It's new to me, anyway. I was cleaning out my spam folder and came across several emails that claimed to be from the FBI. They informed me that the emails I got from Nigeria were letimate and I should take advantage of the opportunity immediately. The return address on the emails was fbi.gov Posted by Xann. (Member # 11482) on :
Not to hard to do the return adress trick, plenty of websites will do it for you.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
quote:Originally posted by Derrell: It's new to me, anyway. I was cleaning out my spam folder and came across several emails that claimed to be from the FBI. They informed me that the emails I got from Nigeria were letimate and I should take advantage of the opportunity immediately. The return address on the emails was fbi.gov
Pretty hilarious.
FBI: You know those pleas you've been getting to secretly help the Nigerian Minister of Moneybags launder his fortune, since official channels entail too much risk? Yeah, those are officially legit. You should totally do it, you'll get, like, rich.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Nigerian scam emails are a great invention. Like a lottery, they are a tax on being stupid and greedy, and unlike most lotteries they transfer money to people who are really poor and need it a lot more than their victims.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
The usual victims of scams are the elderly. The lower middle class and poor elderly.
Being old and slightly less spry in the mind is not a offense worthy of being punished with poverty.
----
But then, you just say stuff like that to get attention, screw with people, and be rude anyway.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
A family member of mine, (not immediate) got sucked into one of these scams. He lost over a hundred thousand dollars, had to declare bankruptcy, and nearly lost his business and house. They have no retirement savings now and I seriously doubt the blackguards who took their money were in "dire" need of every dollar.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
A lot of the scams (not all) are run by criminal organizations, which might not be all that poor anyway.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Moving money from the US to Nigeria is a transfer from rich to poor even if the middleman who gets the immediate use of the money is a criminal.
BB, it is sad when people you know are stupid and greedy, but I think this description is accurate.
Posted by Jeorge (Member # 11524) on :
The first time I saw the Nigerian scam was in the early 90s. It came not by email but through the US Postal Service.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
He's just screwing with you, BB. He wants attention.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
quote:Originally posted by katharina: He's just screwing with you, BB. He wants attention.
Do you realize the irony inherent in this caution?
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
People getting scammed by this are willing to break the law for quick money. The fact that they have agreed to engage in criminal activities for this money does limit my pity for them. Of course, a lot of people don't understand that they are being asked to do something criminal and I do feel bad for these people.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
It's not as if there haven't been numerous attempts to warn people against these scams.
The Internet, oddly enough, is what will spell the end of advance fee fraud as a significant problem. Sure, at first it seems to exacerbate it. Suddenly you can contact millions of potential victims without the costs of faxing or postage. But this ease of entry means that every Internet user - and in countries rich enough to be attractive targets, this is rapidly becoming synonymous with everyone with a bank account - sees lots of these scam attempts. Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize these offers are fraudulent. But when you see dozens or hundreds of variations on the same thing, even the dustiest bulb will light up. The few that don't use the Internet enough to recognize these scams will be close to someone who's in the know and will get warning that way.
There's no way people can remain ignorant of these scams when they are so prevalent, in other words.
Eventually, when the hit rate goes from .000001 to .000000000000000001, they'll have to think of something else to do.
Posted by dabbler (Member # 6443) on :
Ironically, I met a woman from Nigeria who thought she had a large inheritance coming to her in America.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by King of Men: Moving money from the US to Nigeria is a transfer from rich to poor even if the middleman who gets the immediate use of the money is a criminal.
BB, it is sad when people you know are stupid and greedy, but I think this description is accurate.
Oh I fully agree he was extremely stupid. In fact the reason he did not check with certain other family who could have checked the validity of the deal was because he wanted all the wealth to himself and thought they'd steal the opportunity away from him.
But simply funneling money from the rich to the poor has little positive effects, often it's a net negative.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
quote:But simply funneling money from the rich to the poor has little positive effects, often it's a net negative.
Really? So you don't give to any charities then, and strongly disapprove of welfare states.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)