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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.
This is just simply greed run amuck. Not by the scammer - but by the idiot who fell for it.
I can't feel sorry for this guy in the slightest. This guy was a whole lot of stupid. Just insane to fall for something like that and need to spend $320K to get it.
There is a certain personaility type that has to fall for this no matter where it was from. It's not the internet that has caused this, it's just helped people find more idiots to suck in.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
If it sounds to good to be true it most probably is. period.
I dont know who came up with that line but it holds true time and again.
I can see why he won't admit to having been scammed, and keeps denying that those people were scammers.
At that age and point in my life, if I were to admit that I were completely scammed out of everything I had worked for my entire life because of a scam that has been around for decades, it would probably make me a broken man.
How long can someone that age live with a broken heart?
It's right up there with the lottery.
Pretty Pictures!
This was on fark yesterday. What cracks me up is that they guy doesn't even think he was scammed. He blames governments for holding the money, and he considers the criminals his friends. Actually, never mind, that doesn't crack me up. It makes me sad.
We have to look at the signs. First, we have the obvious there is no free lunch and if it looks too good to be true, it probably is
Next, we find this line:
He ignored police warnings that the deal was bogus and instead blames his losses on corrupt foreign governments
OK, so even the police told him that this would go bad, he continued to dump his money. So now we have "too good to be true" coupled with warnings from the law that he was going to get fleeced
The actual premise of the transaction doesn't even sound legal. A banker needs to move money that isn't his by using an offshore account?
The account had been dormant for years -- ever since the businessman and his family died in a plane crash, the e-mail read. The "banker" needed help moving the money. Otherwise, the government would confiscate it.
That's where Sessions fit in.
And finally the trump:
Still, Sessions was so mesmerized by the well-spoken West Africans that to this day he does not think he was scammed. "I consider them my friends," he says. "They're not criminals."
If this guy had more money and they asked for it, he would give it up. It goes beyond stupid and trusting to the point of insanity. Yes, he's old, but when you've been warned by police and god knows how many others, lost all the cash you have,and face losing your house then you should know you've been robbed.
This guy has more in common with a gambling addict than a victim. He's still not giving up. I really wouldn't be surprised if he would have given to TV preachers or others who might have fleeced him had the nigerian scammers not caught him first.
I completely agree. While the scammers should not have tried it to start with, anyone stupid enough to be taken in by something so well documented after being warned by the police deserves to loose anything they put in. Why does nobody ever point out this side of the story? It's always like the victim was an innocent bystander, not a greedy moron.
My take is on this is more than likely he knows he was scammed. He would rather believe a lie he knows is a lie than accept the fact he was swindled for all he's worth.
It's easier to blame "corrupt foriegn governments" than it is to blame yourself for being taken in by it. I think the poor guy is just too embarrassed to admit he was swindled.
But did anyone else get the impression off this article like they were really poking fun of him instead of covering a real piece of news. Kinda like, "Look at this stupid old guy, haha"
You know what else is a little odd:
Jim Stratton can be reached at jstratton@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5379.
That just screams, "please send donations." Makes you stop and think, who's scamming who..
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
his drivers license--no more Information Super Highway for you!
Get the victim hooked, keep bleeding money out of him until he's ruined, and all along he'll insist that he's not being robbed.
Sad. Very sad.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
"I think the Lord uses people to do his work," Sessions said. "With that money, we'd be comfortable, and we could do some good things."
This statement is another way to pc package the concept of greed. If only God would let me win the loto I promise I will use it to do the Lords work - after of course making myself "comfortable".
Worse even if you believe the first email its obvious that there is a fraud going on... In this case it was some corrupt bank worker wanting to move cash out of a unused bank account.
Anybody that falls for this is just a thief an served right when they don't get anything.
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
This is exactly why SPAM is thriving and so widespread. Someone, somewhere will fall for anything, no matter how propostrous. A million may complain about SPAM, but it only takes one to buy into the scam. I mean, this one he should have seen a mile away and yet he lost a ton of money. Sad.
...I lived through the dot-com stock bubble.
You don't have to be old and retired to be seduced by people promising you 500% returns on $50,000 investments. Twenty-somethings will fall for it if you use enough marketspeak.
