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186
 
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As an active member of 419eater.com, it was a thrill to see the site mentioned in the magazine this week. However, after reading your description of the site I feel I should correct something very important. Having scammers send you money was something that was done in the early days, but it's now considered a bad idea, and not done anymore. The worry is that scammers will give you money by scamming another person into sending it under false pretences. 419eater has evolved since it originally started, and some "modalities" used back in the early days are frowned upon these days. One of these is the practice of "cash baiting". I hope that clears up what was otherwise an excellent article.
The last paragraph is misleading too. I deal with the victims of romance scammers. Not greedy people, just people looking for love online. We also see scammers use natural disasters, airplane crashes, even charities as the basis for their scam. Can you call someone who donated $1000 to pay for surgery to help repair the face of a a child ravaged by a flesh eating disease greedy? What about those that paid money to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina? There are scams that will ONLY work if the victim is an honest or charitable person. Please don't assume scam victims are greedy. Some people were scammed because they were naive or even because they were honest. Shocking, but true.
Should you require more information, please don't hesitate to contact me.
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286
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Hey, good comments - thanks for your thoughts! 
Have you considered writing to the magazine about the evolution of 419eater? It's bound to be worth at least a letter, but you might want to suggest it to Simon as an article.
Regarding the charity scams, these are outside the scope of what was essentially a piece about John W Worley, hence the quote in the final paragraph, which is a valid comment, even if not universally true. Fake charity appeals are a different kettle of fish.
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186
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Eater has come a long way since the heady days when it started. As the scammers evolve, so do we. Some things that were the done thing back then are frowned upon nowadays, and new and improved baiting tactics are being invented to try to mess with as many scammers as possible, while also educating the public about scammers and what they do. Some of us use Youtube channels to post up videos of the scammers. We're also much more technically minded these days, with all sorts of tricks up our sleeves.
As for talking to Simon about it, I assumed this would be the best place to put my message. Was I wrong?
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286
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wayne419eater (21/07/2008)As for talking to Simon about it, I assumed this would be the best place to put my message. Was I wrong?
Not at all - I just thought you could offer to write an article about 419eater, as opposed to simply posting about it on the forums. It's certainly something I'd like to read about in the magazine!
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186
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| Does it work that way? Can someone who's not a journalist write an article? Don't get me wrong here, I love the idea of being able to tell people about how Eater works. I'm just not sure if the inner workings of the magazine would allow such a thing. If it does then I think it would be a great idea. Hopefully people would be interested in it.
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Pentium
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wayne419eater (21/07/2008)
Does it work that way? Can someone who's not a journalist write an article?.
I did. Several other forumites have as well.
bigdaddy. Deputy leader of "The pedants' revolt". A founder member of "The GRUMPIES".
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186
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| Hmm, in which case I would definately be interested in writing an article. How would I go about offering my services?
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386
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| Giving an account of the twists and turns of some classic scam baits would be most interesting and very funny I've read some stuff on 419 eater and it really was very funny indeed, not to mention that you guys are actually performing a public service.
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286
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I've emailed Simon, and let him know about this thread. If he's interested, I'm sure he'll get in touch.
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