Will 419 ever stop?? - Nigerian Movies & Nollywood on Naijarules.com

Brown Suga · #1 (**permalink**) 11-02-2006, 04:16 PM

Fed up Mike Berry from the UK is getting revenge on the hustlers who try to con him over the internet- by duping them into posing for hilarious photos. Mike 44, came up with an ingenious plan to scam the scammers after being bobarded with emails from Nigerian conmen falsely claiming to be government ministers and church fundraisers. He would ask them to verify their identities by holding up a special "codeword" on a piece of card, then email him a picture. But the scammers who asked Mike for money or use of his bank account would unwitingly write "I am a plonker" (meaning i'm mad,stupid, or even a fool in british slangs) and "King of Retards" and thier pictures are put on Mike's website in a rogues' gallery. Mike 44. has also convinved the fraudseters to wear loaves of bread and fish on their heads and send wooden carvings to De Trotter Antiques to prove they were genuine.

Now the fraudsters are getting so fed up they are sending Mike death threats. Computer Engineer Mike, of Atherton, near Wigan,UK who emails the fraudsters under the name "shivermetimbers", said: "I managed to keep one conman going for seven months, but i know of some that kept emailing for two years.

"They are very stupid, and it is very funny watching them fall for it. But it has a very serious side too". Mike began "scambaiting" five years ago. after receiving one too many fraudulent emails from a conman claiming to be Nigerian official with $20million (£10.5million) he needed to get out of the county. He said: " I started to get quite curious about how these scams worked. " I searched the man's name on the internet, and found out he had been spreading the scams- sometimes sending up to 1,000 emails a week. "I thought i could have fun with it while doing a public service at the same time. The aim is to keeping them away from the real victims by getting them to waste their time." The conman offered a 25per cent cut of the money for the use of Mike's bank account. The email is an example of a very comman scam which extracts money from victims by asking for fees for financial certificates or money to pay off government insiders. To view Mike's photos, visit his website 419eater.com