Let's scam the scammer...

[Tajike]

Don't know if you've ever received mails like these:

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
West Africa.

Dearest One,

Greetings to you and your family.

Please i will be very glad if you could take your time to read this letter and let me know your sincere capacity to be my guardian about my inherited money.

In details: I am Master Thomson Kato, the only son of late Chief Alfred Kato from the Republic of South Africa. I will be 22 years old this june 2006.

My father was a well established diamond and gold dealer in Johannesburg, South Africa. After 3 days he came back from a business meeting to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire he was mobbed and attacked by unknown gunmen on his way to his private warehouse on his routine inspections accompanied by my only little sister Nene, who died instantly from a gun shot.
And my father died after 5 days in a private hospital. While on his sick bed he disclosed to me that he deposited huge amount of money up to 6.8million American dollars in one of the big banks in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire indicating my name as his next of kin and heir to the money. He also told me during our conversations that in case he died of this attack i should look for a capable and trustworthy person who will take good care of me and will guide me in retrieving and investing this money wisely and to become useful in life.

Because of many wicked and frustrating ways of my Uncles back home in South Africa. I am here now in Abidjan and have located the bank where my father deposited the money and have successfully identified myself to them. But they refused to release the money to me insisting that i must present to them my legal guardian as demanded by my father's deposit agreement with them before they can release the money.

Please could you be my legal guardian by providing a safe bank account where this money will be safely transferred into for a very good and lucrative business in your country and also help in my relocation to your copuntry to stay with you for some time and to be able to comfortably finish my education.

I have made up my mind to compensate you with the 15% of the total money for your kind consideration and assistance.

In cheerful anticipation.

Master Thomson Kato.

Well, we all know this is a classic case of a scam: poor African lad wants you to help him out, you are stupid enough to give your bank account, poor African lad robs your account, one less poor African lad in this world.

The more I get these mails the more I get pissed of with them, therefor I came with this luminous idea: why not play along with the scammer and see how far I can drive him to the brink of insanity.

For this I created a new identity (Taji Chroestonov/sounds cheap enough to work) and a new mail adress (don't want him to do something with my normal mail adress).
Next I mailed Master Kato back, saying how I deeply regret what happened to him and that I can relate to this situation as my father died too a couple of years ago and my mother is suffering from cancer since a few months (again: cheap enough to make it believable). I also asked for some kind of proof of all this being 100% legit.
Two days later I get this send to my newly acquired mail adress:

Dearest Taji Chroestonov,

Many thanks for your response to my letter and your sincere concerns towards my present difficult situation. My heart really goes out to you for the loss of your father too and pray that God sees to Mom's cancer sickness. You should take heart as we all are bound to accept our misfortunes with good faith. We all can always trust and beleive in what God can always do in our lives. Considering our respective situations i can beleive that God himself approves our working to help each other in any way possible.

About my case, i want to be assured that my case is very honest as i will not gain anything special by telling lies about te death of my beloved father.

I only needed your assistance because of my age as indicated in my father's deposit agreement with the bank.I will be 22 years this coming june and still cannot have direct access to that money because my father agreed with the bank that i should not be allowed access to the cash of the money until i become 25 years. They can only release the money before that time only if i present to them my legal guardian to make sure that any part of that money be put into good use. So that was why i needed you as my legal guardian as i cannot afford to continue suffering for more 3 years when i have enough to live with. That 3 more years could be very dangerous to my life, that is why i want something to be done as quick as possible.

I do not know the exact proof you might need but i attached with this letter my ID card, my photo and my late father's burial photo these are only the outstanding proof for now and you will be confirming more when the bank will start the transfer process because the bank adviced that we must have to legalize and update some of the transfer documents and we will be needing a lawyer to do that. So since there will be involvement of a lawyer i believe things will be followed the legal way without problems.

Also please i will appreciate if you could send me your photo as it is important i know you in person before our meeting after the transfer. I want you to send me your telephone number to try to call you.

I will wait your quick reply to this.

Sincerely yours,

Master Thomson Kato.

They catch the bait and you reel them in. He believed everything I said, from the fake name to my fake adress and my dreamed up family situation.

Strangely enough the lad did not send me proof in the form of bank or notary documents that can actually proof to me the existence of this money. No, he sends me some pics:

http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=masterkato3lk.png

http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=funeral1um.png

http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=idcard7jj.png

Somehow I don't believe the credibility of those photos...

Now, this Friday or Saturday evening I will be sending the lad my reply. Of course I want this to last as long as possible and therefor I could use your help: don't hesitate to post ways of keeping him busy for a while. I'm also looking for a "decent" fake pic to send him and some of you have the creativity to find me something awsome to use.

