Nigerian scammers busted, how you can help.

We all get them, but how many of us have seen their faces?  I pasted my email headers from one of these people into this tool and found that my particular 419 scammer was from Lagos, Nigeria.

Then I found this:

I like to keep them busy by asking them a lot of questions.  I just found out today that what I’m doing is known as scambaiting.

So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves.

It doesn’t matter if you are new to this sport or a hardened veteran; if you are wasting the time of a scammer, or frustrating them in any way well that’s good enough for us, and we would welcome you to join with our now very large community.

Although this site concentrates mainly on the Nigerian 419 scam, we are happy to deal with other types of scams if and when the opportunity arises. We also have a large team of experts dedicated to the removal and closure of fake scammer banks and sites.

Even if you are a newcomer, much fun can be had and at the same time you will be doing a public service. If you are new to this game and need to know what scambaiting is all about, please click on the 419 FAQ link at the top of the page. See also Baiting Tips for information on getting started on this great cyber-sport

We encourage everyone to contribute to this site and the good cause of scambaiting by joining in the fun on the FORUM where you can meet new friends and seek expert help, tips and advice on anti-scamming. User participation is absolutely encouraged. Please help us to raise awareness the world over!

Do not be fooled into thinking scammers operate from a specific part of the world. Advance fee fraud scammers are a world-wide menace, and they operate from every continent. These scammers range from small one-man-band criminals scamming a few thousand dollars a year, to highly organised groups raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. – 419eater

The tips are interesting reading.

Cheney Failed to Answer 72 FBI Questions

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that “there is a cloud over the vice president.” Last week’s release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney’s answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way.

On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.

The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame’s CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff.

Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?

Libby’s own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney’s reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes – notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI – the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.

Sharing the information with Cheney was in itself an unusual step at the outset of a criminal investigation in which potential White House witnesses were being ordered by their superiors not to talk to each other about the Plame matter.

“It turns out that I have a note that I had heard about” Plame’s CIA identity “from you,” Libby says he told the vice president.

And what did Cheney say in response? Fitzgerald asked Libby in front of a federal grand jury six months later.

“He didn’t say much,” Libby replied. “You know, he said something about ‘From me?’ something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that.”

via Cheney Failed to Answer 72 FBI Questions – CBS News.

Argleton, secret underground city on ‘Google’ map?

Argleton, a ‘phantom town’ in Lancashire that appears on Google Maps and online directories but doesn’t actually exist, has puzzled internet experts.

Google and the company that supplies its mapping data are unable to explain the presence of the phantom town and are investigating Photo: GOOGLE

The town appears on Google Maps in the middle of fields close to the M58 motorway, just south of Ormskirk.

Its ‘presence’ means that online businesses that use data from the software have detected it and automatically treated it as a real town in the L39 postcode area.

An internet search for the town now brings up a series of home, job and dating listings for people and places “in Argleton”, as well as websites which help people find its nearest chiropractor and even plan jogging or hiking routes through it. The businesses, people and services listed are real, but are actually based elsewhere in the same postcode area.

Google and the company that supplies its mapping data are unable to explain the presence of the phantom town and are investigating.

Tantalisingly, “Argle” echoes the word “Google”, while the phantom town’s name is also an anagram of “Not Real G”, and “Not Large”.

One theory is that Argleton could have been deliberately added, as a trap to catch companies that violate the map’s copyright.

So-called “trap streets” are often inserted by cartographers but are, as their name suggests, usually far more minor and indiscreet that bogus towns.

Roy Bayfield, head of corporate marketing at what would be Argleton’s closest university, Edge Hill, in Ormskirk, was so intrigued by the mystery that he walked to the where the internet indicated was the centre of Argleton to check that there was definitely nothing there.

“A colleague of mine spotted the anomaly on Google Maps, and I thought ‘I’ve got to go there’,” he said.

“I started to weave this amazing fantasy about the place, an alternative universe, a Narnia-like world. I was really fascinated by the appearance of a non-existent place that the internet had the power to make real and give a semi-existence.”

When Mr Bayfield reached Argleton – which appears on Google Maps between Aughton and Aughton Park – he found just acres of green, empty fields.

