Prudentia Sit

This is part 4 of a 3 part series.  If you are reading this, then I won again.

I have to say I feel I have hit the big-time with Scambaiting now.  At least I feel like I have.  "Barrister" Johnson Chambers or Clark or whoever may be dumb as a box of rocks and lucky to know how to turn the computer on, let alone write in English well enough to communicate with Dick and Jane, so I doubt they have enough know-how, but somebody tried to hack my page!  Can you believe that?  It sounds suspicious because it was only an hour or two after part 3 was posted that this happened.  I say the big-time because http://www.419eater.com/ was majorly hacked a while ago, so I am in good company.  Here's what happened.

I got an e-mail from Godaddy, the finest hosting servers in the land, saying they had to shut down certain files on my site.  Not the whole site, mind you, they don't just shut their customers down completely, just the files that were affected.  In this case it was a little message board program I had forgotten about from when I first put this page up.  It had this message, "YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED BY ANONYMOUS" repeated over and over a few times.  I forgot that board existed; it was never a popular page, so I just deleted it.

All this attack has done to my site is made me aware that I need to be a little more watchful of my coding and the software I use and to watch when I "disuse" pages to make sure that I follow up on them.

Tomorrow you will receive a new rant about our racist Attorney General* but until then I say unto Bannister Clerk or whoever tried to hack me, "Thou art a general offence, and every man should beat thee."  All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene 3

This is part 3 of a 3 part series.

Frederick Von Googleheimer is a poor scientist and the good professor responded with what seems like a lucrative offer:

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This is part 2 of 3

My character, Professor Frederick Von Googleheimer, Penguin Scatologist First Class, is receiving an explanation of where the money I am supposed to send him is going.  He is only asking for $525 and in exchange I will get $300M or is it $700K?  Doesn't matter.  I won't be getting any of it because I have no intention of sending any money or anything else to this bozo.  Here was the newest scam letter.

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I am not really an expert on scamming these scammers like my scambaiting hero, Skunkfeathers  who is a master.  I was just over there and read about how his character, Myra Manes, so sadly passed away.  The con-chick was still hoping for money, though.  These scammers are scum.  They are low-life filth.  As the Bard says, "You...whelp hag-born!"  One of the reasons I make my own attempts at it though is because I know that his style and mine are sufficiently different so as not to appear that I can't think of something original.  I also do it because it ties up a crook's time.  I lack the finesse and the patience, however, with these creeps.  I blew a gasket at the end with this one.  Oh well.  He might not ever write me again, boo-hoo.

One of my big problems, also, is making it a legible format that is easy to follow but also, possibly, educational because even though you know that I believe I have the most intelligent audience anywhere, we can all fall prey if we let our guard down.  Or perhaps someone will arrive here who doesn't really know what's going on or is doing a sincere search for information, as happened last time with the Aziz Hamid scam (see http://herbthiel.com/index.php?catid=20&blogid=1 scambaiting pts 1,2, and 3).  I was so happy that I helped several people to not be taken in by him.  I have tried to make this as legible as possible and still have fun though.  If you are interested in the practice of "Scamming the Scammer" the site "419 Eaters" @ http://www.419eater.com/ is an excellent resource with lots of tips.  If you want to see a master at work, view Skunk's page.

To save space and unnecessary writing I eliminated headers and tried to cut out as much extraneous material as possible.  To save reading time it looks like I am going to have to post this in two or three parts but we'll see. 

If you are an e-mail subscriber, please note that you will NOT receive a message for parts 2 and 3 since the links will be dead if I allow the e-mails to go out on time.  Sorry.

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I was pleased the other day to get an e-mail from a person named Enida.  She had received an e-mail from none other than my old friend Hadji (See "Scambaiting part 1, 2, and 3) and thought it sounded fishy, so she googled him and my blog popped up!  That was so cool to me.  I helped, in my small way (Helpful is the only thing small about me.  My CB handle was The Helpful Hurricane, though.) to keep someone from being scammed.  I'm sure she would have figured out what was up, but still, I felt like I performed a good function.  She sent me another one she got and I am going to ask the good professor to respond to it, but maybe a little more low-key than last time.

Progress is being made on the church website as well.  I don't have enough content to have you guys inspect it, yet, however.

All of this scambaiting stuff lately brought to mind a piece I had started working on last year when I had the laptop and was put in a folder called "Ideas to Write" and then promptly forgotten about.

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On Dec 2 I received this mess(age) from my close friend and business associate, Hadji. 

Hello.  

I acknowledge your willingness to assist me. I need you to collect my £5million Five million Pounds lodged with the Bank in England and distribute 80% of it based on my instructions to orphanages in any charity organization of your choice and you will keep 20% for your self for your kindness.  I would need the following information from you so i can contact you any time i want.  (Now we are at the part where he tries to not only get my info, but make me feel close to him.  ICK!)

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On Nov 30 I received this heart wrenching letter from Mister Aziz Hamid, azizhamidd@meall.co.uk a simple and humble merchant from Dubai with the subject “Please Help Me.”

Hello.

This letter may come to you as a surprise due to the fact that we have not yet met. I have to say that I have no intentions of causing you any pains so i decided to contact you through this medium.(Ah felt right spiritual just then, being contacted through a medium.  An XXL would fit better, but his lie is that&hellip

As you read this, I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday.  My name is Aziz Hamid, a merchant in Dubai, in the U.A.E. I have been diagnosed with prostate and esophageal Cancer (This was where I became immediately furious and decided to work with Mr. Hamid, even though I had no scambaiting experience)
 

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There is an occupation that Skunkfeathers has been engaged in for a long time called "Scambaiting."  Basically what you do is take one of those spams that you get from the Nigerian Banker and answer it.  Not giving any real information, of course, as these people are, in fact, criminals.  People who engage in scambaiting see themselves (and properly so, in my opinion) as crimefighters.  They use up the scammers's time and resources so they have less to work with to try to score the naïve and innocent and, frankly, stupid people that answer these things.  I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but who ever heard of a total stranger in a foreign country giving you tens of thousands of dollars to help them commit a fraud that they could perpetrate using their own countrymen or henchmen?

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