Experiment – Playing With The Scammers For Real – Part 1

Prelude: I received an email that talked about receving money on behalf of someone, it is a variant of the 419 scam.

I decided to play along with the scammer and this is my experience. You will be able to read the emails I exchange with him and participate with the replies I should write.

Lets go to the action, this is the first email I received:

Hello,
I want to solicit your attention to recieve money on my behalf.

The purpose of my contacting you is because my status will not permit me to do this alone.
When you reply this message,

I will send you details of the business and more information about myself.

My personal email is: ————@yahoo.com.hk
Thank you.
Mou Xinsheng

Check the screenshot.

And this is my first reply:

Hello Mou Xinsheng,

I received an email about the possibility to receive some money on your behalf, and would like to receive more information about this transaction.

Thanks.

Ryan Spencer

Of course my real name is not Ryan Spencer, and obviously, his real name is not Mou Xinsheng either…

I wanted to show that I was really interested in his business, and since I didn’t receive an instant reply I decided to send another email after 4 hours or so of sending the first one:

Hello again Mou Xinsheng,

Just wondering if you are still interested on making the transaction???

All the best,

Ryan Spencer

So, after waiting 1 day I got the reply I so badly wanted:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your reply to my first email. I needed to be very sure of you before I disclose my identity for confidentiality purpose. I could not give you my true details in my first contact because I felt it would be huge surprise for you to receive such email from a serving minister of the People Republic of China. Now that you have replied the correspondence with interest I will give you more information about myself and the business.

My name is Mou Xinsheng (Minister of General Administration of Customs of the Peoples Republic of China).
Forgive me if you see my business proposal as shameful and not honorable because of my governmental status. But please excuse me and understand that this is the situation I am and must find a credible partner in the western world.

In my years of government service as Narcotics Control Commission and General Administration of Customs, I have received kick backs from smugglers and business people seeking favors from me and as a public officer my bank accounts are monitored hence I diverted the funds Thirty million United States dollars for safe keeping abroad.

I want you to receive the money which has been in deposit since the last Two years. When the money is in your bank account, I want to use Sixty Percent of the money for charity to help orphanage Children suffering (You will spare head this project and my name will not be mentioned).You will receive Twenty Percent as your commission and I will take the remaining Twenty Percent as my share which I intend to settle with in your country.

Please consider this proposal and reply to me soon. It will certainly do you no good to report me to my government authorities or devuldge this information to anybody because doing so will only destroy my person and my career.

Mou Xinsheng

So far, so good. This is the normal conversations (copy/paste) that scammers have with stupid people that fall for these scams. My plan is to start making sh*t up and get him to write stuff that is not usual.

It is my time to reply, if you got any ideas just leave a comment.