You’re not an official member of the Internet community unless you’ve received one of those letters offering you millions of dollars for helping the widow of some dead African official transfer tens of millions of dollars out of an unused bank account.
These “advance payment” scams require the victim to put up thousands of dollars in good-faith money. The victim sends the money, or delivers it in person to Nigeria, and the money (as well as the widow) vanishes. Only the feeling of suckerness remains. They’re know as “4-1-9″ scams, the 4-1-9 referring to the section of the “Nigerian Penal Code” dealing with these scams. My fingers are laughing whenever I type “Nigerian Penal Code” ’cause the NPC is written on the back of a Post-It, legibly, and with both full details and an FAQ.
Here’s my proposal: when you get one of those letters, answer it. Play along and ask questions but don’t reveal any…and I mean by-God any…personal information. The scammers will end up spending most of their time working on dead-end leads and the likelihood of the scammer finding a real victim (somebody that actually buys their twaddle) will decrease dramatically.
When the scammers change tactics, so will we. What are they going to do–have Bill O’Reilly send Fox News Security after us? Damn, my fingers are laughing again…
