Has someone offered you a huge sum of money or a valuable consignment? It's a 419 or advance fee fraud - find out how they work, and what to do to be safe.
by SeriousCat Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:08 pm
Hello, first post here.
So, for the first time during my wanderings on the internet somebody attempted to scam me.
It probably happened before but not so overtly.
I wanted to share the contact information to my little scammer if "she" (not sure of this one)
tries to do it to some other people.
She contacted me on skype first with the accountname [singlemoonforyou] and introduced herself as mary quaye from Ghana. She quickly insisted on moving on to messenger [[email protected]]. Luckily I jumped on my extra account so she didn't get my active adress.
The conversation started out normally but she quickly started asking about my family and wanted to know about my living arrangements and siblings and things. I made stuff up on the spot since I was just waiting for the "I need money for something" ploy.
So eventually she blurts out that she wants me to buy her a cellphone (what?) so she can call her mother who is away in another town taking care of some sick relative. I told her no. So she asks if I can send her a cellphone with fedex or DHL (haha, wut?) After I told her no no, she starts going on about how she loves me and wants to marry me and when I'm coming to Ghana and bla bla bla.
I just stringed her along for a while with some well-placed ho-hum's and mm hmm's. Then suddenly she wants me to call her (where did the phone come from you ask, so did I) apparently her friend lent her a cellphone without credits so I could call her, probably so she can get my number or something, heres the number if someone is interested, +233275406494 (its a Ghana number so that much was true) She sent me half of a picture but then cancelled it. So I dont have any photo to accompany the story but I'm sure it was stolen from the intertubes anyways.
She wants to talk again today, so what should I say? Should I proceed at all or just stonewall her/him/it.
I'm tempted to try and extract some more personal info to share, but I've never been in this situation before. Any pointers or feedback is welcome.

Go in Gods glorious name my dear dear friends! :beer:
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by Jillian Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:42 pm
Hello, and welcome here! Good for you for recognizing the scam. :D

What you're doing is considered Scambaiting (engaging with the scammers, knowing that they're scammers and wasting their time/messing with them). Our sister site, www.419Eater.com is a scambaiting community. Please visit there and read some of the information about how to bait safely. Baiting safely means not using any of your real life information in any way. You can easily sign up for a new, completely fake, email account or instant messanger and just contact her from that, pretending to be a whole new person. I'm sure she'll very quickly fall in love with your new character and you can continue on.

Thanks for posting "her" information here. It may help others she is attempting to scam.

Again, welcome to ScamWarners. :D

Have you sent a payment to a scammer with Western Union and now realize it's a scam? If the payment has not been picked up, you can cancel it immediately! 1-800-448-1492

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by SeriousCat Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:51 pm
Thank you!
I feel welcome :)
Yeah I was going to register on 419eater but I'm actually having trouble getting their captcha right, so after 10 attempts I went here instead :?
If someone with an account at 419 wants to copypasta it there you're more than welcome to do so of course.
I see now that maybe I should have published it in the scammer stories category.
I mean in my case I put a lid on the moneybegging pretty quickly but I'm pretty sure it would have gone on for a while with "her" wanting more and more stuff.
Anyways, keep the awareness high so people don't fall for this crap.
I love both this and 419eater, you guys are doing an awesome job.
by Julia Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:52 pm
Hi there and welcome. Please pm the details of the account/user name you are trying to use at eater and I'll be happy to help you.
by Dan Jones Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:32 pm
I had the exact same problem with the eater captcha. The mods got my account sorted in no time.

See you there.

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