Smash hit

There has been a huge rise in scammer numbers over the past year, he says, mainly because of an influx of cheap technology into the country, and thus a rise in the number of victims. “People of all ages fall for it, from the little old lady who has just bought her first PC to lawyers and bankers,” he says. “I get three or four e-mails a week from people who have been scammed. The smallest amounts are about £100 and the highest £120,000. But once you’ve lost money there is practically zero chance of retrieving it.”

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Recently he intercepted a scam in which a teacher in Wales was being robbed. She had received an e-mail telling her that a distant relative had left her £2 million, which was banked in Africa. To release it she had to pay £1,000 for a “lawyer” to make the transfer. Then there was a £200 “processing fee” and other costs, until she had handed over £5,000. “I had to break the news to her that it was a fraud. She was terribly upset. The trouble is, when you have paid money you’re reluctant to believe that it’s a scam — it will take only one more payment and you will finally get this money. But it never comes.”

But aren’t those who are defrauded being greedy as well as stupid? “Well, people say ‘Serves him right, he’s a greedy bugger trying to get something for nothing’. But they are only a minority. Often scammers will appeal to your good nature — I’m a dying widow; can you help me to build a church; I’m collecting for starving children. Yes, some people think they are coming into millions but a lot really think that they are helping someone on the other side of the world.”

And the scammers have no pity. They pretend to represent relatives of Holocaust victims who have reclaimed millions of dollars which they want to redistribute, or collecting for child victims of the Pakistan earthquake. Six months ago Berry received an e-mail from one and replied pretending to be a woman of 67 who was dying of cancer. “She” wrote that she was sorry but didn’t have time to get involved because she was very ill and had only £10,000 to her name, which was to pay for a life-saving operation in a fortnight’s time. The scammer replied saying that just for her he would get it all done and the money back to her in ten days.

“He knew that ‘she’ had only £10,000 in the world, yet the first sum he asked for was £10,000 exactly. I wrote to him ‘If I haven’t got this money in two weeks, I’ll die. Can you promise that I’ll get it back?’ He said yes. So he was prepared to steal from her and effectively to let her die.” A week later Berry contacted the scammer again, pretending to be the lady’s nephew and telling him that she had died. The scammer tried to get the nephew to send the £10,000 instead.

The average amount scammed is between £2,000 and £3,000 per person. At first the sums asked for are small, to cover “administration costs” or a “processing fee”. They will use the names of respected government officials, barristers or the Royal Family. Berry’s counter-tactic is often to reply saying that he is far too busy with an exhibition or research project of his own, mentioning in passing that he is able to pay big money for contributions (the Harry Potter bait came about after he claimed to be conducting a four-year publicly funded research project into handwriting).

He plays me a telephone recording of a typical death threat. The scammer does sound very cross indeed, shouting repeatedly “You fool. You are a dead dog”. Doesn’t he ever fear for his safety? “We [the scam-baiters] cover our tracks pretty well. We use anonymous e-mail addresses and phone numbers and never reveal a scrap of genuine information about ourselves, no matter how small. Though my wife does joke that one day she’ll open the door to two men wielding machetes.”

Yes, but is it worth the hassle? “I don’t think of it as work, to be honest,” he says. “I don’t have any other hobbies; I don’t go fishing or drinking. I don’t smoke. But I enjoy computers and if I wasn’t doing this I’d probably be sitting at my computer for a few hours a day anyway.”

Berry and those who help him on his site (there are 23,000 registered members) have succeeded in getting more than 50 scammers arrested, mainly in southern Africa, by passing their evidence on to the police. But only two victims have managed to retrieve money — one was £4,500 in London and the other £12,000 in Sweden.

In the past 12 months, he says, the scammers have realised that the word Nigeria can alert potential victims, so they will give out what looks like a UK phone number but is actually a forwarding number to their mobile phone in Africa.

And his advice to anyone who receives a scam e-mail? “Delete it,” says Berry. “Don’t be tempted to reply and have a go at them. They won’t be upset because they get abuse 24/7, but your e-mail address will probably be passed to other scammers and you’ll get a lot more scam e-mails.

“It’s a very lucrative business. Have no pity for these people.”

Drowning in scam spam

Have you noticed how many online friends you have these days? Each time you log on, some kind stranger has e-mailed you a hot new share tip. These “pump-and-dump” e-mails now account for 15 per cent of all spam e-mails.

Conmen encourage us to buy shares so the price soars and the scammers make a fat profit by selling their shares. But then the price plummets, leaving investors out of pocket.

The SEC, America’s financial watchdog, says it has prosecuted hundreds of such scammers. But fake share tips make up only a fraction of the 14 billion spam e-mails that hit our inboxes each day.

Sophos, the internet security firm, says that while many scams began in Nigeria, they have spread worldwide. Scammers set up fake charity sites after Hurricane Katrina last year, and pocketed donations. “Nigeria is still a hotbed for scams but it has turned into a cottage industry in Brazil and Russia, too,” says Graham Cluley of Sophos.

Grainne Gilmore

Greetings in Jesus Name! The Scambaiter Letters, £8.99, Harbour Books