Scamming the Scammers

Despite years of warnings, we still get those scam emails from Nigeria and other far flung places offering us huge sums of money if we’ll help someone claiming to be a banking or political figure smuggle out a fortune. It’s called the 419 scam after a law in Nigeria that prohibits such practices. While the scam continues, it’s produced a counterforce, a group of Internet vigilantes that turns the tables of the fraudsters by… scamming the scammers.

The 419 Eater website is a place dedicated to what’s called Scambaiting,  or intentionally responding to those 419 scam emails, leading the scammers on and then exposing them and their ludicrous claims. The site publishes the exchanges, sends along photos and offers tips and trick on how to make fools out of the bad guys.

Many times, they get the scammers to hold signs up and take photos of themselves that make them look foolish, The scambaiters’ tactics are almost as ruthless as the scammers. A Letters archive page chronicles the often hilarious hoops the scambaiters make the scamsters jump through.

And a hall of Shame area displays all the fake documents sent by the scammers to bolster their phony come-ons.

The 41t Eater site is not for the faint of heart. Their tactics can be a bit over the top. But the site organizers claim whenever they waste the time or frustrate a scammers, they’re fighting crime.