Anybody who has ever come close enough to the internet to see as much as a pixel, has experienced being approached by a scammer. Unlike pickpockets or muggers in real life, internet scammers have to employ a web of false identities, leading premises, and outright lies.
Basically what this all means is that these scammers are trying to tell you a story, a story that they hope, will end with you giving them money.
But the beautiful thing about a story, is that anybody can commandeer it.
It’s the work of a master troll by the name of Tom Sheerin, to hijack the narratives that these scammers use to get people to send them money and completely derail them.
When an internet scammer attempted to lead Sheerin down a path toward forking out his cold, hard cash, he decided to have his own fun.
The result was this hilarious exchange of cat and mouse. Except in this case, it’s the mouse toying with the cat!
Tom warns never to mess with a “scouser” (native of Liverpool, UK), and it’s his razor-sharp wit that proves that. When a “cat” by the name of Michael Austin messaged Sheerin one day, he did not expect to get a troll like Sheerin.
The exchange starts off innocent enough, with a simple “Hello”.
But Tom is no fool. Already he knows that this is not simply a reach for friendship. As soon as this “Michael” character asks for information, and mentions “winnings”, Tom is keyed into the true purpose of these messages. Take notes y’all.
But Tom is here to have a little fun.
Rather than end the conversation and report the mysterious Michael, he’s gotta have a little Liverpudlian fun with him.
No doubt a ripped photo from somewhere on the internet, they send though a photo of plenty of cash.
But as I said, Tom is no fool, and recognises how obviously unofficial this all looks.
Methinks the scammer doth protest too much!
In order to abate any reservations Sheerin may be feeling about this out-of-the-blue win, they send him through an “official letter”, stating many times that there are scammers, but this is, by no means a scam. Did I mention scam? Because there’s no scam here! Scams, never heard of them! Just totally legit, scam-free money!
Sheerin begins playing with the scammer’s scepticism himself however.
When he begins saying ridiculous things, such as an obligation to to “charity work with the local prostitutes”, and not wanting to lose the winnings as he could replace many missing teeth, he’s testing just how desperate the scammer could be.
It turns out, they can be quite desperate.
They don’t exactly seem to be picking up on his tongue-in-cheek dry British humor. Even the address he provides for them is a Britishism for…well…I’ll let you google that yourself when the kids have gone to sleep. Even the name in the email is the name of a notorious British DJ.
And joke after joke, Michael misses every one of them in his tunnel vision to getting Sheerin to give over his details.
Then the final kicker, the request for Sheerin to send money to pay for the shipping.
But of course, Michael does not want Sheerin to let anyone else know about this little transaction…for obvious reasons…
Michael threatens to terminate the winnings if Sheerin should spill the beans.
But still, Sheerin is not done antagonising the still seemingly oblivious scammer.
And at last, Michael states the amount he wants Sheerin to send.
Unfortunately for Michael, apparently Sheerin only has five-pound notes for a hilarious reason.
Eventually Michael clarifies that Sheerin is to take the cash to the nearest Western Union to transfer the money to him.
Of course, if you’ve ever seen the film “Back to the Future”, you’ll understand the following references…Michael, is not so capable.
Carrying on with the Back to the Future jokes, you may remember the quintessential bully from the movies, named “Biff”.
Well, obviously this “Michael” fella has missed this particular franchise.
But all this talk of friends and calling is making Michael understandably nervous.
He takes it upon himself to try scare Sheerin away from telling anybody at all.
Well, perhaps Tom understands, but probably more than you think Michael!
Aw, isn’t that sweet? See Sheerin isn’t such a bad guy, he just wants his winnings!
Oh Michael, you think you’re so close, but little did you know that it’s really Sheerin coming out on top!
So much so, that he might as well just stop for a quick beer. But will he abstain from telling anyone?
Well, that seems to have been something of a dealbreaker for our friend Michael…
…and he did not mince his words about it!
Naw, come on Michael, don’t abandon your chum like that!
What’s worse are the threats to dob him into this supposed “CEO of Facebook”.
No! Don’t tell Zuckerberg!
Looks like the only way to rope Mike back in, is by getting yet another detail wrong. I guess they target people hoping for them to be stupid enough to fall for your scams…but can they tell when someone is genuinely too stupid?
You can practically feel the steam coming from Michaels ears in frustration.
This seems especially true when Tom comes to realise that he may not be able to pay the £500 after all…
Oh brother, how much longer can Michael keep playing along?
Or…Tom keep playing along, or whoever is actually in control of this conversation anymore…
Of course, the fun is not yet over for Sheerin, who has far more name-games up his sleeve.
And finally the straw that breaks the camel’s back…
It looks like it took this level of ridiculous to realise that in fact Sheerin was not the one being taken for a ride, but thusly the scammer, became the scammed. But what was stolen from Michael? Approximately two hours of his valuable scamming time.
Well there you have it! Do you have any friends who could use a prank response guide such as this?
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