Since I am in community college now I might as well take it again since I can score really high and get into a good 4 year school.
You're considered a transfer student now, and the admission rules are different. Get the current catalog from your desired school and check the transfer admission requirements; you may not need the SAT at all, in fact I'm not sure it will necessarily help you.
Never heard of anyone willingly aiming for a bad score, as that would land them in a shitty job...
Could they willingly retake the test later? In this case the man is in his thirties and had already taken his GRE (after college graduation, where SATs are generally taken in high school). I don't think anybody even looks at SATs after you have a degree, especially a Masters, so it was no-risk folly for him while surrounded by people to whom it really mattered for college admission. You can retake the SAT as much as you want, though.
I didn't think I did all that great, but I overhead my classmates proud of scores 400 points lower than mine!!!
Actually, Apache is a derivative (i.e. a fork) of NCSA httpd
Looks like you're right. I couldn't remember if it was a clone, fork or if it shared some code. Now we know.
The name "Apache" derives from being "a patchy server"
That's what I've always read, but when finding the above link I ran accross this which claims it was named with respect to the Apache Nation and that the "A PAtCHy server" reference is incorrect, although popular. I get the feeling they're trying to rewrite history to be politically correct. Given how open source project names come about I find the common explanation more likely, but what do I know?
I suppose next they'll tell us the Gimp was named in honor of disabled people or the character in Pulp Fiction.
IIRC, Apache started off as a clone of NCSA httpd. I can't find the reference (I thought it was in the config file or man page, but no), but I think they wanted identical functionality and config files at first.
I also like the newer Phoenix nightlies (using 3-9-3 at work now) but I have one big complaint, and this showed up in Mozilla 1.3, too: I frequently click and drag a link to another tab, but the recent Phoenix nightlies and Mozilla 1.3 seem to frequently not pick up the link and I have to try two or three times to drag the link and it's driving me nuts.
Does this have anything to do with mouse gestures? Can I fix it? Lately I seem to have better luck if I drag the link to the right before dragging it up to the tab; this is why I suspect it may have something to do with gestures even though I've never tried or even read about gestures.
The Phoenix nightlies are MUCH slicker looking than both Phoenix 0.5 and Mozilla 1.3. Very nice. And I love having the home button back where it belongs (as opposed to where Mozilla has it): in line with the back, forward, stop and reload buttons.
Try disabling DirectDraw and/or Direct3D and see if it still crashes. This sucks if you want to play games on the same PC, though.
ATI Windows drivers, especially laptop Mobility drivers, and JRE 1.4.1 conflict. At work I was able to work around this by disabling DirectDraw when running that particular Java app; in fact with Java I was able to pass the VM a command to not use DirectDraw (-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true IIRC); I wonder if Mozilla has a "don't use DirectDraw" feature?
I think I'm going to write myself a little VB app that deletes everything (except itself) in the startup folder once in a while.
Not good enough. These little viri like to put themselves in several places in the registry. Many of them replace rundll32.exe which windows calls all the time to launch any program IIRC. There are tons of other tricks, too. If a PC at work gets infected with this I'm reimaging it.
Who would pay for Windows/IIS when Linux/Apache is free?
Who would pay for Exchange server when there are free alternatives?
Who would pay Novell or Microsoft for simple directory services and file/printer sharing when LDAP and Samba are freely available?
My initial reaction was just like yours, but then I looked at the rest of the industry. I bet the big boys will find features and support that companies will pay for. Unfortunately.
I just posted that my Fortune 500 company employer is deploying Jabber, but they've been talking about it for months and it's not out of beta testing. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me if some exec said "screw it, AOL promises to get or corporate IM working and has the experience" and pay them instead.
My employer, a Fortune 500 company, is apparently going to deploy Jabber soon. The project is announce, but I haven't been able to get hold of a beta or get the server IP yet.
Officially AIM and YIM shouldn't be used, but people do, anyway. I never did until I found out all my counterparts in HQ are on AIM, so I grudgingly installed AIM and now I can IM them anytime (it was always hard to catch them on the phone). Very handy, but it bugs me that our messages fly across the internet instead of just the point-point T1 from my building to their theirs.
Just how am I supposed to debug this thing when it crashes (into a windshield)?
It depends on the vendor.
