chop modality can achieve some great results (and it can fall very flat, I've found, in a few cases). The plan here is that you make it appear as if you really have sent a payment, you really are full of the excitement that the transaction (whatever it might be---lottery winnings transfer, next-of-kin claim, inheritance fund, etc, etc) is one step nearer to completion, but the money was sent to someone else. From your lad's point of view, it's not just that you appear like an even more willing victim, but that he has lost money to a rival. Those dollars should be in his pocket, not someone else who hasn't spent any time grooming your character! As to be expected, this can be most annoying to them.

Some notes from my own epxerience of using this modality.
1. If you make the dollar-chopper an employee or associate of your lad's fake character/company/whatever, there's a good chance you will get some creative responses as to why this person can't be trusted.
2. Don't make it too obvious what has happened. Just lay out the trail and make sure that it leads in the direction you want it to go. If the character you introduce is a friend or employee of the lad's character/company, then it will seem so much more natural that this business has been handed over from one person to another in a perfectly normal way. Your character wouldn't suspect anything if another employee of the company writes and says that he is now handling the case. The idea I try to sow is that the dollar-chopper is an experienced, smooth, professional scammer who knows how to deal with his victims perfectly.
3. Make it appear that all of the delays prior to this (what? there haven't been any delays? call yourself a baiter?!?) have been sorted out in one swift and effortless move by the dollar-chopper. This should show that my character really has been battling against fate and providence, and that none of the previous problems have been his fault.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: New Development
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 10:07:27 -0400

Dear Mr. R1ch4rd,

I received your email and I will like you to understand that the bank is not happy with the delay on your part as regards the transfer of the payment. Based on our policy, we do not entertain disappointments and this is what you have been doing for weeks now. At this juncture, the bank will like you to make the whole payment and not half of it anymore, Also, you are required to make this payment within 48 hours and send the scanned copy as soon as possible.

Below is the name and address to send the Payment to: (Please do not make anymore mistakes)

Name: Mr. Victor Wheal
Address: Mount Street, Manchester, M2 3LS UK

You are to also provide me with the details of the transfer in written form along with the attached copy of the receipt.

I anticipate your reply as soon as possible we do not have time anymore with your winnings. Your delay has been too much.

Best Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as

That's more like it! There's some serious impatience going there now, and I can see that I'm having some effect on him.

I do have to wonder, though, if he is still reading Ke1vin M00re's emails, as there is no sign of his reacting to the mention of the payment I made to Mr Jim Edward. Time to bring that up . . .

I wrote:

Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 11:48:25 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: New Development
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

I understand your last email completely when you say that the delays are not getting out of hand. I agree fully. But you don't know what kind of really bad luck I have had ever since Mr Ke1vin M00re informed me of my winning. If I were a superstitious man, Mr Harris0n, I would say that the winning is cursed. But I'm not superstitious and I don't believe in such nonsense. However... I have to admit that there has been a very large amount of unfortunate happenings during this time. It would be funny if only it were happening to someone else, I'm sure.

The part I didn't understand is when you say I have to make both payments. I have already paid the first part (£350) when you sent your Mr Jim Edward to me. (I also thought that you were still away on business. At least, that's what Mr Jim Edward told me.) Why are you demanding the full amount when I only owe your bank £250 now? I am going to make that payment to Mr Jim Edward this coming Friday, and then I will owe nothing more. Why are you saying I still owe the full amount? I don't understand this at all. Are you people not communicating with each other? Get in touch with Mr Jim Edward (I assume he works for you at your bank, since he's your main payments officer) and sort out just what the status of my payment is, please.

If you hadn't sent this email, I would have completed the payment in a few days' time. Now... I don't know what's happening, and it feels like I've been set back to where I first started. I managed to borrow the second payment from an old friend, and I tell you this, Mr Harris0n... begging for money from a good friend is not something a man should do too often, if at all.

Please look into this and give me some good news when you have sorted things out. I am asking you from the depths of my despair and confusion here.

regards,
R1ch4rd

First, I agree with him, sympathize with him, yes this is getting beyond a joke and I am also sick of how things are turning out, but what can I do?

Then I integrate the dollar-chop story from the message to Ke1vin M00re with my bewilderment that Mr Doug1as is now demanding the full amount. Surely I've already paid some of it, no? Well, okay, no I haven't paid any of it, but I want my lad to think that I have so some subtle indignation is called for.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: New Development
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 07:39:09 -0400

Attn: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Your mail was received and well noted. I will like to inform you that you are not to make any payment to Mr. Edward anymore as he is no longer our main payment receiving officer. However, I will like to you to make the balance of the payment to Mr. Henry Alvis with the same address as you have before. I want to assure you that the winning is not cursed and you need to be patient and go through with the balance of payment. Please note that I will want to get the details of the payment in your next email from you today, Friday 23rd May, 2008.

I await your prompt response as soon as possible.

Best Regards,
Harris0n Doug1as

Good to know my money is not cursed! But more important than that is the big sign that he's acknowledging the dollar chop. Quite a lame excuse for not sending money to Mr Jim Edward, though. It might be worth pursuing just why he is no longer their main payments officer . . . perhaps I can squeeze a more fanciful story out of him. The dollar-chop modality is not over yet, as one aspect that sometimes proves useful is to set up an email address for your fake lad. Don't give it out immediately, but gently push the real lad into attempting to contact the fake one, releasing the fake lad's contact details after a little bit of persuasion. It might lead to some lad-to-lad correspondence (which is its own area of expertise, and something I don't get involved in very much) or even some decent insults. Whatever it specifcally does, it usually adds an extra element to a dollar chop.

I have a few more plans for this particular story-thread but they can wait until after the weekend. First, I'll let Mr Harris0n Doug1as stew a little.

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:54 pm

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 03:58:40 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

I received your previous mail and I replied you to go ahead and make the balance payment as soon as possible and you are yet to get back to me. I await the information from you as soon as possible, as well as the scanned payment slip.

Thank you,

Best Regards,
Harris0n Doug1as

I don't know what to make of this email, when compared to his last one. There's no sign of a panic or any urgency, and it's almost like another lad is replying. Probably not, but I'm not sure what's going on here. I suspect, however, that things are getting a little bit worrying for this lad and that's why he's not acting as rationally as usual. It could be that the reality of what I'm trying to tell him has happened is starting to creep up on him, ever so slowly. Best reply is to simply play dumb, act confused, and ask him to tell me what to do. I have all of my plan laid out, so I'm sitting back and waiting for him to make a move so I can respond appropriately.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 11:23:32 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n,

I am slightly confused now. I received a message from Mr Jim Edward this morning and he says that I should make the payment with the details he gave me. Now you want me to make the payment with your details? Are you two gentlemen not communicating with each other? Does it matter if I make a payment to one and not the other? Surely you are both working for the same company, are you not?

I've already paid the first instalment of £350 to Mr Jim Edward and so it would make sense to make the second one to the same place. But I would appreciate your advice here because I am receiving conflicting instructions. Perhaps you could discuss this with your Mr Jim Edward and get back to me after the two of you have sorted things out?

I await your response,
R1ch4rd

A few points in this reply.

First, I'm trying to create an atmosphere of confusion (because that's basically the underlying strength of a dollar chop), so notice how I'm asking questions and making statements/assertions that show the two conflicting sides I'm getting.

Second, I act like the clueless maga and rely heavily on the lad's advice and direction. Of course, I don't care what he tells me, but to add to the idea that my character is receiving all this conflicting information, I play along as someone who is too confused to know what to do. I really really want to get a sense of chaos injected into the situation here. Not only will it make the lad's day slightly less than pleasant when he finally realizes what's happening, in the meantime it will waste a few days as we try to sort things out.

Finally, again I urge the lad to contact Mr Jim Edward (who will be played by me, of course). I don't force him, but suggest it.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 06:56:23 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

With respect to your mail to me, I will like to tell you that you can go ahead and forward the payment of the balance to Mr. Edwards and immediately you are through with the transfer, I want you to send me the details of the payment or scan the copy of the receipt.

I anticipate your prompt reply today inorder for delay not to occur.

Best Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as

Sneaky! He's trying to counter-chop the fake lad! The plan here is, obviously, that I make the payment as instructed by the fictional Jim Edward, but pass the payment details on to the real lad so he can pick up the money. Definitely no honour among this bunch of thieves!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 15:41:58 -0400

Attetion Mr. R1ch4rd,

How are you today? I hope this email finds you well. This is to inform you that i still await your response to my previous mail regarding the payment of 350 pounds. You payment is till invalid. you are therefore required to check with the money gram office and redirect the payment to our account office as stated in my pervious mail to you.

Best regards,
Harris0n Doug1as

I don't reply because I'm supposedly contacting Mr Jim Edward about the two payments I'm making to him.

At this point, I reply to Ke1vin M00re but have lost the email. It basically tries to set the cat firmly among the pigeons in the form of an update. I explain, quite calmly, about how Mr Jim Edward has taken over my file because Mr Harris0n Doug1as has been called away on urgent business, and that I have made some payments to Mr Edward and things are going great.

Which seems to do the job . . .

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 20:01:08 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd,

This is to inform you that i just got a call from Mr. Ke1vin saying that u sent an email to him stating that you have sent payment to Mr Jim Edward. I can't remember me telling you that i'll be away for business or something. i never made mention of any person taking charge for me. Who is Jim Edward? How did you gets his contact?

Mr. R1ch4rd, i really do think you don't need this money. Before you make me loss my job, i'll just sent a letter to the better life office and cancel your bank transfer. I gave you a payment detail and you sent payment to someone else. I sent an email to notify you of this and you never responded to my email only to hear from Mr. Ke1vin that you have send the amount to an unknown person.

You have less than 48 hours to response to this mail and explain in details to me or your transfer will be terminated.

Regards
Harris0n Doug1as

Definite panic starting to set in. How whiny is that email, anyway? But more than that, I can definitely detect that I'm in serious danger of losing this one if I try to push in this direction too much. It's time to do some damage control and attempt to reel this back in.

As I mentioned in an earlier update, a lot of baiting is about assessing just how near to that line of "Drop this victim, he's just not worth it" you have pushed the lad, and always making sure you don't push him over it. To me, this email from Harris0n Doug1as shows plenty of hints and signs that he's incredibly close to that line.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:40:42 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

I read your email a few times and I'm puzzled about why you need these details. Doesn't Mr Jim Edward work for you? He said he does. He told me when he first contacted me that he was taking over the case from you because, he said, you had been called away on urgent bank business that needed your attention. Now you're saying that you don't know who Mr Jim Edward is... ? You don't know your own employees? I think you should get familiar with your own company, Mr Harris0n.

