A little more serious than scamming

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Sep 2015 Posts: 3

I am working with a client.
He is being blackmailed (Nothing illegal, just embarrassing)
By studying some of the nuances of the english, the usernames, etc, I have determined that it's a Nigerian.

He's using Youtube, Yahoo Mail, and LinkedIn... all of which are blocking every attempt outside of a warrant.

Any suggestions on how I can get the IP to verify my Nigerian Theory?

A few prank phone calls to scammers · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 4:45 pm

All three of those companies will produce IP addresses for the accounts in question with a subpoena. Contact your local police and file a report, but if it is in Nigeria the police will ultimately not be able to do anything.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Sep 2015 Posts: 3

Unfortunately, the local police will do nothing in regards to getting a warrant or subpoena.

We chose not to file an official report, as if we did it could become part of public inquiry.

I've had the account blocked from his LinkedIn, so the change of him contacting the client's connections has gone away (unless he's willing to research each contact by name from his cut and paste, find them all individually, add them as contacts, and inmail them....
Which I doubt.

My greater concern is getting the IP address blocked with Youtube (As the blackmail is a video that he's already posted on Youtube) .. I've reported, but they are slow as Christmas.

Master Baiter Joined: 03 May 2011 Posts: 237

Generally speaking, any attempt to involve local law enforcement will prove abortive. In short, there's not much they can do.

I'm going to assume by your post that this person may be involved in a blackmail/"sextortion" scam? If so, I would refer you to this forum: http://www.scamsurvivors.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

From what I've read about this type of scam, the best advice is simply to cease all communication. After all, threats are only effective if you respond to them.

I hope this helps.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Sep 2015 Posts: 3

You are correct.
Politicians and their pass-times! *rolls eyes*
This one unfortunately has some bite, and our little scammer knows it.
I'm blocking like mad, and have data miners running constantly looking for references to my client, his email, his data, and the file time....
Been working all day...

maybe some day the Oil will dry up in Nigeria and the gov't will finally accidentally break their internet.... permanently.

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:04 pm

Welcome to Eater RagnarTheDane. It is an unfortunate situation for your client, and I'm sorry to hear they are being blackmailed. Unfortunately, we are a baiting site, but there are victim resources out there.

RagnarTheDane wrote:

By studying some of the nuances of the english, the usernames, etc, I have determined that it's a Nigerian.

Are you a linguist by trade, or do you have a background in linguistics? How have you determined it is Nigeria? Most of us here write with West Africans daily, yet we could not narrow their language down to a single country with no other clues outside of what they have written.

Quote:

Politicians and their pass-times! *rolls eyes*

Let's keep politics off the board, okay? Especially since there was no mention of "politicians."

Quote:

maybe some day the Oil will dry up in Nigeria and the gov't will finally accidentally break their internet.... permanently.

Racism won't be allowed here. We will not condone condemning an entire nation, despite the criminals that might be located there. There are more innocent members of Nigeria than there are scammers.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

bware419ers wrote:

There are more innocent members of Nigeria than there are scammers.

Amen.

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:37 pm

There are several Niger-Congo languages spoken in Nigeria, some of which are also spoken in Cameroon and Benin. Hausa, which is not Niger-Congo, is spoken in northern Nigeria. Bantu is a major branch of Niger-Congo. There is no way to tell just by writing style whether a Ful speaker is in Nigeria or Cameroon, and a South African Bantu speaker's English may have more in common with a Nigerian Yoruba's than a Nigerian Hausa's does.

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:20 am

Welcome to Eater RtD.

I hate to say it, but based on the very limited information you have provided and what I presume many others here are reading between the lines, it sounds like your client is very short on options. If you won't go to law enforcement due to fear of public exposure, well, there's not much you can do to convince private media sites to remove the content.

I don't know what country you are in, but some countries have fairly strict anti-slander laws. Here in the US anything goes, just about, but it's different elsewhere. If you are an attorney I imagine you would know better than I about what would apply in your nation. Still, if you're not going to go to LE to begin with, well...

Honestly speaking? If the sex tape or whatever it is is already online, and your client is a public figure like a politician or whatever, you should probably just assume the information is going to come out eventually. He should go to cops, report what's going on and meanwhile take action in his personal life to address whatever the issue is as he deems appropriate, but it making amends with his spouse or family or whatever else is going on. I'm not trying to be harsh, I'm just saying that if its online, there's no putting that genie back in the lamp.

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 9:50 am

Hi Ragnar, welcome to Eater.

I second what everyone else has said-local law enforcement is essentially powerless in this situation and since your client wants to avoid them, there's little you can do to prosecute.

I strongly urge you or your client to contact staff at ScamWarners. This sort of blackmail is not new. The good news is that the scammers will soon move on. Getting YouTube and other sites to remove offensive content and blocking the scammers on skype, email and phone contact are all helpful. The staff at ScamWarners may have other suggestions on damage control.

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