Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Unbelievable, I find this stuff funny (even if thats twisted).

The Nigerian 419ers have struck yet again, this time its significant because it was an Australian financial advisor that got taken in and he stole from his clients to get the money, AUD$1million.

Now how in the hell do people believe this stupid crap? An email comes in to YOU from who knows where and says they need your help to transfer the funds from X Nigerian political org or company. You just have to forward them all your bank account numbers first so they know where to put the cash, and sometimes they need just a minor percentage taken out first for whatever costs. Yeah, its that fucking dumb, and yet it works time and time again.

I have actually gotten quite a few of these notes and I sort of like to play the game. I tell them I am very interested at first and then try to just muck with them. I use lots of idioms and expressions that I know they have to lookup, I tell them I cant provide the account numbers until they are using encryption (and once I got one of them to use Pig Latin, told him he needed SSL and Blowfish and so on and sent him some tech crap and said if you cant do that use at *least* Pig Latin and explained it). At one point I went back and forth with one for about 10-12 emails and finally he was pissed and said this would be the last note if I did not forward the account numbers he would find someone else, I said "Ok, Ok, please forgive my simian misrepresented apprehension, I submit to your sultry desires, my account number is 7". Of course I did get another response about the rest of the numbers. Had to explain I am a very longstanding account holder and the number is correct, its "7". Back and forth a few more times and then broken english with profanity. How hurtful.

Anyway, there are many that do this all the time and they are much more creative than I am at it, some have even gotten the scammers to fly and meet them places and so on. Check out more of the funnies here.

More on the amazing latest scam that worked from the Reg.

419ers take Aussie financial advisor for AU$1m

By Lester Haines, The Register Oct 19 2004 9:05AM
A Melbourne financial manager faces a hefty prison sentence after stealing AU$1m from his clients and handing it over to Nigerian advance fee fraudsters. Robert Andrew Street, 58, fell for a classic 419 scam after receiving an email from the Reverend Sam Kukah offering him a cool $65m in return for relocating cash held by Nigeria's Presidential Payment Debt Reconciliation Committee. Naturally, Street quickly learned that there were certain expenses he had to meet to oil the wheels of the illicit transfer. Accordingly, he set about fleecing clients of his financial planning business - Making Dollars & Sense - by getting them to invest in fictitious get-rich-quick schemes. Street raised a total of AU$1,039,910. AU$10,000 of this went on mobile phones apparently required in Nigeria. Street transferred the balance direct to the to the scammers. When Kukah did not cough up the expected windfall, Street's clients began to complain and he eventually had his collar felt after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigated the matter.