Special Feature: Messin’ with Scam Artists PART 3
If you didn’t read PART 1 or PART 2, here’s a brief review. I was contacted by a Nigerian scam artist telling me I had won $450,000. I sent them the address of the FBI and gave them the name of an Assistant Special Agent in Charge as my information. Still thinking I was buying into the scam, he told me I had to send $200 by Western Union wire transfer to him so that he could mail me the funds. I told him to just remove the $200 from the funds and send me the remaining $449,780. Not giving in, he told me the money was in check form and could not be withdrawn by him.
Here’s my reply:
Would you be so kind as to pay for the shipping? Once I receive the money, I will gladly pay you $1,000 for your courtesy as a debt of gratitude. I can hardly pay for my medication as it is and the money you are sending me will be very much needed. As you may know, $220 doesn’t go very far here.
Thank you for your kindness!
Aren’t I generous? But after I have my $450K, giving away $1000 is no big deal, right?
Amazingly, my friendly scam artist bought into this and met me more than halfway:
Attn:
I received the mail you sent to me, I will want you to know that I’m ready to help you with the shipment fee which is $220.
But right way i don’t have up to that amount in hand I can only come up with $120.00.
My advice for you is to come up with the remaining amount which is $100.00 to complete the shipment fee.
Am sorry that is what I can afford for now.
Get back to me as soon as possible.
Raymond
So this dirt bag is trying to get ANYTHING he can out of a poor sick old man, like myself, who can’t even afford his medication. Still, I made him negotiate with me. I liked how he apologized for not having enough.
Anyway, I sent back a short reply to let him know I was still hooked:
Please be patient. I should have enough money to cover $100 by tomorrow night.
Thank you!
Today I looked up Nigeria on Wikipedia. It says some of the people who respond to these scams are beaten up and murdered….fortunately, this only happens to people who fly to Nigeria to complete the deal [see FTC site]. Also, I gave them the FBI’s address. So I’m not too worried.
Today, I received a reply from the scammer letting me know he would wait until tomorrow to receive the, now, $100 and repeated the transaction details from PART 2, with the $220 replaced by $100.
So what should I do next? My plan is to tell him that I have a friend in Nigeria on a mission trip who would be glad to pick up the check for me as my agent. Then I ask him to send me an address where my friend should go to. I might also send a picture of my friend: An FBI Agent. Any other ideas?
August 29th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
The conclusion to this came shortly after.
I told him to that my friend would be in Nigeria on a mission trip and he had offered to pick up the check for me.
My “friend” would be a 6 or 7 feet tall white man who walked with a limp, had the virgin mary tatooted across his knuckles, had a scar across his right eye, and had hair like elvis.
The scam artist told me that that sounded good, except he left for London in a few days.
I told the scam artist that my friend would be there in 1 day, so it would work out perfectly. He would wear a blue shirt to help be identified. “Please just send me your address so he can find you.”
No reply!
The end.