Why 'Nigerian Scammers' Say They're From Nigeria 209
angry tapir writes "'Nigerian scams' (also known as '419 scams' but more accurately called 'advance fee fraud') continue to clog up inboxes with tales of fantastic wealth for the recipient. The raises the question: Do people still fall for this rubbish? The emails often outline ridiculous scenarios but promise millions if a person offers to help get money out of a country. The reason for the ridiculous scenarios seems obvious in retrospect: According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people, and their crazy emails can help weed out people who are savvy enough to know better. Contrary to what people believe, the scams aren't 'free' for the scammers (PDF): sending an email might have close to zero cost attached, but the process of getting money out of someone can be quite complicated and incurs costs (for example, recruiting other parties to participate in the scam). So at the end of the day, the scammer wants to find people who will almost certainly fall for the scam and offer a good return."
NSS (Score:3, Insightful)
"According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people"
Well no shit sherlock!
Re:NSS (Score:4, Funny)
sending an email might have close to zero cost attached
Why, you're right again, Watson! This missive contains numerous self-evident truisms, does it not?
Re:NSS (Score:5, Funny)
"According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people"
Well no shit sherlock!
He might have had experience in their "OEM pre loaded" department
Re:NSS (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:NSS (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure I buy it. Those emails tend to be in the same Nigerian English I often hear Nigerians I know speak with. The reason for the ridiculous scenarios is that they want it to be blatantly obvious that you are agreeing to something illegal if you go to the police. When the Nigerian authorities see an email where you are knowingly agreeing to money laundering or theft from their government it gives them the excuse to simply file the whole thing as on thief ripping off another and then the whole thing becomes too low of a priority to be worth the trouble of investigating further. The reason they need this is that
paying the police off only works if the police a justifiable reason to not investigate in case someone higher up asks about it.
Re:NSS (Score:5, Insightful)
It could be the same phenomenon that causes Intelligent Design advocates to exclaim - "My gosh, it's inconceivable that it wasn't deliberate!" ; 419 scams are just a successful phenotype (or memotype?) that happens to fit a niche. Their total incompetence selects a very particular kind of credulous idiot that previously would not have been available in such numbers, but the internet produces a global village, with a ready supply of village idiots. Interpreting it as being an intentional tactic may be reading too much into it.
Re:NSS (Score:5, Interesting)
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Even worse, about 5 years ago an auditor working for Revenue Canada (like Canadian IRS) got dinged for tens of thousands over a 419 scam. He even flew to Nigeria to try to pick up the money. He also racked up
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"According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people"
Well no shit sherlock!
I thought the point was actually quite a subtle one, namely that the scammers deliberately continued with what should be the well known Nigerian prince stories, because by definition if you've not heard of these stories, or are prepared to believe them despite all the evidence to the contrary, you immediately prove yourself to be a good potential victim just by replying.
As all good con men know, you can't con an honest, clever person. Or, rather, it's not worth the effort to.
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This is Slashdot - we don't do subtle.
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"According to research by Cormac Herley at Microsoft, scammers are looking for the most gullible people"
Well no shit sherlock!
I'm not convinced, I think we need another study to verify the findings of the first study.
Waste their time (Score:5, Insightful)
is therefore a good tactic, perhaps when we get these we should make a response, to lower their average rate of return.
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Insightful)
But having to do that would also waste our time. Are you willing to do that?
Re:Waste their time (Score:4, Insightful)
With a 2mn quick email you can easily waste 15 - 30mn of scammer's time.
Repeat a few time. Multiply by the number of scammer's prospects.
The scammer would need a whole life to deal with each spam shot.
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The scammer may however benefit from confirming that your email is real and belongs to someone with time to spare. If you fill in some fake personal details to lead them on, they will have those to sell.
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Considering they are scammers, I don't think they need your information in order to sell it. They can just randomly generate some authentic looking 'facts' and sell those.
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Just because flies are annoying doesn't make it right to pull their wings off to see them buzz round in a circle of death.
Yes, but the worst thing a fly does is eat shit. We could only wish the scammers did the same.
