Don't like spammers? Hate scammers? Enjoy a little fun & humor? You've come to the right site! FAQs and links below.

By the way, my name is Dr. Emmett L. Brown. Usually I'm researching clocks at Hill Valley State University. I usually have a student named Marty McFly. (You get the picture.) Every once in a while I'm a physician at Hill Valley State Hospital.

Now, if you're asking yourself, "What the heck is 419 Nigerian Scam Baiting?," here's the quick and dirty: a HUGE business in Nigeria by con artists is to trick foreigners (many from America) into sending lots of money to them. Specifically, they violate a section of their law, 419, that concerns advance fee fraud. Today, they do it by sending e-mails to unsuspecting people that claims that the fraudsters have large sums of money that they have to move out of Nigeria. We're talking fake money in the multi-millions. So, some non-thinking person (and we're honestly all capable of being conned) who receives an e-mail thinks they've hit the jackpot. The poor victim sends money. And more money. Until the truth dawns on them. Now, the fraud can be much more complex and diverse than what I've outlined. Here are some great links detailing it:

• Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website
• 419fraud.com
• US Secret Service
• Nigerian Fraud Watch

So, there's the description of "419" and "Nigerian Scam," but what's the "baiting" part of it? What it really does is creates joy out of potential victim frustration and misery. First of all, people have lost millions to these crooks (and sometimes their lives when traveling to Nigeria), so we shouldn't have sympathy for them at all. Most of these crooks won't ever be caught, so what can we do? Waste their time...humorously! These people are potentially dangerous, though, so I wouldn't necessarily advise scam baiting them, but if you do, NEVER give out a BIT of personal information, and always use a throwaway (Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.) e-mail account. Here are some GREAT scambaiting sites. I promise you'll get a some really good laughs if you read through enough of 'em. :)

• Scamorama - One of the best. Lots of stuff to look at!
• Waronspam - Includes Nigerian Scams and other spam. Hilarious sound clips.
• The Chaos Project - Fascinating Stuff!
• Lads of Lagos - Courtesy of Dr. Nuutz Onurchin.

Why is it so funny, though? Well, for many reasons. First of all, the type of prose used by the scammers is usually hilarious. They can't always use English, compose sentences, or spell very well. In addition, the baiters sometimes ramble on about crazy stuff, make outlandish references, and use U.S. pop icons or coded insults that Nigerians would have no idea about. But, hey, they're trying to scam, so what's wrong with wasting their time for a while and get some laughs? One guy on an Wired article that I read said something to the effect of "it sure beats stamp collecting in order to pass the time"! :)