For inspirational value: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/01/playing-along-with-email-scams

 

[Fernandez]

Send him Moron's picture.

 

[Siawash]

I've gotten tons of emails like these on hotmail. Wasn't considered spam.


Thank god there's GMAIL!

 

[Rob]

Yea I get heaps of these, theres an actual site like this

http://419eater.com/

 

[Voltaic Borusse]

The Trophy Room.

 

[Paulo Da Silva]

nice great job Tajike

 

[Tajike]

So I did some thinking and this is what I came up with (the company will play a huge part in the actual plot twist):

Hi Thomson,

The proof I'd wish to obtain would be any documents provided by your bank or notary, but judging from your photos I can clearly believe you to be trustworthy and the matter of these documents can be discussed on a later moment in time.

Before I wish to continue with this deal I'd like to know a bit more about you and I will tell something more about me. This to enhance our future relationship as business partners.

As you know my name is Taji Chroestonov and I'm 24-years old. I attached a photo of myself in the hope I can produce for you the same amount of trust in me as I have trust in you, meaning we can trust each other.
I'm still single and never married. Neither have I any children.
Like I said in my previous mail: my father died a few years ago and my mother is suffering from severe cancer, though things are looking positive for her (may God keep blessing her).
I work for a Belgian Insurance Company called Generali (http://www.generali.be/) and I am chosen for promotion to assistent-director in our firm in Mollem.
My hobbies are going for long walks along the beach, read poetry and photography.
I have a cat and a dog as compagnions: the cat is called Fluffy, because of her cute fluffy tail and the dog is called Max, because I was in the mood to call him Max.

I hope to receive the same information about you, so that I know which great person I'm dealing with.
Also, my bank asked for some documents (the ones I mentioned before) because of the large sum of money but as you aren't able to send them yet they agreed with a photo of you and somesort of confirmation. So here's an idea: could it be possible to send me a photo of you where you hold a piece of paper with "Ik, Thomson Kato, word hier zwaar bij mijn pietje genomen door Taji Chroestonov." This means: "I, Thomson Kato, hereby give Taji Chroestonov the right to manage my money." They prefer the Belgian version for their official documents. I hope this is not a big hassle for you and I trust you will take this obstacle with ease.

Hoping for a quick answer.

Kind regards,

Taji Chroestonov

For those who don't understand Dutch, I asked him to write: "I, Thomson Kato, am being seriously screwed over by Taji Chroestonov".
I also included one of the newer pics of Moron (should do the trick perfectly) and a pic of Fluffy and Max.
Now I hope that my job and job future will keep him interested in me...

@ Rob: heard about that site yesterday as I was discussing this subject with a few mates of mine. Some of those hoaxes are brilliant! I can recommend the "The Church of the Painted Breast" scam to everyone as it's sheer gold.
Might submit mine too if all works according to plan.

 

[PhiLLer]

I tried doing that once, set up a seperate scam bait mail address and all but eventually I didn't have the patience to play along anymore

 

[Tom]

yeh exactly same situation as Phil, i tried doing it when i was 15, but then got kind of bored, but also confused

All the legal **** was annoying me.

 

[Hopeunited]

hahaha nice, own that punk

 

[Tajike]

Dearest Taji,

Thanks for your reply and the photos sent to me. I received them well. You looked wonderful in that photo and i wish to meet you in person soon. I am very happy for you telling me more about youself and to hear that Mom's case is getting much better.

Well, i have heard all that you have said as it is very important we trust to each other in making things more easier for us. I can get some documents from the bank to show my father's transaction with them. I can also do as you have aked by holding a piece of paper with something written on it but i think that will not be useful and very dangerous for me. Because as a stranger here going about taking such pictures means dangerous exposures. It can put to danger my life and the money in question. It is not wise for people to know who i am and what i am up to. I just came here to quietly have this money transferred and move out too. If your bank must need any proof it must be from the bank or a legal practitioner. You should also know that i will not be safe if your bank should know all the details about my money to avoid some dubious bank officials diverting my money or any part of it, and you know i will not be happy with you if such thing will ever happen because of ignorant and carelessness.

The good news is that the bank here has already recognised me as the rightful beneficiary of the money and is ready to transfer it once i present my legal guardian to them and they also advised using any of their registered lawyers to update all our transfer documents to enable them to transfer the money into your account. If there will be any obstacle they must have told me that also.