What's worse? Buzzing around annoying people or taking money from a pensioner that requires that money to feed themselves? A fly doesn't harm anyone, someone scamming the more gullible (who are generally old or uneducated/poor) does cause real harm.
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Funny)
But having to do that would also waste our time. Are you willing to do that?
Well he's posting on slashdot isn't he?
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Funny)
But having to do that would also waste our time. Are you willing to do that?
Well we're posting on slashdot aren't we?
I brought you up to spec there.
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If it is entertaining, then yes. Think of all the other time wasters like watching TV, playing Angry Birds, reading Slashdot... ... I just remembered, I have to get back to work.
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Informative)
It's potentially entertaining, and you can win free prizes like bizarre pictures if you do it right. One guy even managed to get a dollar out of one of the scammmers. See 419eater.com [419eater.com] for examples and helpful tips (including how to avoid getting in any trouble yourself).
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Re:Waste their time (Score:4, Insightful)
"But having to do that would also waste our time. Are you willing to do that?"
People who spend their days trolling here and every other forum they visit have the time, it's what they do.
And remember people, it's not a real problem anyway, because:
You cannot con an honest man!
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You cannot con an honest man!
That's not really true. It's true that it's easier to con someone if you can take advantage of their greed or dishonesty to help rope them in, but even honest people can be conned -- for example, the infamous "hi Grandma, I'm stuck in Tasmania and my wallet was stolen, please send money ASAP" email relies on Grandma's concern for her grandchild, not on her dishonesty.
Re:Waste their time (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft did the research - if this is the answer they can solve it too. "Upgrade" their PC's to Windows 8 and watch them take 10 times longer trying to do the same thing under Metro.
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I saw a comical series on TV (in dutch!) that did just that. They answered the scams as if they were interested and tried to get as much response out of them a possible.
In the end they invited a contact person to a fake company HQ to finalize the whole thing. There they had a number of pranks for them (like a dwarf on a pony delivering a message) culminating in a fake police raid for aleged fraud of the company.
"You can go about your business. You're an honest business man!" the (fake) police officer assure
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419eater is at least 5 years old, probably closer to 10. If you just found out about it, I have some money I need help getting out of my country...
Finding they right people (Score:5, Interesting)
They found my neighbours* - a couple whom my mother (a psychologist) took one look at and said "adult mental health" - and they thought they'd won £450,000 in the lottery. It's a funny story.
They knocked on my door and asked if they could use my computer to register with the bank as they couldn't register on their phone. The first red flag was that URL he typed in sounded incredibly long, but not reason enough to say anything. Anyhow, when he was done, they mentioned they were looking forward to getting a laptop & television like mine as they'd just come into some money, $450,000 to be precise.
I was too dumbstruck to say anything, so called a mate and started the conversation with "you're going to laugh, but it's not funny", he wasn't helpful so I called my mum as she's had plenty of experience dealing with people like this. My main concern was that they'd think I was making fun of them when I told them, or that they'd want to shoot the messenger - they'd already started spending the money mentally.
The next morning I knocked on their door and told them that my computer flagged that I'd visited a dodgy site - they one he went to - and that before they do anything they should talk to their bank, thus absolving me of not telling them the previous evening. And that was the end of it, so I though.
However, they told the police - fair enough. They also told the scammer - they'd got a call from him after entering their details - and told him they knew it was a scam and that they'd informed the police - fair enough.
Then, about a week later, I bumped into them and they showed me an email they'd received. it read:
I am the man sent to kill you. I have been watching your house for two days. I will be paid £1,200 for this job, but if you pay *me* half I will not kill you.
So they tell the police again, they also tell the council who then have to send out a risk assessment team to determine whether they have to be moved.
In short, there are always people that will fall for these scams, and they tend to be the lowest common denominator, or just greedy and unethical. However there's always a cost, even if you catch the scam before any money changes hands.
* These are the same people who asked if they could use some of my weed killer (enough for 400 sq m) and used it neat on their garden (20 sq m)
Re:Finding they right people (Score:4, Interesting)
or just greedy and unethical.