IBM and Sun are starting a new service that will send a tech out to remove and fix the bug and clean your windshield. They are training the urban young for this project I think.
Microsoft is selling a branded accessory kit with a wet wipe to clean the windshield but you have to buy a new OS which was incompatible with the old fly, anyway, so you have to buy a new fly, too.
Dell just says "the fly is dead".
FreeBSD says "Netcraft confirms it...".
Debian has a HOWTO for how to scrape the guts off the windshield and rebuild the fly with no new parts. But it will be better and faster even though it reuses busted old parts.
An Apple fly looks good and works no matter where it is or what it looks like, so you can just leave it on the windshield and it will still work fine and your friends will be impressed but still buy Dells.
HP offers almost all of the above because they can't figure out what direction they're going. They consider buying a car manufacturer, and although Alpha is dead they may revive it to control the fuel injectors; no, wait, they changed their mind. But they hope you buy an HP printer (which by the way will work with any fly, any camera and any car).
How did you avoid the map scam later? Did you just refuse to help the guy with the map, or did you call their bluff with the fake policeman?
I've never heard of the scam I got hit by; I always assumed it was something just those guys cooked up, but at least two of you say you've heard of it. Is there a site on the internet that lists these types of cons? I felt like I could sniff a con out fairly quickly after falling for the first one, but if I got hit by the map guy/policeman con in a foreign country I might have fallen for it for fear of authority. I'd like to read about these and the defenses for them.
thing was that up until your post i couldn't figure out how the scam would've worked even if i believed 'em. . . only thing i could think of was that they'd lead me down some side street (or give me a ride in a car) and just rob me outright. ..
I can't help but think some of the alternate scenarios would have involved them robbing me, but then again maybe they had other twists and turns at the ready. I suspect part of the reason they do cons instead of robbery is that they're far less likely to get caught due to the fact that they don't threaten or force you to get the money and they know you'll likely be too humiliated to tell the police afterward. (I think my Mom called the police afterward, but there wasn't much they could do since I didn't know who or where they were and I gave them the freakin' money.) There's probably a power rush from messing with people's heads, too.
By the way, thanks to everyone who replied. I was afraid of some "you're so stupid" flames but instead got some really good replies.
Sort of like the difference between online sex and real-world sex.
There's a difference? That explains why my girlfriend left me after I sat across from her and said "I am unbuttoning your blouse, my hand slipping up your thigh."
I don't suppose I could convince you to describe it? If it's really that embarassing, then never mind.
Okay, but realize it will probably sound completely stupid to you; it even sounds stupid to me; it sounded stupid to me as soon as I realized that my money was gone.
I don't recall all the details, but here is the gist of it:
I was 18 and driving home from either school (college) or work. While driving past a small old-fashioned grocery store two blocks from my house a black man (I'm white) waved me down asking for help; I don't recall why I stopped; I think he had money or something in his hand that attracted my attention. (Note that non gullible people would've driven by; us suckers wander out of the crowd and identify ourselves to a troll like this, so they already know they have someone they can work with.)
He spoke poor english and wanted some help with money; he had a thick roll of it which later I figured out must've been a roll of blank paper with a couple of $20's on the outside to make it look like a couple thousand. (Showing the money is the first hook attempt: the man appears naive and vulnerable; some might want to take advantage and either steal the money or earn a helpers fee, some like me just want to help him not lose it. It also implies that he's not trying to steal money from you since he obviously has plenty, or at least that's how my brain worked.)
The details escape me, and this story unfolded (and was surely adapted to my vulnerabilities) throughout the con even after the 2nd guy joined in, but it was something like this: He was a sailor or something and had to get back to his ship (and this in the middle of North Texas; wtf?), but for some reason he needed to put his money in a safe place, and it wouldn't be safe if he took it with him. he And didn't trust U.S. banks. Oh yeah, he was a foreigner, too. There was probably some story about family or something that needed the money, but I don't recall exactly.
Okay, so some of this story was started, and I parked my car in the grocery lot and was following him inside (I don't recall why exactly, but it was to help him somehow; maybe to help him understand how to get a money order or something.) On the way in a second man (also black, but it doesn't matter) came out of the store and the "sailor" asked him for help, too. (I never had any clue these guys knew each other until the money was gone.)
So now from my ponit of view there was a person in need and two strangers trying to help him, and the two helpers didn't see eye-to-eye on everything.