Joe Moran, an academic at Liverpool John Moores University and map expert, said: “It could be a deliberate error so people can’t copy maps. Sometimes they put in fictional streets as the errors would prove they were stolen. I haven’t heard of it before on Google Maps.”

A spokesman for Google said: “While the vast majority of this information is correct there are occasional errors. We’re constantly working to improve the quality and accuracy of the information available in Google Maps and appreciate our users’ feedback in helping us do so. People can report an issue to the data provider directly and this will be updated at a later date.”

The data for the programme was provided by Dutch company Tele Atlas. A spokesman said it would now wipe the non-existent town from the map.

He added: “Mistakes like this are not common, and I really can’t explain why these anomalies get into our database.”

via Mystery of Argleton, the ‘Google’ town that only exists online – Telegraph.

Copy protection seems most likely … but it is more fun to believe that Argleton is just one of the many secret underground cities connected by high speed bullet trains crisscrossing under US military bases … and the data slipped from the secret Google map onto the regular one.

Alert as six faint on board plane

Ambulance staff were called to treat six passengers at Heathrow airport after they fainted while on a British Airways flight from the US.

None of those assessed needed hospital treatment and all were able to continue their journeys, the airline said.

London Ambulance Service was asked to meet the flight from Newark at Terminal Five at 0650 GMT on Saturday.

Emergency services teams initially wore protective suits as it was unclear what had caused the passengers to faint.

A British Airways spokeswoman said: “A handful of passengers on the aircraft fainted during the flight.

“As a precaution, medical services met the aircraft.”

An investigation is under way into what caused the passengers to faint.

via BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Alert as six faint on board plane.

7,000 at shrine for ‘apparition’

A crowd of about 7,000 people turned up at a County Mayo pilgrimage shrine on Saturday after being told that the Virgin Mary was to appear.

Dublin man Joe Coleman, who claims to be a visionary, predicted that the apparition would take place at Knock at 1500 GMT.

Mr Coleman left the shrine claiming he had just witnessed an apparition but said he could not yet reveal details.

He told the Irish Times on Friday that up to 50,000 people would turn up.

Mr Coleman said the vision would only be visible to people who came “with an open heart”.

Earlier this month, about 5,000 people arrived at Knock Shrine after a similar prediction by him.

The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary issued a statement earlier this week clarifying the church’s view of Mr Coleman’s predictions.

“It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and . . . is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena,” Dr Neary said.

via BBC NEWS | Europe | 7,000 at shrine for ‘apparition’.

Kissing was developed ‘to spread germs’

It isn’t the most romantic theory, but scientists believe kissing was developed to spread germs which build up immunity to illness.

They say the gesture allows a bug named Cytomegalovirus, which is dangerous in pregnancy, to be passed from man to woman to give her time to build up protection against it.

The bug is found in saliva and normally causes no problems. But it can be extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, researcher Dr Colin Hendrie from the University of Leeds, said: “Female inoculation with a specific male’s cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly where the flow of saliva is from the male to the typically shorter female.”

Kissing the same person for about six months provides the best protection, he added.

As the relationships progresses and the kisses become more passionate, the woman’s immunity builds up, cutting her odds of becoming ill.

By the time she becomes pregnant, the odds of her unborn baby becoming infected are much lower.

Previously scientists have claimed that kissing acts as a form of evolutionary quality control, with saliva holding clues to fertility, health and genes.

But the psychologists from Leeds and the University of Central Lancashire said these things can be judged without getting quite so intimate.

Dr Hendrie said: “Information concerning body tone, smell, reproductive condition, disease state and, of course, personal physical and oral hygiene can all be gained solely from close physical proximity.

“The small amount of additional information from kissing is an unlikely pressure for its development.”

via Kissing was developed ‘to spread germs’ – Telegraph.

Spider web confirmed as ‘oldest’

Spider webs encased in amber which were discovered on an East Sussex beach have been confirmed by scientists as being the world’s oldest on record.

The amber, which was found in Bexhill by fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks and his brother Jonathan, dates back 140 million years to the Cretaceous period.

Professor Martin Brasier said they were the earliest webs to be incorporated into the fossil record.

He has published his findings in the Journal of the Geological Society.

Professor Brasier, who is a palaeobiologist at the University of Oxford, said: “This amber is very rare. It comes from the very base of the Cretaceous, which makes it one of the oldest ambers anywhere to have inclusions in it.”

