I thought you all may get a laugh out of this. After experiencing a frustratingly large increase in my inbox of Nigerian Scams, I have decided to fight back by mentally intimidating those who propogate this scam.
I start by tracking the IP address the email originated from (usually Canada or Netherlands). Although the emails may be launched from a illegally accessed site, many law enforcement reports who that internet cafes and hotels are popular. Once I have the IP, I do a lookup to get a physical location. This can be correlated by looking at the IP address in the header, doing a reverse look-up and using the time zone offset to check it. I then send the message below, with the full SMTP headers exposed in the email reply, and cc at least two law enforcement agencies who are in the area (only the ones who have asked people to notify them of nigerian scams since I don;t want to propogate spam).
I also send back HTML emails with an image in them with a remote link to a finctional file in a real Law Enforcement agency server. As soon as the perpetrator views the email, his email client will make an http get() request to the server which will also leave his real IP address on their log file (of the computer used to view the email).
I would be interested in anyone who has other ideas to add to this email.
Cheers
/d
*****************EMAIL SAMPLE*******************
[Sent to reply to address with 1-2 law enforcement agencies cc'd]
Hello [insert psuedo name of perpetrator here]:
Thank you for emailing me with your offer. I usually don't accept offers from morons who say they are in Nigeria but in your case, I wanted to talk to you in person. Perhaps you can call me in Canada at (416) 952-4619. [Note: this is an actual RCMP phone number for nigerian SCAM tracking]
The funny thing was that your IP address 62.177.188.59 [note: use a program like VisuaRoute to trace this] places you in the Netherlands, not Nigeria??? Strange. Perhaps you are just too stupid to know where you are.
Oh - I have cc'd some friends of mine who belong to an international justice movement to track and punish people like yourself who try to perpetuate (I know its' a big word for a moron like yourself to read. My apologies) a scam like the Nigerian one.
[image deleted to protect CRIME list viewers]
Oh - one more thing. The broken link above is an image with a URL of http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/images/TheStupidNigerianScammer.jpg. By the time you have read this sentence, an HTTP get() request will already have gone to the RCMP (Canadian Police) server at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/. All they have to do is check their log files to see what IP address tried to retrieve the file under the path /images/TheStupidNigerianScammer.jpg and they will have your IP address (probably by the time you finish reading this sentence).
If I were you, I would start running real fast becuase the local police in Netherlands will be notified and start looking for you.
Run, Loser, Run!!!!
-------- Original Message --------
Return-Path: <timothymobutu1@private> Received: from netscape594.com (62-177-188-59.bbeyond.nl [62.177.188.59]) by yvr.yellowdragonsoft.com (8.12.5/8.12.5) with SMTP id h8BDoXLr024552 for <duane@private>; Thu, 11 Sep 2003 13:50:34 GMT Message-Id: <200309111350.h8BDoXLr024552@private> From: Timothy Mobutu <timothymobutu1@private> To: duane@private Reply-To: timothymobutu1@private Subject: Urgent Assistance Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2003 15:16:37 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="396eeca7-6dde-4d0e-8e40-7b492dd89df9"
Dear Partner, I am the son of the late president of ... blah blah blah
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 16 2003 - 17:27:24 PDT
