Hijacked Email
Last night I got to talk to a scammer. Good times.
A friend of mine had his gmail account compromised and used for the "London mugging" scam, where the scammer sends messages to friends and family claiming to have been mugged in a foreign country (I guess London is the typical location) and that they need money wired to get themselves back home.
Ha.
I was also watching Breaking Bad at the time. Double ha.
Here is the conversation I had with el scammerino:
7:52 PM Brian: Hey
are you there ?
7:55 PM sparx: yes. hi!
Brian: am not too good
sparx: no? what's up?
7:56 PM Brian: I'm stranded in Manila Philippines with my family
got mugged at gun point last night
scary!
7:57 PM sparx: manila? i thought you just left for puerto rico last night
Brian: No
I was hit on the head but getting better
all cash,credit card and phone was stolen
7:58 PM sparx: did they take your wheelchair? can you still move around?
7:59 PM Brian: thank God we still have our life and passport safe
8:00 PM sparx: your wheelchair though, do you still have it? do you still have the meth you smuggled in your wheelchair's frame?
Brian: our return flight leaves in few hours but having troubles sorting out the hotel bills
i need your help
sparx: if you lost my meth i'll fucking kill you
8:01 PM DO YOU HAVE THE GOODS?!
Brian: yes i need your help
8:02 PM sparx: there's still an hour until the swap. there will be $80,000 in the breifcase. take out what you need to get back, i'll consider it a loan
8:03 PM *briefcase. sorry, can't spell.. got pretty pissed when i thought you lost the product
8:04 PM still there?
The chat status went idle, which is why I tossed in the "still there?" – I was really hoping I would get to play more with my new friend. 🙁
sparx said,
addendum to the post, because I don't feel like clicking "edit" and changing it:
1) I know London isn't a foreign country, but for many of us it's IN a foreign country… so being in London would put the person in a foreign country.
2) I called it the "London Mugging" scam even though this scammer said "Manila Philippines". "London Mugging" is the only thing I've ever heard it referred to as, so if there's a more generic term for this scam… let me know.
3) Breaking Bad is an awesome show.
4) $80,000 for 5lbs of meth comes out to $1,000 an ounce. I think that's well below market value, or it's pretty heavily cut. But it's not something I had a lot of time to research or think about.
November 17, 2011 @ 8:23 pm
Cactus Joe said,
You are a diabolical genius.
November 17, 2011 @ 9:17 pm
Tom said,
I've heard that one before, on both the phone and over chat. Nicely played!
November 18, 2011 @ 12:24 pm
sparx said,
Over the phone? Wow.
I haven't spoken to Brian for a couple years now, but I think I'd recognize that it wasn't his voice. I think I'd still play along though. 🙂
November 18, 2011 @ 1:03 pm