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A Day in the Life of a Nigerian Scammer
prostoalex writes "The media made a Nigerian scammer's career look too easy. Get online, introduce yourself as a corrupt government official willing to take the money out of the country, and wait for the wire transfers from victims to start rolling in. So, the Associated Press takes us through a day in life of Nigerian scammer. It's a life that takes place in Internet cafes with aged screens and free Webmail accounts. However, by the end of the article the AP talks about some people who have made a good career out of it - three cars, two houses. That is, until the next crackdown comes along."
Does anyone know of a blog site written by a scammer? That would be quite the reading. I guess the P-P-P-Powerbook blogsite is sort of the other side of that, but what about the scammer's perspective? Blogging can't be considered serious journalism until the other side is given a chance to defend their actions.
[yes I'm kidding]
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I get a laugh out of these things in my mail, I honestly dont see how some one could be foolish enough to believe these scams. This page hit a note with me though as two weeks ago I got a phone call from "Miami/Dade County Correctional" at any rate out of curriosity I accepted the collect call and some one potraying themselves as a police officer said that some one was in the hospital yadda yadda yadda and tried to get me to dial a number *76 something something LOL anyway it turned out after looking like 2 seconds on google that its a number to forward the charges from the number you dial to your phone bill. I didnt fall for it but it was interesting.
It's the story of a man who is targeted by Nigerian scammers but gets revenge on them and actually screws them out of some money. The whole thing takes place over several months and includes pictures, audio recordings of phone conversations, email correspondence and other stuff.
It's quite long, but worth a read if you have the time.
The American Dream is success through work, and the liberty to pursue and enjoy it. There's nothing in the capitalist ethos that supports fraud and theft.
Wrong on both counts.
1: The American Dream is to achieve sufficient success to provide, on your own and being beholden to none, for the whole of your nuclear family until your children are all grown.
Most of those characterised as "living the American Dream" are not, in literal fact, workers. They are businessmen, investors, and executives--who, while they doubtless provide a significant benefit to society, are arguably "parasites" from a strictly "work" point of view. (as in, their contribution to society depends on the physical or mental efforts of others.)
2: Capitalism sure as hell encourages fraud and theft. There IS no "capitalist ethos." There is, instead, a clear recognition by capitalist countries that people are greedy and will act however gets them the most profit.
Capitalism is not a system free of graft, fraud, and theft. Rather, it is a system that aligns the most selfish desires of society with the needs of society as a whole, by way of making investments liquid and fraud prohibitvely expensive.
The newer ones are too tame - the fake lotto scams exploit stupid greedy people (but so do the government-run lotteries they're usually pretending to compete with), and the "dying cancer patient wants to do something good with the rest of her life" tearjerkers are really only exploiting the gullible, who don't deserve to be abused the way the classic 419 victims do.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks