Pranking Scammers and other fun stories

August 23, 2005 9:09 AM

The scammer gets scammed in this tale of an ebay auction gone hilarious as well as many other fine pranks. Favorites include the credit card prank and the Chinese tattoo prank. What is also hilarious is when the Nigerian E-mail Scammers target Pro Poker Player Paul Phillips, and get schooled themselves.
posted by Mroz (51 comments total)

First link is a double-post.
posted by me3dia at 9:21 AM on August 23, 2005

Yeah, old. Especially counter-nigerian action.
posted by angry modem at 9:21 AM on August 23, 2005

Yes, but it's a thing of beauty. And I didn't see a Paul Philips link on the earlier post.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:26 AM on August 23, 2005

The credit card link is a double too, but see also the second credit card prank which is just as funny.
posted by aparrish at 9:27 AM on August 23, 2005

Also check out actor Dean Cameron's Nigerian Spam Scam Scam. Funny stuff...he actually got the scammers to write back to his cat Mr. Snickers. Eventually the whole thing got turned into a funny little live show he's been taking around to various festivals.
posted by ktoad at 9:28 AM on August 23, 2005

Sorry for the double post. I tried to make sure it wasn't, but I didn't find anything. Make sure you check out this link off of Paul Phillips's Page.

One day I'll get a link that people approve off.
posted by Mroz at 9:30 AM on August 23, 2005

But excellent effort. Of course, you'll now have to pay the mandatory MeFi double-post fine. We'll be contacting you shortly.

What's "Mroz" mean? (in Mandarin)
posted by hal9k at 9:36 AM on August 23, 2005

I hope these Nigerians are getting some royalties! Not only have their antics supplied half the content on the internet for the past few years, they are now inspiring touring comedy shows?? That show sounds super crap - read one of these stories and you've read them all, so hearing one performed live must be agony. You do begin to root for the Nigerians after a while.
posted by fire&wings at 9:37 AM on August 23, 2005

I dunno, what does "Mroz" mean? (in Mandarin)

I would gladly pay the mandatory fine. If you would just send me your account number and contact information, I would gladly wire the money.
posted by Mroz at 9:45 AM on August 23, 2005

I would gladly pay the mandatory fine. If you would just send me your account number and contact information, I would gladly wire the money.

Ok, made me laugh. You're redeemed.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:49 AM on August 23, 2005

An interesting MeTa thread on the racial insensitivity angle of the "419" counter-scams.
posted by dhoyt at 10:16 AM on August 23, 2005

This guy's 'manderan' seems totaly wack

"Mei yu sheng han?"

Should be "mei yuo shuo han yu ma?". (can't speak chinese?). That was the only bit I got.
posted by delmoi at 10:16 AM on August 23, 2005

Mroz is not even a constructable sylable.
posted by delmoi at 10:17 AM on August 23, 2005

about two years ago, I got scammed in reverse. A Mac "reseller" in Burnaby, BC was "selling" iMacs and Powerbooks for about $150-200 less than the Apple education channel price. I bit. I didn't know at that time how to check sites for legitimacy. The site looked gooood though.

I paid for overnight shipping & it didn't come. Emails & phone calls unreturned. Finally, when I threatened action, he emailed & said that his site had been hacked, he would ship the next day. I got a 1997 Netscape manual in a FedEx envelope.

PayPal and eBay (where the transaction took place) were of no help, except for one woman who probably got fired. She sent the "vendor" an email saying that the 0.5 lb weight of the FedEx envelope could not have been a valid completion of the contract. Later, when I tried to speak with this agent again, I was told that no one with that name ever worked there (I had the emails though).

The site went down. I tracked him with "whois" and got the RCMP involved. PayPal's "investigation" concluded that I was SOL. I knew-through other contacts-an eBay staff attorney. He urged me strongly to let the PayPal/eBay system work things out and NOT repeat NOT go to my credit card company or the police.

Dunno about any of you, but I can't be out $1900 and take it smiling. Called my credit card company, who asked for my files (as did the Mounties). I got an almost instant reversal from my CC, though PayPal mildly protested.

The Mounties called and said they got their man. But he tried one last scam (probably hoping to raise bail). He emailed a list of people that he portrayed asa those who were hurt by the hacking of his site. He was going to personally refund all of our money to clear up this "misunderstanding" with the police. All we had to do was email our bank routing & account numbers!!!

Fortunately, the turnip truck I fell off of was not just the prior night, so I simply forwarded the email to the RCMP officer who I had worked with.

Scammers suck. And a Mac price too good to be true probably is.
posted by beelzbubba at 10:21 AM on August 23, 2005

Oh, okay, he wasn't supposed to know chinese.
posted by delmoi at 10:22 AM on August 23, 2005

Perhaps today is the day to put that sheet of bubble wrap under somebodies doormat... I love good prank.
posted by buzzman at 10:25 AM on August 23, 2005

good for you beelzbubba. CC companies will actualy do chargebacks for just about any transaction, and that was probably all you needed to. It would have been paypal that got screwed, though, not the asshole, but they probably deserved it anyway.
posted by delmoi at 10:25 AM on August 23, 2005

" Mroz is not even a constructable sylable."

