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Nigerian Scam Artists Taken For $33,000

Posted by timothy on from the respectfully-for-your-most-elegant-attention-and-regards dept.

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."

16 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark by bkmoore · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ....Anytime you combine poverty, internet access, and police/political corruption--you're going to get fraud....

      And millionaire investment bankers / corporate raiders don't ever scam people? When poor people do it, it's criminal, when the wealthy do it, it's a free market.

    2. Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      To put the 419 economy into perspective, realize that Nigerians, like all Africans, have learned for hundreds of years that success comes not from hard work and investment, but from power, corruption, theft and scamming. For every hard working, honest European and American who's gone to Africa, there's been 100x more who went there to make a fortune off the backs of those $1 a day people you don't want to interact with.

      I've worked in Nigeria for a few years. It is a very large, hard-working, and historically industrious country founded from old trading kingdoms. Nigeria's commercial middle class largely survived colonial times. But the discovery of oil destroyed any sense of hard money. If every foreigner coming to Nigeria gets to drive a large SUV, goes to expensive bars and restaurants, and it's clearly based on a system of massive theft of resources from Nigerians, to benefit foreigners and their local partners, then what system of ethics can stop fraud becoming a massive industry?

      419 fraud is not just a random pastime, it's become a profession with entire families living off it, and doing well.

      If you want to lecture Africans about ethics, start at home and look how the West treats Africa: a pool of resources to be extracted at the cheapest possible cost with the least possible investment. If the middle class complains, send guns and soldiers to kill them. If there is a politician who tries to get a better deal, murder him or start a civil war to topple him.

      There's a reason so many Africans still live at that $1 a day level and it's driven by greed and theft on a huge scale. Fix that, then go and lecture Africans about their morality.

    3. Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      e.g. Enron, Lehman Brothers, AIG...

    4. Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, Africa will probably be the last 3rd world country . . . .

      And, I'll bet that you are a Palin supporter. You can probably see Russia from your backyard, and all the other ignorant, inane shit that she spouted.

      HINT: AFRICA IS A CONTINENT, STUPID!!!

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  2. Actually, the Nigerian scammers got away... by Dzimas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Nigerians didn't get scammed. She merely diverted the funds stolen from the unfortunate Australian car buyers for her own use.

  3. What?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

    1. Re:What?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

    2. Re:What?!? by v1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      My grandma went to the fbi after being scammed by nigerians. They told her to contact homeland security. She did and nothing came of it.

      wrong homeland

      She needed to contact the office in Nigeria.

      If she's having problems getting ahold of them, I have a contact over there, let me know and for a small fee I'll arrange to get them in touch with her.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  4. Misleading summary on /.? That's unpossible! by oneplus999 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. Another view of the reason. by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...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.
    1. Re:Another view of the reason. by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

      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...

      My cats must be considered geniuses.

    2. Re:Another view of the reason. by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny

      > I refuse to support the Chinese and avoid goods with Chinese components like the plague.

      You're not doing a very good job of it, unless you're posting articles to Slashdot using smoke signals.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    3. Re:Another view of the reason. by gblues · · Score: 5, Funny

      They aren't doing this to feed you. They think you suck so bad as a hunter that they are bringing you food out of pity.

  6. Good for her! by TheCarp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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"
  7. Re:If you steal money that has been stolen .. by jdgeorge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Serves her right... she was stealing from Artists!

    Sure, musicians have the RIAA, moviemakers have the MPAA... but those poor Scam Artists don't have a lobbying group with high-powered lawyers protecting their interests!