The lottery is a tax for people who suck at math.
meh
- He is 73
- He and his partially disabled wife needed the money
- He comes from a simpler time, a different era
Please don't be harsh on him.What if, 50 years from now, there's a scam going around , today, you won't in your wildest imagination consider possible? Would you fall for it? It is possible some of you would.
Please don't deride this old man, but feel sorry for him. He's ruined, with a disabled wife to take care of.
If anything, us young folks also have to share some of the blame in not spreading the message clearly that such things are scams.
If you think you are too smart to be conned out of your money, you're wrong.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
In fact victims of this scam probably deserve less pity (the only reason for coming out in public that you were duped) than most other. For a person to bite on a Nigerian scam they must be unusually greedy. Many other scams take advantage of altruism. It is those that deserve some pity. Be not admitting to being scammed (yea right like he doesn't know when an article is written about him being scammed) the man seems to want to come off innocent and naive probably to gain pity and a new income. But this is just him trying to scam the altruistic masses of the internet. This man just reaped what he sowed.
Open Source Sushi
"Please don't deride this old man, but feel sorry for him. He's ruined, with a disabled wife to take care of."
He's been ruined by his own greed and stupidity, and was apparently quite happy to steal money from the bank account of a dead man. Why should I have any sympathy whatsoever for someone like that?
"What if, 50 years from now, there's a scam going around , today, you won't in your wildest imagination consider possible?"
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you remember that, you'll never fall for one of these scams. To do so you need to be either crooked or stupid or both.
"The guy deserved to get scammed! Stupid people should suffer."
Ah, the spirit of Christmas on Slashdot.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
He borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars, gave it to some one in a foreign country, and now he may go bankrupt.
.sig
Why do I feel like the real idiots in this story were the people willing to lend him the money?
-- this is not a
"There's a sucker born every minute."
Spam relies on the idiot factor. Ask the same stupid question a few million times, you're going to get a few stupid answers.
As long as there is one ignorant/plain stupid person managing to survive this world, there are ten people waiting in a queue to exploit them and take their money.
Final obligatory quote: A fool and his money are soon parted.
I ran a benchmark on my quantum computer, now I can't find it anywhere!
We should be careful when we attack people like this. Did he make a huge mistake? Yes. Was the mistake a result of caving into greed? Yes. However, millions of Americans are currently putting themselves into similar situations by getting deeper and deeper into debt by taking loans to buy luxury items: a new yacht, a larger house, a fancy new car, etc. The evils of debt and the mounting interest costs is well documented, but it happens time and time again.
While you may not have fallen victim to this particular scheme, are you certain that you have not fallen victim to the "must-have" commercialization scheme so prevalent (and legal) today? Yes, this was a very stupid mistake, but we are all just as capable of making equally stupid mistakes (an investment in the next Enron perhaps).
Do not be so quick to judge and save a little room for compassion. If nothing else, think of his wife who has lost so much and may have had little to say in the decision. Consider the difficulties that they will both face in their marriage as they approach their final years in poverty. This is a heartbreaking story. Do not become so cynical that we lose sight of this.
I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!
There really needs to be stronger international enforcement on these scams. These scammers deserve to be taken out with extreme prejudice.
A tiny amount of research could've saved him from this mess (he obviously had internet access). Instead he let his greed lead him to a point where he not only has jeopardized his wife's future but he is too scared to admit he was scammed. His mental health demands that he pretend the scammers are the good guys and were victims of their big bad government.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
...However, millions of Americans are currently putting themselves into similar situations by getting deeper and deeper into debt by taking loans to buy luxury items: a new yacht, a larger house, a fancy new car, etc...
But at least with those kinds of debt, you at least have something to show for it (the house, the car, etc..) With this scam, you simply lose the money. At least if you find yourself in great debt, you can sell off the item you bought and cut your losses. Just my $0.02.
It said most of the 320k was new debt. There's no chance he can pay that debt back, as he can't even afford to pay current living expenses.
That means he'll default on loans and credit card debt, which means creditors will have yet another reason to fleece good customers to make up for the bad ones.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
"He is 73"
So he had 73 years of life experience for him to know better.
"He and his partially disabled wife needed the money"
He had no problem burying his wife and himself in debt and putting everything they had in hock for the sake of a scheme that would have made Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners) blush.
"He comes from a simpler time, a different era"
Bah, I hate that "Golden Age" bullshit. Life wasn't simpler and people act exactly the same as they always have. Some people are liars and cheats, some are greedy fools; time hasn't changed this. People even had fewer people watching out for them (bank insurance, auto insurance, consumer fraud protection, etc) than they do today.
