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Nigerian "Scam Police" Shut Down 800 Web Sites

Posted by timothy on from the had-to-pay-shipping-on-them-first dept.

Sooner Boomer writes "Nigerian police, in what is named Operation 'Eagle Claw,' have shut down 800 scam web sites and arrested members of 18 syndicates behind the fraudulent scam sites. Reports on Breitbart.com and Pointblank give details on the busts. The investigation was done in cooperation with Microsoft to help develop smart technology software capable of detecting fraudulent emails. From Breitbart: 'When operating at full capacity, within the next six months, the scheme, dubbed "Eagle Claw," should be able to forewarn around a quarter of million potential victims.'"

9 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! It's about time! by ad454 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Finally! It's about time that international police and anti-crime resources put the same effort in stopping online cross border crime that they do for offline!

    Kudos to Microsoft for helping. Heck, I would accept help from Satan himself, if it reduce the spam and online crime.

  2. This isn't going to help by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unfortunately, humans are quite stupid. Even smart people are often stupid outside their area of expertise. I know someone professor at a major university who almost fell for one of these scams. It is hard to draw the line between ignorance and stupidity but as long as ignorant or stupid people exist unethical will try to take advantage of them. And they'll just find new ways of doing it. More education is probably the key. But even then, they'll just modify the scams accordingly.

    1. Re:This isn't going to help by interkin3tic · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Unfortunately, humans are quite stupid.

      Compared to? Cats? An alien race you know of but the rest of us don't? A cherrypicked group of humans?

    2. Re:This isn't going to help by joocemann · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Unfortunately, humans are quite stupid. Even smart people are often stupid outside their area of expertise. I know someone professor at a major university who almost fell for one of these scams. It is hard to draw the line between ignorance and stupidity but as long as ignorant or stupid people exist unethical will try to take advantage of them. And they'll just find new ways of doing it. More education is probably the key. But even then, they'll just modify the scams accordingly.

      As long as our cultures pit our people against each other in competition for money, people will be 'unethical' and exploit each other.

      I suggest we look to the roots and foundations of 'evil' and how we can circumvent its expressions in life; most cases indicate that 'money' should be destroyed and new cultures and ways of existence need arise.

      You know it is your culture that taught you to be jealous of polygamy. It is your culture that taught you to put common man at opposition. It is your culture that prioritizes the individual over community. Very little in what is wrong with humans can be attributed to nature: nurture is where we go wrong.

    3. Re:This isn't going to help by Joren · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Unfortunately, humans are quite stupid.

      Compared to? Cats? An alien race you know of but the rest of us don't? A cherrypicked group of humans?

      Just try getting between a cat and a plate of tuna. They are fiendishly inventive... I have a cat that, while not necessarily socially intelligent, was quite clever at solving problems. He might fit in here at Slashdot ;) - One day when I was in my last year of high school, the cat, while wondering why in the world he was not getting petted and catered to, decided it was time to take matters into his own paws. Having carefully observed me using the computer over a long period of time, he figured out how to reset my computer - never mind the fact that the front panel had been completely removed and the reset "switch" consisted of a button deeply recessed into a 7mm opening in the grating, of which there were dozens to choose from. He had to stick his claw in that specific hole, and *bam* - there goes an hour of work. He seemed to think that without that pesky English paper on my screen, I'd have more time to pay attention to him. He got a lot more attention than he bargained for that day...

      --
      -- Joren
    4. Re:This isn't going to help by rohan972 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Money is not good, nor evil.

      I disagree. Money is inherently good but like all good things has the capacity to be used for evil. It is an expression of value. As you say, it is a tool to exchange goods and services, service generally also being taken to be a good thing.

      --
      http://marriedmansexlife.com/
  3. In other words.... by Rod+Beauvex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In an effort to make their products look good, Microsoft paid off a bunch of Nigerian police who have known about these people for years and didn't really care.

  4. Re:In other news... by BKX · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes, they even have a strange rap subculture over there, kind of like gangsta rappers in the US. Here's a youtube music video of one of the more popular songs. The name of the song, yahoozee, is the name the Nigerians give to rich scammers. Oddly, the yahoozee seem to buy only American after they steal American money (hell, the entire song is in (very bad) English; they even stole our language.).

  5. Re:I'm a nigerian prince by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm a Nigerian policeman. We caught a bunch of spammers and think you may have fallen victim to one of them. Can you provide your banking details so we can verify you are not affected? Thanks!$$