I have sent the balance of the payment (£250) to Mr Jim Edward using the information he gave me. That was yesterday, and I see that the money has been collected when I check today. I am now waiting for your Mr Jim Edward to get back to me and let me know when my winnings will be transferred. He's been very efficient and quick, I do have to commend him here. Find out who he is, which department he works in, and give him my praise, please. He's been a joy to work with.

As for sending the first payment to the wrong name... yes, I did that, I admit. I told you why that happened and I apologized. You want me to grovel and prostrate myself before you, Mr Harris0n? That's not something I'm prepared to do for a genuine mistake that I still feel embarrassed and guilty about.

Now, please, be serious in the dealings with your staff. There's a fellow working for you who is extremely good at his job, is kind and patient, gets things done properly, and yet... yet you don't even know him??? I would hate to work for a company where the managers above me have that attitude to their staff. Find Mr Jim Edward and get to know him... he's a man to watch in the future because he really knows how to deal with his customers (he never once mentioned unfair deadlines, for example).

And while we're on the subject of giving out advice... don't be so silly: Losing your job? What the hell kind of company would sack a senior employee for having a few problems in their work? I mean, these are minor issues, and they are all sorted out now that Mr Jim Edward is handling my case. I think you were exaggerating, Mr Harris0n, and I have to admit it was quite amusing. It WAS a joke, yes? "Lose your job"! You've got a very subtle sense of humour, Mr Harris0n, that I am only beginning to appreciate.

I have written enough. I will now await Mr Jim Edward's response and at last my winnings will be transferred and we can put this business behind us.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Now that I think there's a some panic and confusion brewing in the lad's mind, it's time to tone my own replies down a bit (mainly as part of the damage control in response to his last email). Notice that I don't use the same staccato sequence of questions and conflicting he-said/you-said sentences as I did earlier. It's all straightforward declarative sentences, laying out the facts as I know them, and trying to join the two sides together smoothly. Of course, I still have to refer to the lack of communication between Jim Edward and Harris0n Doug1as, but instead of bluntly stating that there's a big gulf between the two sides, I urge him to reconcile things, smooth things over, get everyone talking to each other. I include a paragraph in which I admit to making a mistake previously. I do this to show that I am making attempts to reconcile all the mistakes, delays, mistunderstandings that I have made, so perhaps it's also time that we all work together because we're all on the same side here.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 18:06:19 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Update
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr M00re,

Hello, how are you today? I hope all is well with you and yours. Things are starting to get a little more sensible over here after the flood. I've even managed to let my daughters come back, as the house is starting to be presentable and habitable again. The oldest daughter, the one who caused this accident, is wonderful now... she's so sorry and apologetic, and I think she's learned a very important and life-changing lesson. Before, she was careless, rebellious, was (I suspect) drinking alcohol and socializing with the wrong kind of boys, but now she is much more tidy and careful and is doing her best to make amends for her behaviour. I think there really has been a good outcome to this little disaster. If it ensures your daughter doesn't turn into a booze-guzzling cheap whore who sleeps with anyone, then I could endure any domestic flood!

I have to report on Mr Harris0n Doug1as, though. I am not happy with how he has been handling this transaction. First, he deals direct with me. He's okay, if a little pushy. Then a few weeks ago, he assigns one of his underlings to my case. Mr Jim Edward, even though he's a junior in the bank, is wonderful and caring and really knows how to treat his customers. Anyway, I pay Mr Edward the first instalment of the bank's fees, and then Harris0n Doug1as comes back and accuses me of lying! He said first that Mr Jim Edward no longer worked at the bank, then he denied even knowing who Jim Edward was! Finally, he also denied having gone away on a business trip, which is why Jim Edward was assigned to me. What's going on, do you think? Why are people not talking to each other in that company? Why does Harris0n Doug1as hate me so much?

Well, I've paid the second instalment to Mr Edward, and now we're just waiting for the final amount of Lottery Tax that I have to pay, and everything will be ready for the transfer. Things really started moving quickly when Jim Edward took over. Do you think Harris0n Doug1as is fit for the job he is in? He didn't get things done very quickly or with much customer care.

Sorry to bother you with the trivial details, but I thought I would let you know everything that's happened.

Looking forward to a happy conclusion to this transfer,
R1ch4rd

And an update to Ke1vin M00re. In keeping with the "things need to be smoothed over between us all" thing, I describe my own home life as definitely improving, compared to the previous few months of disaster-ridden domestic hardship, and also tell him that the transfer with Jim Edward is going amazingly well. Yes, everything's fine and starting to come together! The only problem, Ke1vin, the only fly in this very calming ointment, is Mr Harris0n and his panic-ridden messages. The idea here is that I might be able to stick a knife in the Harris0n Doug1as character, establish that he's not very professional, and get him replaced with someone else. It's always a good thing to do, especially if both characters are played by the same lad.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 11:37:06 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd,

With deep pains in my heart I write you. I really do not understand all this I’m hearing from both the better life office and my bank. The better life office has filed a petition against me that I’m handling your transfer different from the stipulated way. Files are moving from table to table and I have been told that I’ll loss my pay cheque for this. Mr. R1ch4rd, this has cost me my pay of 16,000 pounds and I may loss my job for this.

Mr. R1ch4rd, from my records here, I don’t remember asking you to contact Mr. Jim Edward. Please I want to know, why you didn’t respond to my mails. I wrote you to redirect your payment to Mr. Victor Wheal but you never wrote back. Who did you make payment to? Who is Mr. Jim? I have worked so hard to make sure this transfer is successful but all I’m about to get now is a sack because you failed to work with my instructions.

I owe you many thanks Mr. R1ch4rd. I help you and now I’m facing sack. There’s no body with the name Jim Edward from this bank and I can never transfer your transfer to a junior staff of this bank. Please Mr. R1ch4rd, let me know how you got to know this man called Jim Edward.

Let me inform you that you have sent payment for your account activation to a wrong person. That has cost me my pay cheque. Your payment was suppose to be sent to Mr. Victor Wheal and no body else.

Please do respond to this mail as soon as possible so we can arrange for your transfer.

Harris0n Doug1as.

Could I have asked for a better "the shit hits the fan" email so suddenly? Notice the typing errors, the lapse in the lad's usually good English, and the close-to-incoherent whining that runs through the whole email. It's definitely a success, topped off by the part at the end where he states in no vague terms that he understands I have sent the money to the wrong person. His dollar has been well and truly chopped.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RESPOND ASAP
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:39:40 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

I’m really very surprise at your mails. I’m always in contact with Mr. Harris0n and he never for once told me that you sent any payment for your account activation. As soon as I got your second update, I called Mr. Harris0n to confirm this but I was surprised at what he told me. Mr. Harris0n told me that your payment was not directed to the accounts officer and the reference number in your payment was invalid. He told me he sent you a mail to redirect your payment and check your reference number with the money gram office but you never wrote back. He also confirmed to me that he never directed you to any one named Jim Edward or told you he was a junior staff at the bank taking charge for him while he was away.

To that regard my good friend, I request that you forward to me emails from Mr. Harris0n asking you to contact Mr. Jim. Mr. R1ch4rd, from all indication and from my verification, it seems you are sending money to another person and not the bank. Mr. Harris0n sent you a payment detail and you never ahead to it. How did you get to know this man named Jim? Mr. Harris0n said he never sent you any mail asking you to contact him. Copies of the last two mail he sent you where forwarded to me and he said you never wrote back.

I want you to stop all communication with the said Mr. Jim. He is not a staff of the bank as I was told by Mr. Harris0n and other superiors from the bank. I await copies of the emails you got from Mr. Harris0n asking you to contact Mr. Jim. You are to send all mails concerning your account activation and transfer to no one but Mr. Harris0n Doug1as. Here is his email address [email protected] should incase someone is contacting you with another email similar to that. I repeat Mr. R1ch4rd, to not reply, take calls or send further mails to Mr. Jim. Contact Mr. Harris0n Doug1as only via email for the security of this transfer. All your emails and reply should be directed to the bank transfer manage as I have provided above.

I do hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Ke1vin M00re

More dollar-chopped goodness from the Ke1vin M00re character! There's nothing really to add here, except that hidden at the end is a hint that the lad believes I'm being contacted by a rogue Mr Harris0n Doug1as. This is something I can keep in mind for the near future. First, however, I need to respond to the (misguided) request for the emails that Mr Harris0n Doug1as is supposed to have sent me in which I'm directed to Jim Edward.

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 18:34:07 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: RESPOND ASAP
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

It's good to hear from you again. I'm starting to get into a very serious worry-state now, with all the different information that is coming in from all the different people involved.

I detected some misinformation in your email, and that's probably because you too are suffering from the stress of trying to work out what is happening. I know I am!

Here are the events that happened. Remember, that these are all things from my point of view, and what REALLY happened behind the scenes may be different. The important thing to keep in mind is that this is an account of what I have witnessed, okay?

1. I made a mistake with the payment receiver's name. This was a genuine mistake and Mr Harris0n was very quick to point it out to me. (I explained the reason to him, but it's trivial to my account here.)

2. Mr Harris0n told me about the mistake and resent the correct payment details, which I received.

3. I was ready to make the payment with the correction informations to a Mr Victor Wheal the following day when I received an email from Mr Jim Edward. He sent me proof of identity and he told me a few things that convinced me he knew Mr Harris0n and that he worked for the same bank as Mr Harris0n. This email he sent told me that Mr Harris0n had been called away on urgent business and that Mr Jim Edward had been assigned my file.

4. Because Mr Jim Edward said he was working in a different branch of the bank at that moment, I would need to send the payment to a different person, someone closer to where Mr Jim Edward was.

5. At first, I didn't believe this Mr Jim Edward, because I had heard (from the CIA man, Agent McClewsky) that there are rogue people on the internet who make their money by diverting other people's funds and winnings. I was suspicious of Mr Edward so I called the telephone number he had put in his email.

6. I spoke to Mr Jim Edward for about 45 minutes, and at the end I fully believed he worked for Mr Harris0n. He told me things that only an employee would know about is boss. My suspicions were put to rest by his very genuine telephone call.

7. I made the first payment to Mr Jim Edward, it was picked up without problem, and then I made the second payment. All the time this was taking place, I had heard nothing from Mr Harris0n Doug1as so it really looked like he had gone away on urgent business, just as Mr Jim Edward had told me.

8. Then Mr Harris0n Doug1as contacted me again (at first, I assumed he had finished his urgent business) and things started to get complicated because he told me that he didn't know a Mr Jim Edward.

What is happening? Have I made a mistake here? How could I have known that Mr Jim Edward was not an employee of the bank? Do you want to contact this man yourself? Does Mr Harris0n Doug1as want to contact him? I need to know what to do, because it appears all of my recent actions have been big mistakes. I'm quite shaken and shocked because after I read your email, it occurred to me that I have probably come very close to losing my winnings, that Mr Jim Edward is probably, right now, planning on how to divert them to his own account. If that happens.... I'll be at the end of wits, I really will. I am relying on that money so much now, with everything that's happened over here..........

