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Nigerian Scam Artists Taken For $33,000
smitty777 writes "An Australian woman who was being used by a group of Nigerian scam artists stole over $33,000 from the group who employed her. Her bank account was being used to funnel the cash from a dodgy internet car sales website. Irony aside, it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter. Those of you wondering, this article offers some answers to the question of why so many of these scams originate from this area."
Those of you wondering, this article offers some answers to the question of why so many of these scams originate from this area.
There was also a Fortune article on this from years ago. It's hardly anything new. Anytime you combine poverty, internet access, and police/political corruption--you're going to get fraud. That's true in Nigeria. It's true in parts of eastern europe. It will be true about anywhere someone who makes $1 a day gets internet access and can suddenly interact with people who make $50,000 a year. Welcome to one of the downsides of a flat earth.
Bet it pays a helluva lot better than trying to farm on unfertilized poorly-irrigated soil with some crappy non-GM seed that Sean Penn gave you.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
.. you end up in jail and the money isn't yours either.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
The Nigerians didn't get scammed. She merely diverted the funds stolen from the unfortunate Australian car buyers for her own use.
FTFA :
The car buyers who were ripped off reported the matter to police, who traced the account to Cochrane-Ramsey.
From the fucking Summary:
Irony aside, it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter.
Because they didn't.
Oy vey!
She didn't steal it from the scammers, she stole it from the victims and then just didn't forward the money to the scammers like she was "supposed" to. This isn't a story of comeuppance or anything... just someone other than Nigerians ending up with the money. And of course the Nigerians didn't file the complaint... the victims did.
...why so many of these scams originate from this area.
I asked that same question of a missionary who had just come from Nigeria. His answer was that there is a culture there of "you're a clever individual if you can get the other fellow to pay for your lunch." For what it's worth...
~Loyal
I aim to misbehave.
No actually, it doesn't. Poverty is not a reason for scamming. It might be a reason for stealing food or other things. Scams show a particular mindset, and that the most common type of Nigerian scam has originated elsewhere is irrelevant. What matters is how many people do it, and the information I have is that scamming is commonplace in Nigerian culture, so they do it to themselves, not just to others with a 'lot' of money outside Nigeria. This means poverty has nothing to do with why they all seem to be Nigerians. Though I suppose, being a Nigerian, seeing some scammer from your country make a lot of money, might influence you to do the same thus giving a flood of such people, but as I said, it seems to be commonplace behaviour in Nigeria itself.
I tried to scam some scammers once, for far less money. I can definitely see how that would feel like a huge triumph.
I had gotten a response to an ad looking for a roomate. This fuckwad strung me along for days before revealing that they intended to pay for the first months rent and security deposit with a travelers check and "could you please cash it and forward the balance to....".
Oh I was fuming. I put the room back on the market, and continued with the scammer as if nothing happened. I told them the first set of travelers checks never arrived, even though they had and i already verified with the post office that they were fake.... then I got the second set....and admited I knew it was a scam.
At this point, things took a turn for the hilarious. Immediately he switched over to admitting it was a scam and....trying to recruit me to help! He claimed he needed a mailing address in the US, and needed someone to send out packages....claimed he would pay $500 per package of letters!
So of course, I told him I would do it but I needed the money up front...fully intending to keep the money and spend the next decade gloating over how I scammed the scammer.... he even told me he could get counterfit bills.... which got me thinking how fun it would be if this all resulted in my getting to report him to the SS.
Of course, the whole thing broke down when he wanted to talk on the phone....and I wasn't willing to give out my real phone number. I suppose he already had my address so it hardly mattered, but, I didn't want harassing calls either.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
...a group of Nigerian scam artists
While this is technically correct (the scam artists were from Nigeria, therefore they were Nigerian), this scam was very different from the typical "Nigerian Prince" scam. It sounds like they were just running a fake online car dealership, and got two people to pay for a car based on pictures on the internet.
...it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter
If you're talking about the scam artists, they didn't. The article makes it very clear that it was the people who tried to buy cars who went to the police, which is why the Australian woman is the only one on trial--she's the only one who was in the local jurisdiction.
... why so many of these scams originate from this area.
It's possible that there are a bunch of fake online car dealerships originating in Nigeria, but I think it's more likely that the author of the summary thinks this is about a Nigerian Scam. If they had actually read the article, they wouldn't be making that mistake. I understand that slashdot is all about not reading the article, but is it too much to ask that submitters read the articles they submit?
Not that I give any weight to your story, but I think if the only thing that stood between you making 500$ was a telephone number, anyone would go buy a 30$ burner with 10$ of minutes on it.
She took money they would have stolen and kept it for herself. She's no better than they are.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
IMNAL, Illegal contracts are still contracts. i.e., if you sign an illegal contract, you canâ(TM)t benefit by squelching on your end after you have received payment.
Oh no, they are not. A contract to commit a crime is void. If I kill your wife and you refuse to pay, no court will convict you for refusing to pay. And if you paid in advance and I refuse to kill her, no court will make me kill her _or_ refund the money.
One purpose of contracts is to make people work together. You couldn't sell a car if there was no way to make one side hand over the money and the other side hand over the car. Contracts to commit crimes are void intentionally to make that kind of collaboration harder.
This works as follows: People buy something which never gets delivered. Money from the sale goes to a finance agent (the woman in this case) and then is transferred to the criminals with Western Union or some other money laundering service. The finance agent will always be the one that takes the fall. The difference here is that this woman was actually guilty, not just naive.
So, no, she did not take the money from the Nigerian criminals, she took their place in the scam. And yes, I hope she gets punished for that.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm sure a lot of fellow /.'ers have heard of scambaiting (ie: scamming the scammers, but it usually is for fun or to make a point, rather than make money off the scammers).
The link won't load at this moment sadly, but here is an interesting story from the BBC a few years back where one guy works as a professional scambaiter. I would NOT recommend this kind of thing in general, as you end up being on the shitlist for some less than reputable people, to say the least.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3887493.stm
In short, the guy convinces the scammers that he has no money, but he can steal some expensive stuff from his employer and send it to them if they pay for shipping and give him $50. So, he convinces them he's shipping tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen Cisco equipment, when he's really shipping them e-waste, used electronics, old monitors, broken microwave ovens, and stuff that you typically have to pay to recycle or drop off at the dump. Pretty funny actually. I think his record is $80,000 of garbage recycled for free so far, including shipping costs.
Oh, you should hear my rant against conservatives and libertarians--the fucking retards who think that the answer to the recent shitstorm financial crisis is LESS regulation for corporations and banks. It's like the parent of a spoiled brat of a son deciding that the answer to his kid's behavior problems is to give him even MORE freedom and LESS rules.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
They will gladly arrive at the courthouse at the agreed upon date, but they will need some help. They need you to front them some money for a plane ticket so that they can get this $33000 back and split that with you.
There is little surprising about the story, just how messed up the summary is. The woman on trial was not scammed but part of the scam. She is a criminal who in exchange for a hefty percentage of real cash (and not promised cash as in the 911 scam) uses her own account to funnel money to her criminal employers.
For that matter, there doesn't even seem to be a 911 scam going on at all. There are many other types of scams after all. Presumably since it involves cars it involves car sales where the car is never delivered.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The purpose of enforcing illegal contracts ...
Courts will NOT enforce illegal contracts. That principle dates back to Roman Law and is enforced throughout common and civil law worlds. And yes, IAAAL.
BTW your scenario above about the lottery winning and divorce, doesn't disclose an illegal agreement at all. Assuming all the formalities were met to assign the lottery winnings on the condition that 50k (half) would come back you have a) a legal contract assigning the winnings and b) a decision by the court to divide the marital wealth 50/50, 50k from the lottery winnings being owed to the wife independent of the assignment. In the end the mistress would get to keep 50k, and the man would owe his wife 50k.
You want to structure the law so there is no benefit to entering a illegal contract ...
And you would have our courts in effect say "do the killing or we'll make you pay the money back." I don't think so. Certainly in Australia courts will not come to the aid of a criminal enterprise. The woman is guilty of fraud vis a vis the buyers, but the scammers have no legal recourse against her (on these facts).