How much "noise" in terms of false leads must the world create to make scams like these unprofitable? Would it be sufficient to mine a spam filter and auto-respond en masse with various canned responses? How about a site which facilitates scam baiting, sans the hand-carved 80's era computers and other extremes of 419eater? It could be positioned as entertainment and a public service rolled-up in one. Want a break at work? Check-in on your currently active scams and send out some email. The site would link-up to gmail/hotmail/whatever accounts you create (to avoid TOS issues) and use Twilio to facilitate anonymous phone calls. It would be like a virtual customer service/call center application. There would be suspense, intrigue, and surprise. How will the authors of this piece of spam attempt to con me?
I actually spent more than an hour on the phone with some of the call-you-up-because-you've-won-something-but-you-can't-have-it-unless-you-give-us-money scams once. I repeatedly gave them a bogus credit card number and insisted it ought to work. I got passed from person to person and was asked with varying degrees of politeness and barely suppressed aggravation to repeat the number backwards and forwards, and was I sure it hadn't expired, and did I possibly have another credit card, etc.. I was very polite and cheerful, agreeing graciously with every request to be put on hold or transferred. Hold times are great to get the giggles under control.
When the last guy they transferred to me asked if I was toying with them (I'm pretty sure I covered my giggle with a decent enough cough, but maybe not), I asked him if I could phone my bank to find out what the problem was and call him back. Out of the question, of course. I asked if I could check with my bank and if they'd please call me back in 10 minutes. He agreed, but I never called my bank and he never called back.
What I wish I had got in there somewhere was something like "it really ought to work, I used it yesterday to pay for postage on a parcel from Nigeria."
