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halcyondays
May 21, 2009 2:06 AM
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The only she failed to do was to get the scammer to send a picture holding a '419' sign over his/her head.

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William Brinkman
May 21, 2009 11:59 AM
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@halcyondays: She needs a P-P-P-Powerbook.

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PlanetExpressdelivery
May 21, 2009 5:50 AM
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@halcyondays: You guys are obviously not familiar with the church of fish and bread.

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Meathamper
May 21, 2009 2:12 AM
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@halcyondays: I saw this 419 scam scam, and some guy got the scammer to copy out the full Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. By hand.

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Blueskylaw
May 21, 2009 1:48 PM
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@Bearded Rapper:


Thats on 419eater.com


Awesome sight if you have some time to kill.

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SabreDC
May 21, 2009 2:18 AM
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@Bearded Rapper: That's nothing. Call me when he gets the scammer to write out Order of the Phoenix. Then I'll be impressed...

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tape
May 21, 2009 2:15 AM
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Ha. I had this happen to me a couple of months ago. I got a facebook IM message early on Sunday morning from the girl who sits in the cube next to mine at work. Same sob story, too: mugged in London \"last night\", needed me to wire money.

Of course, I happened to know that she had a certain set of plans for Saturday night which pretty much excluded the possibility of her being in London at that time, barring parallel universes or some such silliness.

I strung them along for as long as I could bear it, which was not quite as long as our hero of the post.

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docrice
May 21, 2009 12:19 PM
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@tape: Rule 1: don't loan money to parallel-universe copies of your friends. They are most likely bastards and will scam you. Unless of course your real friends are scamming bastards, in which case you have a better chance of getting your money back by loaning it to their parallel selves...


...isn't fake science fun?

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SabreDC
May 21, 2009 2:15 AM
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I love how Liz gave the FBI phone number as the embassy. \"Hello? Can you help me, I've been mugged.\" \"Ah yes, we've been tracking you for months. Thanks for calling.\"

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Liz Elverson Pelloso
May 21, 2009 9:50 PM
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@SabreDC: Well, they were pretty stupid. It seemed only right to give them the FBI number and suggest they call collect...

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Charlotte Rae's Web
May 21, 2009 2:16 AM
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Bravo!

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Shappie
May 21, 2009 2:16 AM
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Awesome!

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floraposte
May 21, 2009 2:16 AM
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Liz, I like you. You're funny.

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Meathamper
May 21, 2009 2:20 AM
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@SabreDC: Will do.

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Who wants chowdah??
May 21, 2009 2:21 AM
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CRAZY! This was JUST TONIGHT happening to a friend of mine on FB. This is fucked up.

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crutnacker
May 21, 2009 2:24 AM
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Now if only this person could have hooked FakeKate up with a car warranty company this would have been golden!

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2 replies
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magnoliasouth
May 21, 2009 7:13 AM
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@crutnacker: Brilliant! I've got a load of numbers I could've given FakeKate.

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Who wants chowdah??
May 21, 2009 2:25 AM
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How does someone \"hack\" into someones account???

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dark_inchworm
May 21, 2009 3:40 PM
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Let's get this nitpicking out of the way: Phishing, social engineering, hacking, malware, etc. all fall under Bad Shit Happening.

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Alexander Saites
May 21, 2009 3:04 AM
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@Who wants chowdah??: Usually, one of three methods.

Brute Force: Trying a very large number of username/password combination until one hits. This is usually prevented by the website, as it's easy to notice. But it's useful for other purposes.

Personal: The hacker is targeting a person he or she know, allowing them to guess at security questions. By using this method, one usually attempts to gain access to email accounts first, then to others.

Social Engineering: Quite a few things can fall into this category, and it's usually the most effective. In the context of this particular scam, someone could have made a fake Facebook site and convinced someone to enter their credentials within it. It is also a very common method used to obtain online banking and credit card information. That's why you should always check the URL before typing in your sensitive information.

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acarr260
May 21, 2009 1:00 PM
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@Alexander Saites: That's not social engineering - that's phishing. Big difference.

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secret_curse
May 21, 2009 3:26 PM
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@acarr260: Umm... phishing is a form of social engineering.

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mac-phisto
May 21, 2009 4:39 AM
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@Alexander Saites: don't forget malware. generally that would need to be initiated by social engineering, but drive-by downloads seem to increasing - especially as more site add java (& the exploits within that architecture increase).

