Slashdot Mirror
Jail 'Greedy' Scam Victims, Says Nigerian Diplomat
AcidAUS writes with this nearly unbelievable snippet from today's Sydney Morning Herald: "The Nigerian high commissioner in Australia says people who are ripped off by so-called Nigerian scams are just as guilty as the fraudsters and should be jailed. Responding to a story in yesterday's Herald, which revealed Australians lose at least $36 million a year to the online scams, Sunday Olu Agbi said Australians had failed to heed repeated warnings not to deal with shady characters on the internet."
As I think about it, this guy has a point. The scams involve approaching you under the guise of embezzling funds. Last time I checked, any of the activities they scammers want you to engage in are illegal. That being the case, it seems like a few crimes are involved -- embezzlement on both ends, and the theft of money by the Nigerian involved.
First Slashdotters blame copyright holders for not protecting their works better. Then it is Nigerians blaming scam victims. What's next? Don't lock your door, you deserve to be robbed? And women who dress provocatively deserve to be raped?
Isn't this the same Web site that wants the government to intervene to lower the price of Windows, or supports early iphone adopters who paid the stupid tax suing Apple because they had the audacity to lower prices?
I'm all for passing a Digital Consumer Rights Act to protect fair use and end user licensees, but some of the amoral "logic" here boggles the mind. If it is bad for Microsoft or Sony to rip off consumers, it's bad for you to rip off them.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
There is nothing well said about this kind of logic. Women have been told not to jog alone at night many times - are they then responsible for being raped if that occurs? Better yet, should we jail these women? Slippery slope when you blame a victim.
I'd say it isn't. I was scammed into helping what I thought was a stranded student who'd got his wallet stolen and needed some cash to go home to a far suburb. It was early in my life working downtown, and I believed the guy. I was totally fooled.
How did I know this? Three weeks later, i saw the same kid walking around doing the exact same thing soliciting help for cash, only a few blocks away from where I gave him ten bucks. Motherfucker, I thought.
I am somewhat sympathetic to your argument, but I don't buy it. It can be entirely reasonable to play the lottery, though not very regularly.
Let's say that once a month you get a Powerball ticket with Powerplay, costing (according to Wikipedia) $2. You do this for 50 years. (In other words, you play the lottery starting when you are 20 until you're 70.)
According to this compound interest calculator, if you aggressively invested that money instead and got 10% annual return for that timespan (probably entirely ridiculous), at the end of that you'd have $30,727. If we were to assume an already-optimistic 7% rate of return, that's only $10,500.
If you were to play every other month (or not get powerplay) and get 10%, you're at $15,500, and at 7%, $5,200.
In addition, you're not really going to be out all that money... on average, Wikipedia says the powerball has about a 50% rate of return. Which means that the $15,500 and $5,200 numbers are actually more realistic if you pay $2/mth.
While it's not exactly a shabby sum, it's also not that much money if you've been wise with other investments. Giving up that amount of money is probably not really going to change your lifestyle. You might lose out on a couple vacations you could take when retired or something. (If we are even a little more conservative with how much we spend on the lottery... you play for 40 years instead of 50, spending $1/mth but getting back half, and could get 7% otherwise, you're looking at $1,200. That's barely enough for one "fancy" vacation.)
Now, at the same time, in the very very remote chance you were to actually win a jackpot, your life would change. If you won even a million dollars -- let alone tens of millions -- you might be able to retire now (depending on how old you are), go buy a farm, do almost anything you want monitarily.
It is not unreasonable to say "I'll take one less vacation when I'm 70 in exchange for an almost-zero-but-not-quite chance of a totally life-changing event."
(The fact that a lot of lottery winnings result in people blowing through the winnings quickly, sometimes result in failed families or other bad effects, or that a lot of people don't play the lottery this way and actually put significant money into it is beside the point that playing the lottery isn't necessarily an irrational move.)
The stupid will always be the prime target for those who will take their money. The prime candidate is, of course, government lotteries, you know, taxation for those who are lacking math skills.
Anyone who sends money to an entity that can not be properly vetted is a greedy fool.
Is that a criminal action? No. If we locked up everyone that was stupid and greedy, we wouldn't have any police, state level politicians, public school teachers, car salesmen, plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, etc.
"It is not in the character of Nigerians to be engaged in this kind of scam."
Professor Olu Agbi said there were almost 140 million people in Nigeria and fewer than 0.1 per cent were involved.
140,000 scammers? Gee is that all? :P
"How is this any different to saying that a girl that goes into a rough neighbourhood in a mini-skirt and is raped should also be jailed?"
TFA:
Wearing a mini-skirt is not illegal. International money laundering and bribing foreign officials are both illegal. There is the difference.
"In some areas, fake panhandlers live better than the people that they con"
True that! I had a friend in San Francisco offer a homeless man $15/hr to come in and paint his apartment - he declined saying he could make more on the street corner. That attitude is exactly why I never dole out cash to pan handlers, though perhaps will offer a morsel of food on occasion.
If the speakers were in fact stolen people would be breaking the law by buying them, so why is it different if they just believe that they are stolen?
Um.. it's different because they aren't actually breaking the law.
Similarly, if you're driving 25 MPH in a 35 zone but you believe you're going 45, you aren't speeding. And if you break into a house, but it turns out to be your own house, you aren't trespassing.
Arrest the real criminals, not people who mistakenly think they're criminals.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Finally, someone else who thinks the lottery is a stupid tax.
Well, I bet other think that but your one of the first I have saw say it.
Then you haven't been paying attention. Ages ago I also called lotteries a stupidity tax, and I doubt I made that up myself.
It's wrong, though. Lotteries aren't any more a tax on stupidity than paying for bungeejumping is. It's not about the money, it's about the thrill, the idea that you could win. Not everything in life is about monetary return on investment.
I never play in a lottery, but I know people who do, fully aware that they'll never win back what they spend on it. But that's not why they play.
Calling lotteries a stupid tax is very profound when you're in highschool and just figured out how probabilities work. But as you grow up, you should realise that people are getting more from it than just money. They pay for a dream, and it's a pretty nice dream, even if it's not true.
Newsflash... Greedy man enters Nigerian scam, looses money. If he thinks he will be charged with something leading to imprisonment, he will _never_ go to the Police reporting the scam. No crime here move along! Guess the scammers will be happy!
I live in SF
True story, wife saw a daily panhandler one day getting out of his Lexus with Jersey plates. He then
went into his trunk, took some dirt out of a bag and rubbed it on his clothes and face....
getting ready for the day.....
music lover since 1969
I had a business in the 80's and used to get these letters regularly. Same wording and scam as the current crop but sent as an actual postal mail letter... so even with the cost of the postage, this must have paid well.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
A better scam that's similar to #1 is one of the work from home scams. You sign up for a work from home service and they set up direct deposit for you. Before you even start working, you notice they already deposited $3500. They tell you it's a mistake and have you wire $3000 of it back out but let you keep $500 as your first paycheck. Your work from home profession? A money launderer. The bank will take all $3500 back out and you can explain to law enforcement why money illegally wired from another account ended up in your account and then went overseas. If you paid attention, you'd notice that the account sending in money was not the same one as the account you wired money to.