As I understand it, those Nigerian scams always tell a story where the large sum of money is obtained illegally and the recipient of the mail would know he would be participating in illegal activities. This helps to keep the scammed silent, because if they report it to the cops, they'd have to admit trying to help traffic illegal funds.
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I'd assume* that anyone so gullible as to fall for a Nigerian scam isn't going to realise that the money will be obtained illegally. The reason I'd included "greedy and unethical" is because I vaguely remembered a story about a lawyer suing a bank over a cheque he sent to scammers. It turns out it was this story [abajournal.com] which didn't involve 419 scams.
* Though we all know what assumptions are the brother ^H^H^H^H^H mother of.
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My guess is that it's the MILF of a friend.
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> As I understand it, those Nigerian scams always tell a story
> where the large sum of money is obtained illegally
Not always. Sometimes the story is that the sender is a well-intentioned but naive fool whom the recipient will have an opportunity to swindle.
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Out of curiosity; are your neighbors also very religious?
No I'm not trolling.
I have a neighbor who is very religious (Fundie Baptist Christian), reasonably educated (BS Business) and he is very gullible. I'm just wondering if it's a pattern .....
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Yes there is a pattern. They tend to believe in fairy tales.
p.s. I'm not trolling either.
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Not that I know of. Though I kind of trust my mum's opinion about them being a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Besides I've heard (through a concrete floor no less) him roaring at his missus - one gem I remember:
M: You owe me for that broken [console] controller.
F: I didn't touch it
M: You distracted me, you know what happens when you distract me (obviously he smashed it up when he got distracted from a game and died)
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Note the switch to £ signs (and the poster's explanation of that in another posting). This was in the UK. Stupid Brits are much less likely to be religious that stupid Americans.
It's an example of evolution. In another few hundred years maybe you Splitters will have caught up with us intellectually
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I would have replied to that email saying
"If I pay you half, the man who hired you to kill me will use his money to hire someone else to kill me, and I'll be out the money I need for booze and hookers to live up the time I have left."
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I once saw an old lady get scammed with this type of stuff but with one glaring exception - it wasn't over the internet.
It was over the phone and fax. I don't know how they got ahold of her initially but the phone number she had to call and fax was in Puerto Rico. To call PR isn't an international number from the US but certainly is long distance.
So instead of visiting dodgy websites and so on they had her doing it by fax. They faxed her a document with a very cheesy looking bank letterhead and so on.
It was
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I am the man sent to kill you. I have been watching your house for two days. I will be paid £1,200 for this job, but if you pay *me* half I will not kill you.
Sounds more like something the children on 419eater would write.
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Reading comprehension fail, not surprising really for an AC:
.. asked if they could use my computer to register with the bank as they couldn't register on their phone
They check their email on their phone, but couldn't access the site using a mobile browser.
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Typo, it was $450,000, bah I just noticed that I got the dollars mixed up. The email threat was in pounds however as it had been personalised.
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Sweet Jesus, have ACs never heard of smart phones? I despair.
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People still fall for it (Score:4, Interesting)
For whatever reason, people do fall for it. Big time.
Other than by pure greed, I don't know WHY people would really fall for it, especially if one gets many of those mails a day (easily a dozen or more a day for me - it's about half of the spam that makes it through greylisting). If you get just one such mail, then I can imagine: the first one I got, well over a decade ago, also made me wonder: is this legitimate, is this real, it certainly sounded quite real but the whole thing was just too unlikely to be trusted. Why trust a random strange contacting me by e-mail? At the time I had never heard about such scams.
But anyway, yes, people do fall for it. And there must be quite some people that fall for it. If not, it would die out quickly: that is pure economics. This are relative expensive scams to carry out, time and effort wise, and if they do not get any response on their mails (or no return on those responses) the activity would stop.
Re:People still fall for it - I know of someone (Score:5, Interesting)
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Makes me wonder how someone like that could ever become a top-ranked manager to begin with.
