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daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
I found this article on the Nigerian scam. Newest twist? It's not the scammers who are guilty, it's the victims. C'mon granny, you're going to jail with no bail.
What will they think of next? Nigerian official: greedy marks as guilty as 419 scammers By Jacqui Cheng |Published: August 22, 2008 - 10:40AM CT People who fall for so-called "Nigerian scams" aren't victims at all—in fact, they're greedy and should be jailed, according to Nigerian high commissioner Sunday Olu Agbi. He said today that Nigeria has gained a bad reputation because of the scams perpetrated by a minuscule number of people, and that those who find themselves involved with the scams are equally as guilty as those running them. "The Nigerian Government frowns very seriously on these scams... and every day tries to track down those who are involved," Olu Agbi told the Sydney Morning Herald in response to a previous article on Australians falling for Nigerian scams. "People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money." Out of the 140 million people in Nigeria, Olu Agbi said that fewer than 0.1 percent were involved in Nigerian scams. The scams, also referred to as 419 scams or advance-fee fraud, predate the Internet, but have exploded in recent years thanks to the proliferation of e-mail and instant money transfers. Although the scams can take on many forms—from payments for products sold on eBay or Craigslist, to deposits on houses and purchases of plane tickets for "true love" on the other side of the ocean—they all follow the same general theme. Scammers send huge checks to unsuspecting victims with some story attached to explain the overpayment, and the victim is expected to wire back the difference immediately. Eventually when the checks are deposited, they bounce and the victim is out a lot of money. Sometimes, victims are tricked into thinking they'll eventually be paid back and continue to participate in this endless cycle of sending money, especially if the scammer is wooing them romantically (which happens more commonly than one might think, to both men and women). Although this kind of fraud originates from all over the world, it seems to have an unusually high concentration in Africa and, specifically, Nigeria. This has, unsurprisingly, cast Nigeria in a negative light. Olu Agbi said that Nigeria's reputation for being involved with the scams has even hurt the country's ability to land business deals. "[T]hose who want to transact business with us are always very suspicious," he told the newspaper. Still, Olu Agbi's "blame the victim" mentality won't help Nigeria win any friends, but education on how to spot 419 scams and avoid falling for them can certainly go a long way in curbing their growth. After all, once victims stop blindly forking over cash, scammers will have to figure out some other way to make money.
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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gaddy Inner circle Agent of Chaos 3526 Posts |
I once received an interesting variation of the nigerian scam that involved a supposed "ancient masonic lodge who's legitimacy was now in question" or some such rot. It was interesting that I should get onto such a mailing list, and I haven't gotten any such occult oriented spam since then...
*due to the editorial policies here, words on this site attributed to me cannot necessarily be held to be my own.*
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
I always respond to Nigerian scam letters, when I got them, with a photo of me taken in Lagos Nigeria and my claiming that the individual who sent the moneys father/mother owed me money and a demand for payment.
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balducci Loyal user Canada 227 Posts |
Make America Great Again! - Trump in 2020 ... "We're a capitalistic society. I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. They're not going to bail me out. I've been on welfare and food stamps. Did anyone help me? No." - Craig T. Nelson, actor.
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daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
That was incredible. It gives a glimpse into how these things work when they do happen to work. Caught in a cobweb of deceit and lies.
She just got sucked into the cycle, the vortex, and like a moth heading balladromic toward the flame, she just could not extricate herself from the web. So these sweet people sucked her dry. Time to break out the cat food.
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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Josh Chaikin Inner circle Kansas City 1430 Posts |
http://www.419eater.com/
Sometimes you can have fun with the scammer, and get some money or other fun stuff out of them too. |
daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
I recently posted a single thread on that site.
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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MAKMagic Special user I got banned for one of my 555 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-08-24 17:31, gaddy wrote: Occult oriented?
.:Michael Kelley
On the Level, By the Square |
daffydoug Eternal Order Look mom! I've got 14077 Posts |
Sounds like it.
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Not very magical, still... » » Nigerian Scam. Jail the Victims, That'll Solve the Problem (0 Likes) |
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