Scamorama as fiction

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Scamorama is a site which posts exchanges between 419 scammers -- the African internet cafe fraudsters who send spam asking to use your bank account for dodgy transfers of millions of dollars -- and the scam-busting vigilantes who attempt to engage with them.

The results are fascinating (although you may need a couple of hours to read through the threads). Here, for all to see, is a curious verbal joust in which one liar attempts to outwit another, one ludicrous fictional scenario plays against another, all with fictional millions at stake.

The original 419 scam is ludicrous and incredible, and yet people fall for it, voluntarily redistributing their retirement savings in the direction of Africa. 419 victims, led by their own baroque greed, end up gratifying the greed of the scammer. But 419 vigilantes attempt to outwit the scammer by matching his baroque imagination with their own every step of the way. The results, displayed on the Scamorama site, become a sort of collaborative picaresque novel, complete with ludicrous false names, quixotic mood and atmosphere swings, and comically idiosyncratic language.

― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 26 January 2003 00:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Switch off your cookies and check out a fictitious bank used in the scams.

'Here on this site we shall feed you about the company and how we operate...'

― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 26 January 2003 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Thank you thank you thank you for that link, this stuff is incredibly interesting to me. Obligatory Taking Issue With What Momus Said: why "baroque greed"? Why not just "greed"? :-)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 26 January 2003 02:24 (twenty-three years ago)

actually, i think that the adjective "baroque" is pretty apt, considering the 419 scam and the base instincts into which the 419 scammer attempts to tap.

some of these are painfully funny -- one scammer claims he is an "Amorch" and "a leader of the Amorch Society," and if the intended victim doesn't do just what the scammer says he'll put some sort of whamma-jamma on him through his gods "BAM BAM, CHIRI OKO KO, IJAM BA EKIBILE." (shit, just click this and read it for yerself.

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 26 January 2003 05:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Being a bit of an old sea dog myself, I particularly enjoyed the thread which manages to make the scammers take seriously an outrageous character called Captin Stabbin NN (Rtd), who speaks like this:

'Saw a school of dolphin earlier on and fed them some McVities Digestives. I've had to
lash the mother in law (an excellent sea-going lady by the way) to the wheel
housing to make any distance through all the surf and spray. She took it in
good stead but her dungarees were soaked under the oilskin. But, God and
Neptune willing, we will be at the port in a day or so. Mate Miracsky has been
a big help, although he sprained an ankle badly yesterday chasing a rogue gull
off the Landsat antennae with a belaying pin. Please, confirm: has Mr Musa
heard yet from banker Barrymore, this needs urgent attention, yes?'

I laughed so much I almost choked on my dried biscuit.

― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 26 January 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

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