About
P-P-P-Powerbook is a well-known online prank carried out and documented by Ebay user Jeff, who was approached by an Ebay scammer offering to buy his Mac Powerbook for a shipping fee with a fraudulent escrow account. Upon discovering the bidder’s true intent, Jeff took on a vigilant mission by playing along with the scheme and shipping him a handmade cheap replica of the laptop. Jeff’s hilarious exploits eventually made its round across the blogosophere and popular discussion forums and the story was heralded by many as an epic win. For great justice.
Origin
In Spring 2004, SomethingAwful user MyNameIsJeff was given a G4 Powerbook to sell on Ebay. A few days later, he received the following email from an interested party:
Hello, I’m very very interested for this item and I’m ready to pay you the best price $2100+ overnight or 2 days shipping charges (UPS DHL FEDEX OR FEDEX OR PARCEL FORCE) if we will use an escrow service to handle this transaction.As for the escrow service , I am already registered with www.set-ltd.net and my uzername is the same with my email address.I will pay the express shipping and also , the escrow fee . The escrow service will release you the money as soon as I will let them know that the item passed the inspection and is 100% ok.
The escrow fee is on my charge , don’t worry. Please let me know if my offer is good enough for you. If it does , I will initiate the transaction with the escrow service as soon as I will have your confirmation.If is ok please register in order to make the deal and start the payment procedures.Hope that everything will be ok and close the deal in the best conditions.
Kind regards !
Its spelling and grammar errors, combined with the links to an escrow service, led Jeff to believe that this was a scam. He then started a thread on the SomethingAwful forums to figure out how he should go about scamming the scammer back.
The Scam
After the thread was posted, several users pointed out that the URL to the VeriSign part of the escrow site was simply a Javascript pop up made to look legitimate. After this confirmation, Jeff decided this would be an opportune time to scam the scammer. He sends the scammer an email saying he had signed up for the escrow site and inquired about their security:
“Before we continue, I wanted to ask; do you know if this site had a strong digital defense. I read that escrow services who do not utilize a strong digital defense can often be attacked, and the buyer and or seller can lose money or their item. I really don’t want this to happen! I’m sure you don’t either!”
The scammer replied with a transaction number and instructions on how to send the computer to him. Soon after, Jeff received a “Confirmation” email from the faux Verisign site. At the same time, the scammer told him the shipping address in London.
After posting the address to the SomethingAwful thread, users posted images of the area and ideas of how to enact revenge. Jeff’s plan of action involved mailing him something that weighs the same as a G4:
“1. I don’t really have any laptop to smash up. So I will construct one. Crayons – 3 ring binder – glitter – failed cd burns which I will label as various programs – I will glue keys from broken keyboard. (or should I just draw them?)”
P-P-P-Powerbook
On April 27, 2004, Jeff posted the following pictures of the binder he dubbed “P-P-P-Powerbook!” to the thread.
The Location and Delivery
On April 28, 2004, SA user Pipski went to the location and scoped it out for everyone. He learned that it was a combination barber shop and internet cafe and posted pictures of the shop.
After posting the package’s FedEx tracking number to the thread, many users followed it and waited for it to be delivered. The morning of the delivery, an SA user with the handle “Starbucks” went to the location, grabbed a computer, and staked out the delivery. He went through all the computers looking through the histories and for keyloggers. When the package arrived, SA users were waiting to observe the scammer accept it, but since the phone number provided was fake, FedEx could not deliver the package.
After spending several days in FedEx limbo, the scammer went to his local FedEx location, paying the duty taxes and releasing the package for delivery in four days.
The Aftermath
Once the package arrived, Jeff emailed the scammer saying that he was having connection problems with the escrow site, happy that the package arrived because he “thought [he] had lost [his] powerbook for good in some kind of scam.” He also wrote,
I realized I never gave my address or any bank account information for payment. If I were to give that to you, would you be able to get it to them so they can send the payment? That would be great.
The scammer responded to this by sending him a W32.Beagle virus, a worm that mass-emails itself to people in the affected’s address book. He also carried out a Denial-of-service attack on the site Jeff had made to advertise the prank, P-p-p-powerbook.com. Webarchive still hosts a version of the original site.
Spread
In May 2004, news of the scam hit places like MetaFilter, Slashdot, Engadget, and BoingBoing
Sources
The Powerbook Prank @ zug.com
The original thread from the SomethingAwful forums