Re:People still fall for it (Score:4, Funny)
Makes me wonder how someone like that could ever become a top-ranked manager to begin with.
really?
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Makes me wonder how someone like that could ever become a top-ranked manager to begin with.
One of the downsides of being 85 is that you likely don't have as much mental capacity as you did earlier in your career.
Trick question (Score:5, Insightful)
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Nah, these days most of them are actually operating out of Europe. Nederland is a big base for them for some reason.
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Oddly, Belgium has a large number of the "Russian romance" scammers. Go figure. /answers the abuse desk for a medium-sized email provider
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False. There's been plenty of reported cases of westerners running these scams from within their own country. Or did you think there was some kind of money making scam, which clearly works, which has all rights reserved for criminals living in only one little chunk of Africa?
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Den of Scum and Villainy (Score:4, Interesting)
Interesting analysis, particularly the original paper. It's almost like a two-step optimization problem--very much a game theory topic.
I happened to marry into a family of Congolese immigrants. My in-laws have told me in no uncertain terms that Nigeria has a strong reputation among central & west African cultures for being, if you will, a den of scum and villainy. If there's a scam, theft, or petty crime that involves an African individual, one of the first thoughts is, 'they must be Nigerians.'
Of course, this strikes me as a strong stereotype. I've met several Nigerians at family events (I've even attended the wedding of a real, bonafide Nigerian prince, I kid you not), and they're pretty much normal people. Surprise! (That doesn't change the fact that the Nigerian restaurant down the street ripped me off last Sunday... On the other hand, I've never had spiced goat larynx before, so I guess I came away from the experience with something new.)
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The same could be said for Sicilians, for that matter. Or any other ethnic group/nationality with a reputation for corruption and/or organised crime.
I think the main reason is that Nigeria is chosen is because it is known for two things: having incredible wealth in natural resources (mostly oil) yet at the same time it's seen as one of the poorest nations in Africa. That disconnect suggests that a lot of corruption exists, thus setting the stage for believing that there really is someone trying to smuggle o
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That's like saying that all stupid Europeans are Polish.
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Surprise! (That doesn't change the fact that the Nigerian restaurant down the street ripped me off last Sunday... On the other hand, I've never had spiced goat larynx before,
Dude, let me explain you something: That was not the goat's larynx... . And it was not spiced either!
Why 'Nigerian Scammers' Say They're From Nigeria? (Score:5, Funny)
The paper uses Google NOT Bing. (Score:2)
It seems that Microsoft Research uses Google and not Bing. (Just like everyone else)
Easy To Make Them Go Away (Score:5, Interesting)
It worked for me, when I received one of these scam letters (this one ostensibly from the Netherlands) and I replied to them just to find out how far they would go. They wanted me to meet them in Amsterdam to seal the deal (which they claimed was worth millions).
I told them that rather than travel many thousand miles, I had a friend who lived a few miles away, just outside of Amsterdam, and she would meet them to talk about it.
I never heard another word out of those people.
All you have to do is pretend to be interested in their offer, then propose something other than THEIR plan, but which is perfectly reasonable. They will back down every time.
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You have a lot to learn [419eater.com]
Maybe I missed it but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I like to send them each other's emails (Score:2)
Usually I copy the content of one spammer, change it up just enough to sound unique and interested and gradually, as they read down the letter realize they're reading another spam letter. Occasionally I send them the CIA's phone and address. At other times, I sound normal at the beginning and slowly start raving. Great Sunday afternoon fun!
Street numbers (Score:2)
Found a note taped to my house yesterday, offering to paint my house number on the sidewalk - which, as we all know, is very helpful for aiding EMTs, etc. Just $20 cash, or write a check to 'Tony Reed.' %10 discount for senior citizens. I showed this to a worker at City Hall, who recommended I report it to the police via non-emergency line, of course; who wouldn't think this is just a bald-faced scam? Not even imaginative. Maybe I'd pay 20 cents. The City employee pointed out the other obvious fact
And yet, it appears that Nigeria IS involved. (Score:2)
Copyright Group of Nigeria (Score:3)
Dear Madam, Sir:
please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Kwane Mbiko, Esq. I am writing to you regarding an urgent matter. The Copyright Group of Nigeria is (for tax reasons) the effective rights holder of a large number of US based artists. Unfortunately, we have evidence that you infringed on our copyrights by means of BitTorrent downloads and we are currently finalizing litigation against you in the Capital District Court in Abuja. You are hereby advised to start making travel preparations to appear before the court as required per Nigerian law as well as that you have to option to retain a local sollicitor to stand beside you.