It's not?

It better be constructable since its the begining of my last name.
posted by Mroz at 10:27 AM on August 23, 2005

I love the tattoo prank :)

SO tempting.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:36 AM on August 23, 2005

Regarding the tattoo prank, I thought there was going to be a connection to this article from the Chicago Tribune.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:58 AM on August 23, 2005

Best 419-scam-bait I ever saw (maybe from a link here?) was a guy who got the 419er to pay for DHL express shipping on some "laptops", which in one case was a box of broken laptop parts, and in the next shipment, a *dryer full of bricks*. As in, "the kind you dry your clothes in thats rather large". Wish I could find the link again...
posted by mrbill at 11:10 AM on August 23, 2005

ObscureReferenceMan: do you have a non-register link? Or a Google News search term?
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:24 AM on August 23, 2005

419 scammer sends picture of himself with pencils in his ears.
posted by caddis at 11:34 AM on August 23, 2005

"Mei yu sheng han?"

Should be "mei yuo shuo han yu ma?". (can't speak chinese?). That was the only bit I got.

how about: bu neng shuo zhongwen.

you slaughtered "you don't have chinese writing?" :) .. or Korean, even.
posted by kcm at 11:46 AM on August 23, 2005

erp, my mistake on the 'yu' v. 'wen', brain skipped. throw another 'ma' in there if you like. it's still 'you', though. :)
posted by kcm at 11:58 AM on August 23, 2005

Just thought I'd mention a new eBay phishing scam that seems to be going around. Instead of receiving a fake email from eBay billing dept asking me to log in, I'm now getting eBay looking emails from eBay members saying "where is the laptop I paid for. If I don't hear from you'll I'm going to leave negative feedback". First inclination is to reply and ask what they're talking about or click on the supplied link to view the item but to do that, you have to "log in" to eBay which of course, gives them your name and password.

Actually, maybe it's not new but it is to me so thought I'd post it as a warning.
posted by gfrobe at 12:01 PM on August 23, 2005

419 scammer sends picture of himself with pencils in his ears.

Now that is funny.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 12:10 PM on August 23, 2005

The most common way to say "You can't speak Chinese?" would be "Ni bu hui shuo Zhongwen ma?" or "Ni bu hui jiang Guoyu ma?"
"Hui" used for skills or abilities such as language. "Neng" is more like for physical capability. Like if your tongue has been cut out, then you "bu neng shuo Zhongwen."

It was also funny how he said "wan shang an" which I imagine is a mix-up of "wan shang" (night) and "wan an" (good night).

Reminds me of my fellow American English teacher in China who would translate English into Chinese word by word. His version of "Did you have a good night?" was "Ni you mei you hen hao de wanshang?" which is a nonsensical phrase somewhat akin to "Do you possess a good evening?"

And the guy who had six random Chinese characters tatooed on his arm, and earnestly told me that they were the first six letters of the Chinese alphabet.
posted by banishedimmortal at 12:23 PM on August 23, 2005

ok ok ok it's all fun and games until someone ships you an eye
posted by N8k99 at 12:48 PM on August 23, 2005

Does anyone else find it creepy that Jeff, the P-P-P-Powerbook guy, hasn't been heard from since the prank? (See the end of this page)
posted by o2b at 12:49 PM on August 23, 2005

...if there ever was a Jeff
posted by beelzbubba at 12:56 PM on August 23, 2005

Jeff's dead, baby.
Jeff's dead.
posted by dontrememberthis at 1:01 PM on August 23, 2005

You do begin to root for the Nigerians after a while.

Amen.

As this thread demonstrates, 419-baiting may be about to make the move to Old-Hat-Ville ...

posted by Grangousier at 12:14 PM PST on December 17, 2003
posted by mrgrimm at 1:03 PM on August 23, 2005

As this thread demonstrates, 419-baiting may be about to make the move to Old-Hat-Ville ...

About to???

Dude, I was doing crap like this in 1996.
posted by thanotopsis at 1:23 PM on August 23, 2005

While the girl's tattoo may not have said 'tofu', it's very strongly in the realm of possibility that it doesn't say what she thinks it says and may even just be gibberish.

Hanzi Smatter is a blog that keeps track of bad tattoos that are ostensibly in Chinese or Japanese.
posted by ursus_comiter at 1:45 PM on August 23, 2005

i never get tired of the fake powerbook scam
posted by MrLint at 2:07 PM on August 23, 2005

I knew-through other contacts-an eBay staff attorney. He urged me strongly to let the PayPal/eBay system work things out and NOT repeat NOT go to my credit card company or the police.

