Sydney 419 Scammer Jailed

kjots writes "The ABC is reporting that the Sydney District Court has sentenced a disability pensioner to more than five years in jail for his part behind a Nigerian email scam. One down ..."

Comments

Protecting the gullible?

[mind21_98]

Although scammers are nasty creatures, shouldn't people know better than to send money to pay for something they supposedly won? This isn't a troll; I'm totally serious. Are people not taught common sense and critical thinking skills? In any case, I'm glad this person's going to jail.

Re:Protecting the gullible?

[jesterzog]

Although scammers are nasty creatures, shouldn't people know better than to send money to pay for something they supposedly won? This isn't a troll; I'm totally serious. Are people not taught common sense and critical thinking skills?

Well yeah, in an ideal world.

There are lots of people who are just a bit thick, but to be fair there are also a lot of people out there who are incredibly desperate, probably beyond what the majority of slashdot users could conceive of, and simply aren't quite thinking straight.

From what I understand (I'm not an expert but I've read a little), the people who these scammers appeal to often aren't the people who are simply greedy. They're the people who've been told that they need a $100,000 payment on their home within a month or they and their kids will be kicked out of the home that's been in their family for generations.

Maybe they've been trying to save money and they're malnourished, or perhaps they're getting over an illness that cost a lot of money to treat. (Perhaps they desperately need money to treat it.) It's the same sort of thing as the loner or widower who's sitting at home feeling lonely, and after three months of happiness through online chit-chat, decides to send thousands of dollars to an internet "girlfriend" in another country so she can fly there to say hello, only to have "her" never contact him again.

It's easy to turn around and say that people were stupid to not be careful and give away their life savings to a stranger. But at the end of the day there are still victims and the scammar's still a con artist who defrauded people and often wrecked their lives many times more than they might've been already. If you really feel as if you have have nowhere else to go and the world seems to be falling down around you, it can sometimes illogically seem reasonable to take up an offer like this against any real common sense.

I'm not trying to suggest that everyone who responds to these things is in the same position. Some, perhaps many, probably are just greedy and/or silly, although without meeting them I wouldn't want to pinpoint who. I do think it's short-sighted to simply say that all of these people are obviously stupid, without actually looking at the situation. This is nothing against you personally, but that tends to be the general tone on slashdot and I don't think it's very fair.

Re:Protecting the gullible?

[yowi]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

I can't understand how the fool got the money in the first place!

Re:Protecting the gullible?

[elronxenu]

From what I understand (I'm not an expert but I've read a little), the people who these scammers appeal to often aren't the people who are simply greedy. They're the people who've been told that they need a $100,000 payment on their home within a month or they and their kids will be kicked out of the home that's been in their family for generations

Let's see then. Here are some victims found by a Google search (top links chosen)

• awprofessional.com wrote: In July 2001, the Times of London reported that a former mayor of Northampton fell for the 419 scam, and ended up in Johannesburg, South Africa with a gun to his head.. Not certain, but more likely to be greed than desperation.
• In the same URL, And in 1999, a Romanian businessman, Danut Mircea Tetrescu, was kidnapped and held for a half-million dollar ransom.. Hmm, "Romanian businessman". More likely greed?
• In the same URL we also have Kjetil Moe, a Norwegian millionaire who had fallen for the 419 scam. Definitely greed.
• El Reg writes of a woman who stole $2.1m from the law firm of which she was an employee (a bookkeeper). The Reg analyses it for us: greed and stupidity in equal measure.
• Wired wrote 2+ years ago of two losses of $78k and $74k, but no actual explanation of the motives of the victims.
• This dude writes that he was taken in out of folly.
• Finally a more professional website offers a summary,

  From earlier sections you might have picked up the impression that only seniors are deceived by offers of instant wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth. While it is true that seniors are targeted for sweepstakes offers the mechanics of telemarketing and investment fraud are simply enhanced and modified for attacking various targets of opportunity.