He grew up with Stalin, McCarthy, Hitler, the Depression, countless scams and scandals, and on and on. He wasn't from some innocent time.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
title says it all. I especially like that he was a "electronics specialist". Christ you'd think he'd know better..
Yeah, those geniuses in Silicon Valley and Seattle who put up their stock options against their mortgages till the drop in 2000 and had to face foreclosure, or the slick characters who poured their hopes and dreams into the money making machine known as the internet only to come up with severance if they were lucky. Those guys are so smart, the ones who have downsized into tiny apartments from expensive condos and are playing 2-year old games while living off unemployment extensions. The ones with the "What Me Worry?" looks on their faces. Yeah, they'd never get scammed......
Hey, you think your house is cool?
If this guy had given all his money to a church, it wouldn't be in the news.
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
The lottery is occasionally in your favor
Statistics are funny. Even if it's in your favor, you're still not going to land the sum, so it's still not worth it - unless you're willing to risk a huge amount of money.
As the old saying goes - a variation on what this was started by - the lottery is a tax on those which are bad at math.
I see the 419 scam as a form of social darwinism.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
Taxes go to the government. They are not completely wasted. So I disagree.
However, millions of Americans are currently putting themselves into similar situations by getting deeper and deeper into debt by taking loans to buy luxury items: a new yacht, a larger house, a fancy new car, etc. The evils of debt and the mounting interest costs is well documented, but it happens time and time again.
We're not laughing at this dumbass for getting into debt. We're laughing at him for spending three times his monetary worth on something that police had already told him was fake.
While you may not have fallen victim to this particular scheme, are you certain that you have not fallen victim to the "must-have" commercialization scheme so prevalent (and legal) today?
Not to the tune of a third of a million dollars, not once the police had told me not to, and certainly not to sixteen credit cards, two sold cars and a doubly mortgaged house.
I do feel a bit dumb about my $50 electric razor. That's maybe a different caliber of dumb.
but we are all just as capable of making equally stupid mistakes (an investment in the next Enron perhaps).
Did the police tell you not to invest in Enron? Did you hear about Enron via email? Did you invest triple the amount of money you actually had, risking corporate funds loaned to you, on Enron?
If nothing else, think of his wife who has lost so much and may have had little to say in the decision.
I'm not laughing at her. I feel awful for her.
This is a heartbreaking story. Do not become so cynical that we lose sight of this.
Heartbreaking, yes. Uproariously funny, yes. I wouldn't think it was funny if he hadn't been specifically told by the fucking authorities.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
the whole point of the 419s is the way they offer to rip off the current gvt of a country and smuggle cash out - usually impoverished economies.this guy thought his 'friends' werent 'criminals' when they offered him a chance to rip off a country? be real. telling everyone he intended to 'do good' with it - well, that makes it ok, does it? and ok, hes in his 70s. so is my dad - and boy, would he tell this guy he'd been a greedy sod. $320,000 - that would have kept him comfy. ignoring the police - thats just bloody minded. sorry, but my sympathy gland doesnt ignore his greed because of his age. aint no money for nuthin, peeps.
Nothing - well thats something.
is that people aren't encouraged to use critical thinking skills. As children, asking why too many times or spotting inconsistencies in explainations is often frowned upon. As adults, questioning your employer is an example of not "being a team player," while questioning your government is "unpatriotic." At any time, questioning an organized religion is usually branded "heretical."
Trust is a good thing. Common sense is good too, but not encouraged as much. Just imagine a world where everyone had plenty of the latter.
A house is an asset. All things being equal, it will appreciate over time, and unlike an apartment, your money isn't just being dumped into someone else's pocket.
I'm currently in more debt than I've ever been. I have $100,000 outstanding on a house I got. Before this, I'd never been in debt more than $1000. However, that doesn't mean I'm hurting in a bad way, on the contrary, my mortgage payments are LESS than my rent was, I have one more roomate so I'm paying even less, and now only 5% of what I pay goes to someone else, instead of all of it when I lived in an apartment.
Considering that these are the same people who can't figure out how to properly use a punch-card ballot, is it at all surprising that they'd get taken for a ride by Nigerian scammers?
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
They're Criminally Stupid.