Again, details escape me, but between the three of us we came up with that the "sailor" needed to put the money in a bank, but we had to demonstrate to him that the banks and we helpers were trustworthy. During this process the 2nd guy briefly introduced topics such as a pastor down the street and a whorehouse down the street; at the time my brain dismissed these items as completely irrelevant and I steered the discussion towards more relevant matters. (Later I realized he was trolling different possible con scenarios to see where I'd bite...so he could tell by my reactions exactly which direction in which to proceed with the con.)
I only had a few dollars which wasn't enough to demonstrate trust, but they asked if I had a paycheck to cash or something and I did; I had just been paid and hadn't cashed the check yet, but the check was at home. So they convinced me to cash the check; we all 3 got in my car and drove 2 blocks to my house; the second guy told me not to tell my Mom (I was living with Mom and told them so when they asked if I lived with someone), and stupidly I didn't mention it to her; I dutifully went in the house and got my paycheck while two con men sat in the car probably discussing strategy and contingincies.
Then we all drove to a bigger grocery store that would cash my check; this was North Texas in 1988 and on the way there was an intersection where the Ku Kux Klan were demonstrating dressed up in their sheets and waving signs. The "sailor" screamed "the killers!" and shivered in the back seat...an effective method (on me) of generating sympathy. Somehow us two "helpers" calmed him down.
One of the guys accompanied me into the grocery store where I cashed my check.
After returning to my car, the second guy, the other "helper" gave me his wallet and the "sailor" and I walked around the grocery store (out of sight from the "helper" for a few minutes) to demonstrate that the second helper trusted us. I think this was the helper's idea, and I thought it was stupid but the "sailor" seemed to like the idea and was in hook, line and sinker.
While walking around the building the "sailor" kept expressing amazement that the guy trusted us to do this.
The second demonstration of trust was that I gave them my $117 and waited for them to walk around the grocery store. After this the "sailor" would supposedly trust us enough to put his money in a safe place of our recommendation (a bank or money order...I don't recall the exact plan).
Of course you know the end of the story...I never saw them again after they rounded the corner with my $117.
What's horrible is the slow realization that you've been connned. There I was, sitting in my car alone. I had a bad feeling in my gut as soon as they rounded the corner; it briefly occured to me to drive around and check on them, but no, that would ruin everything that we'd worked on so far my brain told me. So I sat. A minute or two passed, and alone in my car I started thinking about how absurd this was, but I hadn't quite realized it was gone yet. I waited and waited and after I was convinced they had been too long I drove around the store and they were no where to be seen.
I can't tell you how humiliating it is; the worst part is realizing how obvious it was the whole time and yet my own brain seemed to be what conned me more than those two. I even realized at the time that some of the discussion was way out of left field, but I--not the scammers--was able to dismiss or rationalize it away. I went home and was in a mixed state of frustration, fury, embarrassment, etc.. I was on the verge of tears. Mom could tell something was wrong and was very worried. It was hard to speak, but I told her what happened. I don't think I told anyone else for at least a few months, and I never told anyone outside of the family until now.
Actually, I hadn't thought about it in a while. It used to be a source of internal shame for me; I suppose I'm finally "over it" after 14 or 15 years. And in retrospect I have some valuable insights out of it for a fairly cheap price. Not that I'd thank them if I ever saw them again....
Now that I think about it, these guys almost never quit talking; I think the idea was to throw too much information at me for me to stop and think about what I was doing; I was too busy rationalizing some of the information and discarding the rest as irrelevant.
These guys were small time, and in retrospect I'm possibly lucky that they didn't outright rob me or take my car, too. The car was traceable, so I suspect they just wanted the cash, and I suspect they would've robbed me in certain scenarios but I was gullible enough that they were able to walk away with the cash easily. It took me over a week to earn that money and it took them probably an hour or two to con me out of it.
You and I could point out countless errors in judgement and alternative action after reading the above scenario, but the con men are good at distraction and manipulation. I suspect there was a thrid guy who might've posed as the pastor if I had gone that route or who might've driven a getaway car at the back of the grocery store.
In reading about other scams, greed seems to be the biggest and most effective hook. Greed, religion (proving your faith through helping a brother) and good samaritanism seem to be the most common hooks. Actually sometmies I think these are combined: maybe the target wants to be a good samaritan but is also distracted by the possibility of getting a piece of the money at stake.