Please let me know the best course of action to take.

Mr Harris0n Doug1as had contacted me today, too, but he sounds very depressed and possibly even suicidal. He keeps mentioning that he has lost a lot of money and may lose his job because of this. Because of me. If that happens, I could never live with myself. I don't want to reply to him just yet, not until I have some positive good news to tell him. I'll wait to hear from you before I write to him.

regards,
R1ch4rd

I need to get the "email about Jim Edward" thing sorted, so I lay out the sequence of events in the hope that my story is made crystal clear and the lad will realize that I am not claiming that Harris0n Doug1as sent me in the direction of Jim Edward, but that it was the other way round: Jim Edward diverted me away from Harris0n Doug1as. I could have gone with the lads misguided view of what happened and made up some emails from the fake Harris0n Doug1as, I guess, but it had to be one or the other, and I chose this way. A rogue Harris0n Doug1as might be useful to keep up my sleeve for a little later.

I've noticed recently, in the forums, that new people have been asking how to do a dollar chop modality. The question is easily answered: One way is the way I've done it here. The essence is simply that you play along as if you've made a payment, but it has been to someone else, another lad who has intercepted your victim-character and stolen. (In scammer's parlance, this is sometimes referred to as "eating" the money, and in the pidgin that is used in and around Nigeria, a meal or the verb "to eat" is "chop"---thus "dollar chop" = "eating the money" = "diverting the money away from the original lad and on to another who has come along and taken away that lad's victim".) The actual specifics and particulars will vary, obviously, depending on the nature of the bait you're running, but the underlying basics is that a fake lad (one that you either play or simply make a reference to) has received your character's money instead of the real lad. That's it! I like to play it subtly, letting the lad put 2 and 2 together from what I've told him, but there are other ways to reveal that the money has been diverted away from the real lad. One other popular way I've seen a lot of is to have actual contact from the fake lad, stating in blunt terms exactly what has happened. There is no single way to do this, it all depends on your characters, the bait, and your own personal preferences for how you like to play with the lad.

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:16 pm

A joy to read, as always. Can't wait for the next episode!

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:13 pm

Great bait Otter!!!!

Hey, I have also been involved with mister Peter 4nderson!

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:33 pm

It's been a few weeks and nothing new? Sad

A thought occurred to me while reading through this FANTASTIC bait (you've exceeded my personal record for a lottery bait)....

Mr. R1ch4rd's first "emergency" business trip took him to Scotland, right? And isn't Scotland the home of the bank?!?! Couldn't Mr. R1ch4rd conveniently have another business trip that would take him to Scotland and he could just offer to stop by the bank in person? That would clear up all of the errors regarding Mr. Harris0n Doug1as and that dastardly Mr. Jim......

Just a thought to chew on. Smile

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:22 am

It's still ongoing, but I am way behind on everything in life right now. I'll update soon!

As for a trip to Scotland? My characters always love a trip to the wilds of Scotland, so it's very possible. I've been playing the dollar-chop modality for the past few weeks (during the as-yet-unpublished bits) so I might try to weave your suggestion in, thanks!

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:41 pm

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: RESPOND ASAP
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:37:09 +0000

Thanks for your prompt response to my mail. My office worked 24 hours today and I was made to stay all night. I read your mail carefully and found out that Mr. Harris0n was right. This body has already filed a petition to the bank and Mr. Harris0n is facing it. I’m sorry for that.

Mr. R1ch4rd, after you got the massage from the said Jim Edward, one would have expected that you check with Mr. Harris0n or even send me an update about it. Mr. Harris0n gave you a payment instruction and will not change that so sudden. So who then did you sent the payment do? I guess not Mr. Victor Wheal as I was told.

Count yourself very lucky Mr. R1ch4rd. You can still claim your prize but you have to send all payment for your account activation to the bank as soon as possible. That will save Mr. Harris0n is job. That is only way your transfer can be processed. I’ll want you to contact Mr. Harris0n and explain this to him. You are to be blamed about this. If only you wrote him back when he asked you to redirect the payment to the right person. If he were traveling, he would have contacted you and instructed you on what to do. He wrote you after you sent an update to me regarding your first payment of 350 Pound to Mr. Jim but you still went ahead to send the other payment.

Please contact Mr. Harris0n Doug1as for more information.

Regards,

Ke1vin M00re

"You are to be blamed about this"??? Oh, the cheek of it! He wants me to grovel and apologize for believing an unsolicited email I got telling me about lots of money. Yes, that's a totally stupid thing to do and not something you could ever condone, is it, Ke1vin?

Still, it's a good email. It shows the lad understand the story I told him, which means we're both reading from the same page---a page that I am writing.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd (RESPOND ASAP)
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 11:50:43 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd,

How are you today? I hope this mail finds you well. i have been waiting for your response to my last mail but it never came till date. I'm really very worried about this Mr. R1ch4rd. You are not helping me in this matter. I'm facing sack. I need you to respond to my mails so we can proceed with this transfer.i have lost my pay cheque for this month due to this. Please don't make me loss more.

I'll like you to send me all contact details of Jim Edward. I'll like to investigate this man to really know who he is.

Please respond to this mail as soon as possible let me know if you still want this bank transfer or you want us to call it off.

Harris0n Doug1as.

Call it off? No way! The Investment Effect is working on me, too, and there's no way I will voluntarily end this bait after all this time.

He asks for the contact details for Jim Edward. In previous baits where I've had a dollar chop, lads have asked for contact details for the fake lad but I've found they rarely follow up. I'm not sure why, but I almost never get any lad-to-lad contact between the real one and my fake one. I'm fully aware that many other baiters do, so I'm wondering what it is about me that stops me from getting such contact. Very strange. I'll give him an email address, anyway, just on the chance that this one will be different. I have an email address already set up and I can give him one of my FleXtel redirect numbers. Both the yahoo.co.uk domain name and the UK 070 number should be massive signposts signalling that Jim Edward really is a scammer. Also, there's a chance I can get a small delay by only giving him one piece of information and holding the second back. The lad might only be happy with an email address, but if he also demands a telephone number then that's another few exchanges, pushing the length of the bait along by a few more days.

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:10:13 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd (RESPOND ASAP)
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Sorry for the late reply. I have been feeling very stressed these past few days because first I am so confused about who is real, who still works for your bank, whom I should write to. That is bad enough, but the second reason is that you are now telling me that---all because of me---you are losing money and could even lose your job. This is too much, Mr Harris0n Doug1as. I never wanted to be the reason someone loses his job, it's getting completely out of control and I wish I knew what to do for the best outcome.

Mr Jim Edward wrote to me yesterday and told me things that seem to contradict what you told me. My head is spinning so much, I am spending all of my time lying on the sofa and asking my daughters to mop my brow to cool me down. It's a very awful situation, I'm sure you'll agree.
Anyway, Mr Edward told me that he has acquired the tax statement relating to my winnings and he will work out the final payment that I should make to him so I am not guilty of tax avoidance. He says he will let me know what this amount is either tomorrow (Monday) or the day after.
What do I do? You're saying he's not genuine, so does that mean his tax statement is false, too? But in his last email he said that YOU are the fake person, and that you are no longer working at the bank, have no authority to start the transfer, and will take my money for your own purposes.
Who do I believe? I'm inclined to believe you, but... I don't know. I'm almost paralyzed to make a move of any kind for fear of it being the wrong one.

Oh, and I am writing to Jim Edward at his private address of [email protected]

I hope you can help me. Please try.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Confused and helpless victim mode, relying on lad to sort things out and take control. Well, he thinks he's taking control.

I've already established that my character has paid £600 to the other lad, so I mention the "tax statement" thing as an incentive for the real lad to act. There's more money about to change hands, so he should get in there and get in quick!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 07:57:30 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

I got a call from the bank today from Mr. Harris0n and a copy of the email you sent him. I’m writing to confirm to you that Jim Edward is not a staff of the bank. I wrote you to contact Mr. Harris0n as the bank transfer manager and will also inform you is there’s a change. Mr. Harris0n Doug1as is still in charge of your bank transfer and is still the bank transfer manager.

I’ll urge you to stop all proceeding with this man (Jim Edward). We don’t know him here and we never asked you to contact him.

We do hope you adhere to this to save yourself more troubles.

Thanks for your understanding. Please get back to your transfer manager (Mr. Harris0n Doug1as) and follow is his instructions this time.

Ke1vin M00re.

Not much to say about this. It merely confirms further that he believes there's a person out there who scammed me of £600 and is someone the real lad does not want me to be contact with. For obvious reasons.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION MR. R1ch4rd (RESPOND ASAP)
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 03:57:44 -0400

Thanks for writing me Mr. R1ch4rd. You really amaze me to be frank. I can’t believe someone from nowhere contacts you to tell you stories about me and you have doubts about me. Please you can confirm from the Mr. Ke1vin M00re. If you send any further payment to Mr. Edward, be sure that you have lost your money and your bank transfer.

He is fake and do not believe him. Do not contact this man again. I’ll suggest that you block his email or change your email address. Confirm this from the BETTER LIFE OFFICE. Write Mr. Ke1vin M00re if you have any doubts. This person named Jim Edward is not real. You might end up losing your money to this man. I’m still the transfer manager here at the bank. I cannot hand over your fund transfer to a junior officer at the bank let only someone I don’t know.

You are to discontinue contact with this person. That’s my advise to you.

If you still need this bank transfer, please do write us again so we can proceed. I have not lost my job here. I only lost my pay cheque because the better life office wrote a petition to the bank.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

It amuses me that he was punished (by having a month's wages taken away) for MY small mistake! Seriously, what kind of work culture must the lad be familiar with to think that this is normal practice? The irony, of being upbraided for believing an unsolicited email, is lovely, too.

As for the email and what it implies, it's basically just a repeat of the Ke1vin M00re one previously but with more emphasis on not contacting Jim Edward any more. If I read between the lines, I think I can detect a little bit of annoyance and irritation that this lad has lost out on a payment. Success!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Send me his contact phone number
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 04:11:11 -0400

One more thing Mr. R1ch4rd, please send me Jim’s contact phone number. We need to find out who he is.

Thanks.

Harris0n Doug1as

He does want a telephone number! I could have stalled a little longer, but for some reason I chose not to. I don't know what I was thinking of back then! Anyway, the tactic I should have used here was to respond solely to that last email, the request for a telephone number. A one-liner reply with something like "Here is Mr Jim Edward's telephone number 99999999..." and nothing else. But I didn't. If I had to do this part again, I definitely would have.