Because of the travel distance involved, I am by exception authorized to offer you a settlement agreement. Please call my assistant Beka directly at 011 419 55 555 5555 to discuss payment details.
Yours faithfully, etc. etc.
You're overthinking it (Score:4, Insightful)
"Con" is short for "confidence," in that a con artist plays with the victim's sense of confidence (usually in themselves). Looking like a moron inspires the victim's confidence in their own intelligence, their own ability to outsmart the con artist. Making you think that you can come out ahead, one way or another, is the entire point of the con.
If you think you can out-con the con artist, you've already lost. That's exactly where they want you.
So it's not about "aiming for the least informed" as much as "looking so inept as to be harmless."
I have my standards (Score:2)
I mean, if they're not offering me at *least* $25M USD, I know they're frauds, trying to cheat me out of my money.
mark "diss *me*, will they?"
this scam used snail mail before email (Score:2)
They somehow got a hold of professional society address book and wrote to people in the book. Maybe they thought those people had money. M
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But you used the Anonymous Coward account so nobody will believe it was you!
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Funny)
For once in my life, I want to say "FIRST POST!"
Congratulations, you have one the "first post" prize. This was set up in the year 1922 by President Nboko of Nigeria, who felt that those who posted first to Slashdot on the 20th of June each year (his birthday) should receive a million US$. However to release these funds some small charges apply....
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Congratulations, you have one the "first post" prize.
s/one/won/;
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Interesting)
Congratulations, you have one the "first post" prize.
s/one/won/;
Surely the spelling mistake was intentional... to "find people who will almost certainly fall for the scam". Because we all know lawyers in the real world would be able to spell such a simple word. :)
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Interesting)
I've learned to bait them to increase there time cost. If everyone wrote them back, they would be overloaded with non paying contacts. Set up a bait email account and always write them back using a ficticious persona.
One to send me my inheritance asked for my details including my photo.
I wrote back and asked about the format needed for the photo. Is a family portrait needed? Would a snap at the beach last summer be OK?
They took the time to read my reply and write a personalised reply requesting a passport photo.
I wrote back saying I didn't have a Passport Photo so I need to get one taken. String them out and waste their time. Google Scambaiting for more info.
Never fake and send government ID such as a passport or drivers license. It's illegal in many locations. Find excuses to delay forever till they give up.
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You are using your (first world) time to bind their (third world) time. I don't quite see how that's a winning proposition.
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Insightful)
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I have thought this about the money mules used to get money from various bank scams. If a bank subject to such attacks encouraged their staff to act as money mules, let the attack take place, and then not release the funds, it would have a big impact on the operation. By allowing the money mule emails to hit their targets (the gullible) you are aiding their business.
On a similar note I have a way of burning the time of those offering email marketing lists. I always respond saying my company is interested, b
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Also, it would be great to create a Thunderbird plug-in that could do it for you. Just drag the offending email to the plug-in and away it goes...
Entertainment (Score:5, Insightful)
You are using your (first world) time
Some call this "entertainment".
Lot's of people have different hobbies.
There are people who like to play the latest "Call for Warfare" on their "PlayBox"
There are people who like to hack a Linux into their toaster.
There are people who like to build an all purpose robot using a cluster of arduinos
And then, there are the people who get their kicks from baiting scamers (the whole "feeling superior by scamming the scamer"). All in all it's a rather cheap form of hobby, because it doesn't require much beyond time. But on the other side it's less healthy than going outdoor for some sports.