Distraction and confidentiality are importatnt, too. They need to keep you thinking about what YOU want out of the "deal" so you don't stop to think how absurd the situation is or ask someone else for advice. In the 419 scams the greed factor and the 'fact' that breaching confidentiality will make the deal impossible or even dangerous for the other party work to keep the target focused on money and practical details and pitfalls and a seemingly guaranteed "lottery win". I'm guessing many targets are also distracted by thinking what they're going to spend the money on.
Since my guys brought up sex and religion I suspect those are common distractions if the target indicates interest. I've heard of small time scams where "brothers" bilk a lady out of money for "tools" and such for their trade, and I read an account of someone who played the game to see what the 419 scammers would do, and that conversation went religious as the scammer claimed deep spiritual beliefs.
Sex is probably a distraction reserved for small time scams; I'm not sure how that would work in a more sophisticated scam. Actually I'm not sure how that work work small time; I suppose that might end in an outright robbery or leaving the John/target waiting for a woman (or man) in a room while the scammers take off.
I think the art of conning is to entice the target with several types of bait and then work up the story based on his preferred bait and then watch what the target does and follow; I think the con is mostly directed by the target's own expectations and rationalizations and the con men are along for the ride.
Going back to feeling sorry for these "idiots" who got scammed...I had little or no sympathy for them, either, but now I'm reconsidering that. The con is a troll for targets, for the weak or gullible, and fruequently--though not always--for the greedy. It's still hard to feel sorry for the greedy, but the gullible and well-intended get hooked, too. Once you've been hooked I think it's fairly easy for a pro to get to the sting.
Coming up with an outrageous analogy, if people were leaving bear traps (the snap-onto-your-leg kind) around, most people would be smart enough to avoid them. But there would be a small few who would be distracted or just ignorant enough to step into one. (Let's ignore kids since these types of scams we're discussing seem to be unable to target kids.) To the rest of us the traps are just an annoyance we can step around like deleting a 419 email or passing by the man selling Rolexes or whatever. Should we laugh at those who step in the bear traps and say it's their fault for being stupid and applauding Darwin selection?
And you're going to tell me that a 40% markup is no big deal?
If downtime costs your business $50,000 per hour or $5,000,000 per hour, $10,000 or $15,000 difference in equipment costs every few years is nothing.
A lot of other factors enter into it, of course (support, training, etc.), but an $800 Via C3 PC to type up memos is plenty but a $50,000 RISC server may or may not be reliable enough to base mission critical operations on.
Some businesses can operate at reduced efficiency in a contingency if the main server is down while others may be unable to conduct business at all if the server is down. (A supermarket versus Amazon.com or eBay, for example.) And some operations can rely on redundant cheap equipment for fault tolerance while others need one big machine that never goes down. (A renderfarm versus a central database, for example.)
I have received hundreds, and every one of them has been in broken english, some of the phrases are laughable at best.
Scamming is about distracting the brain away from the absurdity of the scam. It's a cleverly crafted letter, believe me. The details such as the upper case and bad spelling are distractions; the large amount of money is a distraction--either a temptation for you to steal it all or 'proof' that these people have plenty of money and don't need to scam you, depending on your type. The government employee or royal relationship, the details of why they can't get it out or why it's stuck, etc..
It's all designed to distract you and to be interpreted different ways by different personality types. Your brain throws out what's not relevant to you and rationalizes the existing information into something you can trust. The brain rationalizes the bad grammar as the fact that they are from Nigeria or that the writer is stressed from being in a hurry or from political strife and somehow that enhances the feeling of trust. In the case of the grandparent post the letter was directed more specifically, probably as a legitimate business case, and in that situation a different approach (proper spelling and grammar, correct title and name) is used to create the distractions and trust.
Some suckers see an opportunity to steal the whole bankroll; some see an 'honest' chance at getting a large fee for helping these people out (and yet somehow ignore the fact that the people are violating rules and laws in the process); and so forth.
After making contact the scammers are skilled at presenting plausible-sounding scenarios where the money they need from you decreases or increases as they find out what you're able and/or willing to pay.
