Having a little fun with a scammer

[Kent]

My fishing trip got cancelled today, so I decided to have a little fun giving a wanna-be-scammer a hard time.

Scammer: “Hello ..... How are you doing and how is life treating you?” 

Me: "Good"

Scammer: "Good to hear from you, I’m not doing so well...I went to dr and i was tested positive for strep throat. Ugh!! Other than that glad to hear from you and have you heard about the good news yet?"

Me: "I think I did."

Scammer: "I'm on Antibiotics. It's about the federal government and the National Institute of Health(NIH) have you heard from them yet?"

Me: "Yes I have."

Scammer: "It's a special program for helping the youth, old , disable, retired non retired and citizens with cash for paying bills, buying homes and starting their own business..did you get any notification from them yet?"

Me: "Yes I did and I applied."

Scammer: "Okay what's the name of the agent you applied?" 

Me: "Sorry, I was told not to let anyone know."

Scammer: "That is a scam Kent I know this people they scammed be before o finally got in touch with agent Micheal how much have you given them?"

Me: I sure hope not. I gave them $10,000. I'm sure that I will receive as much as you did. I just sent the money last week. They promised me it wasn't a scam. Curt, how do you know it is a scam?"

Scammer: "Kent they have just scammed you."

Me: "How do you know?"

Scammer: "Do the agent have ID card? Omg no stop i was scam by those people too they won't deliver any money to you only agent Micheal can help you"

Me: "How could I know if he had an ID card?

Scammer: "Ask him to show you Kent now I want you to message Micheal cooley
He is the only true agent all those agent are fake Curtis
You should trust me okay I think I have to show you the package I got okay I have the picture of what they delivered to me"

Me: "How is an agent going to show me his ID through the Internet?" 

Scammer: "That is how you know they are real all real agent will show you id card What is his name?"

Me: "As I told you, I promised not to tell his name. How do you know an ID card isn't fake?"

Scammer: "Do you trust me? They won't deliver a dime to you How much have you given them? I gave Michael just $500 and they delivery was made"

Me: " You write good English. Where did you learn?

Scammer: "Learn??? How??"

Me: "I know English isn't your primary language, so just curious where you learned it."

Scammer: "Forget about it, let them keep scamming you okay"

Me: "BTW my Uncle Curt died two weeks ago. Who are you and how is the weather in India?"

Scammer: "Then why are you stressing me" 

Me: "BTW I didn't get scammed by anyone and I won't get scammed by you either."

Scammer: "Am not in India" 

Me: "Your not in the USA either."

Scammer: "Yes"

Me: "Oh really, where?"

Scammer: "Nigeria"

Me: "Well better luck scamming your next victim."

Scammer: "Can you help me please?"

Me: "With what?"

Scammer: "I need a better job"

Me: "It is unfortunate you have to earn a living scamming people. Some people can't afford to lose their money. Not everyone in the USA is rich."

Scammer: "Okay" 

Me: "I understand that honest work is not easy to find in Nigeria."

Scammer: "Yeah that's true 
But I don't have a choice" 

Me: "I do compliment you on how well you have learned English. I am sorry that you don't have a choice. It has to be difficult."

Scammer: "It seems you don't want to help"

Me: "How could I help. I don't know how I could get you an honest job and I'm certainly not going to send you any money. I thought you would appreciate me being nice to you, when I know you are trying to scam me."

Scammer: "Okay good thank you anyway"

[Cowboypirate]

That was a great exchange. I, too, will on occasion have a little fun with both the phone and email scammers. Its a great way to put a on your face if you are bored.

[RockyRaab2]

I ask them if their Mom is proud of them and brags to her friends that her son is an internet scammer. That always sets them off.

[joshomaru]

I used to mess with scammers. I learned some choice words in Hindi that really get them going on the phone.
I even had a Jamaican dude call me (from a Jamaican number) on my company provided cell phone with my previous employer. He was telling me I won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. I carried that conversation on for 20 minutes- he hung up on me. I proceeded to call him back over and over for a month with different voices saying I missed a call from that number, let him do his spiel, and wasted his time. My thinking was if I was tying him up, he wasn't able to scam anyone else. He told me the same thing when I talked to him man to man- that honest work was hard to find and he is really poor and has a family to provide for. I stopped messing with him. The following month, the AGM came to me to ask why I had over $200 in calls to Jamaica. I told him the story and he just laughed. He said he was going to dispute the charges with Verizon because International calling was supposed to be disabled on our account.
I will add this- I found that by messing with people only made more calls and text scams coming to my numbers. I found out that when you engage, they mark your number as an active phone and sell it to other call centers. So, tread carefully!

[Kent]

I ask them if their Mom is proud of them and brags to her friends that her son is an internet scammer. That always sets them off.

I have asked them why they don't get an honest job instead of trying to scam people.  They invariably answer that they have an honest job.

---

I found that by messing with people only made more calls and text scams coming to my numbers.  I found out that when you engage, they mark your number as an active phone and sell it to other call centers.  So, tread carefully!

I'm sure that they do sell telephone numbers.  US call centers do the same thing.

[RockyRaab2]

The moment you answer, your number is flagged as active. It makes no difference after that if you mess with them or just hang up.

[steelhawk]

Sometimes I mess with them. But I always ask if their mother knows what they do for a living. A hang up usually results from that.

[Tin-Can]

Any phone call I receive from a number that is not in my contacts list, I don't even answer it. I just add it to my phones list of blocked calls.