ninja economist

Som vanligt när det gäller internetfenomen kommer de bästa ifrån siten Something Awful. Oavsett om det gäller ”All your base are belong to us”, photoshoppade bilder eller osmakligt roliga saker generellt så är det från den siten skämten härstammar.

Min absoluta favorit är inte en tuff spektakulär film eller avancerade photoshoppade bilder – nej – min favorit handlar om killen som var påväg att bli lurad på pengar för att sälja sin bärbara Powerbook.

Historien handlar om en kille som, åt sin vän, skall sälja dennes Powerbook på eBay. Efter ett tag börjar han fatta misstankar om köparen och mycket riktigt – köparen är en känd scammare.

Till sig får han följande meddelande:

Hello, I'm very very interested for this item and I'm ready to pay you the best price $2100+ overnight or 2 days shipping charges (UPS DHL FEDEX OR FEDEX OR PARCEL FORCE) if we will use an escrow service to handle this transaction.As for the escrow service , I am already registered with www.set-ltd.net and my uzername is the same with my email address.I will pay the express shipping and also , the escrow fee . The escrow service will release you the money as soon as I will let them know that the item passed the inspection and is 100% ok. The escrow fee is on my charge , don't worry .Please let me know if my offer is good enough for you . If it does , I will initiate the transaction with the escrow service as soon as I will have your confirmation.If is ok please register in order to make the deal and start the payment procedures.Hope that everything will be ok and close the deal in the best conditions.

Kind regards !

Säljaren anar dock oråd:

OK. I’ve seen this on CNN. Welcome to your textbook eBay scam. At first, I was just going to reply with a 72pt font FUCK OFF, or perhaps a disgusting picture, but I decided to see what the upstanding members of the Something Awful message board thought. And of course, right away, it is all picked apart.

Så, vad gör man då när man inte bara vill snäsa av en lurendrejare? Man postar självfallet en tråd på ett forum och ber om råd och tips om hur man kan jävlas tillbaka.

Detta är resultatet:

Istället för att snäsa av lurendrejaren, ignorera honom eller anmäla honom så vidtar nu en skaparglädje av sällan skådat slag. Säljaren bygger en egen Powerbook av gamla tangentbord, kartongbitar som alla fogas samman. Många timmar läggs ned för att jävlas med en lurendrejare – resultatet ses nedan:

Historien fylls självfallet också upp av sanslöst roliga e-mail som skickas mellan säljaren och lurendrejaren. Lurendrejaren vill av någon anledning inte slutföra affären via eBay:

From: Gianluca [mailto:scont06@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 25
To: MyNameIsJeff
Subject: Re: What is the next step? HELLO First of all I want ot tell you that you will not pay anything because I pay the escrow, UPS and other fees. Ok? I started the transaction with the nr. 6813088950 . Now please enter www.set-ltd.net, acces your account with the uzername that you have and if the transaction isOk with you please accept it. Ok? Once you do that I will send the funds =2100$ plus shipping $180. Ok? Please send the unit express UPS or Fedex.I will send them money and they will let you know as soon as they get the amount. Then you can send the unit at my address. Ok? Do not worry I know a lot of people that used this service and it is OK. Please let me know. THANKS

Säljaren spelar självfallet med:

Hello sir! Please let me thank you again for being so patient with me! It is too bad we are settling outside of ebay, because I was going to leave you "EXCELENT EBAYER!!!!!11 A++++++++== WOULD SELL TO ANYTIME" I guess it is ok though becaue I would have to give them an extra $300 when the auction was over. I logged onto your preferred escrow site and saw our transaction. I did not see any place to accept it though! Did I just not see it? Sorry I am new at this. Where do I go to say OK?

Where on the site does it say where to ship it to! I am very eager to get this thing shipped so I can hurry up and start the process to get my money! Once I ok our transaction does it tell me where to ship the laptop? I am very positive you will be satisfied with the laptop.

One other thing, You seemed to confident about this escrow service, that I think I am going to use it myself for my other transactions. Is that ok? I will be buying and selling other laptops and would like the security. I will be buying many things and will need a escrow service with a strong digital defense to send my money to so I don't get ripped off.

Thanks again! Jeff

Paketet skickas sedan iväg till lurendrejaren som bor i Storbritannien. Av en slump råkar en av forummedlemmarna bo i närheten av det ställe där paketet skall hämtas ut och denne beger sig dit genför en stake-out av utlämningsstället.

Så, för att summera. En kille skall sälja en Powerbook via eBay och en lurendrejare nappar. Lurendrejarens plan är att bara betala uthämtningsavgiften men strunta i att betala säljaren. Så säljaren bygger ihop en egen Powerbook och ser till att uthämtningsavgiften blir $550. Resultatet? Jo då… lurendrejaren hämtar ut paketet. På Fedex site kan säljaren till slut läsa:

May 10
6:10 pm
Package status
STANSTED GB
Released for Delivery

6:10 pm
Package status
STANSTED GB
Package available for clearance

Lurendrejaren blir så sur att han sedan försöker skicka virus till säljaren:

The Scammer Responds
an epilogue by John Hargrave

Three things happened after that fateful day.

1) The scammer responded to Jeff’s e-mail by sending him a virus:

Date: Mon, 17 May 11:28:43 -0800
To: mbbq@bootsix.net
Subject: Re: Thank you!
From: scont06@yahoo.com
Message-ID: bbq@bootsix.net
See attach.
For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password 27735

The file ”attach” was the W32.Beagle virus, which is easily caught by Norton AntiVirus. It would have been easily caught by a third-grader with brain damage. It was a pretty lame attack, but it did verify that the scammer had received the package.

2) Next, the scammer orchestrated a denial of service attack on www.p-p-p-powerbook.com, the Web site that Jeff had set up to advertise the prank. While the hacker succeeded in taking down the site, this story had already spread, AIDS-like, across the Web, so it didn’t really make a difference. Am I the only one that finds it strange that this hacker could organize a DoS attack? It’s hard to believe that a guy who writes sentences like ”acces your account with the uzername that you have and if the transaction isOk with you please accept it” could do anything more complicated than operating a salad fork.

3) Finally, and most disturbingly, Jeff was not heard from again. I personally e-mailed him for permission to run his story on ZUG, but after an initial response, I never heard from him again. All of his Web sites have come down, and he is nowhere to be found.

Jeff, wherever you are, this P-P-P-Powerbook’s for you.

Hela skämtet kan läsas på http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/ där du kan gotta dig åt helt underbara mailkonversationer och bilder på den Powerbook som säljaren bygger ihop själv.

Detta måste vara det ultimata skämtet på internet. Inte nog med att en person lyckas jävlas tillbaka med en scammare, han gör det dessutom på ett så pass humoristisk och rent ut sagt härligt sätt, att man blir alldeles var inombords!