I'm speaking from personal experience and not from reading or traditional schooling: I got conned once on a small time basis ($117 by two guys on the street, but I was 18 and that was all the money I had that week), and in retrospect I see all the ways I discarded some of the information they gave me and rationalized the rest, and how different people would've fallen for the same scam for different reasons; it's quite a marvel what the brain does and how scammers exploit it. In retrospect my guys tempted me with greed, good samaritanism, religion, sex and race relations (political correctness) that I can recall--there was probably more. I fell for the good samaritanism and race relations and ignored the other temptations, but once they find out what you're about they work on trust and confidentiality. The key is to build mutual trust so they can walk away with your money (literally in my case), and for you to not tell anyone else because a third party will almost always immediately see how stupid the whole thing is because they didn't go through the ridiculous brain conditioning you did to arrive at the mental state you're at.
That con was the most humiliating event in my life. At the time $117 was a lot of money but not so much that I went hungry or lost my home, but the shame and humiliation is for how I fell for something so stupid. 15 years later I can now look back on it as a cheap lesson and thank God it didn't happen later when I had more to lose, but come to think of it I've never told anyone outside the family about it until now. I was living week-to-week then; I can't imagine how people who've lost months or years of work/money would feel; probably suicidal.
It is hard to feel sorry for people who fell for the 419 scam, and even I had no sympathy for them. But now that I recall my con, you need to realize these con men are very professional and know how to twist your head off of your shoulders and make you believe anything; once you fall for the initial hook they are experts at maneuvering you to the sting.
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Since I am in community college now I might as well take it again since I can score really high and get into a good 4 year school.
You're considered a transfer student now, and the admission rules are different. Get the current catalog from your desired school and check the transfer admission requirements; you may not need the SAT at all, in fact I'm not sure it will necessarily help you.
Never heard of anyone willingly aiming for a bad score, as that would land them in a shitty job...
Could they willingly retake the test later? In this case the man is in his thirties and had already taken his GRE (after college graduation, where SATs are generally taken in high school). I don't think anybody even looks at SATs after you have a degree, especially a Masters, so it was no-risk folly for him while surrounded by people to whom it really mattered for college admission. You can retake the SAT as much as you want, though.
I didn't think I did all that great, but I overhead my classmates proud of scores 400 points lower than mine!!!
I know that during WWII they trained pigeons to carry bombs to enemy ships.
European or African?
Nothing will blow your mind like reading Nietzsche however especially Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future.
You linked to Amazon, but it's also available here in English on Project Gutenburg.
I think you have to install Wine first and then do some obscure install or something.
* USB-enabled fishing pole
Come on, fishing and anything probably already exists. Those are for Dreamcast and PS2, but not sure if they're USB.
* Insulin pump/rodent defogger
Rodent defogger? Que? Como?
* Universal language translator/pulsating showerhead
I can think of some uses for that...I'm attracted to foreign women.
... the OS that it runs on is against my perverted rule set.
Will Kazaa Lite run in Wine?
Nevermind, I'll look myself. It's reported to work with some borrowed Windows DLLs. Hrm.
This is a FOR-PROFIT site with readers who create the value,
Yes, but I got them back: I don't read the ads and I only post uninformed CRAP! MUAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!
Actually, Apache is a derivative (i.e. a fork) of NCSA httpd
Looks like you're right. I couldn't remember if it was a clone, fork or if it shared some code. Now we know.
The name "Apache" derives from being "a patchy server"
That's what I've always read, but when finding the above link I ran accross this which claims it was named with respect to the Apache Nation and that the "A PAtCHy server" reference is incorrect, although popular. I get the feeling they're trying to rewrite history to be politically correct. Given how open source project names come about I find the common explanation more likely, but what do I know?
I suppose next they'll tell us the Gimp was named in honor of disabled people or the character in Pulp Fiction.
Btw in case your new here, try OpenOffice you might like it.
Picky point, but due to some copyright or trademark or something I believe you are refering to the OpenOffice.org office suite.
Although in person I use the shorter, technically incorrect name too.
I give up. What is Apache a clone of?
IIRC, Apache started off as a clone of NCSA httpd. I can't find the reference (I thought it was in the config file or man page, but no), but I think they wanted identical functionality and config files at first.
Of course it has grown into so much more now.
