I love to see the biter bit, so really enjoyed this little caper on the scambaiting website 419 Eater. And it’s satisfying to see my old friend, Arthur Dent, brought back to life in such an effective way. Slartibartfast or Zaphod Beeblebrox might have been even funnier, but I’m not sure that even such greedy morons as the 419′ers he did suck in would have fallen for those names.
Believe it or not, I actually remember the first Hitchhiker episodes on Radio 4, back in the age of steam-driven radio. It was on in the background all the time in my flat, and I picked up all sorts of useless knowledge about Ukrainian tractor drivers, clog-dancers, bird-watching, and train-spotting, in between amazing dramas and side-splitting comedies. There is no equivalent to Radio 4, for the depth and range of its offerings, on this side of the pond (or none that I’ve ever been able to find), and I miss it still.
Many years and miles later, I gave #1 Son a fit of the giggles when I mentioned Slartibartfast one day, which piqued his interest in the story of the Hitchhikers. Although he was very young, maybe seven years of age, I gave him the first book in the series to try, and he was instantly captivated. I probably scarred him for life.
Oh no, you can’t go wrong with Slartibartfast!
Should be compulsory reading for all youngsters of impressionable age.
this is a great post…now i know who to refer people to when they get these scammer emails. Thanks for this.
[...] Tessa over at Nuts and Mutton has a great link to a site that shows you how to scam the the scammers on this post…it’s a delightful and amusing read…and a brilliant way to deal with all those ridiculous requests for help with dealing with the 27 million bucks that some poor Nigerian has been stuck with…. [...]