Oh man...I just spent all morning reading that. The recon team was just brilliant.

LOL. That is a great story. How long has this thing been going on?

I am disappointed! I want an ending damnit!!!!!

Seriously, that was one funny story. I look forward to hearing if there was a final response from the scammer.

The SA forum's post, is at 87 pages. 1.85 Million views! My word. Those are some serious bandwidth costs right there..

I think that the Professor's link to it was that his e-bay account was stolen/someone was running an identity theft on him, and used that to start getting in touch with the MyNameIsJeff guy, but I could be wrong.

I came across this update that nobody seems to have mentioned.

from http://www.easynetworknyc.com/powerbook/

you can just guess how bad the forums/mirrors of this story are getting hit by going to the above page.

edit: bad grammer

You gotta wonder about this guy - he tries a scam - gets caught by the target who burns him good (and obviously has a certain grasp of internet usage) - so he tries to get revenge with a thinly veiled virus attachment. I gotta keep watching this saga - it's the best entertainment I've had in a wee while.

Or it could be that the person was legitimately infected by a virus and since obviously the Jeff person's e-mail address was in his address book, it got mailed to him.

To me, that seems more likely than trying to e-mail him a virus to get back at him.

Between the timing and the fact that the source is a known scammer, I'd say you're bending over backwards.

that was great. beats working..haha..i am anxious to hear of the scammer ever responded.

Possibly, but then again, I've seen so many damned copies of that virus in my inbox "from" tons of people I know ;)

That was just fucking amazing. Funniest real life story I've read in a long time. It was so long that I almost didn't read it. Now I'm glad I took the time. The pictures in the pdf file of the "powerbook" are the best.

I loved the pics, as well. Especially how he just scratched out the "alt" (or whatever it was) on a key and hand wrote the Mac's cloverleaf symbol, ROFL.

and NEVER EVER doubt the power of the internet...:D

holy, freaking, crap. wow. i am astounded at how awesome that whole thing was. kinda makes me want to do something like that to a damn spammer.

it's 2:30 am and I have to work in 3 hours, and I read this anyway because it was fucking hilarious, but is it true, or one long twisted sick story? Where was this origionally posted?

It took place on the SomethingAwful forums, you can find links online (I don't have them handy) to read everything on there - see each post in the thread. It's about 90 pages long (at 40 posts/page).

That was one of the funniest things I've read on the internet. Nicley done, kudos on the operation.

I'd love to see how the scammer reacted when he opened his little package. That is just awesome.

The "undercover" work by people staking the place out was great to read about. I wonder if this guy knows how many people were in on that (has he read about it)

:lol:That was hallarious! I wanted an ending, but even without it's great to know that JUSTICE was served! It was well worth the time to read through the pdf and view the pics! The P-P-P-Powerbook binder was great, as were the "british spies.":lol:

This is very true. An internet legend that will live on for years.


Note: to keep bandwidth costs down (average of $2k per month,) non-registered users can only intermittently view the forums, and even then, not all of them.

I only came across this now, but that was very entertaining :D Also, there has been some more events finialising the story:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/index04.html

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.

LOL

One of the best things I've ever seen on the internet.

I love the windows key that's crossed out with a drawn-on mac symbol. What do you call that? Function?

Best prank EVER!

Thanks for bumping this thread, I completely missed it the first time around. Classic.

A long read, still need to check out the pix. Wow!! Hilarious!! Thanks so much for posting it, I learned a lot. Thanks to whoever bumped it too, I never would've found this thread.

WAhahahaha!

http://www.419eater.com is scambaiting site with some funny stories. One i read with Prince Joe Eboh (one of those Nigerian Princes!) is hilarious and if you liked this scam you should aprreciate this as well. It's pretty long as well though...

http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm

hmm... it seems like I have read this before. Funny story though.

Something Awful rocks, I love SA.

I'll see if I can get in touch with him for you.

Although TFP is my online home, I am also proud to be a member there as well.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That was fucking priceless!!!

absolutely hilarious!

wow...great stuff

free $2k computer
$500 bucks payed to get to for the scam
the look on a sobs sorry noobular face when he opens it and screams to the gods of injustice bestowed upon him.. heh... heh... heh.. priceless

he will pop it open.. sit there for a sec and wonder whats going on all the while his brain is shorting out and its sinking in the layers there... he will pick it up with shaking hands looking under it for the real one knowing deep inside its not.

tossing it around the room and screaming while he's beating someone.. and all the while he knows that his scam was perfect, flawless. he isnt out any money right.. oh wait that account i had came with no money so the 500 or so i shelled out is gone.. and .. nooooooooooooooooooooooo gods noooooooooooooooooooooooo


hahaha this couldnt be more perfect if the bastage ran down to the local PD and complained and got tagged for it by cnn so we could all see the tards face.

then on the way to jail 5 people jump out in fake ninja costumes and kick the crap outta him. ebay's anti scammer squad activate.