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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.
If he was successful as composer and had signed a deal with any of the big labels he would have been left empty-handed by now.
Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean they are not out to get you(r money).
No worries about bad technicians trying to steal your money, just like if you do your own car work you don't have to worry about a bad mechanic trying to change the "headlight fluid."
I mean seriously. Do people really fall for these scams?
"A fool and his money are soon parted" -- Thomas Tusser.
It's as true today as when he said it back in the 1500s.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Yes problem is, that in between fixing my guitar, my laptop, my tv and my fridge, I need to find some time to become skilled in fixing the hairdryer. My family wants some time from me. And the government wants me to put into some time to pay them for whatever service it is they tell me I just bought. In the end... I think I'd just let a qualified mechanic look at the car I transport my kids in ;)
Btw, Thank you for your remittance, soon the Iranian shaw will be able to access his funds and reward your help handsomly.
We've been contacted by an alien named Lurg. He comes from the planet Xulton in the in the Doovi nebula. Lurg informed us, that unless you pay him... errr.. I mean us... $160,000 a month, he will steal your child and make him a slave in the Galvanium mines of Dooviburg. You may be tempted to contact the United States authorities about this, however, any contact with them will result in the immediate death of your son.
Bet these chumps would fall for that too.
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.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
A counterpoint to the obvious: there's a place in the world for generous, naive people. They are GOOD people, generally.
It's a goddamned shame that scam artists take advantage of them.
> More of a stupid tax than a scam, really.
Which is, in and of itself, an interesting dichotomy. To what extent should the law protect those who don't protect themselves? That's an issue comes up in false advertising cases, in tort cases, in welfare issues, in tax policy, and generally throughout society, as soon as you decide there will be rule of law. Do we defend someone against malicious speech? Against the elements? Do we care if they could have diffused a situation with a kind word and instead chose to be belligerent and got punched in the nose? Do we feel differently if the nose hit belongs to a woman or a man or a child or a dog? A multimillionaire should be able to protect himself, but then, if it's inherited, he may have no nose for it. Or if he's only used to dealing with reputable companies, he may be hoodwinked.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Yes, Mr. Davidson, they are out to get you. You just misunderstood who they are.
Naivete and paranoia are a dangerous combination.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
A friend of mine was renting a room in the house of a lady who lived down the street from me. She had been suckered into a Nigerian 419 scam, was convinced that the people she was communicating with were "Good Christians", and sent them about $30,000. When she took out a loan against her home, her daughters attempted to intervene with the courts to declare her incapable of managing her assets. She ended up losing the house and all her money, and my friend lost his room. She was a nice old lady whose mind was starting to go, and unfortunately was taken advantage of by some cold bastards. Don't mock too hard, it could be someone you love or even you one day.
More and more I feel that people who are that paranoid and quick to believe conspiracies have an extreme form of narcissism. 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.
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted and hidden with TrueCrypt on six hard drives stuffed in the laundry room and the USB stick stuffed in their mom's purse while tunneling into Slashdot with two proxies on different continents?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
We've been contacted by an alien named Lurg. He comes from the planet Xulton in the in the Doovi nebula. Lurg informed us, that unless you pay him... errr.. I mean us... $160,000 a month, he will steal your child and make him a slave in the Galvanium mines of Dooviburg. You may be tempted to contact the United States authorities about this, however, any contact with them will result in the immediate death of your son.
That's not creative at all. You just ripped off L. Ron HubbleBubble and changed the names
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.
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.
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?
Mod parent up... although most of the reports on this story are copy/paste, I couldn't find a single one that actually stated where the money went. I would think that if they donated it to charity, that would be something to note in such a story. (not excluding the possibility, but there's no evidence that this is what happened as far as I can see).
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.
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.
There is one glaring problem with that viewpoint. It may have been true back when tracking/spying on a particular target would have required special effort and dedication of manpower. It is no longer true now that surveillance, monitoring, and database technology has advanced to the point where monitoring everyone all of the time is becoming increasingly feasible and cost-effective.
For one narrow example, consider police. It used to be that if they wanted to track someone's whereabouts, they had to assign police officers to stake out a suspect and follow him/her around. That's expensive. There are only so many police officers. Dedicating a number of them to constantly track a particular individual had to be justified. That individual had to be exceptional and extraordinary to justify this cost, because that manpower could be put to much better use otherwise. Now it's both cost-effective and (recently) legally justifiable to simply install GPS tracking devices on citizens' vehicles. Now a computer can automatically perform that tracking and all it costs is a piece of mass-produced electronics that only becomes cheaper over time.
Far from narcissists, I am coming to believe that those you call "paranoid" are realists. In a previous era they may have been quaint and paranoid but these days they're among the few willing to face the implications of a hard truth.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Don't confuse running a scam for personal enrichment with the bravery and virtue of a true revolutionary expropriation.
Action with no philosophical backing is pretty empty, isn't it?
That's absurd, there's a difference between "I need to defrag your monitor, only costs 100$!" and "Give me 160k$ per month so I can stop bolivian kidnappers".
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/55473505/knit-tinfoil-hat-made-to-order
yes, yes they do!
The New York Times has a more in-depth article on this case, and it seems strange indeed.
There's an old saying: "You can't con an honest man." Most cons work because they prey on the victim's own greed or baser emotions. I wonder how much of this was going on in this case?
The Times article contains a few choice tidbits. Apparently, once he got into cahoots with the scammers, Mr. Davidson got involved with some plot of theirs to sue Wachovia Bank for mismanaging Davidson's trust fund, among other things. That sounds suspiciously like the classic con, where you give the con man some of your money in return for the promise that he'll get you lots more money later.
If nothing else, Davidson does sound a little credulous, and possibly mentally ill. The scammers told him his life was supposedly in danger from a group of Polish priests with ties to Opus Dei, whom the scammers told him had a plan to overthrow the United States government. How plausible is that? But then, if you were already rabidly anti-Catholic, it might sound very plausible. Most of us probably wouldn't believe there was an international conspiracy on our lives in the first place, no matter how rich we were; but if you were mentally unstable with delusions of grandeur, you might.
The final paragraph of the NYT article says Davidson's outgoing voicemail message says, “If you leave an ad or any other such message, your telephone wire will be fried automatically.” Who would claim such a thing? You might as well say you're going to report them to the Men in Black.
It seems to me that if Davidson was thinking clearly, none of this would have played out the way it did -- but I guess we knew that already.
Breakfast served all day!
Well, yeah, but a good mechanic will do it properly. That's why you pay extra. Personally I'm not very good with cars and I don't have time to change the headlight fluid every six months, but I am concerned about driving at night when the headlights aren't ionized properly.
You should see my mechanic; he's not the cheapest but he'll fix problems with your car you didn't even know you had, and that other guys aren't sharp enough to notice.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Naivete and paranoia are a dangerous combination.