I wrote:

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:25:40 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Send me his contact phone number
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you so much for your recent emails. I think you are starting to sound more serious than Mr Jim Edward, and you certainly offer more proof that you are the real person, not him.

I had an email from Ke1vin M00re, confirming the things you said, so I have not written to him to ask about them, since he has already told me what I need to know.

I am very dismayed that I have probably lost the £600 that I have sent to Jim Edward's payment officer. As you know, things are a little desperate at the moment because of all the bad luck that has befallen me of late, and I am beginning to worry about where I will find yet another £600 for your bank charges. This is very distressing to me, as you might imagine. I hope that you and your managers can be very understanding about things, knowing what has happened and how I have been the victim of a terrible fraud.

I wrote to Jim Edward today, after reading your email, and accused him directly of being an online fraud star. He has not replied yet. Did you write to him at the email address I provided? I see you also asked for his telephone number. Here it is: +447014999999 He likes to arrange a time to call beforehand. That now makes sense as he is probably involved in many online frauds and likes to keep things organized like that.

This is all quite depressing for me, still. I am spending much of my day just sitting and staring into space, wondering how I got into this mess. It is very frightening and I really want it all to be over and finished. My two daughters have been amazing support to me, I don't know what I would have done without their help. My wife is good, too, but she doesn't seem to grasp just how deep I almost got into trouble.

Thank you for your reassuring words. I feel that things might start to get better now that you (and Mr M00re?) are sorting this out for me.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Reading this reply over again, I am seriously wondering why I went down this route. As I said above, I could have gained a few more days by simply replying only to Mr Harris0n's last email and leaving any continuation of my character's situation for a little later. Perhaps I was distracted by real life!

Anyway, it's not a disaster, just not the way I would have done it today. I keep up the "helpess victim" part, and imply that, if it were not for the wonderful advice and actions of the lad's own characters, I would have been in a worse mess. Basically, this is adding to the sense that my character listens to and obeys what the lad is telling me. Compliant, in other words.

The number I give him for Jim Edward is a UK 070 redirect, much favoured by scammers pretending to be based in the UK. The real lad should get a big clue and a final confirmation that he's dealing with a fellow scammer when he sees the +4470 dialling code (he uses these himself, if you look back at the very first emails, plus the less-common +44871 dialling codes). I have the number set to direct to voicemail because (1) there's no way in the world can I speak like a typical West African scammer, and (2) I really don't want to speak to him at all.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:13:28 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for your response to my mail. I’m glad now that you understand and acknowledge the truth. Mr. Jim Edward is a fraud star. You are even luckier that you did not send him more money on your tax clearance. What would have been a disaster to you. I’m glad that you have an understand family.

I printed your last mail and attached a copy of it with your file to my boss to resign for your funds transfer. That has been done and we have gained authority from Mr. M00re’s office to transfer the funds to you. Mr. Ke1vin M00re has been really helpful in the past few days. You owe him many thanks. Note that we have forward Jim Edwards’s contact email and phone number to the appropriate department here at the bank. They will investigate him.

To proceed with your bank transfer, you have been given a period of 14 working days to send the required payment for your account activation. You are to send the payment on or before the above date that starts from today June 11, 2008. Note that you are to adhere to my instructions.

When your payment is fully ready, you are to send it to our account officer as I have stated below

Name: Mr. Victor Wheal
Address: Mount Street
Manchester
M2 3LS UK

We hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as

"Mr. Jim Edward is a fraud star." He sure is!

Also, the promise that some department will investigate Jim Edward is probably going to be completely empty. I'm expecting to hear nothing either by email or telephone message as part of their "investigations".

Notice that he's given me a deadline. 14 days from the 11th of June. Also notice what date it is that I posted this message. You can three guesses about how much I've adhered to his deadline. However, he does say 14 WORKING days, so... there's wriggle room there if he starts to get annoyed. Given the choice between a random delay and something that arises from what the lad has written, I always prefer to go with the lad-based excuse. While random stuff ("Oh no, a meteorite hit my house, sorry for the delay in writing!") is fine, I like to use excuses that fit more naturally and smoothly into the story so far. It helps in a small way to divert the attention away from my character and on to other, external, influences that are making life difficult for us.

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:57:41 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for being so understanding. For a while, I thought you were getting annoyed at me and were going to tell Mr M00re that I didn't deserve my winnings or something like that. I know, it's a silly thought, but that's the state I was in.

I hope your bank can get to the truth about Jim Edward. If they need any more information then I will answer their questions willingly. This man has stolen money from me, and probably would have stolen more money if things hadn't been sorted out. It's frightening to think that someone could know so much about my business with you and the Betterlife people, and yet be a complete outsider AND a criminal. I mean, how did he know so much about us? It's frightening and yet it's bizarre and puzzling. I only hope that he is dealt with in the most appropriate way for all the stress and harm he has caused.

As for raising yet another £600... I will try me best to do that. I'm expecting the insurance pay-out from my recent domestic disaster (a flood, I think I told you about it) sometime in July, but that's several weeks away. I will have a serious think about how I can do this and let you know what I can come up with.

It's silly, don't you think, that here I am scraping around for £600 and yet once I've found it and paid it to your bank, I will have my winnings and £600 will be a very insignificant amount. It's an irony that would be funny in a TV show, but not when it's real life.

regards,
R1ch4rd

This reply was real stalling. Not the kind that I always use with the lads, but me stalling for what tactic I can use next. The problem, I now realize, was created with the previous email that I said I should have done differently. I sort of set the path in one particular direction with what I wrote there and it's leading me down a dead-end. So, I throw out some vague hints that there's money coming to me in a short while from the insurance claim in the hope that he will reply and say that the bank managers have given permission for us to wait until then (extending that ever-flexible deadline, in other words).

But, talking of random stuff . . .

I wrote:

Subject: R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Friday, 13 June, 2008 1:16 AM
From: "Jim Edward" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

guy

i get ur email ad but dont ask me how i do okay. i work maga R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx and get his money, a very clever man but i more clever. also working him w/ other format for more money, he is packaged good.
do u wan 2 work with me. i have lots of maga we can work with for the big jobs. one love bro.

I send this from the Jim Edward account, in the random hope of provoking the real lad to respond. I'm also setting the seed of a plot-line by hinting that my victim character is also in the middle of another scam. A throwaway reference if it falls flat, or the chance for an interesting development. That is, assuming the real lad takes any notice. So far, I have had zero email messages and zero telephone messages left for Jim Edward, despite the "investigation" that is going on.

The text of the message was stolen from various places throughout the forums here. I would love to be able to type Nigerian pidgin fluently, but so far I'm not able to so it's c&p from other sources!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:39:57 -0400

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your mail with content noted. People like Mr. Jim Edward are the ones the bank is watching out for. We spend money to monitor our online services and update them with time just to stop people like them from getting into the bank database. I think this man was able to hack into your email and got details of your transfer. Otherwise there’s no other way he got to know about it.

Our team will surely find out who this man is. You are required to send us the name and address you made payment to and a copy of the payment receipt if possible. For your security, do not respond to any mail you don’t know who the sender is. People like Edward, may device other means of getting money from you.

Finally, you are to adhere to the 14 working days as I stated in my previous message to you. We do hope you can come up with the required payment within this time range.

Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

Okay, so he's probably noted that Jim Edward is working my victim with another scam, which is where the "device other means" line comes from. But really . . . if the real lad knows that Jim Edward has been hooked in another scam, this is all very tame. He should be warning me off EVERY other email correspondent I have! Which makes me wonder about what kind of lad this is. The whole tone and the fact that he's been patient with me for over 6 months means he is quite special and not at all like the typical scammer who resorts to threats and insults when things go on for this length of time. And he oh so polite about it!

Deadline again, which is not a good thing to read, but he's asking about the other person, the one who received my payments. This is another chance to urge some lad-to-lad correspondence, futile as I know it will be.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:35:17 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

Apologies for not replying sooner. I had some urgent business and it took all of my time to sort out.

In response to your last email where you asked for the name and address of the person I made the payments to... both payments were to a "Ken Ike" and there was no detailed address, but he was based in London. I was also given an email address for him in case I had trouble making the payment, but I never had to use it so I never really communicated with him directly. I only ever wrote and spoke to Jim Edward.

How is the investigation into that matter getting along? I hope you and your bank colleagues can help bring this man to justice. I suspect he is making thousands of British pounds every week by simply intercepting people's emails and stealing money. What an absolute leech on society he is!

I am working on raising another £600 for the proper bank payment. I have a few ideas, and will let you know as soon as I have something definite.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

Total delaying and stalling. Again, as you might be able to guess, I'm being very vague simply because I don't have a definite plan in mind. I really want him to get in touch with Jim Edward (and now Ken Ike) where a different direction can be taken, but I also realize that this is very unlikely to happen (for me, anyway!). What to do? Well, be vague, offer promises about stuff that will happen in the near future, continue to act like a victim who believes the whole story without even a trace of doubt. This is probably the most boring part of the bait so far. Nothing is deliberately happening, and not in a good, baiting way.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:43:04 -0400

Attention,

Thanks for writing me Mr. R1ch4rd. We are working hard to find this man. It would have been a lot easier for the investigation team if they had the address you sent the money to. This man is smart. He left very few traces. Well, the investigation team will do their work and come up with good results.

Regarding your account activation, remember you have been given a stipulated time to make the payment. We are only few days away to it. We do hope that you come up with it before that time.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as

I know, I know, your deadline is very near, Mr Harris0n. But what can I do? You won't contact Mr Jim Edward (scared?) by email or phone message, and I'm all out of other ideas for the moment.

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:28:54 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

How are you today? Things are okay here. Not great, but okay.

It is reassuring to know that your bank is working hard to find this Mr Jim Edward. I am starting to suspect that this is not even his real name. This is probably the most likely thing, yes? I was told about internet fraud stars last year when a man from the CIA was in contact with me. I didn't believe him then; I thought that I would have to be really stupid to be victim to one of these fraud stars, but amazingly and surprisingly, it happened without me even being aware of it!

Anyway, you asked for an address where I sent the money? All I had was a name (Ken Ike) and "London". That's all the Western Union station needed to process the payment. The email address I was given for Mr Ike was <[email protected]>. Jim Edward said that Mr Ike worked at City Bank and they were dealing with the payment side of things.
Well, I hope that extra information can help you find this man. Or men. Maybe they are working as a team?

