Re:Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me
by ChuckMcM on Monday September 24, 2012 @05:45PM
(#4567180)
You missed a word there, it was 'taunting'.
It has nothing to do with fear per se, it has to do with risk. When you taunt some one, or some thing, you invoke an anger response in them. The thing is, you don't know what they are capable of when they are angry. So that is the risk.
I've reported dozens of Nigerian scammers in my day. Yahoo [1] used to have an email address for reporting them if they were using a Yahoo email account. I've also replied to them with a carbon copy to the FBI 419 abuse email address. I am even polite about it. It doesn't escalate the emotion.
Most scammers simply ignore you once you've reported them, occasionally they will swear at you and then ignore you. But it ends there.
[1] http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index;_ylt=AgcN27QhFLqwMA_Cfh52Fxl5...
Everything could go badly, it's waste of life to worry about the insignificant / unlikely things.