People have been getting a lot more aggressive in attacking spam lately - by deleting spam comments as quickly as possible and banning the sender's IP, we have cut our problem down here to a dull roar.
But the Nigerian (insert other nation of origin here) money transfer scam is still going strong via email - who in God's name would fall for this mindlessly repetitive drivel at this point? Encino Man? Anyway, people have started messing with the spammers. I don't have the time or patience, but if enough people do things like this, these assholes may give up:
- It has been described as the internet's first blood sport and is fast becoming one of the web's favourite pastimes. Fed up with having their inboxes clogged with emails from Nigerian fraudsters promising untold riches, the victims are finally hitting back.
Scam-baiting - replying to the emails and stringing the con artists along with a view to humiliating them as much as possible - is becoming increasingly popular with more than 150 websites chronicling the often hilarious results.
Known as 419 fraud, after the section of the Nigerian penal code that it contravenes, the scam generates millions of pounds each year. According to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the average loss in the UK stands at around £35,000.
Mike, a 41-year-old computer engineer from Manchester, runs the scam-baiting site 419eater.com, which started two months ago. 'Almost always the scammer will think you are a real victim and try their best to extract money. It started because I used to get a few emails, and although I knew it was a scam I never knew how it worked. I did some research, found out about scam baiting and decided to have a go. It's now almost a full-time hobby for me.'
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Article comments
1 - jadester
it is really stupid - when will these scammers learn?
you nkow what i'm waiting for - an olympic event "hackathlon"
seriously, if multiplayer games could be a "proper" sport (tbh, i reckon they could), why not hacking? there are already a numebr of sites with hacking challenges/competitions which allow those of us with less knowledge to learn, and those of us who already know to show off our skills with no fear of arrest. A full-blown olympic event with some of the best hackers around having either a hacking war for a set time or a series of progressively harder challenges or something would be cool.
2 - Eric Olsen
Jadester is spoiling for a hack-fight
3 - Miss Existentialist
aol has the worst spam.
it is a wonder how they are still in business.