As for getting the money for your payment... I have something that is in the process of coming to fruition. I am in contact with a US soldier in Iraq who has a small amount of money (he calls it small, I call it decent!) that he wants to get out of the country. It's all very secret and I'm sure that it's not very legal, either, but he and I are getting to be good friends and I want to help him, no matter what the risk is. In return, he said he'll give me a small share of his money. Not a large amount, I mean I'm not talking millions here! No, I mean just a few thousand, which is fair enough and I'm okay with that because it means I can pay the bank charges and also have a little left over to treat my family. We are very close to getting this completed, probably in the next few days. I'll let you know when it's done, okay?

best regards,
R1ch4rd

Can I get any more obvious than this? First, I give him the address for the payment officer character (again, one of my email addresses). Then I tell him the most blatant "soldier in Iraq" format and say that I'm relying on this for his payment. Add that to the Jim Edward email in which he says that my victim is hooked in a few other of Mr Edward's scams, and the real lad really should be putting it all together and realizing that the payment is probably not going to be coming his way if I am relying totally on Jim Edward's scam coming good. If this doesn't work, I give up.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:29:43 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

I have not heard from you or from anyone else at your bank. I guess this means that no progress has been made in looking for Jim Edward or Ken Ike. That is a depressing thought. These men have my money and probably stolen money from many other people, too! Please, I urge you and your investigators, do your very best to find these people. They are evil and they should not be allowed to continue their illegal and immoral acts.

In other news, I am very close to getting the money for your bank charges. Please let me know when the exact deadline is so I can arrange things so that I don't miss it.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

No reply for 5 days. He's left it this long before, making me panic into "Oh no, he's dropped me finally!" mode many times, so I'm going to stay calm and wait. And still no email or phone messages to either of my other characters. These silences are annoying.

Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:00 am

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:11:21 -0400

Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for writing me Mr. R1ch4rd. Our investigation team is working with the information your provided so far, they have not been able to come up with concrete details about Jim Edward.

Regarding your payment for account, your deadline ends in four working days from today June 25, 2008. We strongly advice that you meet up with this date to save yourself the trouble of payment extra for late activation.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Harris0n Doug1as

I'm slightly surprised that his "investigation team" has not been able to find anything about Jim Edward. I was expecting at least some evidence that he really is an online fraud star.

And the deadline is looming, oh no! Now, if I were in the lad's position, I would definitely not be enforcing deadlines this far in. It would make no sense to impose a deadline and then definitely drop a victim simply because he failed to meet it after dealing with him for so long. Therefore . . . if I credit a little bit of thought and intelligence to this particular lad, I should really treat the deadlines as just a way of hurrying up the payment and they aren't really final ultimatums. Which means if I can provide a valid excuse for missing them each time, he ought to issue a new one and not really make good in any threat to cancel the transaction. I'm hoping, anyway. It assumes that the lad has a little bit of planning and thought going on.

And just because I was feeling slightly rebellious and mischievous that night, I decide to piece together another bit of taunting from the infamous Jim Edward . . .

I wrote:

Subject: R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, 25 June, 2008 10:38 PM
From: "Jim Edward" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

guy

u so weak w/ ur email to my maga Mr R1ch4rd! I am laugh at ur little skill for handlng. u think this maga get money for u?? dey 4 payout fro MMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYyy format bro! my format u hear okay? maga think he will get money from amercan soldier in iraq, he me playing amercan soldier ooooooooooooo
this maga make UUUUUUUUUU maga, bro. stop b4 u make big mistakes.
one love bro.

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:52:06 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for the update. It's a shame that your investigation team has been unable to find anything about this man Jim Edward. I guess everything he told me was false and he created those email addresses and telephone numbers just to appear as someone else. This is horrible and evil, and I truly hope that he has made a mistake somewhere and that your team will find it and catch him.

As for paying your bank fees, I must beg you or your managers for a little extra time. I told you about my soldier friend in Iraq, correct? Well, he and I are very near to getting things sorted out. Today, I will be sending him $150 so that my name will be entered on the List of Beneficiaries (it's some strange US Army thing---I don't understand it, but he sent me all the forms to fill in and it all looks okay) so I can receive a gift from him. Of course, that gift will be the reward he's promised me. So... if I send that today, then I should get his "gift" on Monday. And then.... I can send the £600 and everything can start to move forward again!
I'll write again on Monday when I have the money for you.

take care,
R1ch4rd

I'm still eager for the lad to write to Jim Edward, so this email is a big prod in that direction. He should also be starting (if he hasn't already) to realize that I'll probably not be in a position to send his £600 bank activation fee as I'm relying on fictitious money to get that payment. Thus causing more annoyance felt towards Jim Edward, I hope.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:44:06 -0400

Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for writing me Mr. R1ch4rd but really you do amaze me with this. If you have a 150 Dollars to send to an American soldier, then what is keeping you from sending 600 pounds for your account activation. To be candid Mr. R1ch4rd, I don’t think you are really ready to activate your online account to claim your funds.

As for Mr. Jim, he is a fraud star and our investigation team has advised that you watch out from strange emails from people you don’t know. This man may come back in other forms to collect money from you. After carefully reading reports from the investigation team, I’ll strongly advice that you discontinue all activity with this soldier. There are strong evidence from our investigation team that this man is back in other forms to get money from you. Take my advice.

If by the end of our deadline, you are not able to come up with all or part of your account activation fee, your transfer will be permanently suspended.

We advice that you take necessary actions now.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

The politeness shown by this lad throughout the whole bait is still a thing of mystery, wonder, and beauty to me. Most would have resorted to insults and dropped the ultra-politeness by now, but not this lad. He doesn't even come straight out and say it directly; that Jim Edward is scamming me again using the US soldier modality. It's all hinting and implying. For once, why doesn't he just swear at me!

However, the logic shown at the start is slightly patchy. Asking how if I can afford $150 (about £75-80)then how can I not afford £600? Um, maybe because it's MORE, I dunno?

But then . . .

Scammer wrote:

i hail oh. my chairman
Date: Friday, 27 June, 2008 9:42 AM
From: "David Roy" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

for your mind em, you think say you smart abi.. na die you dey so. no one love for this matter. you know the rules. guy you don fork up. you shall not conner that na wetin the rule talk. that na small bread shall oh but you must contact for the matter so. u like come back to your home abi? duplo or wetin you call yourself. believe me, you must contact.

Contact!

I post this in the Help forum to get some opinions on what it means, and the answers I get confirm what I think he's saying to me. Basically, it's a veiled threat about how Jim Edward shouldn't steal R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx, it's against the 'rules', and Mr Edward should contact the real lad . . perhaps for collaboration on future jobs or maybe just more abuse, it doesn't say.

Notice the different email address. I wonder why he didn't simply reply from the account that Jim Edward's email was sent to (the Harris0n Doug1as one). Who is David Roy? Is that another character in another scam that this lad is running? There's a very small chance it's his real name, I guess, but when I saw "small" I really mean "so vanishingly minuscule it doesn't even register on a sub-atomic scale". Still not a zero chance, though!

I wonder, at this point, if I should reply or not. It would mean attempting to write in Nigerian pidgin, and by the looks of "David Roy"'s use of it, he's not merely throwing in a few words here and there on top of, basically, an English sentence, but appears quite fluent and native-like in both lexis and syntax. I decide to ignore his reply and see if he'll send anything again when he gets no response.

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:50:56 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Doug1as Harris0n,

How do I amaze you? I have the $150. That is approximately £75. That is only 12.5% of the £600 your bank requires. What, you will be happy with £75 and that will be okay and when I send it you will start the transaction for me? I think that is not going to happen and your bank will still demand the remaining £525 before anything happens.

But look at what IS going to happen. I send Sgt Reeves the $150 (£75), and in return he sends me the several thousand dollars he promised. From THAT money I can then give your bank the £600 (about $1200) for the activation fees.

It's really that simple. There is nothing to be amazed by it, nor is it an irrational course of action. It is perfectly logical and the best thing to do. This all rests on you and the bank wanting the full amount, not merely £75. I hope you can see this now.

And how can I not be ready? I've waited long enough and I'm now doing so much to get this damned activation fee. Don't EVER tell me I'm not ready, you have no idea what stress and hardships I'm going through to get this sorted out. I've already lost money, as you already know, and I'm recovering from a domestic disaster, and my wife is not very happy with me because of everything (although my daughters have been a great support, bless them both). This is a very stressful time for me, so please don't insult me by telling what I am and what I am not.

And as for your suspicions about Sgt Reeves. Okay, I will take that under advisement, but what do I do in the meantime? If I tell Sgt Reeves that he's a fraud star, that he's really Jim Edward in disguise (as you appear to be implying he is), then what do I do for your activation fee? What if he's real and I am really going to get this money (which I think I am---I'm just exploring the possibilities here)? I'm relying on Sgt Reeves to get the money for you, and here you are telling me to forget him totally because he's fake? And all the time you're saying "Give me the payment!" This is highly illogical and makes no sense. I do wonder if you're thinking things through properly here, Mr Doug1as Harris0n. I don't want to insult your intelligence, as you're clearly a man who's attained a high position in a career that demands intelligence, but seriously... your reasoning in this matter leaves me scratching my head in wonder.

Okay, so let's say I disbelieve Sgt Reeves. What then? Where will the £600 magically appear from? Tell me that, please.

regards,
R1ch4rd

A gentle slap for all of the silly suggestions he's been making recently. Also, I use this chance to layout (once again) the outline of the plot I want him to believe. Rather than simply stating it all as fact, I frame it so that it's in contrast to how the lad would like things to go, and point out that the way my plan will work is much better than his, so dismissing his own script/plans/wishes for a believable reason.

Towards the end I get a little tied up with indignation so I feel I need to write a final paragraph that gets right to the heart of my objection and lays it out in simple terms that (I hope) will get his attention.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:30:50 -0400

Thanks for your prompt response my dear friend. Beside bank transfers, we do render advise to customers who want to going to business. In your case Mr. R1ch4rd, I have given you reports from our investigation department. These people are professionals in this. If you think you know Sgt. Reeves and believe he’s going to send you money, please go ahead. Our investigation team maybe wrong.

Please do go ahead with your business with this man and we do hope it profits you.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

Is he saying "Go on with what you're doing, but don't say I didn't warn you"? I can't be putting up with that sort of attitude!

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:57:30 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

Did I detect some sarcasm in your last email? Are you basically saying to me "Okay, I've done my best, you go and find out for yourself the truth about Sgt Reeves"?

I'm not an unreasonable man, Mr Harris0n Doug1as. I will listen to other people's advice but only if it's supported by solid evidence (otherwise anyone with a silly idea could come along and persuade me it's right). If your investigation team has solid proof that Sgt Reeves is not who he says he is, then I would like to look at it and think about it. If they are right (and they might be, I'm not saying they aren't), then right now it's not too late for me to back out of this thing with the Sergeant and separate myself from it totally. So, please, ask them if they would be willing to send me what evidence they've found. I want to know the truth just as much as I want Jim Edward prosecuted.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

But it's also a great lever into suggesting that the "investigation team" get off their lazy backsides and contact me with their findings so far! And that's what I do.

