I subscribe to only two magazines - Wired and The Atlantic - because in any given issue there will be a story on (respectively) some technical or socio-political sub-culture. This month's Atlantic has an outstanding article about the world of counter-scammers, guys who "bait" all those "Nigerian oil ministers" and "deposed princes" trying to separate you from your money.
The article focuses mainly on the efforts of 419eater.com and its founder Mike Berry who managed to turn the tables on a scammer by convince him to compete for a fictional art scholarship. The poor sucker carved a magnificent replica of a Commodore 64 keyboard which now sits in the 419 trophy room. Brilliant.
By the way, you must read everything ever written by Atlantic contributor William Langewiesche.
1 comment:
That C-64 does bring back memories. It was about 25 years ago I bought mine, when they dropped the price from $595 to $199.
It has always amazed me that the 419 scams work, but I do note that most of them contain some acknowledgement that you're dealing with the son/widow of a very disreputable person, or of course a crooked banker. It's like WC Fields said, you cannot cheat an honest man.
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