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TheFlameCrow
May 21, 2009 2:48 AM
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@Who wants chowdah??: Keyloggers, spoofing the FaceBook site, spoofing an account e-mail, etc? I'm more familiar with World of Warcraft accounts being stolen, but I'm sure the methods are the relatively the same.

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Wombatish
May 21, 2009 3:05 AM
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@theflamecrow: Technically those are all scams.

A hack would be more like brute-forcing a specific account or a specific set of accounts.

It's a nitpick, but it always bothers me.

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Sebastian Krywult
May 21, 2009 2:26 AM
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now thats funny

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Anonymous
May 21, 2009 2:28 AM
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This just happened to me tonight. I got rid of them by asking a really personal question that the person they were impersonating would only know. The only thing is, they de-friended the account of my friend immediately after. Not sure how to fix that.

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sardonicbastard
May 21, 2009 2:28 AM
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So I just had an idea. Why not create a system that sends phishing-style emails to the scammers, asking for personal information for the western union transfer? Use their own tactics against them!

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easy2panic
May 21, 2009 3:03 AM
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@sardonicbastard: Pure Genius. (however stealing, even from a thief, is still stealing, however one might be able to morally justify it.)

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easy2panic
May 21, 2009 3:04 AM
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@easy2panic: damn it, I forgot the the comment after \"however\", I mean it is possible that it can be morally justified by some people.

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RodAox
May 21, 2009 3:42 AM
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These types of things remind me of the saga when a scammer gets scammed out of money by a highly orchestrated global effort.....if you got time then read the saga of PPPPPPPPower Book! [www.zug.com]

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mianne
May 21, 2009 7:04 AM
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@RodAox: Thanks for the great read! I have to say though it was bittersweet in that the principal counter-scammer fell off the face of the net in the end. Hopefully not detained for mail fraud or, worse, by affiliates of the person(s) he gave the P-P-Powerbook to.

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RodAox
May 21, 2009 9:17 AM
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@mianne: I hear you....I just loved how they went into the internet cafe and changed the screen savers....

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tenners
May 21, 2009 3:58 AM
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I'm not sure how it happens, but the same thing happened last week to my cousin's fiancee. She sent a message to everyone saying \"He is NOT in London, do NOT send money to get him back home, it's a SCAM!!\" Man, what's going on??

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OnThe$20Coin_GitEmSteveDave
May 21, 2009 4:04 AM
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Hrmmmm, I wonder if we can get this facebooker to cross paths with the FaceBook SkipTracer. They are both looking for money, and have about the same grasp of the English language.

I personally would send an image of a spider. You can print it out and it's Better than money. Or promise to send some US $20 coins and perhaps a few $200 bills. Or tell them you will send them a check for $1800.00, and they can keep 900, and they give you the extra 900. That way you each owe each other 900, so it's a wash.

But seriously, the false concern and \"helpfullness\", were just all flavors of awesome.

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doctor_cos wants you to remain calm
May 23, 2009 1:37 PM
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@HelloSailor_GitEmSteveDave: \"..an image of a spider.\"

Thank you for the milk on my laptop now :)

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twophrasebark
May 21, 2009 4:29 AM
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This might sound too obvious, but why can't Western Union just create a system where you report these scammers, they are given fake information and told to pick up their money.

And then they are arrested.

Too easy?

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5 replies
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Tiber
May 21, 2009 5:40 PM
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@twophrasebark: They actually do that. I reported a fake check from a Craigslist scam, and suggested that, and a cop told me himself.

The problem is many of those people are in Nigeria, which poses a slight jurisdiction problem. It ends up that pursuing it is not worth the effort.

Really, I think the government should force them to tighten their standards on receiving the money. For instance, no more being able to receive the money anywhere. The money must be received within a certain distance of the location it was sent. ID should be required, and employees must be trained to spot fake IDs.

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vladthepaler
May 21, 2009 3:00 PM
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@twophrasebark:

It's not in Western Union's (financial) best interest to do such a thing. Status quo, they collect a fee on all money wired to scammers. Less scamming = less profit.

