The Interview

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Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 4:11 pm

The Interview
This is my first published bait so please don't judge too harshly. This bait follows a similar format to Shiver's infamous baits which can be found in the Letters Archive. I received the scammer's usual scam letter which I replied with a Shiver standard 'Sorry I cannot help you at this time' reply.

The lad here is who for once spoke fairly decent English. I have lost his initial letter but it was a standard scam where he pretends to be an office of a genuine institution. I invented a fake news and media company called “TV Star News” based in Los Angeles.

I also invented a totally new character for the purpose of this bait. I came up with an entirely new modality and script using a potential job as the new Nigerian Correspondent for TV Star News, all he has to do is write three articles and gets his payday minus his future travel expenses of course.

My emails are written in blue and the lad's responses are written in red. My own commentary is written in bold black.

Quote:

Dear Mr Enwhistle
I'm sorry but I am unable to help you at this time, as I am a very busy journalist working for a small media company in Los Angeles.
I do however have an offer which you may be able to help me with. We need someone in West Africa who can write a report on life in West Africa for us.
We are only a small news and media company but we can pay up to $70,000 for a well written article. If you think you can help us, please reply to this email and I will send you more details of this job. If we are happy with your work you will be offered more work with us.
Thanks
Angela Davis,
TV Star News,
Los Angeles California

Quote:

Thank You ...

Yes am interested please give me more detail about it and let see
how we can work together .

Regard

James

The response was just what I wanted. A willing lad who has no script to fall back upon. The fact that he answered when it was ignored by other lads is promising.

Quote:

Dear Mr Entwhistle,
As you already know, my name is Angela Davis, I am the editor of TV Star News in California, we are were recently established by a very rich financial backer to offer unbiased news reports to the people of Los Angeles.

Our offer is to you is of you writing a series of reports about life in Africa, entitled Focus:Africa. In the west we are used to hearing horrible things about countries like Nigeria and Benin so we'd like to give the people the true good story from an African person.
If you agree to this we can pay you $4000 per story you write and up to $20,000 if it is a big story.
We will also publish your stories on our website once it has been built, it hasn't been built yet as we are only new.
If you are still interested please get back to me as soon as possible, this will make you famous!!! Only on 419eater!!! (I purposely left that out)
My regards,
Angela Davis,
Editor, TV Star News

And the lad replies…

Quote:

Dear Angela ,

Yes am interested to be part of the process but i have a request
which i will like to make to you first , I will like the to have part
of the money first (of course you do) to enable me to facilate the human resources which
will be needed for a true life story of an africa , most expecially i
will be center my focus on NIGERIA the giant city of black africa .
To say that this is a lad living in Nigeria he really needs to consult an atlas, the last time I checked Nigeria is a country, not a city.

If they will make availability of funds to me this week promise to
start action immediately and deliver to your company a good and most
read story of africa .

Regard

James

I was expecting was a beg for cash up front, which if the lads would know if they learnt from each other mistakes, is not company policy …

Quote:

Dear Mr Entwhistle,
Due to an extremely strict company policy created by our rich backer, we are unable to provide you with any money upfront as we do not yet know of your skills in journalism.

But upon the submission of your stories we will then know the level of your journalism skills. Please be aware that this can make you very rich but we must follow policy.

We can pay you $6,000 per story we ask for but we can only pay upon completion unfortunately.

Regards,
Angela Davis
Editor
TV Star News

This is as far as I have gotten up to since the weekend. I will post my replies and the lad's as the bait goes on. The next stage I'm going to keep quiet as I haven't finalised my script just yet but this will definitely become interesting.

I will also need another baiter to play an important character in this saga. The name of the bait will give a good clue. PS- You will need to be Cotonou based … Comments and Suggestions are welcome.

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 5:32 pm

Good luck, I have serious misgivings on you using a real life TV News person though.
I've never heard of Angela Davis, unless she is also the Angela Davis I remember from the 60's as a black activist.

A quick google found enough for me to suggest that using her is not a good idea, it is possible she will end up receiving threats in the future once the lad gets pissed off enough.

My thoughts only, others may not feel the same way.

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 5:45 pm

She's a real person? I honestly had no idea it was the first name I thought og when I wrote the script. I suppose I can just change the name next time I use this modality and for now introduce a replacement character to prevent the lad from trolling an innocent third party.

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:01 pm

^^^Yes. At the bare minimum, kill off this character and have another reporter come in for replacement. A search on the name provides several variants, including a BBC journalist that passed in December 2014.

IMO, it is better to drop this lad completely.

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:02 pm

I like your baiting angle Father Moleman and with any luck it will shed more light on Lad land.

If Angela Davis is a RL person, you could always have her seconded somewhere else and as you say just bring in her replacement.

Good luck

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:06 pm

It's a fun modality. I like the idea of just coming in as another character. Perhaps say that his note was so impressive that you, as a senior segment producer, are taking over. Then choose a name unlikely to be used by LA media people... Karla Noscoop?

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:07 pm

I've come uo with a new reporter with a name (Norman Thomas) which only shows two dead people if the lad googles it. I'll kill off Angela Davis, she waa fired for stealing ofice supplies.
@bware I'm not sure about dropping as I really think I've got this guy nailed down.
@tigerlilly- I'm hoping he'll put effort into the articles as I'm going to publish them here if I can get him to do them.
@padme- Thats a great idea I've made a note of your idea as I've not completely finished my script yet (I think this could be the first time it's been done) I'm gonna write it in as a reason why Mr Entwhistle's file was kept.

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:13 am

Just say that Angela Davis was a 'screen name'. Lots of tv personalities use a famous historical pseudo-name
At the local level...