https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo

Billions of spam emails are sent a year and millions of vulnerable adults fall victim to such scams. All of us have probably received emails regarding “Interesting Business proposals from Nigeria” or “Russian women interested in dating” an we usually just delete them, and what if we didn’t?

In his Ted Talk, British comedian James Veitch decides to the one thing we have all subconsciously wanted to do in regard to scam emails, respond. Replying to a man by the name of Solomon Odonkoh about “a very interesting business proposal.” Veitch ends up on a several month-long correspondents with Solomon who claimed that he would be shipping gold to him. He blows the thing out of proportion more and more with Veitch claiming to be a “hedge fund executive bank manager” and stating that he would not take anything less than a metric ton of gold. The entire situation gets quite out of hand and hilariously speech.

Veitch’s sarcasm and comedic timing creates a brilliant Ted Talk. Veitch reads the emails out and his just as ridiculous responses. By taking the emails at face value, Veitch completely throws the scammers off guard. When asking for his phone number, he gave the number of Goldman Sachs. He went on a rant about hummus on more than one occasion. Since then his initial prank, Veitch has made goal to respond to as many emails as possible. He mentioned an email he received from “Winnie Mandela” about needing help with her husband, Nelson Mandela’s, health condition. This was interesting considering that Mandela had died 3 months prior. Veitch argues that the time he wastes messing with scammers is time that they are not spending cheating people out of their savings.

I highly recommend watching this hilarious Ted Talk and the follow up one in which Veitch responds to even more scammers. When asked to set up an account in a fake bank pretending to be Royal Bank of Scotland. Veitch then decides to turn this into an effort to get a free toaster even printing out a fake ad about a free toaster for opening a account. Eventually after weeks of him bringing up the toaster, they told him to stop asking for a free toaster. The broke the scammers, turning the entire situation on its head and making an 180 degree pivot when the scammers asked to for him to stop emailing them.