Do you know why he so advised you?
posted by kenko at 3:11 PM on August 23, 2005

Mroz, is frost in Polish. Mrozinski is just a last name like Smith.

The 'o' need a slash over it, if you had the pl fonts.

Pronounced as oo in moo.
posted by alicesshoe at 3:17 PM on August 23, 2005

Hazi Smatter: it's hard to up the "Crazy Diarrhea" entry. Always been a favorite of mine.
posted by NewBornHippy at 3:27 PM on August 23, 2005

This guy's 'manderan' seems totaly wack
Mroz is not even a constructable sylable.

I'm on to you delmoi, master of the bait the pedant scam.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:36 PM on August 23, 2005

This just kills me:

ok ok ok it's all fun and games until someone ships you an eye
posted by Specklet at 3:38 PM on August 23, 2005

Maybe the scammer came and stole Jeff forcing him to give haircuts in the barber shop. Or ordered his barber
friend to "rub Jeff out" and dump his body in the Puget
Sound for the giant octopi to devour. Or shoved the fake
powerbook up his bottom making it impossible for him to
sit in front of his computer to post.
posted by bat at 4:38 PM on August 23, 2005

Dunno about any of you, but I can't be out $1900 and take it smiling. Called my credit card company, who asked for my files (as did the Mounties). I got an almost instant reversal from my CC, though PayPal mildly protested.

You did the right thing. You have a short window, I think 60 days, to make a formal complaint to your credit card company. Paypal is evil.
posted by caddis at 5:24 PM on August 23, 2005

Hanzi Smatter is a blog that keeps track of bad tattoos that are ostensibly in Chinese or Japanese.

That's the one I was looking for! Thanks, ursus_comiter!!!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 5:28 PM on August 23, 2005

I heard my favorite Nigerian Scam story when I was working in Bangalore earlier this year. There is a T.G.I. Friday's across the street from my company's office there, and an associate of mine described how he had been having a drink at the bar when a man tried to 419 in person. I wish I could relate more details, but I was laughing too hard to pay attention after hearing the words "Nigerian e-mail scam" and "in person" in the same sentence. (I am also sorry to say that, despite what appears to be some sort of stout on the above page, we were unable to procure any remotely dark beer, let alone a Guinness, on St. Patrick's Day. I know better than to heckle the guy who brings the beer, but it was hard to let the given reason -- "a lot of ocean between here and there" -- pass quietly, especially when seated in "the only Irish Pub in Bangalore", which served only Kingfisher, Castle, and Budweiser. Don't let the good reviews fool you.) </mild derail>
posted by timing at 6:13 PM on August 23, 2005

Hmmm. A person posts a running commentary on a supposed scam, then asks for donations to help follow through on the anti-scam. He gets $100. Who really made money here?
posted by underthehat at 8:10 PM on August 23, 2005

That Jeff guy has posted on SA several times since the Powerbook story was posted. Nothing happened to him... that page is just old and hasn't been updated since it was posted.
posted by MegoSteve at 8:32 PM on August 23, 2005

So, why is that admirable, the powerbook story? Granted, it probably was a scam, but on the off chance it wasn't (if the guy was just as clueless that set-tld wasn't a real escrow service), "Jeff" ended up becoming a scammer himself. Imagine if the guy was foolish enough to use a fake escrow site, he would get doubley duped: he's lost his money, and some fucktard in Seattle has sent him a fucking trapper keeper. And if he was a scammer, there are far better ways than to take justice into your own hands. Really, the differences are only a matter of degree, not of fundamental form, between this little powerbook story and, say, beating someone up because you don't like how they look, or suggesting the assassination of Venezuelan leaders on your bible thumping cable channel.

And quite frankly, what they did was cruel, not noble. I don't recall either US or English law having any real room for vigilante action, which is what this was- scammer or not, he cost that guy over $500 to get a fake powerbook, and utterly lied on his customs forms to do so. He. broke. the. law.

I'd love to see "Jeff" spend a little time in a Federal prison for his well-documented customs hilarity. The [b]right[/b] response was what beelzbubba did- refer the issue to the CC company the authorities, send them the necessary info, try not to get scammed and make sure that if you were scammed you get any money back. And then leave it for the proper authorities to deal with.
posted by hincandenza at 2:41 AM on August 24, 2005

You do begin to root for the Nigerians after a while.

Umm, no. I'd like to see a few more come down with an acute case of comeuppance, actually. They're slime, basically.
posted by alumshubby at 5:42 AM on August 24, 2005

BTW, aren't those worker's tats Japanese, not Chinese? Anybody know what they say?
posted by kozad at 8:21 AM on August 24, 2005

hincandenza: well it would be sortof interesting, because how would custom valuation work for homemade stuff or custom electronics?
He made it, so he can set its value can't he?

Also, He talked to ebay, the guy was obviously a scammer, ebay even told him not to honour any bids from him. Did you miss that part?
posted by Iax at 1:34 AM on August 25, 2005