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Having a dog is a huge deterrent. Ironically, burglars are far more likely to avoid a house with a small dog than a big one — small dogs tend to be nervous and less easy to trick into calming down. They’re less trustful and bark louder and longer.

A lock is there for prevention. It doesn't deter most burglars. A video surveillance system is also there for prevention. It doesn't deter most burglars. A dog is there for whatever reason. It deters burglars better than a lock (which you might have forgotten to lock - many burglars just walk right in) or a surveillance system.

I agree completely. That Motley Fool article was obviously written by a fool, because it touts "smart TV" features as something desirable, when in fact it's a big negative. Basically the whole puff piece was pushing people to buy smart TVs over superior TVs from companies like Vizio and Seiki, where you can still get dumb TVs and save a bundle while not getting stuck with shitty, privacy invading BS that spies on you and sends your conversations to some corporate HQ.

That $50 limit was extended to debit cards some time ago

"That $50 liability limit also applies to ATM and debit cards, though holders of these cards might be liable for up to $500 if they fail to report the card's disappearance within two business days after they learn of the loss or theft of the card. (Debit and ATM card owners can be held responsible for all losses if they fail to report the theft within 60 days of when a bank statement showing unauthorized charges is mailed.) " -- http://www.scambusters.org/creditcard3.html

You're describing the recent trend of Debt Collection Scam. Two of the worst are Allied Interstate and NCO Financial. Now truth be told, those two companies probably do have some legitimate business in collections, but just do a Google search on their company names. Their track record is horrible, and abuse of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is rampant. It doesn't matter if you owe or not to them, as they're not interested in playing fair -- they are scammers through and through. Got your number on "Do Not Call" registry? They don't care. They're just like spammers looking for that one sucker out of thousands that will pay something they don't owe, and thus, validate their raison d'etre.

In my case, somehow both have gotten a hold of my cell phone number, and are calling at least 1-2x per week. It's always an automated dialer, leaving me a message to call them back at so-and-so number. Never, ever is there a live person, either if I pick up right away, or let it go to voicemail.

Here's the kicker though -- when they first started, I got worried that I might have been the victim of identity theft, so I pulled all 3 of my credit reports. All 3 are clean as a whistle and have been for years, and there are no unexpected accounts or credit inquiries. So, as mentioned above, they're trolling for suckers, and seeing who will return the call and then will harass the caller into paying something they don't owe.

The scambusters website has a lot more good information on this growing scam. Go here --> http://www.scambusters.org/debt.html

FWIW -- I've recently filed complaints with the FTC. We'll see where that goes.

I don't know of any way of measuring the total value of Nigerian scams, but as noted in the quote, it seems that it is profitable; scammers keep playing the game, so it must be working for them to some extent.

Scambusters says $100 million to $200 million a year http://www.scambusters.org/nigerian-scams.html with no detail on the calculation.

Has anyone ever seen a serious attempt to monetarily quantify Internet-based Nigerian fraud type activity?

Not sure if you are trolling or not. But I'll bite. You're lucky if you don't see disinformation in your Inbox. I get several fwd: hoaxs a day from well meaning but idiotic relatives. To think that corporations/politicians aren't involved in the ones that pertain to products is naive. http://www.scambusters.org/legends.html Just glancing at the fist 3 they all pertain to either a business or politician. Like all good hoaxes they contain a grain of truth.

So far the AV companies have been successful in defeating the ones released and getting the key but the attackers are getting better with their crypto and it's just a matter of time before somethnig REALLY nasty comes out that cannot be so easily defeated. For "ransome" they have been insisting on using Egold accounts apparently but these accounts get shutdown pretty quickly.

Surprised no one else rememebred this and pointed it out. Here's the top hit from Google that even has the password for one of them from an AV company... http://www.scambusters.org/ransomware.html/

• Websites Fighting the Nigerian Scam/419
• Nigerian Advance Fee Scam
• US Secret Service on 419
• Break The Chain
• 419 Coalition (as noted in the article)

• 419 Eater
• Scam Joke Page
• ScamOrama
• the spam letters
• spl's soapbox

Here's a personal example: Our company experienced its first encounter with credit card fraud last month. Someone stole a credit card account number, then used the stolen number to purchase a $500 product from our company. The crook knew the cardholder's correct address, provided our company with that information, but requested that the product be shipped to a different address.

Since it's not uncommon for our customers to request a "ship to" address which is different than the "bill to" address, at first, we didn't think much of it. Our policy is to send the invoice to the "bill to" address -- which we did. A few days later we got a call from the customer (whose card number was stolen) informing us that he never purchased anything from us.

This particular scamster used one of the free email services (Juno) to open an email account in the stolen cardholder's name -- which made the transaction appear more legitimate. We informed Juno's security department of the fraud taking place. (Juno said that they shut down the scamster's account.)

Although we got authorization and approval from our merchant account vendor, we bear all the loss.

We contacted the banks and the merchant providers involved, and even contacted the police. The banks, merchant providers and police were not able to help -- mainly because they were too busy or felt that the dollar amount involved ($500) was not significant enough to warrant further action.

And what would bring that lesson home more than a mirror that says sucker? I suppose, a mirror with a link to the free stuff.

www.scambusters.org