Notice, too, that any talk of the money and deadlines has (temporarily) stopped. This has got to be good news, as we're now working almost entirely in the plot that I created and we've gone off the lad's.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:15:20 -0400

Thanks once again for your prompt response to my mail Mr. R1ch4rd. The content of your mail was noted. This is my last word to you regarding this matter. Please change your email contact address. It will save you a lot of trouble.

Our investigation team will contact you. I forwarded your last email to them.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

He must have read my mind, as this is his "last word [… on] this matter."

I already have an alternative email address set up for R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx for when I was dealing with P3rry M0rgan and his vanishing emails (it seems so long ago! Difficult to imagine this is the same bait), so it's no real bother to simply switch to that account if I have to.

I wrote:

Subject: New Email to use
Date: Friday, June 27, 2008 5:53 PM
From: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for your last email.

Please pass this email address on to your investigation team for them to contact me with.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I send an email from that other account, along with a small prompt to get something from the "investigation team". I know that if I can start a dialogue with some new character from this investigation team, it will be a new outlet for wasting more time. It's getting that foot in the door that's proving difficult.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 09:09:21 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx (My advise)
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Did you receive my new email address for the investigation team to use? I have heard nothing from them, and from the tone of your message I was expecting that they had some important information for me. For that reason, I was waiting until I heard something from them before I moved on and made the bank fee payment. But now... they haven't sent me anything and I'm guessing that the deadline has expired. I wish I had known beforehand.

Please let me know what I should do now. Do I wait for the investigation team to contact me?

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I let the Friday deadline go by deliberately because I have a valid (but fairly weak) excuse to do so.

By now, anyone who has been following this (and my notes especially) will recognize the tactic I use here at the end. Play at being slightly clueless (but justifiably so!) and make it appear that I am passing the control to the lad by asking him what I should do next. First, it makes me appear reliant on the lad and a bit on the gullible side. Second, it shows that I'm still eager to get this completed and despite the obstacles (my obstacles, but I'm trying to make them look like obstacles imposed from outside my control) I am willing to do anything that needs to be done. What a perfect victim I am!

Scammer wrote:

From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Act ASAP
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 05:44:00 -0400

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Your email was received with content noted. Your email address have since been forwarded to the investigation department. It may take up to few days or more than a week before you get response from them. That’s why I got a written report from them and explained it to you in my previous mail.

Mr. R1ch4rd, your deadline expired yesterday but you still have till this weekend to make payment for your account activation. So I strongly advise that you send the required payment before Saturday. Your have the payment instructions so act ASAP.

Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

The deadline expired but I still have time to make the payment? How convenient! But more importantly, I hope it adds evidence to what I noted earlier about how it would be incredibly silly just to drop me at this stage because I missed one of his deadlines. Yeah, sure, drop me because you finally realized I was messing with you all this time, but not just because some arbitrary deadline wasn't met. I'm hoping he's got enough rationality to think this way.

He also sends the above message to my alternative address, so I decide to use that from now on.

I wrote:

Subject: Re: Act ASAP
Date: Thursday, July 3, 2008 2:56 PM
From: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

As you can see, I have received your email at my alternative address. I will cease communicating with you or the investigation team from my other account, for obvious reasons.

Sir, I have to ask you something and I hope you can reply quickly so that I can still make the deadline

I went to the WU station this morning to pay the bank fee (I managed to borrow the money from my sister). Apparently, my name has been put on the WU system as a potential associate of CRIMINALS. I mean, what the hell?!??! I got very upset and I demanded to see the manager. He came and took me into his office and explained that the system had flagged me as such because the person who were collecting Jim Edward's payments (Ken Ike of City Bank UK) had been arrested in connection with online scams and money laundering. Therefore, the manager said, anyone who was known to have sent money to that man in the past two months was automatically put under suspicion. Naturally, I protested as loudly as I could and said that I'm not a criminal and don't know any, but he said that he can't override the WU system as this is a company-wide policy.

He said that if I wanted to send my payment (the one I want to pay to your bank, that is), then I can do so, but it will have to go through extra security checks at both ends, mine and the receiver's. So......... basically, I'm asking if you agree to the extra security process that my payment will have to go through. I want to inform you first and ask if you're willing to do this instead of just going ahead and dumping it on you without warning.

I hate Jim Edward. He is slowly ruining my life, I know realize. How can these people be allowed to stay free and work their evil deeds on innocent people? I hope your investigation team comes up with someone positive to help catch him.

Let me know very soon if you agree to the extra security and I will put the payment through as soon as I read your reply if you do agree.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

Time to put the Jim Edward matter to even more good use. My thought here is that I can get the lad to do some security stuff (maybe an M7CN Secure or some forms or both and more!), but first I have to build up to it. Throwing some forms at him without any warning might scare him off, and also I'm getting some extra few days by asking his permission. Yes, asking his permission to waste his time!

I'm using the WU Manager as the person who is imposing the obstacle here, so even if the lad gets annoyed or (unlikely as it is) angry at me, it's pointless ranting and raving at my character because he's not the one who is in control of this situation; it's the WU Manager who has the final say on the payment being allowed. The WU Manager is someone in authority in a company that obviously has guidelines and policies, so the lad should see it’s pointless arguing to change them. And also he's someone who is almost definitely aware of email scams, and the lad wouldn't want to blow his own scam by wanting to get in contact and explaining the situation to the WU Manager. In short, I feel quite confident that the lad will accept what I'm telling him and will try to work around it with a very limited range of options available to him.

Scammer wrote:

Subject: Act ASAP
Date: Friday, July 4, 2008 5:58 AM
From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Attention: Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Your email was received with content noted. I’m glad you are making efforts to activate your account. The last time you tried using WESTERN UNION, issues like this came up. Due to the limited time that you have to meet up with the deadline, I’ll advise to you use the MONEY GRAM means of money transfer so you can meet up with the deadline. Remember, it’s just tomorrow. I need to talk with my superior offices before I say yes to your mail. So stick to my advice. Send the payment as I directed above.

Thanks for writing and we hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Harris0n Doug1as

The first part of this email is great. It really looks like he believes I'm still genuine and willing to give him my money. Also, he remembers what had happened before, which reinforces my current story.

The bad part is that he's trying to get around the "security procedure" by suggesting I use Moneygram. All is not lost, though, because by him doing this, he's actually laying down a foundation for some more stalling. Rather than agreeing immediately (I won't take a "no" on this issue!), he's giving me an excuse to prolong this bait by a few more days as we haggle over the completion of the "security procedures". Thanks!

I wrote:

Subject: Re: Act ASAP
Date: Friday, July 4, 2008 10:22 AM
From: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

Thank you for a very swift reply.

I appreciate your suggestion to use Moneygram instead of Western Union, but I think I remember from last time that the two companies share the same list of "suspect" people. I guess this makes sense if they want to protect themselves from known criminals, but in my case (because I'm not a known criminal) it's just plain frustrating.

Anyway, irregardless of that, I have already paid the fee into the Western Union system and it is awaiting clearance once the extra security process has been completed. Once that's done, I'll get the MTCN, receipt, etc, and things will be ready for pick up.
From my end, I had to provide two character references that would speak to my honesty and integrity, then I had to fill in a form that asked many questions, and finally I was interviewed for about 15 minutes. I really think they didn't find anything suspicious... how could they, after all? I have nothing suspicious in my past, and if I have associated with criminals (Jim Edward, Ken Ike) then it was purely unintentional and I have no connection to them.

From your end---well, the receiver's end---the process requires that the receiver fill out a form. It looks very much like the one that I had to complete, with just a few differences I notice. I hope you can forward this to your payments receiver and have them fill this out as quickly as possible and return it. As soon as I receive it, I will hurry to the Western Union station and I really believe that this will be the end of their doubts and they will believe that I am innocent of all the suspicions they have about me.

Please find the form attached to this email. If you have problems opening it, contact me immediately so that we don't waste any more time.

regards,
R1ch4rd

I attach one of Nurse Nasty's forms, converted into a PDF document. I could have attached a junk file at first, hoping that he'd reply saying that he couldn't open it and then I'd have to send it again, thus wasting more time, but I think at this stage he would most likely use the junk file as an excuse to get out of doing what I want him to do. It's the sort of decision where you have to weigh up what you think the lad will most likely respond with, with what you would ideally like. And then meet somewhere in the middle. Sending a readable file right at the start, I decided, would be the best course of action considering the delays and the lad's behaviour so far. Given other circumstances, a corrupt junk file might be the better option. Just not in this one, in my opinion.

The "WU and MG share the same blacklist" thing is something I've used many times in other baits. It makes sense (and might even be true, I don't know!) and it's perfect for channelling the bait into the direction you want, if what you plot demands is that your character can use only one of the payment services.

To show that I'm not dumping extra work on the lad unfairly (and make it seem less of a burden for him to complete), I make a mention of my own share of the security process. It's basically saying "See? I'm having to do stuff, too!" and in this case I've had to do even more than I am asking of him (the interview and the character references on top of the form).

I wrote:

Subject: Re: Act ASAP
Date: Friday, July 4, 2008 8:45 PM
From: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

I've heard nothing from you, the deadline has expired, what am I going to do???

Do you manage to open the attachment in my last email? Did you pass the form on to your payment officer? Have they started to fill it out yet? Please, I don't want to lose the winning fund, I'm so near to getting it. I don't understand why there are these silly deadlines; they're unfair and you know what sort of really bad luck I've had recently. Deadlines just compound the bad luck and make things awkward. I'm so worried, I feel I'm so close but things are just moving slowly out of my reach.

Please let me know and put my mind at ease.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

It's only been 10 hours since I sent the form to him, but my character really believes there's a deadline and that there's real money at stake here, so the obvious reaction is to be panicked and wonder why he's heard nothing from the bank manager when this deadline is so on top of him.

Scammer wrote:

Subject: Act ASAP
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008 4:35 AM
From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>

Attention: R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for your response to my mail. The western union security form you sent was received. Please note that today is Saturday. The payment officer is not around to fill out this form. He will be around on Monday but then will be too late for you my dear friend. Your payment has to be registered first thing on Monday morning. Even if the security form is filled very early on Monday morning and it's returned back to you, it may take some time before the transfer details gets to bank from you. I would have love to fill the form but I’m not authorize to.

Your payment needs to be registered first thing at 8am. So I’ll advise that you contact the western union office to cancel the transfer. If they think you have criminal records with them, please send your wife to the money gram office with the payment details. Your payment needs to be received today. Please stick to that advice. That will save you a lot of stress.

Best regards,

Harris0n Doug1as.

