The Times: Tech column - Advance-fee frauds/Lexmark rip-off
By David Rowan
It is the hottest new online sport - a chance to take revenge on the internet's most persistent con artists and gain a hilarious web page in the process. You have doubtless received those speculative Nigerian e-mails that typically offer 30 per cent of a fraudulently obtained fortune in exchange for your gullible assistance.
They are a scam, of course, intended to separate you from the substantial "advance fee" that you must pay up front. The perpetrators have proved largely immune to the efforts of Western law-enforcement agencies - but now they are facing a tougher challenge from hundreds of ordinary web users. In a trend that has been accelerating in the past few weeks, participants in the "sport" are feigning interest in the unsolicited offers and starting correspondence that convince the scammers that they are about to become rich. The goal is to cause the conmen as much trouble and expense as possible, leading them to buy air tickets for third-country rendezvous or demanding ever-more complex documentation just as they think the cash is being handed over. But the best part is that the rest of us get to watch the scammers getting scammed, as the dialogues then get published online.
It is a competitive sport, with the greatest kudos accorded to those who humiliate the criminals the most. One purportedly keen correspondent convinced Mr Kizombe Kamara, of Senegal, that a £10 million deal was about to happen - before confiding that he would prefer Kamara to cross-dress "and wear silky undergarments for me". Another, invited to help to remove valuable "alluvial gold" from Ghana, even persuaded the conman to send him a few grams as proof that the haul existed.
When Chris Noble, a science teacher in the Wirral, received a Nigerian offer to help launder £12 million, he confected an elaborate plan to lead his correspondent to a hotel in Houston, Texas. Even though Noble signed himself using the name (and fax number) of the Chief Constable of Merseyside, the dialogue continued until Noble had to explain his last-minute absence at the hotel - blaming the unfortunate death of a prostitute in his room, apparently. You can enjoy the full exchange on Noble's website, fattibastardo.com.
Still, he does not believe that the embarrassment will stop this particular conman for long. "Even if he does realise he has been taken for a ride, I don't think he will care," Noble reflects. "The fraud is by now so widely known that those who fall for it in some ways deserve it and are too stupid or greedy to learn a lesson."
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TALKING about scams, one of the greatest consumer rip-offs is the high price of proprietary printer inkjet refills, which can cost £25 for 40g of ink. As the price of printers has fallen, manufacturers have come to rely on refill sales to boost profits. Naturally, some are doing all they can to prevent you from buying ink elsewhere. Later this month a US federal judge is expected to rule on whether Lexmark International can prevent a much smaller company, Static Control, from making Lexmark-compatible cartridges.
The case hinges on a chip that Lexmark puts into its cartridges without which they will not work. By creating its own version of this chip, Static Control, the company claims, has breached Lexmark's rights under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Last month Lexmark announced a 31 per cent increase in profits, driven largely by cartridge sales, which now bring in more money than printers. Let's hope that the notorious DMCA is not once again used to erode consumer rights even further.
(The Times, February 11 2003)
It is the hottest new online sport - a chance to take revenge on the internet's most persistent con artists and gain a hilarious web page in the process. You have doubtless received those speculative Nigerian e-mails that typically offer 30 per cent of a fraudulently obtained fortune in exchange for your gullible assistance.
They are a scam, of course, intended to separate you from the substantial "advance fee" that you must pay up front. The perpetrators have proved largely immune to the efforts of Western law-enforcement agencies - but now they are facing a tougher challenge from hundreds of ordinary web users. In a trend that has been accelerating in the past few weeks, participants in the "sport" are feigning interest in the unsolicited offers and starting correspondence that convince the scammers that they are about to become rich. The goal is to cause the conmen as much trouble and expense as possible, leading them to buy air tickets for third-country rendezvous or demanding ever-more complex documentation just as they think the cash is being handed over. But the best part is that the rest of us get to watch the scammers getting scammed, as the dialogues then get published online.
It is a competitive sport, with the greatest kudos accorded to those who humiliate the criminals the most. One purportedly keen correspondent convinced Mr Kizombe Kamara, of Senegal, that a £10 million deal was about to happen - before confiding that he would prefer Kamara to cross-dress "and wear silky undergarments for me". Another, invited to help to remove valuable "alluvial gold" from Ghana, even persuaded the conman to send him a few grams as proof that the haul existed.
When Chris Noble, a science teacher in the Wirral, received a Nigerian offer to help launder £12 million, he confected an elaborate plan to lead his correspondent to a hotel in Houston, Texas. Even though Noble signed himself using the name (and fax number) of the Chief Constable of Merseyside, the dialogue continued until Noble had to explain his last-minute absence at the hotel - blaming the unfortunate death of a prostitute in his room, apparently. You can enjoy the full exchange on Noble's website, fattibastardo.com.
Still, he does not believe that the embarrassment will stop this particular conman for long. "Even if he does realise he has been taken for a ride, I don't think he will care," Noble reflects. "The fraud is by now so widely known that those who fall for it in some ways deserve it and are too stupid or greedy to learn a lesson."
++++
TALKING about scams, one of the greatest consumer rip-offs is the high price of proprietary printer inkjet refills, which can cost £25 for 40g of ink. As the price of printers has fallen, manufacturers have come to rely on refill sales to boost profits. Naturally, some are doing all they can to prevent you from buying ink elsewhere. Later this month a US federal judge is expected to rule on whether Lexmark International can prevent a much smaller company, Static Control, from making Lexmark-compatible cartridges.
The case hinges on a chip that Lexmark puts into its cartridges without which they will not work. By creating its own version of this chip, Static Control, the company claims, has breached Lexmark's rights under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Last month Lexmark announced a 31 per cent increase in profits, driven largely by cartridge sales, which now bring in more money than printers. Let's hope that the notorious DMCA is not once again used to erode consumer rights even further.
(The Times, February 11 2003)
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