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Man Loses Millions In Bizarre Virus-Protection Scam

Orome1 writes "A US court has heard that a couple conned at least $6 million from the great-grandson of an oil industry tycoon after he brought his virus-infected computer in for repair. The couple are said to have tricked the composer into believing that, while investigating the virus, they had found evidence that his life was in danger – concocting a story that the virus had been tracked to a hard drive in Honduras, and that evidence had been found that the composer's life was in danger." The victim here, Roger Davidson, may have lost as much as $20 million, after being convinced that he was in danger from a grand conspiracy. Vickram Bedi and girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir convinced Davidson to pay $160,000 monthly, and possibly much more, for their help.

9 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And... by 0111+1110 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Robin Hood gave his stolen money to the poor. I don't think these guys will be doing that. They would steal from the poor as well if it seemed profitable. Scammers are the lowest form of humanity.

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
  2. Re:Now That's Bizarre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More and more I feel that people who are that paranoid and quick to believe conspiracies have an extrem form of narcism. They actually believe that the are important enough to worth that much effort. They think the world is out to get them in fact most the world doesn't even know they are here.

    If he has $6 to $20 million dollars to be conned out of, you don't have to be narcissistic to think you are a target, you are the top of the top 1%. Sometimes, they really are out to get you.

  3. Re:And... by mr100percent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's nothing wrong with being a trust fund baby. We all wanna be one, don't be jealous. What would you expect, you'd turn 18 and give it all away?

  4. Re:And... by dfenstrate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is no 'Robin Hood' scenario, it's straight up theft & fraud. They should go to jail.

    Someone foolish enough to buy this sort of nonsense will lose all their money soon enough anyway. I'd rather that cash go to the engineers and line workers who produce fancy cars in Italy than a couple of con artists.

    I'm not sure where you have to hang out, and for how long, before you get confused about fraud, theft, lies and deceit, and why we shouldn't encourage this sort of thing.

    --
    Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
  5. Re:This is why people should fix their own compute by similar_name · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everything is not black and white. To say essentially 'because I cannot know everything I should know nothing' is not much of an excuse. Nobody has to be a certified mechanic to know when your mechanic is screwing you, just like nobody needs to program in cobol to know that when your 'tech' asks for 160k a month you might want a second opinion.

  6. Re:Now That's Bizarre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The scammers had access to his hard drive. They probably just looked at his browsing history to find out which conspiracy theory websites he frequented and made up something that matched up with whatever strange beliefs this guy may have already had. That's what I would do if I wanted to scam someone.

  7. terra' by cratermoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ever since 2002 the US government has been scaring its citizens with a bizarre grand conspiracy theory concocted by DHS and TSA to convince Americans they are in mortal danger from everything from shoes to ink cartridges, and the only solution is to spend vast sums of money on security and endless war while depriving the people of more and more of their liberties.

  8. Re:And... by mr_mischief · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stealing from the poor is profitable. State lotteries, tobacco companies, and televangelists do it all the time.

  9. Re:Now That's Bizarre by ian_from_brisbane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    if you have to encrypt your porn then your are a kid or it is some sick shit of kids

    Or you are just from a sick country. In Australia, pics of small-breasted women of any age are considered child porn... even if they're clearly like 35 or something.