And Naivete and paranoia and lots of money is a profitable business venture.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -- Isaac Asimov
1) Man earns millions from oil industry.
2) He dies.
3) His son inherits the money.
4) His son dies.
5) His grandson inherits the money.
6) His grandson gets scammed and loses the money.
7) His grandson's scammers spend some of the money.
8) His grandson's lawyers are paid to fight the scammers.
9) His grandson's lawyers buy a new Mercedes.
See? It *does* trickle down! It just takes 2 generations and some scamming to get it spread around!
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.
I'd say in this case, he wasn't paranoid ENOUGH.
Maybe he thought they were "real" agents because of the badges they wear. :)
This is the dumbest post I've ever seen.
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.
"Stupid people shouldn't have money anyway", to paraphrase Mr. Burns I think.
I'm smarter than that, the other day the awesome guys at Geek Squad replaced the magic smoke in my computer and now it's never run better! Best $350 I have ever spent while wearing pants.
I hope this will help the Prince of Nigeria and perhaps put an end to his money problems.
It just chaps my hide that statements like this get scored 5 "insightful". Sounds like someone is jealous that their life sucks while others are living it up off of grandpa's J.R. Ewing-style success. I see by the lame sig that you are also a liberal. That explains your lack of ethics, wit, and class.
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.
There's nothing wrong with being a trust fund baby. We all wanna be one, don't be jealous.
But there is a hell of a lot wrong with a trust fund baby that's also a dumbass.
It goes completely against the american ethic we all learned in civics class of rewarding excellence.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
How the hell did your post get a score 5 insightful. What is wrong with some people these days? Bitter people filled with jealousy.
Obviously someone that dumb shouldn't have had that much money. He deserved losing it.
All glory to Arstotzka!
If you don't make the effort to become an _informed consumer_, which while considerable is less than that required to do the jobs you list, you
won't be able to distinguish good techs from bad.
BTW:
In terms of money saved, learn to fix the car first. It pays off hugely over a lifetime, even if you take a community college course to get started.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Assuming that he really got swindled which is a big IF...
Then that means they got him didn't they? After all, how many computer repair geeks would really concoct such a outlandish scheme to swindle him of that much money?
At most they'd overcharge him a few thousands for a new PC with the works, copying data over, and they'd probably get away with that.
True, but in the case the only ones out to get him, well, got him. Maybe that means he should have been more paranoid...
Why is parent +5 insightful? Being jealous of people with lots of money is not reason to mod this crap up.
Look at it this way: These people took advantage of someone who had, obviously, some form of mental illness. Add to that he's technologically illiterate, and things don't look so good.
Here's what the parent should have said:
The parent poster needs medication as much as the victim.
Stealing from the poor is profitable. State lotteries, tobacco companies, and televangelists do it all the time.
Continents? Continents?!?
Piffle!
I'm riding 3 satellites and a worm-hole, baby!
Best,
Bruce Schneier
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Come on, you don't buy a Mercedes to go fix it yourself. I can make a lot more money with letting a skilled mechanic do that for me, while I'm busy doing my business. To you and me a computer will never have to the store except for a hardware-failure within your warranty. Now, go fix a tv... Don't see many it-nerds fixing their own tv's... What you ask from people is too much. Only hobbyist have an interest in spending the time and effort it takes to become good enough at it to be able to find a darn software/hardware problem. Other people rather invest that time in their own jobs or things they like. Maybe they paint... Maybe they are very good at running a marathon. Everybody has X-time. And everybody has to make choices with that given time. I like pc's. And I used to like fixing them. Now I know better. If my pc goes flat on me, I throw it away and buy a new one. I don't even care to look if it is a faulty power supply or a faulty motherboard. For the simple reason that I have better things to do.
I believe we shouldn't punish a person for being born poor. No one has a choice about who their parents would be.
But by that same token we shouldn't punish someone for being born rich either.
My page.
There is this attitude from many, such as you, that just because someone has money they are a bad person. As such they deserve to have bad things happen to them. What a horrible, shallow, short-sighted view. This is particularly true when you are talking someone like a trust-fund kid. At least in the case of someone who started normal and became rich I suppose you could believe they were underhanded and stole money from others if you are a hard core Marxist and have zero understanding of real economies. However someone born in to it? How is that their fault in any way, shape or form? While I certainly don't pity them for begin born in to privilege, I don't hate them for winning the genetic lottery. Hell, all of us who are fortunate enough to live in developed countries and have Internet access won the genetic lottery globally speaking.
So seriously, get some fucking perspective and get some fucking humanity. I get tired of seeing rich-hatred on this site, it is as stupid as any other kind of blind, over-generalized, hate.
And before you point fingers no, I'm not rich. I work for my reasonably modest living. I just happen to understand that I am lucky even in what I have, on a global scale, and I've met people who make a good deal more and less than I do and found those that are kind and caring and cruel and callous in both groups. Money does not define a person.
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted
"important documentporn"? I think you meant ^W or ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Are you by any chance Todd Davis or Robert Maynard, Jr.?
I once received a 419 letter that took on the form of a death threat. The writer claimed he was a hit man contracted to kills me, but for a price, he would tell me who my enemy was, and sell me a video of the contract being made. It told me not to contact the police, or he would act immediately. I could tell from the broken English that it was a 419, but I did call the police, hoping they could catch the scammer. They couldn't. I imagine that a senior or eccentric rich person would have taken this seriously, and done what they were told. Naturally, as soon as they paid, the scammer would say their enemy had upped the offer, and they need more money. This story reminds me of that letter I recieved.
I'm paranoid but am I paranoid enough?
Nicely put.
There is a lot of truth to it in terms of certain kind of scams. When you are talking immoral scams yes it is usually true. Things like the Nigerian "Help me steal millions of dollars from my country," things. Well you can't scam someone honest with that because it is a dishonest proposition. Even if you were 100% for real an honest person wouldn't do it because it is wrong.
However there are other scams that work perfectly well on honest people. Ones that play on fear are a good example. You convince someone is in danger and they have to do X to not be. No dishonesty there, they just don't want to be hurt. That is perfectly understandable. I mean if you were able to honestly convince me that my life was in danger and the only way out way to pay, well I'd do it. Now of course I'd be rather hard to convince of that fact, I have a good deal of faith in our police forces and my marksmanship, not to mention a good understanding of just how not worth it it would be to try and kill me. However supposing you found a perfectly believable set of evidence that could well and truly convince me then sure, because I'd think it was real and not want to die.
This leads to the second part that it is possible to scam people who are not as bright and who are credulous and/or gullible. While it may be trendy for geeks to hate on people who are less intelligent as though it was their fault, simple fact of the matter is that as with so much else in humans, intelligence is genetically determined and falls on a bell curve. Just as there are people who smarter than most, there are those who are not. Some people just cannot process data as well as others, cannot reason as well as others, and thus cannot identify and deal with scams as well as others.