I also like the newer Phoenix nightlies (using 3-9-3 at work now) but I have one big complaint, and this showed up in Mozilla 1.3, too: I frequently click and drag a link to another tab, but the recent Phoenix nightlies and Mozilla 1.3 seem to frequently not pick up the link and I have to try two or three times to drag the link and it's driving me nuts.
Does this have anything to do with mouse gestures? Can I fix it? Lately I seem to have better luck if I drag the link to the right before dragging it up to the tab; this is why I suspect it may have something to do with gestures even though I've never tried or even read about gestures.
The Phoenix nightlies are MUCH slicker looking than both Phoenix 0.5 and Mozilla 1.3. Very nice. And I love having the home button back where it belongs (as opposed to where Mozilla has it): in line with the back, forward, stop and reload buttons.
Try disabling DirectDraw and/or Direct3D and see if it still crashes. This sucks if you want to play games on the same PC, though.
ATI Windows drivers, especially laptop Mobility drivers, and JRE 1.4.1 conflict. At work I was able to work around this by disabling DirectDraw when running that particular Java app; in fact with Java I was able to pass the VM a command to not use DirectDraw (-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true IIRC); I wonder if Mozilla has a "don't use DirectDraw" feature?
I think I'm going to write myself a little VB app that deletes everything (except itself) in the startup folder once in a while.
Not good enough. These little viri like to put themselves in several places in the registry. Many of them replace rundll32.exe which windows calls all the time to launch any program IIRC. There are tons of other tricks, too. If a PC at work gets infected with this I'm reimaging it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shit, I should go change my root password now.
I wondered about that one, too. I'm guessing that's what happens when you hold down X until the buffer is full.
Who in their right mind would pay for that?
Who would pay for Windows/IIS when Linux/Apache is free?
Who would pay for Exchange server when there are free alternatives?
Who would pay Novell or Microsoft for simple directory services and file/printer sharing when LDAP and Samba are freely available?
My initial reaction was just like yours, but then I looked at the rest of the industry. I bet the big boys will find features and support that companies will pay for. Unfortunately.
I just posted that my Fortune 500 company employer is deploying Jabber, but they've been talking about it for months and it's not out of beta testing. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me if some exec said "screw it, AOL promises to get or corporate IM working and has the experience" and pay them instead.
My employer, a Fortune 500 company, is apparently going to deploy Jabber soon. The project is announce, but I haven't been able to get hold of a beta or get the server IP yet.
Officially AIM and YIM shouldn't be used, but people do, anyway. I never did until I found out all my counterparts in HQ are on AIM, so I grudgingly installed AIM and now I can IM them anytime (it was always hard to catch them on the phone). Very handy, but it bugs me that our messages fly across the internet instead of just the point-point T1 from my building to their theirs.
Just how am I supposed to debug this thing when it crashes (into a windshield)?
It depends on the vendor.
IBM and Sun are starting a new service that will send a tech out to remove and fix the bug and clean your windshield. They are training the urban young for this project I think.
Microsoft is selling a branded accessory kit with a wet wipe to clean the windshield but you have to buy a new OS which was incompatible with the old fly, anyway, so you have to buy a new fly, too.
Dell just says "the fly is dead".
FreeBSD says "Netcraft confirms it...".
Debian has a HOWTO for how to scrape the guts off the windshield and rebuild the fly with no new parts. But it will be better and faster even though it reuses busted old parts.
An Apple fly looks good and works no matter where it is or what it looks like, so you can just leave it on the windshield and it will still work fine and your friends will be impressed but still buy Dells.
HP offers almost all of the above because they can't figure out what direction they're going. They consider buying a car manufacturer, and although Alpha is dead they may revive it to control the fuel injectors; no, wait, they changed their mind. But they hope you buy an HP printer (which by the way will work with any fly, any camera and any car).
How did you avoid the map scam later? Did you just refuse to help the guy with the map, or did you call their bluff with the fake policeman?
.
I've never heard of the scam I got hit by; I always assumed it was something just those guys cooked up, but at least two of you say you've heard of it. Is there a site on the internet that lists these types of cons? I felt like I could sniff a con out fairly quickly after falling for the first one, but if I got hit by the map guy/policeman con in a foreign country I might have fallen for it for fear of authority. I'd like to read about these and the defenses for them.
thing was that up until your post i couldn't figure out how the scam would've worked even if i believed 'em. . . only thing i could think of was that they'd lead me down some side street (or give me a ride in a car) and just rob me outright. .
