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Nigerian Scammers Brought to Justice
KaushalParekh writes "Almost all of us get those junk emails from someone in Africa usually promising millions of dollars if you give them your bank details. Finally good to know that they are being caught by the authorities and punished. These are also known as 419 emails named after the Nigerian penal code for fraud. As an interesting aside, fooling these scammers by responding to their emails is a fun passtime for quite a few who call themselves baiters. Check out the trophy pictures of these spammers.. pretty funny."
Kids, do not do this at home. These people may seem stupid (at times), but they are full blown criminals and quite probably organized criminals at that. From the 419eater website: "Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to further pressure victims. In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing."
This is not fun. Really.
This happened to me last year. I recieved an e-mail stating that I had won $500,000 in a cash giveaway drawing sponsered by a jobsite that I was a member at. After 5 days of e-mailing and lots of international phonecalls I finally learned that it was a group of nigerians operating out of amsterdam trying to get me to send them a money order. I was totally hooked at first...making long distance calls to switzerland to open a swiss account for my 'winnings', booking plane tickets to Amsterdam, etc.
Luckily I figured the whole thing out in time, I nearly sent them a western union money order for $1200 to cover the 'financial legal fees' involved in processing and transferring the 'winnings' into my back account.
I'll admit that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but these guys had a pretty convincing and elaborate scheme going. I forwarded all of their contact information to a bank in Amsterdam whose name and letterhead they were using. Hopefully they took action.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Well...
The reason why 419 continue to be at this level is the extreme corruption in Nigeria, Kongo and a number of other African governments.
Also, while it is not the only reason, it is one of the reasons behind the extreme poverty and famine in Africa. For example when 20%+ of Swazi population is dieing of AIDS the king of Swazilend used international aid money on buying new BMWs for his existing 9 wives, refurbishing their palaces and arranging a wedding ceremony for the 10th.
Frankly shooting people like him may be the right approach when dealing with extreme poverty in Subsaharan Africa.
The best way to use the Live8 money would have been to hire a good gang of contract hitmen and "clean it up".
Multiple times if necessary.
Unfortunately it will be given to the same corrupt genocidal f***heads which are in charge now.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
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