So while I find this scam laughably stupid, well I'm a computer support and security professional. I know how this shit works, and the holes are easy to spot. For someone who doesn't know as much, and perhaps is slightly below average intelligence, perhaps it seemed far more plausible.
Something about a fool and his money...
No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.
They're con artists. Are you saying you don't want artists to get their fair share of the work they produce? Are you valuing automobile design more than the incredible art of conning? It takes skill and cunning to be a con artist, something which very few people have. You should respect their profession instead of denigrating it as "fraud".
Ah! Artists are never really understood by the masses.
One case of a rich individual being cheated by the relatively poor, as opposed to the situation our economy is founded on, the many poor being cheated by the rich.
What a shame.
Next time someone tells you that we shouldn't tax the rich because they deserve the money they earn, link them to this story.
The guys a fool living of his great-grand fathers success. It sounds in some ways like the scamers did more work for the money than he did. (Not that I think we should be rewarding them for being a-grade assholes)
I know you're probably joking but con artists are not really "artists" in the sense that it generally takes true skill and cunning to successfully pull of a con. I think the biggest part is having the basic lack of respect and not caring about what is legal. Caring about whether or not you get caught probably doesn't factor into the decision making process. I think many very law-abiding Slashdotters and the general public can with very little effort pull of a con job. Its just 1) they respect others 2) respect the law 3) like their life enough they don't want to spend a lot of time in prison etc.
Just one example (though this is a much bigger one, there are probably thousands of smaller con jobs pulled off every day): .... legal or not) was because they were stupid or slow. There's some rather wealthy, middle to upper class people that got rolled up into the mess and lost their houses.
You can't possibly convince me that, all the people who bought sub-prime mortgages for example (which I think was a form of a con job
"If you vote republican, your country will be in danger!"... It didn't work. I guess you can only fool some of the people....
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I'm paranoid but am I paranoid enough?
Even paranoids have enemies.
Henry Kissinger
It's sort of sad. Then again, he is an heir. He didn't earn the money. The guys who stole it from him worked harder for it than he did.
Robin Hood was running a guerrilla campaign against the nobility in the area. Of course he gave money to the poor. They would have ratted him out otherwise.
The madman's explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory. Or, to speak more strictly, the insane explanation, if not conclusive, is at least unanswerable; this may be observed specially in the two or three commonest kinds of madness. If a man says (for instance) that men have a conspiracy against him, you cannot dispute it except by saying that all the men deny that they are conspirators; which is exactly what conspirators would do. His explanation covers the facts as much as yours. Or if a man says that he is the rightful King of England, it is no complete answer to say that the existing authorities call him mad; for if he were King of England that might be the wisest thing for the existing authorities to do. Or if a man says that he is Jesus Christ,it is no answer to tell him that the world denies his divinity; for the world denied Christ's. -G.K. Chesterton
Just, FYI, every car has headlight fluid, and you need to change it every time you change the filament. Even the new-fangled "filament-free" lights need their fluid changed, indeed the proper mixture is even more important for those lamps.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I can help you discover the answer to that question. My fees are $160,000 a month.
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.
I need to find some time to become skilled in fixing the hairdryer.
Clean out the hair. It's clogging up the airflow. Makes the heat-fuse trip.
Next!
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
It's very simple. You are rewarding the parents' excellence, not the kid's. The reward is that they can fund several succeeding generations and their line will flourish.
If the kid squanders it, well, that's just punishing the complete lack of excellence. Should fortunes be protected from squandering by their owners just so that the gentry never fall and the commoners never rise? Seems backwards to me.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted
"important documentporn"? I think you meant ^W or ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H.
Oh yeah, baby, fax that resume. Yeah, just like that...
Out of those, only the televangelists are stealing. Both the lottery and the tobacco companies tell you, quite truthfully, exactly what you are going to get for your money.
Is the world so impoverished that we can't spare a few Backspace keys? Who needs ^H anymore? vi users who can't afford vim?
Ditto. I used to work for a company where the owner was ridiculously paranoid like this. Security was tighter at this company than most big companies like MS, GE, or probably anything short of a high security government job. This guy spent a good $1 million or more a year just on security when the overwhelming majority of people have never even heard the guys name, let alone contemplated robbing him. But then again, there's that old saying "a fool and his money are soon parted".
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
So no more pictures of my wife I guess ....
If you aren't part of the solution, then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
have an extrem form of narcism. They actually believe that the are important enough to worth that much effort
The effort required is steadily moving towards "zero". People who think they aren't interesting enough clearly have an inferiority complex.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I do not want to encourage it. However, I do not want the police and court system deal with this and spend tax dollars.
I would be ok with a social contract that says that we do not deal with such talk you out of your money scammers and pyramid schemes etc. If you get scammed due to your own gullibility, you are on your own: scam them back, whatever.
The guy had too much money it seems. He did not go bankrupt as a result. He is not starving. So what is the big deal? They told him Opus Dei is after him. Come on...
Maybe we should go after such scammers after all, but all costs should be paid from the recovered loot. Even better: the recovered money the scammers talked their victims out of could go to a fund 100%, financing public education and awareness.
I just do not want to remove the individual responsibility toward being sensible in money matters and replace it with reliance on the court system instead.
I once owned a VW Karmen Ghia (yes it was a POS) and it needed a new clutch. I took it to an independent VW shop and the mechanic initially had a hard time sourcing a clutch for it. Finally he cross referenced and found a Porsche clutch that was identical. I asked if it would cost more and he told me "only if I install it in a Porsche".
Finally an honest mechanic.
If you aren't part of the solution, then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted
"important documentporn"? I think you meant ^W or ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H.
No, he got it right.
The word "documentporn" is german for porn kept at the office mixed into a stack of documents that no one would ever look at otherwise.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
He was targeted for fraud because of his wealth(thinking that people want to get hold of your money is not paranoia but simple economics). Believing that someone from Honduras is trying to kill you is generally paranoid unless you've got some Hondurans in your will, or have made some real enemies. Assassination is difficult and expensive, people just don't do that shit.
Of course his paranoia isn't really the issue here as much as the fact that he was willing to pay these two idiots 160 grand a month to protect him from said assassination. Obviously this guy either has diminished capacity in some way or this isn't the whole story. If I had 160 large to throw around for my protection and I thought someone was trying to kill me I'd be more likely to spend it on a security detail.
He got the peace of mind of knowing that that he was being protected from a devious Guatemalan assassin. Thats gotta be worth something.
The truth will set you free. Or possibly part you from even more money, if the truth happens to include copyrighted material.
Satis clankiller.com
He'd rather dick around with his guitar and TV than become informed about a two ton device that can kill others and that is one of the most likely instruments in a premature death of his children. His priorities are clear.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
They did get him......