I can't help but think some of the alternate scenarios would have involved them robbing me, but then again maybe they had other twists and turns at the ready. I suspect part of the reason they do cons instead of robbery is that they're far less likely to get caught due to the fact that they don't threaten or force you to get the money and they know you'll likely be too humiliated to tell the police afterward. (I think my Mom called the police afterward, but there wasn't much they could do since I didn't know who or where they were and I gave them the freakin' money.) There's probably a power rush from messing with people's heads, too.
By the way, thanks to everyone who replied. I was afraid of some "you're so stupid" flames but instead got some really good replies.
Sort of like the difference between online sex and real-world sex.
There's a difference? That explains why my girlfriend left me after I sat across from her and said "I am unbuttoning your blouse, my hand slipping up your thigh."
Not including books.
I don't suppose I could convince you to describe it? If it's really that embarassing, then never mind.
Okay, but realize it will probably sound completely stupid to you; it even sounds stupid to me; it sounded stupid to me as soon as I realized that my money was gone.
I don't recall all the details, but here is the gist of it:
I was 18 and driving home from either school (college) or work. While driving past a small old-fashioned grocery store two blocks from my house a black man (I'm white) waved me down asking for help; I don't recall why I stopped; I think he had money or something in his hand that attracted my attention. (Note that non gullible people would've driven by; us suckers wander out of the crowd and identify ourselves to a troll like this, so they already know they have someone they can work with.)
He spoke poor english and wanted some help with money; he had a thick roll of it which later I figured out must've been a roll of blank paper with a couple of $20's on the outside to make it look like a couple thousand. (Showing the money is the first hook attempt: the man appears naive and vulnerable; some might want to take advantage and either steal the money or earn a helpers fee, some like me just want to help him not lose it. It also implies that he's not trying to steal money from you since he obviously has plenty, or at least that's how my brain worked.)
The details escape me, and this story unfolded (and was surely adapted to my vulnerabilities) throughout the con even after the 2nd guy joined in, but it was something like this: He was a sailor or something and had to get back to his ship (and this in the middle of North Texas; wtf?), but for some reason he needed to put his money in a safe place, and it wouldn't be safe if he took it with him. he And didn't trust U.S. banks. Oh yeah, he was a foreigner, too. There was probably some story about family or something that needed the money, but I don't recall exactly.
Okay, so some of this story was started, and I parked my car in the grocery lot and was following him inside (I don't recall why exactly, but it was to help him somehow; maybe to help him understand how to get a money order or something.) On the way in a second man (also black, but it doesn't matter) came out of the store and the "sailor" asked him for help, too. (I never had any clue these guys knew each other until the money was gone.)
So now from my ponit of view there was a person in need and two strangers trying to help him, and the two helpers didn't see eye-to-eye on everything.
Again, details escape me, but between the three of us we came up with that the "sailor" needed to put the money in a bank, but we had to demonstrate to him that the banks and we helpers were trustworthy. During this process the 2nd guy briefly introduced topics such as a pastor down the street and a whorehouse down the street; at the time my brain dismissed these items as completely irrelevant and I steered the discussion towards more relevant matters. (Later I realized he was trolling different possible con scenarios to see where I'd bite...so he could tell by my reactions exactly which direction in which to proceed with the con.)
I only had a few dollars which wasn't enough to demonstrate trust, but they asked if I had a paycheck to cash or something and I did; I had just been paid and hadn't cashed the check yet, but the check was at home. So they convinced me to cash the check; we all 3 got in my car and drove 2 blocks to my house; the second guy told me not to tell my Mom (I was living with Mom and told them so when they asked if I lived with someone), and stupidly I didn't mention it to her; I dutifully went in the house and got my paycheck while two con men sat in the car probably discussing strategy and contingincies.
Then we all drove to a bigger grocery store that would cash my check; this was North Texas in 1988 and on the way there was an intersection where the Ku Kux Klan were demonstrating dressed up in their sheets and waving signs. The "sailor" screamed "the killers!" and shivered in the back seat...an effective method (on me) of generating sympathy. Somehow us two "helpers" calmed him down.
One of the guys accompanied me into the grocery store where I cashed my check.