  This particular scam targets middle class, middle age, business and professional men who would never be as easily deceived by a lottery scam. Estimates put the losses from these "Nigerian Advance Fee" operations at over $1 million "every single day" in the U.S. alone.

Re:"disability pensioner"

[xixax]

You do not have to be in a wheelchair to collect the disability pension here. It's quite likely he has something like arthritis that makes it difficult for him to work full time. Unless it's a really obvious disability, they usually keep at you to prove you really are disabled.

A friend of mine was on a disability pension because he is photo-sensitive. They dumped him off said pension the moment he landed a job, and wouldn't let him back on when he found that he could do the work (because he was photo sensitive).

And even if he is in a wheelchair, I'm sure the judge would have taken that into consideration in his decision (I don't know how well our gaols are set up for sheelchair access).

Xix.

Greed

[nate nice]

Don't be consumed by greed. Although people taken by this scam are indeed victims, I have trouble feeling really bad for them. They thought they could get something for free, with no work, effort or percieved risk and they end up paying for it. Life teaches really hard lessons if you don't take notes before hand. Either way, you will learn these lessons. Just hope you are a good student so you don't have to be taught by example.

Ideas for frustrating "419" scammers

[Serious Simon]

I am quite annoyed by the stream of scam emails I receive, and always forward them to abuse@ of the e-mail accounts provider that the scammers use (mostly free mailboxes).

Hopefully these accounts will then be shut down before any potential victim can respond. The fact that the scammers often use a different email address in their follow-up communication indicates that these accounts are indeed often short lived.

I have thought of mail bombing these accounts until they are shut down, preferably with legit looking bogus responses that the scammers have to read one by one, wasting their time and hopefully having them pay for extra online time in their Lagos cybercafe. It would help if each of you would send a response on any scam e-mail you receive (don't use your regular email account).

Frankly I don't have the time and the talent for elaborate scambaiting (http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm is hilarious!), but I am interested in any other simple but efficient ideas for frustrating these scambags.

emails on sale at MercadoLibre (eBay)

[pmagsa]

The war on spam is a very tough one. I have found that there are some email databases on sale at MercadoLibre (eBay branch for Latin America). Vendors also offer software for capturing emails on the Internet and for sending (up to 30000 emails per hour). You may see my finding here: http://abundando.blogspot.com/2004/11/se-lucran-eb ay-y-mercadolibre-con-el.html I'm sorry guys. Post is written in Spanish.

This is one 419 prosecution of many

[bit01]

This news item is little old. Many nigerian scammers have been prosecuted.

---

Company scammers who do paid-for posts on weblogs without attribution (i.e. This is a paid advertisement) are criminals and should do jail time for fraud.

US always behind on convicting...

[itallushrt]

Perhaps I'm in the wrong here, I honestly don't recall any convictions, but how come the US, supposedly the most technically advanced nation in the world, is always way behind on upholding the law involving cyber crime?

Every article you read always comes out of somewhere else.

Re:US always behind on convicting...

[Kombat]

how come the US, supposedly the most technically advanced nation in the world, is always way behind on upholding the law involving cyber crime?

Easy: Because the US is actually way ahead in its laws and enforcement regarding cybercrime, so the scammers always originate in foreign, usually developing nations where the cybercrime laws are extremely lax or non-existent, or the enforcement is so minimal that they have bigger things to concern themselves with than poverty-stricken locals trying to rip off (perceived) fat, lazy, greedy foreigners.

Does that answer your questions?

While I'm at it, here's some more

[Lucky Kevin]

These are all my favourite anti-scam 419 sites pulled from my bookmarks file (I hope that they are ready for the /. effect!)

Got Mike. Mo meets a pretty woman is a classic.
Scan-O-Rama
Insolitology
Tastes like gold
Ebola monkey man. Well worth a read, very funny.
Quatloos, The Brad Christensen Exhibit. Check out ROSEMARY KABBAH -- Romancing the Pickle Taco.
and last but not least 419 Eater which has a personal recommendation on the front page.

Enjoy!