Nos Morituri te salutamus
I'll tell you what, I'm not one for blaming the victim, but sometimes the victims make it awfully damn hard not to.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Except none of those examples you gave is an example of "stealing from the poor." Those examples are people willingly giving money to those entities. No one is putting a gun to people's heads and telling them to buy lottery tickets, smoke tobacco, or give money to televangelists.
There is no cure for gullibility.
Apparently, all they were able to do was some primitive blood-letting analogue, in that they bled out some of his cash in order to stabilize his financial humours.
"Stealing by fraud" is a crime in some places. What you're talking about is robbery, not theft. A plain theft would be sneaking around and taking it without force.
Who's the pedant now?
I once read that a decent hacker will tunnel through around 30 different proxies before attacking a real target. I don't know how true it is, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's more than two.
Qxe4
In a previous era they may have been quaint and paranoid
This is what they've said in every era. Along with other gems such as, "old people are dumb" and "kids these days don't know anything." Face it, the average slashdot reader would make any poor cop who had to trail them die of boredom.
Qxe4
> simply install GPS tracking devices on citizens' vehicles
For 'special' trips, simply drive to a parking lot near a taxi rank and take a random taxi the rest of the way to your real destination, perhaps take several taxis if you really want to slip away. The GPS based system will think you've spent all day at the mall.
Lojacking people of interest and then assuming that they only places they went where the places the lojack went is just plain stupid.
Just because he fell for it doesn't make him a dumbass. Sure it sounds silly in one paragrah but they had 6 years to elaborate on the story. A few well placed actors every few months would be enough to convince almost anyone of a conspiracy. Reminds me of that Michael Douglas movie The Game.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Definition of steal - look at the first one:
to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, esp. secretly or by force
Your original examples are not this.
The article is extremely light on details, we dont know how elaborate the scam got. For example, if I noticed a few priests (aka actors off craigslist) following me over the course of months or years and you told me Opus Dei was out to get me I'd probably start believing it too.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
terminals in the niiiiiiight exchanging asciii
whoops, we've dropped a byyyyte please hit the break key
dooobeee doobeedooooooooo
TWO proxies?
I never go with less than SEVEN!
fraud is basically theft through deceit.
I'm really sorry you think tobacco companies saying their drug is not addictive while knowing it was and being forced by the government to put only a minimal and incomplete description of medial problems smoking can cause on their product packaging is telling people exactly what they are getting. Did you mother smoke during her pregnancy with you or something?
Lotteries all the time state a jackpot winnings total, then tell you you must leave the money in an annuity under their control to get that amount if you win. If you want the money upon winning, they take half or so before they even take the taxes out. They advertise how much they're going to help the schools or roads or whatever, but a huge amount of the money goes to run the lottery itself and you're lucky if your state doesn't appropriate part of the funds for some other expense. Yeah, the odds of winning are stated clearly in the fine print, but what the lottery actually supports probably isn't.
Also, would you pleas learn that a dictionary of everyday terms bears little semblance to the definitions you'd find in the criminal codes of your state or in a legal dictionary?
Perhaps you should try to not break so much stuff, you ham-fisted fuckhead.
You wanted a Republic but now you are getting clueless feudalism and others that are effectively royalty. When Dick Cheney visited my country he demanded vastly more fuss and pompous bullshit than was ever rolled out for any of Queen Elizabeth's visits.
GP's point exactly. If you're going to die soon, you don't need much money.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
He'd rather a professional deal with his dangerous device than make an expensive or fatal mistake fooling around with it on his own. I'd say his priories are in order. Now, go fix that skin rash with a google search and some caustic herbal concoction.
No Shit.
I administer 3 websites as a "part time". I contracted the hosting and bought the domain. I have been working on computers and programming since around 1988 and as such, I consider myself pretty "computer saavy" (e.e. I used to do cracks and keygens in my youth... ).
Nevertheless, about two weeks ago I've got a mail that seemed quite sincere telling me that certain company wanted to acquire domains similar to one of mines but with different TLD:
Dear Manager,
This email is from China Domain Name registration service company, which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China. A formal application here dated on Oct. 18, 2010 from Wells inc requested " XXXXX " as their Internet Brand and China domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China ?
Well... it was after exchanging two emails with the bastards that I got it and googled for some background (they were very pushy suggesting me to buy the domains from them :-/)
After some time looking I found out it is a well known scam: http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/domain-name-scams?page=12
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Needful Things reference FTW!
Looks like he was paying for a service. I don't see how this is any different from Homeopathy or Scientology...
Cheers!
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
Sure it sounds silly in one paragrah but they had 6 years to elaborate on the story.
All the more time for him to do a sanity check and have someone else verify the story.
It's not just the money but the fact the guy thought his life was in danger and yet he didn't bring in some independent security guys to evaluate the risk.
He is a dumbass.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
You gotta be kidding me.
We now decide on whether or not someone gets to keep their money on the basis of how hard he / she worked to earn it?? What subcommittee, from the dark nether regions of Cthulu's domain, decided this stellar policy in my absence?
The man got swindled. Whether or not the man has $2 or $2 million in his checking account, he deserves our sympathy. That he is an heir, and thus "didn't earn the money," is a poor excuse for some highly despicable behavior.
I am John Hurt.
Day 104: Things have been getting weird ever since I joined his raiding party. He trusts me. They all trust me. Well, except Cranston the Night Elf. I can tell he suspects something.
I'm starting to forget who I am. I've been getting deeper into cheetos. I miss my wife. I can't believe how long I've spent playing someone else.
So I guess you're perfectly okay with someone stealing the money you give to your kids. Oh wait, this is /. you don't have a gf let alone kids.
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
Your torque converter isn't running low on torque is it?
Personally I wouldn't mind having a go at tunneling a few doxies myself, would do me a power of good at my age!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
You see, when the big day came up, the car was rather dirty. He didn't care. But his wife cared: "You can't show the car around in that state!"
So she washed it...
But the headlights were not 100% watertight...
So he failed the "technical control" due to "water in the headlights"...
Acceptable if this had been a reason cited for his reluctance to perform his own maintenance and repairs. He talked of a lack of available time. Time that, by his own admission, he directs towards dicking with his guitar and tv.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
A call to one of Mr. Davidson’s homes revealed a man’s friendly recorded voice, warning that, “If you leave an ad or any other such message, your telephone wire will be fried automatically.”
Not the workings of a healthy mind.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Brilliant. I literally can't tell whether you're joking or not.
To prevent this day from getting worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD TH
Man:
Is your uh, is your wife interested in... photography, ay? 'Photographs, ay', he asked him knowlingly?
Squire:
Photography?
Man:
Snap snap, grin grin, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more?
Squire:
Holiday snaps, eh?
Man:
They could be, they could be taken on holiday.
Candid, you know, CANDID photography?
Squire:
No, no I'm afraid we don't have a camera.
Man:
Oh.
(leeringly)
Still, mooooooh, ay? Mwoohohohohoo, ay? Hohohohohoho, ay?
bickerdyke
Wow, there really is more propaganda in the states than I could ever imagine. Explains a lot... really does.
Do you really have a problem with indoctrinating children with high ideals?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
People should really be taught about scams in school. Then things like viruses and spam wouldn't be anywhere near as prevalent.
But unless this was the first time this guy has ever been deceived, it's his own fault. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me", etc.
which is totally what she said
The guy has (or at least, had) access to over $20,000,000. Quite a few people would consider that worth the effort.
which is totally what she said
Not only did he lose a fortune, he spent a long time kept in fear for his life. If you've even spent a night wondering if people you've pissed off are going to come round and break into your home, imagine spending two years being told a group are trying to kill you.
Incidentally, TFA makes a little fun about Opus Dei, featured in the Da Vinci Code being one of the supposed villains that are after him. Okay, that's a bit of a red flag, but Opus Dei do actually exist and are a sort of sub-cult within Catholicism. They've got their claws into various influential people and actually score moderately well on the Sinister Scale. Lower than Wahabism, bobbing along under Scientology, but certainly high above your run of the mill nutters.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Or anyone remotely in the public eye who might find themselves pilloried in the press for what the rest of society does blamelessly.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
It's just the classical saying 'a fool and his money are soon parted', just in different words.
The meaning is, that people who have shown their wits/intellect/ruthlessness/whatever by earning lots of money fall for such scams much more rarely than people who have 'found' the money by inheritance or lotteries - they seem particularly vulnerable statistically.
Other than a very high level overview of scamming techniques, what are you going to teach people in schools that will be relevant for the next 60+ years of their life? Scammers have shown time and again that, the second their targets become aware of the scam, they will switch tactics and it's back to square one. When I was at school the internet was practically unheard of, and I'm in my thirties - a lot of the people who get scammed are much older (in fact the elderly are the prime target for scammers), when they were at school computers were practically unheard of. What advice could they have been given back then to prepare them for the internet-based "social engineering" scams of today? Scams are in the news almost every day, we're bombarded with warnings about "identity theft" and such, yet people still frequently fall for these things - clearly awareness is not the issue.
Common sense is the only real defence against these scams, and it's pretty clear that schools have no way of teaching that.
No, what's sad is that you don't know how to use emoticons. "):" isn't a sad face.
None of your examples are "stealing", although televangelists almost by definition solicit money under false pretenses.
Says it all, really. Fool, money, soon parted. Don't worry, I'm sure the lawyers will work on getting rid of the rest of the pile for him.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Fraud is a crime. Offering to sell the Eiffel tower or the Brooklyn bridge - even to someone stupid enough to buy it, is a crime. That was decided way back when lawmakers thought it worthwhile to protect the weak and gullible (instead of nowadays where laws are made to protect the government and special interests).
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Playing someone else playing someone else.
Haha, love that sketch!
HTTP/1.1 400
. . . that I, who have a clean work track record (I have had bad clients with whom I have had problems, but I have NEVER even come close to being accused of stealing) have offered HONEST, LEGITIMATE, QUALITY services to some people, people who could seriously use the services, for very very competitive rates, along with verifiable (Google) samples of good past work, and . . . I swear, the asinine drooling miasmic paranoid racist fucktards literally act as if I am trying to literally steal from them, and these folks actually get to steal millions from some guy? Just like that? You have got to be kidding me . . . sometimes I really do think I ought to start committing crimes, I mean, I get treated like a criminal half the time already . . . might as well make some money while I am it . . . grgrgrgrgrrrr
SARAVA!
The difference is, believing a news article with flaky facts might hit your credibility but it's unlikely to cost you six million dollars. There is a scale where, at one end it's not really worth checking the facts, and at the other it is very much so.
Well loathe as I am to play devil's advocate for the media, I'm not sure how this is a failing on their part. A day doesn't go by that we're bombarded with scare stories about identity theft, some civil servant losing all our data or some company playing fast and loose with our privacy. If you listened to the media you'd believe that the only way to be safe would be to live as a hermit in a cave divorced from society (and you'd better hope your cave doesn't have an address they can use to fake an utility bill to take out a credit card in your name).
The "failing" is that most people simply don't care about this stuff until it happens to them (or someone close enough to them for it to register). Try talking to the average person about securing their system against intrusion and you can literally see their eyes glaze over - people don't want to bother about the mundane aspects of computer security, they want to be poking people and sharing cabbages. People are certainly aware of the issues, but as always they tend to cling to the belief that it couldn't ever happen to them right up until the point that it does.
The difference seems to be the gullibility of the target. Both of those ingenius scams can be avoided with a little thought and perhaps some research, if someone is willing to take $100 from me for defragging my monitor do you honestly believe they'd not take $160k from me if they thought I'd be stupid enough to fall for it?
The only problem with it is that the money thusly parted winds up in the wrong pockets.
And as it goes...the one who has the gold makes the rules.
Other than a very high level overview of scamming techniques, what are you going to teach people in schools that will be relevant for the next 60+ years of their life?
Healthy skepticism, sprinkled with a little paranoia
"He is so stupid. And now back to the wall!" Moe Szyslak
Donating the money to charity just because he didn't earn it isn't really a moral issue. At the very least, having the money in his possession will keep it out of the wrong hands, and considering the way many charities these days are almost as corrupt as our own government, it may be for the best to do some manual philanthropy, or better yet, invest the money and create some jobs.
Also, I seriously doubt you would be willing to do so were you in his position.
That's odd - because in their TV ads, the lottery company over here only ever show the "winner" basking on a beach or a yacht somewhere. You'd think, with all their honesty, and the ridiculously small chances of winning, all their adverts would show the people who don't win (and every 1 in 1.4 million ads would show someone actually winning). In fact, the bit of text telling you your actual odds of winning is microscopic on the back of the ticket, while all the posters proclaiming "IT COULD BE YOU!" and talking about how high this week's jackpot is are huge and plastered everywhere. It's a form of truth, I guess, but they're really pushing the boundaries.
I agree.
Just because the guy is an idiot doesn't mean his money belongs in the hands of a *pack of thieves* that will probably use the money to do some nasty things that will be bad for everyone.
A fool and his money may deserve to be parted, but there's also the issue of whose pockets that money winds up going into.
You gotta be kidding me.
We now decide on whether or not someone gets to keep their money on the basis of how hard he / she worked to earn it?? What subcommittee, from the dark nether regions of Cthulu's domain, decided this stellar policy in my absence?
The man got swindled. Whether or not the man has $2 or $2 million in his checking account, he deserves our sympathy. That he is an heir, and thus "didn't earn the money," is a poor excuse for some highly despicable behavior.
Sorry, all my sympathy was used up for the people who lived, worked, and died for those who setup this guy's inheritance.
Why should I have any sympathy for the person who has $20 million to lose?
The world isn't fair. Let me know when it sucks so much to be mind-bogglingly rich that it sucks equally as much as only having $2 in your checking account. Then I'll have some sympathy.
You see, the advantage of having $20 million around to lose is that you don't normally have to face the fact that life sucks, because that $20 million makes it a hell of a lot easier to make it suck for enough other people that you get to live a fairly comfortable existence.
I know that isn't fair of me, but for some reason it's just easier to feel compassion for the $2 in their checking account family.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
And don't most USians live in fear of the muslim terrorists and Obama's "Death Panels"?
You believe far too much of what you see on TV. Only about 15% of us are crazy, just like any other country. The rest are pretty normal.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
for the Dynastically Rich, seeing as the only act required to be rewarded that wealth was taking their first breath. I think Mister Gates has some wise insights on this. Can you imagine how horrible Bill Gates III would be with all of his GPs lucre?
This is what they've said in every era. Along with other gems such as, "old people are dumb" and "kids these days don't know anything." Face it, the average slashdot reader would make any poor cop who had to trail them die of boredom.
You think they trail you because they were told to? No, they trail you because they want to. They trail you because in some way, some how, you wronged them, and they have the tools at their disposal to exact some form of revenge against you.
In most cases, revenge exerted against you will come in the form of someone letting a call with your ID to go to voicemail a few times. With the police and governmental powers, the revenge can be a lot more invasive and dangerous.
Maybe they won't find anything. But that doesn't mean they won't try. Piss off a meter maid, and expect to get a ticket for parking in a spot for the handicapped. Piss off a detective and expect some sort of 'record search' to be performed at the least. Piss off a city employee, expect to find out that your sidewalk curb isn't to code and must be torn out and replaced at your expense.
Trust me, human beings will go to extreme lengths to pursue a grudge and will use any and all tools at their disposal unless you build in some serious safeguards and oversight. And even with those checks, some still will try to fuck you over.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Do people really fall for these scams?
They sure do. The reason we all get that spam claiming to need our help moving millions of dollars into the US banking system is because there are enough suckers out there to keep the spammers in business.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
That's fine until you consider that there really are "grand" conspiracies that target real individuals, most of whom are totally unawares.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
liberal bias! you don't count a right-leaning sad face?
Common sense is the only real defence against these scams, and it's pretty clear that schools have no way of teaching that.
Unfortunately, common sense is in very short supply it seems.
I can't know what's in the mind of those who get scammed, but the simplest defense is to just walk away from anyone wanting to take your stash. While it's certainly possible to be scammed by someone the victim has hired to perform a service (re:Bernie Madoff), at some point reason has to come into play. A PC repairman finds evidence of victim's life being in danger and he swallows it hook, line and sinker? What about second opinions?
Madoff was paying huge returns to his early victims and had they been more engaged in what was happening, a second opinion might have saved them from being wiped out. The old saw is "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is". In the case of the composer, had he revealed the problem to someone with a dispassionate eye, this would have been a non-story.
== First cross river, then insult alligator.
It's more like this:
Go in for inspection, dashboard backlight no longer works ( but it worked yesterday), back tail light is out (when did that happen), tire tread is too shallow (ok).
$400 later - hmm tire pressure is low (slow leak from a new pin hole or did they just leave it low to wear out tires early).
? Go somewhere else or go back and demand fixes (you'll pay either way) with potential for more problems. If you go somewhere else - devil you know or new potential scamming.
This happens when you are new to repair or in a new area. It could take a few tries to find someone you trust. Referrals can't be trusted as a smart scammer operating a legit business would maintain a list of "happy" customers.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Indeed. There was a story in the UK papers about a 3yr old child injured by a flying Chinese lantern. He was underneath it, making a wish, and got facial injuries from hot wax.
The father's comment was (paraphrased) : "Why are they selling things which are dangerous? They should make them safe, or ban them". Which makes a superficial kind of sense, but surely nothing is safe in all circumstances. We all laugh at labels on products that say "Don't stand underneath this hot, flying candle", but perhaps people could occasionally try keeping themselves safe, rather than relying on others to do so.
having seen how a few charities work while doing IT consulting for them: NO. NOT EVER.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
this.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
this is barely intelligible, and smacks of both teenage overinflated ego and paranoia.. My advice:
- pay more attention to your english teacher
- take a hike. really, grab good boots, and go commune with nature.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
which does not answer the basic question: why would anyone want to do that to me ? my life is boring in the extreme, and not worth spying on, at any cost. hence the argument about narcissistic paranoia.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
no.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Also, even if they put all of the information on the lottery ticket, it still would not be good enough in my books, because people are living with the impression that they are doing it just for fun. In my mind, they deserve what they get, but that isn't to say that it isn't fraud. The lottery companies are conveying that it is just clean fun, that gives people a chance at a bazillion doll hairs [oops, you have to read the fine print], but they really are taking advantage of the poor. Society is worse off, because these poor people are now going to ask charities and government for free handouts.
testing out my trending skills
He didn't cite lack of available time. He said, quite clearly, that there are a lot of things vying for his attention, so he prioritizes those which he can accomplish the best.
Spending an hour learning about cars is not going to get you as far as an hour learning about Windows, a hair dryer or a guitar. Also, you have to look at the impact of not doing it right. That changes the importance and focus of the time.
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted and hidden with TrueCrypt on six hard drives stuffed in the laundry room and the USB stick stuffed in their mom's purse while tunneling into Slashdot with two proxies on different continents?
No. Mine is in .\My Pictures\private\you're violating my privacy\I'm warning you\bad plan, darling\alright, you found it\my porn stash.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
In Australia, pics of small-breasted women of any age are considered child porn...
Hmmm... weaponized small breasts. (looks down shirt) Screw this, I'm moving to Australia, and if anyone says my boobs are small, I can have them arrested for viewing child porn.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Yes it is.
What can't I ever find someone that loaded and gullible?!?!?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
WTF are you??
Who are you to tell me what I should or should not be able to do with my possessions...weather they be physical assets or money??
Part of possession, is the ability to give it to whomever you wish to give it.
It is not to you or the government to tell me who to give my possessions to...whilst I'm alive or who it goes to when I pass on.
How fucking dare you.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Out to get his money yes.
But a complex conspiracy involving people in another country that are trying to kill you?
Or in this case.
"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.""
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
That is pretty much it in a nutshell.
I am all for getting our laws back in order as far as privacy is concerned. I want to see the courts rule that they must have a court order to plant a GPS device.
But at no time would I ever believe that someone in South America is plotting to kill me or that I could pay someone to prevent it.
That is narcissistic paranoia.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
You forgot that they use a VM image hidden with TrueCrypt and stored on a USB suppository.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
fraud is basically theft through deceit.
That's fair enough.