Oh, lazy lazy lazy! Good excuse, though. I should have seen this one and planned to meet it or cut it off. When I think about it, his response is perfect, almost baiter-like. This is one smart lad here.

But not that smart . . .

I wrote:

Subject: Re: Act ASAP
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008 12:00 PM
From: "R1ch4rd Xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Harris0n Doug1as,

I understood what you said in your email, but I can see a small flaw in your otherwise excellent plan.

We don't have an extra £600, so that means we'll have to take out the £600 that I paid earlier and then put it straight back in under a different name. Now, there is no way in the world am I going to assume that the staff at the Western Union are stupid. They'll know immediately what is happening here. It's already bad enough that I'm under suspicion of associating with criminals. The manager gave me a legal and official method to get the transfer done... what if one of us (me or my wife or a friend) is caught trying to bypass the method that the manager suggested I use? This is going to raise their suspicions way beyond what they already think of me. I think you have to appreciate the level of security and fear about terrorists and international criminals that this place here lives with.

Sorry, I don't mean to be abrasive like that, but this is slowly getting me very stressed out. Why is there a deadline? I mean... seriously, WHY? What's going to happen to the money if I don't claim it in a week? Is it going to explode? Will it turn toxic and threaten the lives of everyone nearby? NO! It's just going to sit there, maybe even accumulating interest for the company/person who is currently holding it. This deadline is just stupid and it serves no purpose at all. All it is doing is making me feel stressed and raising my blood pressure. I hate it, I hate everything about it, I just want things to go smoothly with none of these idiotic pressures coming down on me for no reason. If you could explain to me WHY there's a deadline then I might be able to accept it, but right now... I can't even imagine why such a stupid thing exists. It's just money, for Christ's sake! Money doesn't spoil, it doesn't decay, it doesn't turn sour, there's no inherent time-limit to how long the stuff lasts, so why a stupid deadline?

Sorry. You might be able to tell that the stress is really affecting me now. I used to pride myself on having no grey hairs when all my friends at the same age as me had many. Not now. This is turning me grey so quickly and I don't even want to know what it's doing to my heart.

Please, talk to your managers and explain that this deadline is pointless. Show them my email, you have my permission. Just let them give us enough time to do things properly. I do not want to do things behind the WU manager's back, because ultimately he's the guy at this stage who is in control. If he suspects me of having criminal intents (even more than he already does), then he has the power to ban me totally.

I need to lie down now.

regards,
R1ch4rd

Part of learning to be a baiter is acquiring the ability to turn situation either to your advantage or back on the lad so that you're still in control (by not immediately jumping at his instructions). Here, I use experiences from my character's recent past, that the lad ought to remember, to wriggle out of what had been imposed on me at the end of his last email. Again, as with the lad's wriggling out of completing the WU Security form, this is quite a valid excuse and fits perfectly in with what has already happened. There's no deus ex machine that drops out of the sky to put another obstacle in my way, but instead everything smoothly flows on from events in the past. Have I mentioned this before? I can't remember. Anyway . . . if given the choice between dropping in a random and out-of-nowhere excuse or creating an excuse that emerges naturally and seamlessly from what has already occurred, I always try to pick the latter option. It seems less, well, random, more natural and less open to question (main questions avoided being "Are you an online joker? Are you serious?"). While it's fun to throw in the quirky and strange excuse every so often, if the aim is to appear like a perfect victim, then the more natural excuses are definitely better. First, they seem less like stuff you've just made up on the spot. Second, they serve to enhance that feeling of continuity. You want it appear as if your character to be living a life that exists 24hours a day, not only the minutes it takes to write a reply, so when stuff from the recent past creates a coherent and continuous storyline from past to present (to future), this image of a real live person is given a little boost. Being attacked by dinosaurs on the way to the WU can wait for now.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:12 pm

I wrote:

Subject: Re: Act ASAP
Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 8:10 AM
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
To: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr Harris0n Doug1as,

Please let me know what is happening. These long silences are worrying.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

Silences are worrying! As I've said before, I always work with the idea that I could be dropped at any time. But when it becomes a real possibility, that's whole different matter!

Anyway, in a very short email, I reinforce the impression that I'm eager to get this procedure done. Implicitly, I'm putting the blame for the delay on the lad, taking it off my character, making him look innocent and willing.

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 20:53:08 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin M00re,

I have been dealing with Mr Harris0n Doug1as for the past few weeks, but he is imposing many deadlines for no obvious reason. Why is he doing this? What is the point of these deadlines? Will the money expire? No! Money doesn't rot or go bad. Is there a charge for storing money? No! Banks actually GIVE YOU MONEY when you store money with them (it's called "interest"). So... why is Harris0n Doug1as giving me these unfair deadlines when he knows that I have had some really bad luck recently and delays should be expected. I've worked my arse off trying to get things worked out and yet... I don't know what to think. It's almost like he has some hidden motive for getting his hands on my activation fee as soon as possible.

Please contact him and have a word with him on my behalf, Ke1vin. You've always been understanding towards me in the past and I hope you still are.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

P.S. I was actually waiting for Mr Harris0n Doug1as to return some Western Union security forms to me. The activation fee is in the WU system but it won't be released until a few simple security procedures are done (long story, I'll tell you about it if you ask, but I won't bore you with it unless you want me to). All Mr Harris0n Doug1as had to do was return the form. I'm not sure why he's now delaying things and then blaming me for not meeting his unfair deadline.

A not-so-subtle recap of the situation telling him how easy my plan is for him to get my money. But why isn't he doing it? He doesn't seem to want to fill in those forms but that's all he has to do to get the money! This is extreme laziness or there's something else going on. I'm voting for laziness.

The P.S. is my chance to go over again how easy this all is and make sure he knows it. The silence from Harris0n Doug1as could be because he hasn't understood the procedure I want him to do with the forms. Sure, the instructions were clear (I think so, anyway!) but it's very possible he misread them and so is reluctant to complete the forms. Instead of complaining to Harris0n Doug1as, if I write to Ke1vin M00re it gives me the chance to believably recap the instructions. Having multiple characters, on the baiter side on the lad's side, should be exploited whenever you need to. Here, as I said, I use them to reinforce some points without making it look like I'm repeating for the sake of repeating, but there are many other uses. Most common of which is to create some tension between the lad's characters, mainly for personal amusement, but sometimes a further distraction can be squeezed out of it. My published "Avoid 1st- and 2nd-person pronouns" bait uses this to waste the first four or so months of a bait quite effectively.

Scammer wrote:

Subject: Attention!!!
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:50 PM
From: "Harris0n Doug1as" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Attention Mr. R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx.

I have not responded to your mail because I was having talks with my boss. Please understand what your transfer is taking more time. Note that your money is not yielding any interest here. After your funds was deposited with us and you were supposed to have transferred it one or two weeks after that but it has taken more than three months. What we benefit from this is the commission you pay to us on transfer and online account you activate with our bank. It is doing us no good to keep your money here. It’s like problem to us. That is why you keep getting deadlines. They are to make you act fast.

Well, after talks with my boss he agreed to allow me handle this my own way. So please, I’ll advise that you act as I have directed to facilitate speedy transfer of your funds. Your problem with us is that you always fail to act to my instructions. Before you made the payment through the WU, I remember asking you to use Money gram. Now that you have paid in the money through WU, please contact the WU office to request for your funds stating that you now longer want the transfer. They will remit your funds to you.

I have decide that your payment be sent to Mr. Ke1vin M00re. They will register your payment and send it over to us. We have spoken with them on this and they have agreed to receive your payment. So, contact Mr. Ke1vin M00re for information no how to send the account activation fee to them.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Harris0n Doug1as

Yes, my problem is that I want to do things my own way and not follow his instructions. How can he tell???

And the money isn't yielding interest?? It's half a million! You could be living a decent life from the interest on that! Bad financial planning at the bank, that's their problem.

I really hope that he's passing me back to Ke1vin M00re because having to log in to the Harris0n Doug1as email as well as whatever other accounts he's monitoring for any other scams he's running is starting to frustrate him. And cost him money, too.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:35:52 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

Thanks for writing me. I have spoken to Mr. Harris0n about this. To that regard, it was agreed that you make payment for your account activation to our office. Please see payment information below

Your fee should be sent to

Mr. Fxxxx Rxx,
Address: 3xx Bxxxxxxxxx Rxxx
Bxxxxxxxxx Wxxx Mxxxxxxx Bxx xxX, United Kingdom.

The address above is our cash office address. Please direct your payment to the above named person. Details of payment and a scanned copy of your payment receipt should be sent to me.

I was informed by the bank that you have since make payment via Western Union and i was also informed that you have been asked to contact the Western Union office to cancel your transfer. Please act as you have been directed. I really can't believe that your transfer is still pending till date. You are lucky you know.

Best regards,

Ke1vin M00re.

I've XXXXed the name and address out as a quick search shows that this is a genuine postal address. Google Earth shows an area that's full of ordinary houses and not somewhere you would expect to find a bank or financial office. It's possible that this is an innocent person who's receiving payments for this lad. It's impossible to tell, but since there's no way of knowing if this is an innocent person, I've obscured the details.

I'm lucky, he says? I know! My second-longest lotto bait only lasted half this time!
What amazes me about this, though, is how calm and non-threatening he is about the time that's passed so far. Most lads I've dealt with would have resorted to something more drastic by now. Or simply given up. As I've mentioned in other updates, it's difficult to know how much of this is because I've straight-baited him to perfection and how much is owed to the lad's own personality and method of scamming. Of course, my straight-baiting can't have hurt!

I wrote:

Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:17:54 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Mr M00re,

Thank you for your reply.

As I explained to Harris0n Doug1as, cancelling the payment and then putting it back in is probably the most suspicious of all things I could do.

I'm already under suspicion of associating with criminals (which is not true, but how do I prove this to the WU staff??). The manager of the branch where my money is currently being held suggested a course of action to me. How will it look to him (and his superiors) if I ignore his suggestion and try to do something to bypass all of the security procedures? I think this will make me look EVEN MORE suspicious, in their eyes.

Please understand what I'm trying to explain here. I have no wish to be interrogated at the WU office once again if I try to take out the money and then pay it back in using a different name. That just REEKS of suspicious activity.

Harris0n Doug1as, at the time of my writing this, had has plenty of time to get the form delivered to his payment officer and get it back. That's all that is holding this up. Complete the form, send it back to me, and then the WU manager will authorize the release of the money that is being held there. This way, I get NO MORE suspicion directed at me, and it looks like I'm innocent because I'm following the manager's suggestions perfectly.

I can't understand why Harris0n Doug1as is delaying me like this AND suggesting that I take even more risks while he sits in his comfortable office and just issues orders to everyone.

