Reverse Scamming 419ers

[Dave Howe]

Eric Cordian wrote:
> Email is free.  That is why we have a spam problem.  If email required 37
> cent stamps, it would be no more annoying than junk snailmail.
it might be free in america - but it isn't here in the UK even at low 
bandwidths - say, 56K. The sort of bandwidth a professional spammer uses 
doesn't come cheap on any scale, and back when I was on dialup, the 
amount of spam I get now (expressed in bytes) would probably have been 
about 1/3 of my *total* traffic back then.
These days of course I can be content to watch my filters remove the 
majority of it - but I still don't appreciate having to waste bandwidth 
downloading it.

> I would suspect that after initial contact is made, and a "fee" is
> transferred, part of that money can be used to fund the appearance of the
> scam, and still make a profit.
True - so what you are saying is that we aren't *actually* taking the 
spammer's $80, but money they took from some poor sucker who got spammed 
earlier?

> I think this sort of scamming is a very highly leveraged activity, with an
> occasional large payoff, like playing a slot machine with the overall odds
> slightly in your favor.  It probably doesn't take too much before these guys
> are out in the street with nothing.
I am trying to think of a reason why this would be a bad thing.

> Given the number of people worldwide currently in that situation, I probably
> won't behave in ways that increase it, even if the person in question is
> trying to pick my pocket.
I agree that spamming 419'ers don't deserve being out on the streets 
with nothing - but only because I would prefer to see them (and all 
spammers) being slowly disembowelled with red hot hooks......

> Visionary Philosophers should have higher moral standards than the scum of
> the earth.
Ah. ok, that Explains it then - I am not a visionary anything :)