THIS is an EX-Scammer

Back in August we shared an interesting bit of poetic e-justice with you. There's a Web site--419eater.com--where folks post tales of duping the scammers who send those classic e-mails asking for help funneling large sums of money out of their country (aka the "Nigerian e-mail scams"). Now, while we cannot officially condone these reverse scams (the safest course of action is to delete the messages and never contact these people), we can't help but be amazed at the details of some of these stories--and at what crazy things some greedy people will do.

These "scambaiters" usually reply back to the scammers pretending to be rich and powerful individuals who can offer 10 times the amount of money the crooks hoped to get. In turn, the scammers are often duped into performing ridiculous and elaborate tasks, all designed to waste their time and what resources they already have.

Our previous story on scamming the scammer involved one person tricking the perp into believing he was a famous art collector looking for fresh, new talent. The result: The scammer was duped into carving an exact replica of a Commodore 64 out of wood.

But this latest one takes the cake. Or the parrot. Or the dead parrot if you want to be completely technical about these things.

What you are about to watch is a video created by a West African scammer who was tricked into believing he was applying for a grant from a video production company. The "producer" had the scammer (and a friend) re-create the classic "Dead Parrot Sketch" from Monty Python's Flying Circus. The results are hysterical. I wonder if there's an idea for a new Broadway show in this? From the makers of Spamalot comes "Scamalot!"