‘Sticky droplets’

He added: “These spiders are distinctive and leave little sticky droplets along the spider web threads to trap prey.

“We actually have the sticky droplets preserved within the amber. These turn out to be the earliest webs that have ever been incorporated in the fossil record to our knowledge.”

His studies revealed that the spider that spun the web is related to the modern day orb-web or garden spider.

via BBC NEWS | UK | England | Sussex | Spider web confirmed as ‘oldest’.

Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds

Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory.

The study, authored by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales, showed that people in a negative mood were more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people, who were more likely to believe anything they were told.

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote.

“Our research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.”

For the study, Forgas and his team conducted several experiments that started with inducing happy or sad moods in their subjects through watching films and recalling positive or negative events.

In one of the experiments, happy and sad participants were asked to judge the truth of urban myths and rumors and found that people in a negative mood were less likely to believe these statements.

People in a bad mood were also less likely to make snap decisions based on racial or religious prejudices, and they were less likely to make mistakes when asked to recall an event that they witnessed.

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a “mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style.”

“Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages,” Forgas wrote.

The study was published in the November/December edition of the Australian Science journal.

via Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds – Yahoo! News.

I saw UFO beam up a “buffalo” ( Watch the video here. )

STUNNED Derek Bridges has revealed how he shot extraordinary footage which UFO experts say shows aliens beaming a BUFFALO into their spaceship.

Pensioner Derek filmed the eerie scene from his window after spotting pulsating glowing orbs hovering over a neighbouring farm late at night.

The two bright lights hover high over fields, while an animal appears to dangle below before vanishing into them.

A high-pitched screeching noise can be heard before the UFOs finally disappear into the night.

Grandfather Derek, 69, said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’m convinced it is the real thing.”

He told how he spotted the bizarre lights over a neighbouring farm as he looked out of his window while getting ready for bed at his house near Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Quick-thinking Derek grabbed his camcorder and began filming the incident above 2,500-acre Laverstoke Park Farm in Overton village at about 10.30pm.

It has one of the country’s biggest herds of water buffalo and is close to a military base used by special forces.

Derek said: “I just looked out of the window before going to bed. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at the time.

“I have a keen eye and I could see something glowing which looked dark red about half a mile away.

“I kept looking at it for about 20 minutes and then suddenly a bright white light appeared which was very powerful.

“At that point I picked up my video camera and filmed what I saw. I saw two white lights lifting up and I just kept filming. The lights were high in the sky. They couldn’t have been anything on the ground.

“I did not realise at the time that something was dangling beneath but when I played it back the next day on a big screen I could see it there.

“I believe it’s a UFO and this animal, which could be a bison or a horse, seems to be being beamed up.

“As far as I know, this is the first time anyone in the world has filmed animal abduction….

via I saw UFO beam up a buffalo | The Sun |News.

Looks like lights and a string, probably a couple sky lanterns with something tied to them.   The “buffalo” never gets any closer to the “ship” so the beam wasn’t working very well.

Chupacabra Videos and Reported Sightings Increase

Chupacabra Capture?

Another man captured what he suspected was a chupacabra at his farm after some of his animals had been mysteriously killed. The chupacabra (or whatever it was) he trapped has been sent to Texas Wildlife Management for identification. Are increased reports of the sightings of this mythical creature an omen? The video below is of this Texas farmer who supposedly trapped the little blood sucker.

Other sightings have been reported, and YouTube has any number of videos reporting supposed chupacabras. One such video, which appears to be from Sonora Mexico, reveals two stalwart Mexican chupacabra hunters getting the pants scared off of them in 2006. Even if the mysterious creature does not exist, you could not prove it by these guys.

…For those who do not know, the chupacabra is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas. The creature is supposed to be something of a cross between a dog, a rat, and a kangaroo, and one which sucks the blood of small prey like goats and chickens. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed from as early as 1990 from Puerto Rico to Maine, but as of yet no proof of their existence has come to light. In one Puerto Rico incident, which added greatly to the legend, 8 sheep were discovered dead from loss of blood via what appeared to be puncture wounds in their chests. An eye witness also claimed she saw the elusive monster in another reported attack where as many as 150 animals died similarly.

via Chupacabra Videos and Reported Sightings Increase.