Stocking filler

Collection of 419 baiting tales.

If you're stuck for a last-minute Christmas gift idea, Mike Berry's new book could be the answer. Mike Berry is the creator of 'scam-baiting' website www.419eater.com, which records his (and others') attempts to fight back at the perpetrators of 419 scams. Berry has been scam baiting for several years - replying to scammers' emails, expressing an interest in their propositions and fooling them into carrying out a variety of time-wasting and humiliating acts. Now, he has compiled a book, Greetings in Jesus name!, which contains the email correspondence from just a small number of his successful baiting attempts.

The book starts with a brief introduction to the 419 (a.k.a. advance fee fraud) scam, which is followed by ten chapters, each following a different baiting attempt from the receipt of the initial scam email through to its conclusion. The stories include tales of fraudsters who were coerced into carving a wooden replica of a Commodore computer, writing out by hand an entire Harry Potter novel, flying to Glasgow for a fictitious meeting, and even tattooing themselves with the words 'Baited by Shivers' (Shiver Metimbers being Berry's screen name).

While a lot of the stories leave one questioning the ethics of this type of activity, and the book may not be suitable reading for those who are easily offended, Berry urges 'don't be inveigled into feeling sympathy for any of the scammers in this book ... There are innumerable stories of the greed of the 419 scammers, and of their heartlessness.' So if you can ignore the prickle of your conscience and intead keep in mind the amount of damage 419 scammers cause their victims, the book will make for an entertaining read. For details see http://www.harbourbooks.co.uk/titles_detail_1.asp?ID=13.

01 December 2006

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