Also, imagine the consumerist article if Western Union implemented what you're suggesting and misued it. \"My uncle was stranded in Nigeria after falling for a 419 scam, I wired him $3000 so he could get home, and Western Union had him arrested. He's now being held in a Nigerian jail awaiting extradition. Western Union gave my uncle AIDS\" etc etc.

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magnoliasouth
May 21, 2009 7:19 AM
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@twophrasebark: There's a lot of investigation that would have to go into that, but the FBI could certainly do it.

The problem is setting up accounts on the FBI side and waiting to be hijacked. There is no way to bait someone to hijack your account, unlike baiting pedophiles, which is incredibly easy.

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Chris Walters
May 21, 2009 4:43 AM
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@twophrasebark: Maybe because Western Union makes money off of how things work now, and that other crazy scheme you've cooked up sounds like it would just cost money...

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YOXIM
May 21, 2009 5:56 AM
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@Chris Walters: There is also one fatal flaw within that idea. What's to stop Person A from reporting Person B as a scammer, even though Person B isn't actually a scammer? The system is ripe for misuse and abuse. Western Union would need a little more than an anonymous tip to have a random person arrested and hauled off to jail. The whole thing would be a giant and unnecessary vulnerability.

Besides, like you said, they're making money with the things being the way they are, so why change it if it works? If it ain't broke, (and as far as WU is concerned, it ain't), don't fix it.

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trujunglist
May 21, 2009 5:12 PM
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@YOXIM:

It's not really a fatal flaw at all. If there is a known scammer with traceable e-mails/chat logs/whatevers, then that particular case gets sent to the FBI division created to specifically scam the scammers into getting arrested. The FBI does an investigation, and then works with WU to set the scammer up. The FBI get the scammer, and WU gets some sort of reward for helping. All the employee has to do is take as much time as it usually takes to get the damn money anyway; there's not even a stall tactic needed while the cops are called. Seems like a simple system to me that takes the control/responsibility away from WU and gives it all to the FBI.

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Ray C. He
May 21, 2009 8:34 AM
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Make sure you report the scammer as they may have other phished account. Check out [www.facebook.com] to put a stop to it.

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Applekid
May 21, 2009 11:21 AM
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Should have offered to send a \"P-P-P-Powerbook\" instead.

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Liz Elverson Pelloso
May 21, 2009 12:12 PM
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So I'm the Liz that posted this story. I am glad you are all amused!


I did email both my friend Kate and also Facebook abuse about the situation. They have a report button specifically for 419 scams.


My husband was the one looking up the numbers for the embassy and the FBI for me while I was stringing the scammer along, so he should get some of the credit.


Also, the scammer \"unfriended\" me from Kate's account as soon as they realized what was going on. That wasn't very nice of that scammer!

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thaShady
May 22, 2009 5:57 AM
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@Liz Elverson Pelloso: Yeah, right. This isn't that Liz. No way a facebooker could do something that clever.

/kidding

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GeekyRobotGirl
May 21, 2009 6:24 PM
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@Liz Elverson Pelloso: Good work, I wish I had been that creative. The same thing happened to me a few months ago, using the same 'stranded in a resort in London, mugged last night' routine. It was a friend from college who I hadn't talked to in a really long time, so even though I couldn't say for sure the guy wasn't in London, I didn't believe it was him at all. I tried to ask a question only he would know, then the scammer shut up and disappeared.

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ViperBorg
May 21, 2009 1:19 PM
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@Liz Elverson Pelloso: You are my new hero. And so is your husband for the quick lookups on the phone numbers.

Bravo to you both.

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TakingItSeriously is a Technopile
May 21, 2009 12:33 PM
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Nice work Liz ... very amusing :)

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slinky22
May 21, 2009 12:36 PM
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Consumerist Comedy Gold! Liz is my new hero.

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bbbco
May 21, 2009 12:54 PM
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I got this same exact story from a networking contact that I am friends with on Facebook. I had not heard this pitch before, and I did not know whether he had been out of the country or not. But I was wary, and there were quite a few things that didn't add up... like why would you be on Facebook after just getting robbed? Why not try to contact those who are closest to you for help? Where is there a good resort in London?

Yeah, so I was quite a bit skeptical when I got this run-around. Though I did not get as far as the request to send money via Western Union. I began being skeptical a bit too early...

