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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