Nigerian Scammers Claim Another Victim

A Florida newspaper ran a story yesterday about a local retiree who fell hard for a 419 scam. The story goes into depth on the methods used to play on the target's beliefs and gain his confidence - in this case, the target (who lost $320,000) is still having a hard time accepting that they were thieves. Truly remarkable.

Comments

It's not a scam

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a voluntary tax on stupidity.

Re:It's not a scam

[stonecypher]

Yeah, and the next time the police come to you and say "this is a scam, don't trust these people you've never seen from the other side of the planet", and you proceed to pump in a third of a million dollars, taking out sixteen credit cards, selling two cars and double mortgaging your home, we'll be laughing at you, too.

Similarly, do not attempt to generate electricity by holding up a lightning rod in a storm, and do not attempt to seem commercially productive by suing for decade-past code publicly authored by someone else.

Re:It's not a scam

[Joe Tie.]

And I woudln't even say it's always deterioration which causes an inability to see through this kind of thing. In my experience at least, a lot of older people get stuck in the worldview of whatever decade they were in at around their twenties or thirties. Even if they wind up with a computer in their homes, it dosn't become the same thing in their minds as it does to us. It's just a strange magic box which might as well be powered by dragon horns for all they understand of it. If their magic box says a nigerian wants to give them millions of dollors, it's no more stange than the fact that they're able to get letters through their phone line in the first place.

419 Scam Infomercials?

[DaRat]

So, at what point will it become more profitable to run How to Run a 419 Scam seminars than it will be to actually run a 419 scam? Okay judging by the fact that people still get taken in, quite a while, but I can see the infomercials now...

For the love of...

[fluxrad]

"His trip to financial ruin began Feb. 2, 2002."

Mr. Sessions, meet P.T. Barnum. Mr. Barnum, please smack Mr. Sessions as hard as you can upside the head.

A new T-shirt

[attackiko]

"I sent the scammers $320,000 and all I got was this lousy carved wooden elephant and antelope"

I don't think he is a scammer

[andy666]

i helped him out and i made a bundle! with the money, i bought a great house with a fantastic mortgage. then i married a beautiful russian bride, and i pleasure her with my surgically enlarged, viagra driven member. During sex, I take photos and print up hundreds of copies, but hey no problem - I have an excellent source of toner....

On the other hand...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

If you read a news story about people too dumb to be real...it's probably true!

who uses who

[PinkyGigglebrain]

from the article

Mr.Sessions said "I think the Lord uses people to do his work,"

he forgot the devil does as well.

What would be amusing

[Joe Tie.]

Is if this actually was true, and there was a rich, confused, Nigerian out there wondering why 100,000,000 English speakers so far have refused his request to make them rich. It's just begging to be made into a wacky sitcom.

I fell for a scam too.

[Chainsaw Messiah]

I can sympathize with this guy. I fell for a scam too that promised to let me retire in comfort. I don't know how they got my name either. I'm still paying for it today and I'm sure the rest of my life. I'm having 7.5% deducted from every paycheck because of it. Just watch out for these scammers, this group calls themselves "Social Security". I don't know if they're from Nigeria or not though.

Re:[OT] Re:It's not a scam

[aastanna]

So who's the bigger geek, you for using 2^32 as an example of a really big number, or me for knowing that 4294967296 = 2^32?

sigh