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shibainu33
May 21, 2009 1:38 PM
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This happened to a friend of mine. He actually sent them money!!! Oi! Luckily, since Western Union apparently doesn't send money to London during the evening hours, I was able to tell him about the SCAM (as seen here on Consumerist) and he stopped the wire from going through.

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RonDiaz
May 21, 2009 1:49 PM
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PayPal would probably reach into your bank account and give the scammer the money just for you saying that...man I hate Paypal. Good job not getting scammed though!

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maxx22
May 21, 2009 2:38 PM
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Note that the address is useless. Funds can be picked up in any Western Union, any place in the world showing an ID. Frequently, there is a secret question and answer.


Interesting question: - If she lost all her ID's, how can she prove to Western Union who she is.


Ebay recommends in large print never to send money by Western Union.


There is no way to track it; no way to find out who picked it up; no way to get it back.


However, if you do insist on using Western Union, I have this uncle who works in a bank in Nigeria . . .

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riverstyxxx
May 21, 2009 3:15 PM
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Liz rocks :)
You know, if you string them along just right, you can actually get the scammers to send you money. Ive also heard of people who collect bogus checks from nigerians as their hobby. Imagine having a scrapbook and adding to it over the course of 10 years, it would so belong in a museum :P

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sublicon
May 21, 2009 3:18 PM
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What's funny is I also got a scam attempt like this, from an old classmate named Kate who I hadn't spoken to in years...I wonder if Liz and I know each other, haha.

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korybing
May 21, 2009 3:35 PM
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How many people who AREN'T scammers actually use money wires nowadays? I can't remember the last time I had to deal with a money wire from a legitimate source.

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floraposte
May 21, 2009 3:51 PM
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@korybing: I think there's a fair bit of \"wiring money back home\" still for people with family out of the country. But between people who don't know each other? Not so much.

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theblackdog
May 21, 2009 8:45 PM
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This is why for my overseas trip, I have given a code word to two people who are my emergency contacts. The only way they're going to send any money to me is to demand the code word and have me answer it correctly.

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nybiker
May 24, 2009 5:27 AM
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@theblackdog: I like the idea. Might I suggest an enhancement: Give them a \"good to transfer\" AND a \"Do not Transfer\" code word/phrase. That way if you're forced against your will to contact them you can give them the bad code and your contacts will know you're in deep doo-doo and will contact the appropriate authorities.
May you not have any problems on your trip. Send us all some postcards (maybe via the Friday Flickr updates?).

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Gizmosmonster
May 21, 2009 11:31 PM
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The clerk at Western Union would not take my Aunt's money when her new online \"boyfriend\" needed an emergency ticket out of Nigeria. She thought he was in london...

They told her that too many women of a certain age were getting scammed, so the owner of the place decided to violate the agreement he had with the money transfer people.

Turns out, it was a scam. She would have lost $2500.

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William English IV
May 23, 2009 12:13 AM
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oh man, this is almost TEXTBOOK to how it happened to my friend. her account got jacked. almost fell for it too, except for the western union part. .

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Grrrrrrr, now with two buns made of bacon.
May 23, 2009 4:47 AM
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Pure win.

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MyDarlin
May 24, 2009 3:00 AM
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That was so funny Liz! Good job!

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PLATTWORX
May 24, 2009 3:11 AM
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Oh, I LOVE YOU KATE!!! Laughing my butt off..WELL DONE!

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banmojo
May 25, 2009 5:06 AM
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Bravo Liz, bravo to Liz's husband, and bravo to all of you who are smart enough to read Consumerist and keep up to date on the scams going on all around us. 'A fool and his money' - Consumerists are NOT fools!!

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Anonymous
June 21, 2009 4:01 PM
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I got one from someone and I got rid of them, too, by asking personal questions. I responded to their status (about being stranded in London) that it was a scam, but they deleted the comment almost immediately.I blocked their account, then put a general message out to all of our mutual friends that it was a scam. Since they were blocked, they coudln't do anything about the notice.

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SuperShawn
August 21, 2009 11:39 PM
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You should have said \"perfect timing! I have a case of $millions in Nigerian currency I need to sneak out of the country. If you can help me cover the shipping (send cashiers check or cash ASAP, you will never have to travel on a train or commercial aircraft again- we will be rich!\"

My opinion...if you fall for it once, you basically \"paid for a lesson you needed to learn\". If it happens again, your computer license should be revoked.

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