Scamming the Nigerian scammers / Moxie's plans and English help / CHOCOLATE COCONUT CRUNCH COOKIES

Corey showed me 419 Eater, which is a big collection of pictures of Nigerian scammers that were conned into taking stupid pictures of themselves, usually holding signs that say funny things.. or sometimes with fish and bread on their heads and other nonsense. They string the scammers along, and get them to do stupid stuff as signs of good faith, basically. There was one from this site somewhere where they replied: "No, that offer doesn't sound good, but I have a $50,000 grant to give out to artists. So if you know any, refer them to me." So of course the same scammer replies saying they're an artist, under a different email address and name, claiming to have found the offer on a website or something.

Then they proceed to get the scammer to actually create art and send it to them... then they used Photoshop to make everything look like it shrunk in the mail and doesn't meet size requirements anymore, and all kinds of ways to get them to make more. One of them made the guy a big wood carving of a Commodore 64 keyboard that cost a ton to ship. This one is good... they got a whole soccer team plus other people to hold up "Arse Bandit" signs. I should say that not all the pictures on the site are work-safe, so you've been warned! He's come across a few that are just pictures of envelopes addressed to themselves from Africa, with money inside :P So some of these people got the scammers to actually send THEM money! :P These are very bad people, so whatever people can get them to do are fine by me.. the people who are scamming them are called "scambaiters," and this particular one must be pretty damn good since there are a few people who have tattooed themselves with the scambaiter's screen name!

I talked to Steph for a bit earlier: I should really ask her (on Friday?) what she told Mom about certain Internet people, since Mom seems to think they're nice! (I wonder what would have happened if I'd thought of letting her talk to Candy on the phone in Mississauga at Melissa's, or if I'd let her meet Palmer last summer, haha) Then I talked to Jon, who isn't free this weekend since he's going to the Christian conference that he was telling Nathan and Christon about. He figures that Chinese Eric and I are going to hang out regardless, which is true. Speaking of Chinese Eric, he thinks that a Moxie's reservation for 7:30 on Saturday will be fine if he's at my place around 7... that should work with the post-Awana schedule, haha. He also has good news for me, which he won't tell me till then: "You can update the blog for me with it!" Fair enough, I suppose... he rendered "nodding head" (diantou) as "knotting head," which I corrected. I know he wants to learn how English works, after all. ;)


CHOCOLATE COCONUT CRUNCH COOKIES

Categories: Cookies
Yield: 4 dozen

2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Butter; unsalted, softened
3/4 cup Brown sugar
2 Eggs; lightly beaten
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 teaspoon Almond extract
2 cups Coconut; shredded
12 oz Chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups Almonds; lightly salted, dry roasted, finely chopped


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl... whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix on low speed until blended. Add the flour mixture, and mix just until blended. Do not overmix. Add the coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds. Stir just until blended. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoon 2" apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.