I'm really sorry you think tobacco companies saying their drug is not addictive while knowing it was and being forced by the government to put only a minimal and incomplete description of medial problems smoking can cause on their product packaging is telling people exactly what they are getting. Did you mother smoke during her pregnancy with you or something?
Ad hominem is a great way to make an argument. No actually, it is not. But with regard to smoking tobacco, in this day and age, people still smoke regardless of their knowledge of how bad it is for them. People know it causes cancer and emphysema, yet they still do it anyway. They start in high school, knowing full well how bad it is. Now tell me, did anyone force these people to start smoking?
Lotteries all the time state a jackpot winnings total, then tell you you must leave the money in an annuity under their control to get that amount if you win. If you want the money upon winning, they take half or so before they even take the taxes out. They advertise how much they're going to help the schools or roads or whatever, but a huge amount of the money goes to run the lottery itself and you're lucky if your state doesn't appropriate part of the funds for some other expense. Yeah, the odds of winning are stated clearly in the fine print, but what the lottery actually supports probably isn't.
I don't see the fraud in this problem. The odds are clearly written there. To win the jackpot it's 1 in 10 million or so (or even less of a chance). If that is something that people who participate in lotteries doesn't understand, then that is their problem. I echo the same sentiments that most people here do: lotteries are a tax on people with poor math skills.
Also, would you pleas learn that a dictionary of everyday terms bears little semblance to the definitions you'd find in the criminal codes of your state or in a legal dictionary?
Except your original post made absolutely no mention of state or federal definitions.
He gave his money away under false pretenses. People who smoke know full well the consequences of their actions. People who participate know the odds. Although it's debatable with regards to televangelists.
I hope he keeps your muffler bearings well greased and your blinker fluid topped off as well.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
How about.. if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Or in this guy's case, if it sounds too bad to be true, it probably is.. Seriously though..If there were possible threats against his life wouldn't you think that the first thing he would do would be to get in contact with the authorities? Not just rely on some computer techs to "guard" them.. If anything they should have atleast called the Geek Squad, atleast they have jet packs.... :)
--- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
I like your sinister scale. You should make a comprehensive diagram of sinisterity.
Paranoid is just......GOOD THINKING!!"
--Johnny Fever
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Sounds more like an Ikea product to me. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You jest, but I've seen the "turn light fluid" used successfully on someone. It was after a rain during PMCS and a turn light on a hummer had an obvious "half full" fluid level. A new guy in the unit (who apparently didn't know much about vehicles or lighting) was sent on a mission for some "turn light fluid" to top it off with. The mechanics got a good laugh and a soldier became just a bit more cynical. Or how about the classic "hunt for grid squares" a second lieutenant fell for? My favorite was a sergeant who could tell any lie convincingly and with a straight face (often he would start with something small and plausible, then work his way up to to a real whopper). He managed to convince another sergeant that the setting sun was actually Mars on its closest approach to Earth ever.
The real lesson isn't that some people are idiots or know nothing, it is that *everyone* has a threshold of knowledge in some area past which they can be fooled.
Yeah, it's like people who are burgled, the second time's always their fault.
Asshole.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I mean seriously. Do people really fall for these scams?
Yes. http://www.katu.com/news/34292654.html
Spears fell victim to the "Nigerian scam," which is familiar to almost anyone who has ever had an e-mail account.
In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
lol I can see why you are paranoid, seems you piss off enough people that they really ARE after you.
Qxe4
But of the three, the televangelist is doing it under false pretenses.
Being scammed is not a great comparison to being burgled. When you're scammed you have to make an actively stupid decision to take part in the scam.
When you're burgled, you don't get a direct choice. You can however do a few things to make your house less attractive to burglars. You most definitely should if you have already been subject to a burglary, just as you should learn a bit more about common scams if you have generally poor common sense (as I do, and I still manage not to give my bank account details out to every email that asks).
No need to sign your name at the end of all your posts either.
which is totally what she said
> People should really be taught about scams in school.
Sorry, the government hates competition, otherwise we'd learn about all the variations of the Ponzi schemes: Insurance, Usury, and Taxes.
Narcissists are paranoids who think the CIA or something is after them, despite the CIA not having any possible reason to be interested in them.
Someone who thinks they local police are after them because he complained about them in town meeting is a good deal more reasonable.
But, yes, at this point we've exchanged 'It's implausible for them to be monitoring you' with 'It's implausible for them to want to monitor you'.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
I agree that the best answer is to teach common sense (which if you could solve that, you'd probably solve a lot of other issues with the education system). Barring that, you can only offer truisms and hope they sink in.
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
"No such thing as a free ride."
etc.
The reason this guy got screwed out of so much money has little to do with his lack of knowledge about computers.
No, but I suspect the reason it got started was due to computers. I suspect these scammers often had fun poking around in the browser history of their customers, and they realized this guy was a) a paranoid who believes all sorts of crazy conspiracies, and b) rich as hell.
They could have just as easily been interior decorators who discovered his diary, and faked mail instead of email.
The real reason he got screwed out of so much money is that he hired some IT experts for 'security'. Instead of going to one of the thousand of reputable firms that would consult on this. In fact, rich people almost always have some sort of private security firm they're already using, so him not asking them about this is rather inexplicable.
Maybe they managed to convince him his life was in danger via computer, and they were the best to handle it, which makes him really really stupid.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Not entirely. Taxes are levied on any transfer of wealth/property; think of sales tax, etc. Just because you don't pay it on gifts during the normal run of things doesn't mean it's not owed.
Tink? Is that you?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Hmm...great, I now have an anonymous stalker.
And read my posts before you misquote them. I didn't say I didn't believe anyone had fertility problems, I merely was asking if it was that widespread. I didn't think it was so bad as to rate the attention it seems to garner in general.
And speaking of stupid, are we not able to figure out how to register for a real account on slashdot?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Ironic that your user name is "Girlintraining" isn't it?
That is one of the reasons why I think some type of estate tax is important. If you have more money than you, your kids, their kids, their kids kids (forever) can spend, what incentive is there for that family to ever rise to excellence again.
I don't like seeing an estate tax applied on smaller things, like farms, but multi-billion dollar funds, heck yes.
I don't like seeing an estate tax applied on smaller things, like farms, but multi-billion dollar funds, heck yes.
The estate-tax hit on small farmers is mostly a myth promulgated by the people with multi-billion dollar funds.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3223
I was unable to find an anti-estate tax analysis anywhere near as thorough as that pro-estate tax report, they were all pretty much smoke, mirrors and hyperbole.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Or you have kids in your house. I imagine some people also want to hide it from their spouse, though mine's favorite line seems to be "Not tonight.. go watch some porn."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
No one is putting a gun to people's heads and telling them to buy lottery tickets, smoke tobacco, or give money to televangelists.
