Less than 24 hours after publishing E-mail Scammer Offers Qur’an Signed by Obama, a post that provided a blow-by-blow description of a three-day exchange involving yours truly, my Colorado-based scam-baiting expert friend Skunkfeathers and some unscrupulous scammers in Kenya, an e-mail “admission of guilt” arrived from a person claiming to be the perpetrator:
Gentlemen, you win. You surely got me 10-nil, lying down. But this was a case of stolen identity. The poor guy, Sam, of course could not have used his real names, and provided his employer’s details if this was really intended as a scam? You see, as a journalist, his works are on the internet so it was easy to pick him out, he doesn’t even normally use this email addy.
Actually, I am based in the US, you will note I used an internet phone to call you so you couldn’t exactly track where I was. There is no way a Kenyan folk in Kenya could have had such an in depth knowledge of US based pro-McCain/ GOP sites and whom to contact. His was such a game coz he writes for a US blog, is based in Kenya, supposedly something that was alluring to potential media in the US where I hoped to sell the story. But I knew you wouldn’t call, it was such a big gamble on my part and I was right.
I was to use a contact in Nairobi to present Sam’s fake ID to cash the money, but you were ahead of our game, sir. Bob, your man (Skunkfeathers) was real good. Can I apologize? I am sorry. But it is unfair that the guy’s name still remains on your blog sites, and has now been picked by NowPublic and Newsbusters.org.
DK
What’s funny about this message is that it’s full of falsehoods similar to the ones in the original scam e-mails. For instance:
“DK” writes that he used an internet phone so that we “couldn’t exactly track” where he was. Truth be told, I was able to look up the phone number which he provided at http://www.ldpost.com/countries/kenya/ and learned that “254 71,” the first five numbers of the phone number the scammer provided, was one of a handful of mobile phone codes available in the East African country (see numbers at top of graphic at right).
Whether or not “DK” is being honest about Sam Ooko’s identity, I have decided to add an editorial note to the original post. It should appear soon.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Skunkfeathers // Oct 31, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I still don’t dismiss the idea that part of “DK”s end game was to discredit you and your blog. He surely goofed on that one, too.
That was fun!
2 Debbie // Nov 2, 2008 at 11:11 pm
With this admission, seems like someone who actually IS an attorney with some federal agency should be tracking down this scammer. No?
3 hotoffthepress2 // Nov 2, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Debbie,
They should, but I’m afraid they’re probably too busy chasing down allegations of voter suppression in swing states.
4 Skunkfeathers // Nov 3, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Or voter fraud, thanks to ACORN and like-minded surrogates…though, if a candidate, it might be kinda fun to be able to say “Scooby Do voted for me!”….in private ;-)
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