Are scammers working (mostly) alone ?

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 30 Apr 2009 Posts: 28

Hi there,

Just wanted to ask if you think that the lads are working alone (except maybe for the WU/MG part) ?

I personnaly think that it is the case and the time where they were working as small team (with a minimal hierarchy) is over...

What do you think ?

SI

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:42 am

Very hard to generalize.Some do work alone.But there are also known large,organized gangs.As far a what the proportion of each is I think would be impossible to determine.

*** BANNED *** Joined: 26 Jul 2012 Posts: 1116

I am still learning the ropes by playing a lad in my baits so what I see and what I hear might be a bit off but I am finding it to be both. Many of them do work together. Some work exclusively alone. Others will work socially to some extents but are for the most part loners.

It is really hard to say. I do see a majority of the scammers networking in some way though in pictures I have found on social networking sites. Down at the bar drinking away their earnings and partying.

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:12 am

There's a mix of both out there.

You get the odd lone wolf but the nature of the lad is a sociable one and they network just like other people on the net.
Even if they do work alone, you can guarantee that they'll have other lads in their contact lists and will talk shop with them on a regular basis.
They're not stupid - they know that they've got to keep ahead of the curve. And the only way to do that is to find out what your neighbour is up to.
Lads are like spiders - they're all sitting on the edge of the same web waiting for a fly to drop in. All flicking the strands of the web with their greasy little legs. Occasionally, they'll double team a fly if they can't handle it on their own but also, just like a spider, they'll try to eat the other spider if he's smaller and gets in the way.

Gang-wise? They're the ones who make the biggest impact. They tend to be better organised and able to take on hundreds and hundreds of jobs at a time. But on the downside for them, because they're so successful, they're the ones who can come to the attention of LE and so they're also therefore the most vulnerable.

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:53 pm

Alan Wrote:

Quote:

By the way the database now has in excess of 17,000 bank accounts in it and if anyone still thinks that scamming is a cottage industry please think again. Thanks to your help in linking bank accounts together, we have been able to identify different gangs. The largest one is known to us as the Foremac Group and links together 650 different accounts around the world.

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223496&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75

I thought you might like reading this trivia tidbit. 650 accounts would be hard to manage without help IMHO.

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:08 pm

There are also gangs of website creators. I've been fighting one since May; there must be separate people to register sites, upload them, handle the responses to job ads, deal with other scammer gangs who use the mules' services, and manage the mules who forward the money.

Baiting Guru Joined: 17 Sep 2006 Posts: 5905

Most of the books/literature on 419 out there suggest that although there are some individual scammers out there most work in groups with each group member having a specific role and a pre-agreed percentage cut of any profits.

If you start taking phone calls from lads you can usually hear someone in the background feeding them lines, especially if you are asking difficult questions.

As also suggested they network too. They work with lads in other countries if needs be. If it gets to the point where a lad suggests you meet someone in your country to drop off the money you usually find that the fee has risen considerably because there are more palms to grease.

I had one Nigerian lad recently who had obviously hired some lads in London to meet me. Naturally I didn't show, the London lads I don't think ever really believed in me but the Nigerian lad was very reluctant to let me go. He must have called me over 50 times in the space of 4 days. He was obviously very embarrassed I had hoodwinked him for so long and made a fool of him in front of the London lads who pretty much sussed out my game straight away. It is so nice when you can give them a taste of their own medicine.

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