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."

Comments

Is it just me...? Or did someone else troll...?

[Uber Banker]

See Subject

Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order"

[mwood]

Yeah, it seems that for years now I've been paying bank fees for cashier's checks for nothing. I'd long thought that a cashier's check *can't* bounce unless the *bank* has insufficient funds. The bank is supposed to satisfy itself that your payment to them is secure before issuing a cashier's check. But it seems that, if this was ever true, nowadays it isn't.

So *is* there some instrument I can buy that is guaranteed payable unless the bank itself is bust?

Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order"

[jcr]

I'd long thought that a cashier's check *can't* bounce unless the *bank* has insufficient funds.

That is the case for a genuine cashier's check. The way the scam works is that the scammer forges the check.

Your bank doesn't detect the forgery, and can't until it gets to the other bank, who gets a check that doesn't gybe with their records.

-jcr

Re:What do we call a dodgy "sales order"

[jcr]

So *is* there some instrument I can buy that is guaranteed payable unless the bank itself is bust?

Sure there is. Just get a cashier's check from the bank itself, and do it in person.

Of course, you can do better than that. Just buy Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leafs, Chinese Pandas, etc. There are a bunch of bullion coins to choose from.

-jcr