Little about myself, as you can see i came from a decent home if not for the unfortunate misfortunes. Since i was i a kid i was a Papa's boy because my father divorced Mom when i was a kid because of what he called here wicked ways in life and she has since married to some one who happen to be my father's pioneer business associate. Because of all these i don't think she is so important in the present events because i cannot trust her in any way. I was doing my prelim course in Economics at the University when my father died and haven't gone back to school since then. I am a cool headed someone, likes reading interesting books, swimming and walking in beautifil gardens.

I can only send you photos i came down here with and cannot afford to go about exposing myself taking new photos. I therefore attach here another photo of mine and that of my father with an associate Uncle Charmant whom he said i should not contact for any help. The truth is that my father has a lot of business associates but warned i should not let anyone of them to know about this money and my future plans. That is why i am taking my time to make sure that i do not make any regretable mistakes no matter how little it may be.

So if everything is ok with you, i would want you to send to me your full names,contact address and phone number for your introduction to the bank for the transfer process to start soon.

In cheerful anticipation of your quick response.

Sincerely yours,

Master Thomson kato.

K, so the photo thing didn't work (pity, would've loved to have that as a trophy ) but it seems he trusts me completely and seems to have taken a liking for Alvaro's appearance. He has also a disliking for his mother (usable information) and his late father had an associate called Uncle Charmant (too good and funny to be true...). Loved the way he too calmly shares his private information (or he's an amateur at this/making this gonna be so much more fun, or he's an expert/making this gonna be very challenging)

The fact the lad is cool headed will be tested from now on as we start phase 2 of this scheme. I will send him a third mail during the weekend asking yet again for more information and giving some of the info the lad asks for. But this time, a third person will enter the plot. Still a secret to you guys who this will be, but I can assure you that Master Kato is about to have a little moral dilemma...

Need some advice from you guys: should I give my actual home adress, so that any info send to me can be used as evidence for the police if necessary or should I go for the fake adress too? Already have an excuse not to give my phone number.

Also, I want to find out the source of those pics and I know that there's a program on the Net I can use for that (can't use Photoshop). Anyone knows what program that is?

 

[jatin]

Ahem,u forgot to show the photo...
Also..do continue...this will keepp me hooked till the next episode of simpsons!

 

[x4dixont]

long walks on the beach and poetry?! thats the most cliche line i have ever heard, this guy is gettin owned man keep it up!

 

[Paulo Da Silva]

i'm lovin it keep it up man

 

[Hans]

Ha, I got that e-mail from him a while back too. Good job dude, and also careful to a person named Mina Tharwat. That dude/bitch been sending me lots of scams email with the same stories and even inviting me on Friendster.

Keep it up and updated here dude.

 

[Y2K]

Giving your real address maybe risky. Since he won't 100% send the stuff he said. He might send you an envelope containing Anthrax.
But use your judgement well. For all we know, he's a bored billionaire acting poor.

 

[Tajike]

K, time to start the operation. Enough friendly chit chat, let's get this business started

Hi Thomson,

I wish to thank you for providing me this information about you. This will make participating with this operation so much safer and reliable.

So my information:

First name: Taji
Second name: Benjamin
Last name: Chroestonov
Contact adress: Platzaklaan 27, 1740 Mollem

I can't give you a phone number for the simple reason I don't have a normal phone nor a mobile phone (this because my work requires to be online for almost every entire day and e-mail being a better option) You can reach me if you have a TextPhone, with which you can send message through a normal cable telephone (0325 65 44 15 47). If this is not possible you can always reach me on this mail-adress.

Now, could you please explain to me what will happen next? What am I supposed to do now and what are you going to do? I can't wait to help you out (I somehow feel we are connected in somesort of way and being a devoted Christian I can only think of this as God's Work/Bless the Lord!)

Hoping for a quick respons.

Kind regards,

Taji Chroestonov

PS I will get my promotion on Thursday! Things start to look positive for us. Me, my mother, Fluffy and Max will hold a big blast party. Can't wait for Thursday.

I registered with 419eater.com, got myself a mentor who tutors me and gives me tips on this.

I went for the fake adress (Platzaklaan means Broke Avenue) and invented a little word joke with my initials (want to see how hard he's biting)
He will keep mailing me as they do not have TextPhones in Africa and that number is a fake.
The PS addition is to keep him interested, see how hard he hangs on to the bait and for your undivided amusement.

On Monday or Tuesday Mister Kato will get the surprise of his life

 

[Sir Calumn]

I suggest you make your replies more and more homoerotic and see how long it takes him to work out what's happening. I'm impressed with both your dedication and your talent for invention, however, and look forward to seeing how this pans out.

 

[Fernandez]

I thought you shouldn't have used your real name.

 

[leungtl]

I thought you shouldn't have used your real name.

The "Chroestonov" bit of his name isn't real.