I first read about the type of advance-fee scams detailed in “White Hunters, Black Hearts” in the pre-Internet days. In the 1980s, a church in Minnesota received a letter from Nigeria that stated the recipient was bequeathed $3 million in a will. A subsequent article explained that the church had to pay a 10 percent tax to receive the money. It was ultimately determined to be a scam.
More recently I read about a PhD student at Tufts Medical School who scammed his own friends in order to raise $60,000 for a 419 scammer who had promised him millions of dollars. I have even heard the 419 scammers in Nigeria are regarded as national heroes.
In my opinion, anyone who is stupid enough to fall for a 419 advance-fee scam deserves to lose his fortune to some bozo in Nigeria.
Dal L. Coger
Medford
Sorry, you refer to some scambaiters’ treatment of con artists as “slave branding”? No one is being kidnapped from his or her home and forced into a life of slavery. The scammers are choosing to contact the scambaiters and are acting entirely of their own free will, whatever their ethnic origin. If the scammers decide that getting peed on, tattooing themselves, or jumping off a roof is a sensible way to go about their lives, that’s up to them. It’s the old “if someone told you to jump off a bridge . . .” scenario. The difference is that these guys say yes.
Fred MCkenzie
Hampshire, Uk
Forcing scammers to re-enact the Monty Python dead-parrot sketch? That’s a hilarious waste of time. When scammers are being sprayed with urine or tattooed, though, that doesn’t so much suggest that the baiter is a racist. He or she is likely a depraved person in general. That is, the scambaiter would likely ask a white guy to abuse himself in exactly the same fashion.
I stopped visiting 419eater.com for this reason, even though I found some of the lighter-hearted pranks to be funny. There was too much enjoyment of nastiness.
Matti Williams
Columbia, South Carolina
Keep hope alive
I wanted to thank you for spotlighting all of the problems that still plague New Orleans. I have spent the majority of my adult life in that city and have recently returned to Boston.
It is unfortunate that governmental incompetence, on both the local and federal level, has put our nation at risk of losing New Orleans. I truly hope that the community’s efforts are enough to save this city. Since I moved back to Boston, I am continually asked why people have chosen to stay in New Orleans. On a basic level, the answer is that New Orleans is a city unlike any other and its people have a spirit and optimism I’ve yet to find anywhere else. Thank you for recognizing that there is still so much work to be done in New Orleans, and that the city, now more than ever, needs our love.
Jennifer Potts
Somerville