Try to reason with him, Ke1vin, for my sake. Please?

regards,
R1ch4rd

And time to exploit the two-character set-up again. I put a little suspicion on Harris0n Doug1as and wonder why it is this character who is delaying everything, not my character. But he just doesn't seem to understand the current situation. There's no way I could do as he asks because ... well, I've already explained several times about my being under suspicion. And yet, he disregards this and asks me to act like a criminal. All simply to avoid filling in that form. It's frustrating, but I try once more to outline the situation, and restate the very simply, very easy, painless, suspicion-free method of getting the money to him.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:36:20 +0000

Thanks for writing me once again Mr. R1ch4rd. I really do understand your point. I spoke with Mr. Harris0n after reading your mail. What he wants you to do is call back the money you have paid through the western union then use another means to transfer the money to our payment office. Other means like Money gram as he suggested. Please note that we have taken charge of your account activation process since the bank has not been able to work out things with you.

To that regard, please contact the WU as you refer to it, cancel your transfer requesting that your money be paid back to you, then transfer the amount via money gram using the instructions I provided in my previous mail to you. No body at the western union office will question why you choose to cancel the transfer.

I do hope this put as end to this and we are able to work our your account activation and transfer in few days from now.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Ke1vin M00re.

Ah! He still doesn't want to do what I ask! Why not?!? It's just six pages, it's not like I've asked him to write a novel or anything! Never mind, though. If I want to keep him I guess I'll have to work with what he's giving me.

And what he's given me, I can reliably predict, is a payment-deadend! Of course, Western Union and Moneygram, in the spirit of sharing valuable information and preventing terrorism, share the same database of "suspect" people. If my name is flagged at WU then there's no question that the Moneygram staff will see that, too. Why repeat work? Sharing of knowledge is the way forward! I've used this excuse several times before to great effect. The important part is to explain the underlying concept of a common database that both companies use. Once the lad understands that bit, he usually sees the problem and things get easier. For me, that is. This problems will be hanging around for a little while longer!

I wrote:

Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:27:20 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear Ke1vin,

It is good to hear from you again.

Although Harris0n Doug1as was okay and quite professional, I found that he was always insisting that I do things exactly as he told me, with no accommodation for my specific circumstances. It was as if I were a one-legged man and being told to ride a bicycle. No matter how much I told him that I couldn't do what he was asking, he still insisted that I do everything literally to his instructions. Then, ironically, when I asked him to fill out the simple form for the Western Union manager's security procedure, he couldn't even follow that one easy instruction from me. Double standards, huh?

I am quite surprised that my fund has been transferred back to you now. All that I needed was that form from Mr Harris0n Doug1as's payment officer and then the activation fee would be released. Now... I'll have to take the money out again and we start all over again. I really do wonder about the purpose of these delays, if any. As the situation stood this time last week, one simple form was all that stood in the way of completion. But now...? *sigh* I don't know, it makes little sense to me.

Anyway, let me know what the new procedure is without any more delays.

thanks,
R1ch4rd

I try one more time. I explain how easy my own plan is. Once again. But to make it appear I'm still willing to proceed with this transaction, I try not to appear too stubborn so I end with a request that he tell me about his own method of continuing with this (ignoring the fact that he's already told me what to do in his last email!). Instead of forcing him down my own path, I'm simply laying out the options before him, highlighting the benefits of taking my route, and hoping that he's got enough sense to see how easy my route is. I think this has probably been my character's winning characteristic throughout the whole bait, I now realize. I've never tried to force the lad down one particular path in a dogmatic, rigid way. This is only one way of baiting, of course, but it appears to be working well with this lad.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:22:14 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

Thanks for writing me. My office took charge of this process to faciliate speedy transfer of your funds to your account. My last mail to you clearly stated what you are required to do. Call back your payment from the Western union. Use the Money gram, send payment to our cash office as i directed in my previous mail to you.

As soon as your payment is acknowledged here, we shall forward it to the bank who will then activate an online account for you.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Ke1vin M00re.

Ah, he noticed that I had overlooked his instructions.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:19:45 +0000

Hello Mr. R1ch4rd,

How are you today? We hope fine. This email is coming to you as a reminder that you have not sent the required payment for your account activation. We do not appreciate your silence over this matter now. We do hope to hear from you soon to enable us proceed.

Best regards,

Ke1vin M00re.

Real life takes a bit of a serious turn for me and I am unable to reply to any emails at all. A week of my silence goes by and he's still polite. A good sign---if I had been reading the emails at the time, of course!

But he doesn't follow up at all. It's not until 16 days after my character's last email that I can reply . . .

I wrote:

Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:10:15 +0100 (BST)
From: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hello Mr. R1ch4rd
To: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>

Dear sir,

I am the daughter of Mr R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx, and I have been asked to address any outstanding matters that he has.
My father was taken into the hospital three weeks ago with very bad chest pains and the doctors diagnosed that he was suffering from heart stress probably brought on by too many stressful things in his life. A week later dad got worse and he was taken into the intensive care unit where he still is. The doctors are running tests on him still to see what can be done if anything can be done. We are all very worried but in the few moments when he can talk to us properly he tells us that life still have to go on and we can't give up living just because he is ill. He has told me how to get into this email address and said that I should reply to anyone who he was writing to and explain what is happening.
Please let me know if I am writing to someone who still has business with my dad because it would make him feel better if all his business at home is completed in case......................... you know................ in case anything bad happens. I don't want to think about this too much but it has to be done. I love him a lot especially after I did something very wrong recently and I expected he would throw me out of his house but he didn't and instead we got very close because of it.
Sorry I am rambling but I hope you understand why. I am worried about dad and this is a horrible time for everyone here.
Please reply and put my mind at rest over any business you have with dad, okay?

tours,
Danielle xx Vxxxxx

P.S. I have an email of my own you can write to if you prefer I write from there.

Time to introduce another character! And also, try to explain away the silence with a fairly credible and not too outrageous excuse. I could have said I'd been skiing and gotten trapped in a minor avalanche for two weeks---which is fine as excuses go, but is probably not in keeping with the pace and tone of the bait so far. Consistency is something that adds to the lad's belief in how genuine you are, and staying very much in character (whatever that might be---wild or sedate) is a major contributor.

However, saying that, with a new character, it's also a great chance to break out into a new way of corresponding. For me, this is a good opportunity to switch roles and explore another character's personality. The lad might not notice if you keep the same writing style and mannerisms as the old character, but it's not guaranteed. He's going to be suspicious when a new character contacts him already, no matter how well he/she is acted, so to reduce the suspicions I try to adopt a new persona for the new character.

The other major point here is that this isn't really a new character, as such. My previous character has mentioned his family, and particularly his eldest daughter, several times and has even featured her as one of the main players in a few of his delay tactics, so the lad ought to feel a little at ease that this isn't just some random stranger contacting him and trying to take over the correspondence, but it's smooth and natural, being a logical progression based on the excuse I've just given. I try not to spell out the exact details of previous incidents---that would be way too obvious that I'm trying to show him the links that he should remember---but instead I'm being a little vague, hoping that just a little reference will jog his memory and he'll realize that this is a character he's met before, albeit indirectly. Subtle, that's the keyword here. Also, this is a new character, so how familiar will she be with some person she's never met before? She's not likely to unload a whole heap of personal details on a stranger, instead just making vague mentions of stuff. I really want the lad to think that this is a genuinely new character, and so I must wipe the character's mind of anything that she shouldn't know and of any behaviour that she wouldn't be likely to do, if this were at all real.

Keeping with the "vague and subtle" theme, I also don't mention anything about the details of the lottery winning. Instead, I try to hint that all this character has done is go into her dad's email account and contact anyone who's been having contact with her father. As well as being the way this character---were she real---would prpbably act, it also means that I can waste more time by having the lad go over all the details again to someone who doesn't have the first clue about what's taken place or knows what this is about. Result? It should add a few weeks of time-wasting! And maybe give me some opportunity for some confusion and errors and... you know, the usual delaying tactics.

Scammer wrote:

From: "Ke1vin M00re" <[email protected]>
To: "R1ch4rd xx Vxxxxx" <[email protected]>
Subject: Hello Danielle xx Vxxxxx
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:02:24 +0000

Hello Danielle xx Vxxxxx,

Thanks for writing me. I'm really very sorry about your dads present medical condition. I'm Mr. Ke1vin M00re your dad's claims agent. It will interest you to know if your father hasn't told you, that he won a lottery of 500,000 thousand Pounds still pending claims from your father. His claims file has been here for over seven months now waiting for him to claim his prize.

All your dad needs to do now to claim his prize to live a better life is to activate an online account for a bank wire transfer to his prefered bank account. This activation will cost him 600 Pounds. That is what is keeping your dad from living a better life.

Yes he told us lots of stories about you and the house and how much he loves his family, i must comend that you have a very lovely father. Someone i wish i had when i was growing up. Well, as a child to our lottery winner, you can claim the prize on behalf of your dad. We are allowing this since you contacted us via your dad's personal email account so we believe you are a true sibling of his.

You dad is required to send to our office the sum of 600 pounds for an online account activation. To claim that prize, please signify your interest on sending the required amount to us in your next mail so we can give you directives on how to send it to our office.

On behalf of the BETTER LIFE FAMILY, we wish your dad a speedy recovery.

Best regards,
Ke1vin M00re

Two days go by and I'm beginning to wonder if he's still with me. But then... yes! A great email reply! This is better than I could have hoped for. He sounds very patient, still, and appears to be willing to deal with the new character. The other good sign is that he recognizes who she is meant to be and, very importantly, that she is a genuine relative. (A "sibling of his" in his words, which is something I really don't want to think about!)

The other thing I pick up here and is a good sign is that he's spending a little bit of time on 'personal' stuff, commenting on what a great father she has and even talking about his own family/childhood. It's only minor, but it's a good sign. If he were just demanding and impressing on her the urgency of making the payment then that would be an obvious sign of impatience. That he's taking the time to add some personal touches shows he's not quite at the limit yet and is willing to accommodate to my character's feelings.

So... bait's still on! Of course, I'll wait a day or so before replying. Teenage girls have a social life and can't be answering emails as soon as they arrive...

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:59 pm

I KNEW this bait could not have been over Very Happy

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:02 pm

Until that last reply came in today, I was feeling a little disappointed that it had finally come to an end, and I was even---SHOCK!---looking for other likely lotto lads to start with.

But when I saw a message from Mr Moore... oh, the joy! The jubilation! The jumping up and down with total delight!

Trophy Videos · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:12 pm

Amazing, Otterfan! I was wondering how this was going...almost a year? Very Happy

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:17 pm

10 weeks away from a year. I'm hoping, really hoping...

The nice part is that he says that my winnings have been waiting only for 7 months.

Longest lotto straight-bait? Finished at 43 weeks	View next topic View previous topic