--- http://foo.ca
What really sucks, pal, is that there is no way to opt out of that pyramid scheme.
Maybe it is deteriorating mental faculties.
But his wife couldn't stop him? Does she have the same problem?
Do they have children? Couldn't the children stop him?
Friends? Do they have any friends? Are they all affected with the same deterioration?
Even after he is shown the "black money" scam is fake, he STILL believes that they were legit.
I notice they don't talk to his wife about it.
* wimpy people deserve to be beaten up
* ugly people deserve to be ridiculed
* promiscuous people deserve to be raped
ad infinitum. What a lovely world you're living in!
Unfortunately, it's not "evolution in action", since the man and his wife are well beyond child-bearing.
That's not true at all. People get themselves into holes with loans, yes. But it's not a similar situation. Nigerian spammers essentially say "I stole a lot of money and I'll give you a cut if you help me smuggle it out of the country." The original premise in these emails is always that it's money the guy has acquired through questionable means, thus the need to launder it through an American. In this case, the guy claimed to work for a bank and to have stolen the money from the account of some dead German guy. (Was it his? No. Is it his now? Yes. Was it a gift? No. Thus, stealing. It's not rocket science.)
I'm tired of everyone saying the people who get scammed are innocent but stupid. They may be stupid, but they're not innocent. They all knew something shady was going on; they just didn't realize it was at their expense.
So for that reason, the people who just get themselves into debt are in a totally different situation. They were irresponsible and screwed themselves over, yes. But they didn't do it in the name of stealing money from someone else.
Uh, you'd better check your math. There's much more than 5% going to someone else. Try more like 100-200% of the present value of your home.
Try this out: Multiply your monthly payment times 360 (the number of payments per year, times 30 years -- the typical home loan term). Now divide that amount by the amount you owe the bank. Should be 2.3, more or less, or 230%. And since, on payment, you'll have bought and own 100% out of that 230%, the amount you'll be paying someone else for the privilege is around 130%!
See? Isn't *compound* interest fun? That 5% is not "simple" interest, after all.
It is a good thing you're monthly payments are lower, though. Now you have more "disposable" income to buy, er..., disposables.
The lottery doesn't lie to you.
They make some people (other than themselves) rich.
They take few from many to give a lot to few, where sammers take a lot from few.
Apart from these differences, it is the same.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
I wouldn't call it dumb either. My first razor was a Braun electric that I got for $60 in high school. I didn't have to replace it until almost three years ago, which means I used it for about 11 years. I used the same blades and foil the whole time too, so that works out to $5.45 per year for shaving, plus electricity. A lot cheaper than disposables.
For my new one, I got a $125 Braun that comes with a cleaning/recharging base; it's nearly three years old and still works like new. I expect it to last at least 11 years.
Buying expensive stuff isn't dumb if it saves you money in the long term.
Greed is good. It's what makes our economy work. Produce something, ANYTHING, then sell it for as much as the market will bear, as much as you can get away with. It's OK because someone will come along and sell it cheaper eventually. If you don't then you don't get your share of the pie. No health care, no peace of mind, no respect.
That's what every schoolkid in this sick culture has driven into their head. It's why we have the world's highest crime rate. It's why there are hundreds of assholes attacking the victim here, who may very well be senile, instead of the scumbags who perpetrated the scam.
"Oh," cry the assholes, "but look at all the stuff we have now, courtesy of capitalism. People can eat, miraculous breakthroughs in medical technology" blah blah...we're being sped along at breakneck speed into a world of designer bio-weapons and suitcase nukes, filled with scumbags obsessed with speedboats and lambourghinis.
Reminds me of the old joke about the guy who jumped out of a building..."So far so good!".
Well, none of the comments I saw made the obvious comment, which is that people tend to believe exactly what they want to believe. The fancy name is "cognitive dissonance" and reduction is the goal. In his case, he desperately wanted to believe that his financial problems were about to be solved by this manna from heaven. Actually, the article mentions his strong religious streak, which I take as symptomatic of the gullibility the 419 scammers are looking for. And now he still can't admit he was wrong.
/. article a few weeks ago about playing games with these criminals, which prompts me to repeat my warning: These 419 scammers are nasty bastards. Just because their scams are so stupidly hilarious, doesn't mean anyone should try to play any kind of game with them. The "funny picture of 419 scammer" Web sites are doing a public disservice by portraying them as stupid clowns and harmless. They are not. If they pretend to play along with any game, they are just looking for a way to nail someone. It's just more convenient for them if they can find and victimize the stupidest people available.