I'd agree with you on all counts but the last. At best, televangelists claim they will remove a third party's gun from your head, much like this very scam in fact.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Here you go Mr Anonymous... A news article to back it up. http://theweek.com/article/index/105766/Australias_small_breast_ban
Agreed, the word order there was wrong.
He never stated that they were based on what he could accomplish best.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Good to know, thanks.
There are so many half-truths and outright lies in media/think tanks these days, that it's hard to keep up.
Indeed. Scams aren't new either--con men and grifters have been around for centuries. The advent of computers only made them more efficient, as it has done for just about everything.
Your brain is not a computer.
Vickram Bedi and girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir
Indians among most corrupt while doing business abroad
I'd like to buy homeland for our 10 million people. http://twitter.com/mahadiga
Oh, I know, I'm only slightly exaggerating my lack of knowledge about automobiles.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Other than a very high level overview of scamming techniques, what are you going to teach people in schools that will be relevant for the next 60+ years of their life?
Healthy skepticism, sprinkled with a little paranoia
Step 1 is to abandon the teaching of religion in schools then.
Step 2 would be to ban religion altogether, but sadly I can't see that happening any time soon.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
don't feed the obvious trolls.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
I'm just flabbergasted that people can be so paranoid.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Incidentally, TFA makes a little fun about Opus Dei, featured in the Da Vinci Code being one of the supposed villains that are after him. Okay, that's a bit of a red flag, but Opus Dei do actually exist and are a sort of sub-cult within Catholicism. They've got their claws into various influential people and actually score moderately well on the Sinister Scale. Lower than Wahabism, bobbing along under Scientology, but certainly high above your run of the mill nutters.
*sigh* I wonder how this got modded informative. I've met, worked and lived with people associated with Opus Dei. The worst you could ever accuse them of is being a bit out of touch with reality. The same could be said of any religious group. The founder of Opus Dei, Josemaria Escriva, a priest, was canonised by Pope JP2 (widely considered the best Pope of modern times). This is as high an endorsement the Catholic church will give a "sub-cult". I know that religion often gets a bashing on this site, but in this case it's quite unwarranted.
Now I'm all for a bit of healthy debate, but your rhetoric sounds very like someone who's read the Da Vinci Code, and listened to all the hype it generated. I challenge you to find something official that connects Opus Dei to any political manoeuvring, child abuse, murder of it's members or extortion.
I personally am not a member, or directly connected to them, but I do have friends and work colleagues who are, and I have to defend them as each and every one of them are among the nicest people you will ever meet.
true enough, I imagine.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
I can say I've never fallen victim to any of these scams. I find them always to either be too good to be true, or they use so much incorrect grammar and spelling that it can't possibly be legit, though the one you quoted would at least have me in thought for a while.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
agreed.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Sorry, I gave up my millions a decade ago. You're a little late, but there's a T-shirt as a consolation prize?
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
You think paranoid people are undercover vice squad agents?
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Although a multi-million dollar fraud is unusually large, it is not at all difficult to find frauds in the computer industry. It is so common, in fact, that it should be hurting business significantly, particularly for anyone who is honest. If people knew more about computers, they might realize the extent of it and demand action. We would probably be at war with a few more countries, in fact. There are that many scammers taking that much money.
I've been ripped off a few times, too, and I resent it very much. For example, I looked for an alternative to my music club (BMG). After searching through several options, I found one that offered me online music for a one-time fee. After I paid the fee, I discovered that all they were providing were instructions and shareware that wasn't theirs, that would access music that wasn't theirs, from people's torrents that wasn't theirs. When I complained, the person who took my money justified himself. It is evident that such people usually will justify their actions in their own minds, and so will continue their scamming as opportunity arises. The only way to stop them for certain is to kill them, which I wish we could do. If they won't stop, they deserve to die.
So, my take on the original story is, the potential 8- to 25-year sentence the suspects face is too light. How many other people have they conned? Will they actually change their behavior when they have future opportunities? They have the chance of doing it, again, and I suspect they will.
Taking stuff apart since 1969 (TM)
This delusion seems to be commonplace amongst the poor and stupid. I might be monetarily wealthy, but holy shit are you doing yourself disfavor by pretending that having assloads of cash means your life doesn't suck by default.
Wanna know what is awesome about your 'problem'. You can fix it by simply walking away from wealth. Try walking away from poverty.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
lol I can see why you are paranoid, seems you piss off enough people that they really ARE after you.
It's more that I just don't want to risk pissing off anyone who handles my food. They already have the opportunity, I try not to give them a reason.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Well I don't flatter myself that I got modded informative for any reason other than the usual "sounds confident" which usually supercedes all other reasons on Slashdot whether the poster is right or wrong. But I can reassure you that I've never read the Da Vinci code and I avoid any film with Tom Hanks in it like the Black Death.
;)
You know, you're actually right and I'll concede that I can't offer substantive proof of what I said. So I wont try to contest your opinions. They're actually more valid in some ways as they're based on your personal experiences. For what it's worth, some of my impressions are formed by an article in The Independent some years ago, but I don't have a copy or references, I'm afraid. So it may be that I spoke out of turn and you are correct. But I'll stay wary of closed, members only religious organizations that have government Ministers in their ranks, if you don't mind - that's just good practice.
It is fair of you to challenge me on this. And I will keep an open mind on them here on. Just not so open that I'll watch a film with Tom Hanks in it, that is.
H.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
The odds of a lottery and whether the beneficiaries of the lottery funds ever see a dime of it are two very different matters. I thought I pointed out which I was talking about earlier. Some state lotteries pay a pittance to what they say they support. That's misrepresentation, because some people don't mind the long odds if it's "for the schools". Except that the bulk of that money is a jobs bill to run the lottery offices, and the rest may get appropriated away to other state expenses.
I didn't actually argue from ad hominem about the cigarettes. I made a point then threw in the attack besides. It wasn't necessary for the point. It was a gratuitous attack. I actually meant it in jest, but reading back over it I realize I utterly failed to get that tone through in writing. Sorry about that.
When discussing laws and crimes, I tend to think the language of the laws and crimes matters. Politicians and lawyers have their own jargon, and it helps to know some of it even if you're a regular Joe since the laws pertain to everyone in their jurisdiction. The vocabulary of that jargon often names well-defined concepts confusingly similar to but not synonymous with a looser general usage of basically the same words. I was maybe too harsh harping on that. Sorry again. However, you're the one who brought definitions into the discussion. I thought it'd be helpful to point out that your source was not a single, final authoritative source. My particular wording was less than helpful, but you were pretty aggressive in your statements, too.
So, when we are both being more detached and civil, we agree a little more but still not completely. It's funny how that tends to happen when discussions get heated, isn't it? I have no hard feelings over it. Maybe we'll go back and forth again on some topic, but with a little less friction.
This guy should have been better informed: The Opus Dei isn't interested in people older than 12 ;)
-- 29A the number of the Beast