Slashdot Mirror
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!
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'
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".
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.
- 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.
"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
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.
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
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
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
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.