Actually, what it most reminds me of is many of Dubya's supporters. The bigger the shaft, the more firmly they want to support him. Just won't admit they were wrong. Sad truth is that I don't feel any particular pity for either category of sucker, but the BushCo supporters are doing more secondary harm to me and the country.
The article also mentions the kidnappings and killings. At least some of the few we know about. That reminds me of the
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
"He believes that he is a better human being than people without religion. If you don't want to hate him for being stupid or greedy, then I implore you to hate him for having the arrogance to believe that he is a better person that those who do not subscribe to any religion." And this is why religious people are *sometimes * better people. *Most* religions teach love as the ultimate quality to strive for. You, on the other hand believe it is good to hate someone simply based on what they choose to believe. In fact, this sentiment of yours makes you no better than the radical Islamacists who want to kill everybody who is not one of them. How "religious" of you!
Having read the article, I'd say his mental state was somewhate deteriorated by Christianity.
This message isn't necessarily directed at you...
:( )
I'm tired of everyone saying the people who get scammed are innocent but stupid. They may be stupid, but they're not innocent. They all knew something shady was going on; they just didn't realize it was at their expense.
All of you on Slashdot dissing this old person should be ashamed of yourselves. Most of you are laughing now but wait until something like this happens to you. You people don't realize that these are sophisticated operations. It isn't just an e-mail and that's that. Did you even read the article? If people can fly you around the world, set up fake guards, metal cases filled with cash, etc, it is SO EASY for someone to fall for that. None of you have any idea how sophisticated scammers are.
It's just too bad you guys attribute all this to stupidity (what the hell is stupidity anyway? Are you stupid for falling to George "Warmonger" Bush's lies of WMD in Iraq?). Until you guys get defrauded on a car you buy, or a house you buy, or a vacation, or whatever, you are all living in your glass houses throwing stones at the victims.
(No, I haven't lost any money on anything like this. But I just feel sad and angry at the hostility directed by the Slashdot crowd towards the victim. It isn' that surprising to me though. Most people here are conservatives and quite clueless on these issues, not to mention heartless
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I'm astonished that so many posts here think this story is funny, or that this guy (and wife) got what he deserved. This is the saddest story I've read in a while. Of all the lassaiz-faire, libertarian-style thought that flows around on Slashdot, this "stupid people deserve to lose all their money" attitude is the most chilling. I mean, come on, that's the exact same justification made by con men and scammers themselves.
There are people in the world that cannot take care of themselves. Some are retarded or suffer from psychosis or other mental problems. Some suffer from incurable illnesses. Some are too young or too old. Some are disabled and unable to work. And some are just not smart, that is, stupid.
Which of these categories deserve to be broke and homeless? Which of these should we kick to the curb without any assistance or fallback support? Which of these can we laugh at because they're scared about where they're going to be able to sleep or feed their freaking dog?
Tough for me to say that about any of them.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
I used to think this way too until I saw what my grandmother went through while she was being cared for in a home.
There are a zillion scams targetted at the elderly. The typical one involves telling them all their benefits are going away and selling them a magazine subscription of a political group defending their benefits. I don't mean slight implications like saying, "The Republicans are looking to cut Social Security." I mean utter crap about how all Social Security could be cut to zero next month and Medicare will no longer be available. Subscribe to the XXX Defense Fund for $1000 a year and make sure this doesn't happen.
A *lot* of these people have money. They listen politely on the phone. They consider businesses to be trustworthy (these are the same people that retired on pensions, so why shouldn't they?).
Back in their day cars didn't have keyed ignitions (just door locks generally, open cockpits didn't have that). They didn't have to lock their houses.
And for the it's-always-the-victims-fault-crowd:
"It's their fault they got scammed." they say.
"It's your fault you're not bulletproof." I say.
t
I'm going to connect a few dots here. Persian Gulf. Bought laptops, cellphones for scammers. $320,000 (buys a lot of kalishnakov rifles). Has anyone yet considered that the 419 Scams have evolved from a simple scam, to an urban legend, to a joke, to a sad commentary on the gullability of westerners, and finally, to a viable revenue stream for terrorist organizations?