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."
If you are dumb enough to fall for one of the oldest fraud methods in existence, you deserve to lose you money, but not your freedom.
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
If only there was a big island somewhere where we could send all these idiots.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Since the summary doesn't make this clear and I'm sure plenty of people won't RTFA, the good professor is referring to jailing those people who fall for scams in which they believe they are aiding embezzlers in order to get rich. It'll never happen of course, but it's not that unreasonable either really.
Somehow being a greedy criminal is OK as long as you're dumb enough to wind up as the victim in the attempt.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Mate, My name is Steve Oakland of Sydney Australia. Recently I have received a large sum of USD 25,000,000 from Mr Aruba of Nigeria. However due to some new legislation I may be having some problems with our bottom-up laws. So I have to transfer that money to a third country ASAP. I will offer you 20% of the money in exchange for your small inconvenience, 70% will be for me, and 10% for the transaction costs ...
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
The very idea that a real flesh-and-blood Nigerian diplomat actually exists feels so strange. It would be like meeting the real Duke Nukem.
Table-ized A.I.
If all the stupid people are put in jail, then it's gonna be very lonely out here.
What makes you think you'd be out here?
This is simply an argument to try to divert blame. I don't really care that the other side is a willing victim. Fraud is fraud, and I have a hard time believing that the Nigerian goverment is really doing all that much about it. Nigeria is a Kleptocracy, so corruption is endemic in the society. I'm sure a few well placed bribes keeps the cops away. It's not really that hard to find these guys after all since the money eventually has to go somewhere.
AccountKiller
"It's hard to con an honest man."
In the words of Terry Pratchett:
There is a saying - "You can't fool an honest man" - which is much quoted by people who make a profitable living by fooling honest men.
Nigerian High Commissioner Olu Agbi said if I don't send him $1,000 by Western Union in the next 24 hours that he'll throw me in jail!
If only there was a big island somewhere where we could send all these idiots.
hello i am allujabullshitname prince of nigeria. i am writing to you in the worst of health, i am afraid i may die soon, but do not worry, god is on my side. i recently have come acrsoss a islannd worth millions of american dollars an am looking for a governnment to deposit tyhe land masses.
this millions of dollars of land is perfect to send all sorts of idiots, but i am afraid that i am to lose it soon, as there are those who conspire against me. but i am not afraid, for the lord will protect me.
please send me your account so i can deposit..
Oh, what the hell.. I actually don't know enough about international property law to know what kind of system you'd deposit land rights into anyway.
I approve.
-Darwin
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.)
They already did, once America was full, they sent them all downunder
dont know if it's tru? forwarding just incase! love to everyone!
>>> Nverian Hig h Commisioner Ololu Ogelvi warned all RED BLOODED AMERICAN PATRIOTS
>>> that if they don't send him $1,000 by Western Union in the next 24 hours that he
>>> will kill a kitt
>>> en.
>> Thx Maude! I just sent t>
>> his to everyone on my ma
>> iling list! Why does
>>> PLEASE SUPPORT OUR TROPS IN WESTERIA
>>> FORWARDING THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE
>>> YOU KNOW!!111!1!!!1!
>>> GOD BLESS AMERICA!
"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
No, America got the puritans, we got the criminals.
Come to think of it, I think we got the better deal.
"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.