Re:Entertainment (Score:4, Insightful)
Having done it on one or two occasions, it is quite a bit of fun, and doesn't take that much time. An occasional quick email, some time chatting on IM while doing other things. It doesn't take much to keep them baited.
Also they send you things. Usually fake money orders, of course, and that must cost them even more. Sure not much, and I bet the postage isn't much either but...every packet counts.
The main thing I found myself having to do was resist my impulse to help them. Its so tempting to correct their english, but the last thing I want to do is help them seem more legitimate to the next guy.
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I don't think the comparison should be first world vs third world. It should just be Your time vs the scammer's time.
No matter where you are, unless you classify it is as leisure (like Slashdot :P), this is a waste.
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Time is time. That's one thing that the first world and third world both have in common. I can't buy or earn more of it. We all have to choose how to spend it. If they want to spend it engaging in unethical or illegal practices that harm people, that's their business. If I choose to spend mine in the pursuit of wasting theirs, that's my business.
You may also be glad to know that I don't discriminate against third-world scammers. I also string along telemarketers.
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Re:please ignore (Score:5, Funny)
Re:please ignore (Score:4, Insightful)
These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
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These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
The slight difference is that the drug smugglers are, in fact, illegally smuggling drugs, while the scammers aren't doing anything illegal until they take some money off their victims.
Re:please ignore (Score:4, Informative)
These people are desperate and without work in their country except for criminal con tricks such as this so the most compassionate thing you could do is ignore them and continue to educate your community about the trap.
How weird. Would you also advocate compassionately letting drug smugglers through but educating people on the harm of drugs, if they come from third-world countries?
The slight difference is that the drug smugglers are, in fact, illegally smuggling drugs, while the scammers aren't doing anything illegal until they take some money off their victims.
I don't believe that's true, in most countries attempted fraud is an offence.
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Informative)
You're sorely mistaken. As a retired scambaiter I know quite a lot about them. Scambaiters on 419eater.com have probably scoured every article and news report on the internet about 419 scams as well as lured scammers into disclosing more about themselves in correspondence (e.g. by pretending to be a journalist that realizes that it's a scam and promising them a reward if they answer questions honestly). They are significantly better off than most Nigerians and would have better opportunities to an honest job, if they just chose to work. They have better internet access because they often own the cafes they run their scams from and despite their English being crappy, the fact that they speak it makes them more qualified for many jobs than Nigerians that don't speak any foreign languages. Sadly, scamming people out of money instead of working for it is often viewed as respectable in Nigerian culture. You're seen as powerful, if you're in a position to do that. Consequently Nigerians that don't participate in the scams themselves object to government measures against the scammers. Finally, westerners that have been lured into traveling to Nigeria with suitcases filled with cash are lucky if they only lose the money. There have been several cases where victims have disappeared without a trace.
Re:please ignore (Score:5, Funny)
There have been several cases where victims have disappeared without a trace.
if I had just been given $100M cash by a Nigerian prince, I would probably disappear without a trace too.
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Are you Nigerian?
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Is it safe? (Score:5, Insightful)
But is this really such a low risk passtime?
The idea is yeah, yeah, 3rd World dimwits, let's see how stupid they are. But I would think that con artists of all cultures might have a certain sophistication about them, and if they lack sophistication, they might have some "muscle" they could apply if you got them angry.
I say, if you really, really know what you are doing, have your fun, but unless I knew these guys couldn't figure out personal info on me, I wouldn't poke them with sticks just to get a reaction.
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There's a good story arc in the Achewood comic that covers a masterfully baited scam artist.
Was he masterfully baited by a master baiter?
;-))
(Sorry, that one was too obvious
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It would take you less time to skim the article and find the solution than it does for you to post and read my response, but basically the summary almost captures the answer: the scammers are looking for the most gullible people possible, and that would include anyone who hasn't already heard of the Nigerian scammers.
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FTFS: "scammers are looking for the most gullible people, and their crazy emails can help weed out people who are savvy enough to know better."
If you've heard of the Nigerian scams, you are not the victim they are looking for.