After returning to my car, the second guy, the other "helper" gave me his wallet and the "sailor" and I walked around the grocery store (out of sight from the "helper" for a few minutes) to demonstrate that the second helper trusted us. I think this was the helper's idea, and I thought it was stupid but the "sailor" seemed to like the idea and was in hook, line and sinker.
While walking around the building the "sailor" kept expressing amazement that the guy trusted us to do this.
The second demonstration of trust was that I gave them my $117 and waited for them to walk around the grocery store. After this the "sailor" would supposedly trust us enough to put his money in a safe place of our recommendation (a bank or money order...I don't recall the exact plan).
Of course you know the end of the story...I never saw them again after they rounded the corner with my $117.
What's horrible is the slow realization that you've been connned. There I was, sitting in my car alone. I had a bad feeling in my gut as soon as they rounded the corner; it briefly occured to me to drive around and check on them, but no, that would ruin everything that we'd worked on so far my brain told me. So I sat. A minute or two passed, and alone in my car I started thinking about how absurd this was, but I hadn't quite realized it was gone yet. I waited and waited and after I was convinced they had been too long I drove around the store and they were no where to be seen.
I can't tell you how humiliating it is; the worst part is realizing how obvious it was the whole time and yet my own brain seemed to be what conned me more than those two. I even realized at the time that some of the discussion was way out of left field, but I--not the scammers--was able to dismiss or rationalize it away. I went home and was in a mixed state of frustration, fury, embarrassment, etc.. I was on the verge of tears. Mom could tell something was wrong and was very worried. It was hard to speak, but I told her what happened. I don't think I told anyone else for at least a few months, and I never told anyone outside of the family until now.
Actually, I hadn't thought about it in a while. It used to be a source of internal shame for me; I suppose I'm finally "over it" after 14 or 15 years. And in retrospect I have some valuable insights out of it for a fairly cheap price. Not that I'd thank them if I ever saw them again....
Now that I think about it, these guys almost never quit talking; I think the idea was to throw too much information at me for me to stop and think about what I was doing; I was too busy rationalizing some of the information and discarding the rest as irrelevant.
These guys were small time, and in retrospect I'm possibly lucky that they didn't outright rob me or take my car, too. The car was traceable, so I suspect they just wanted the cash, and I suspect they would've robbed me in certain scenarios but I was gullible enough that they were able to walk away with the cash easily. It took me over a week to earn that money and it took them probably an hour or two to con me out of it.
You and I could point out countless errors in judgement and alternative action after reading the above scenario, but the con men are good at distraction and manipulation. I suspect there was a thrid guy who might've posed as the pastor if I had gone that route or who might've driven a getaway car at the back of the grocery store.
In reading about other scams, greed seems to be the biggest and most effective hook. Greed, religion (proving your faith through helping a brother) and good samaritanism seem to be the most common hooks. Actually sometmies I think these are combined: maybe the target wants to be a good samaritan but is also distracted by the possibility of getting a piece of the money at stake.
Distraction and confidentiality are importatnt, too. They need to keep you thinking about what YOU want out of the "deal" so you don't stop to think how absurd the situation is or ask someone else for advice. In the 419 scams the greed factor and the 'fact' that breaching confidentiality will make the deal impossible or even dangerous for the other party work to keep the target focused on money and practical details and pitfalls and a seemingly guaranteed "lottery win". I'm guessing many targets are also distracted by thinking what they're going to spend the money on.
Since my guys brought up sex and religion I suspect those are common distractions if the target indicates interest. I've heard of small time scams where "brothers" bilk a lady out of money for "tools" and such for their trade, and I read an account of someone who played the game to see what the 419 scammers would do, and that conversation went religious as the scammer claimed deep spiritual beliefs.
Sex is probably a distraction reserved for small time scams; I'm not sure how that would work in a more sophisticated scam. Actually I'm not sure how that work work small time; I suppose that might end in an outright robbery or leaving the John/target waiting for a woman (or man) in a room while the scammers take off.
I think the art of conning is to entice the target with several types of bait and then work up the story based on his preferred bait and then watch what the target does and follow; I think the con is mostly directed by the target's own expectations and rationalizations and the con men are along for the ride.
Going back to feeling sorry for these "idiots" who got scammed...I had little or no sympathy for them, either, but now I'm reconsidering that. The con is a troll for targets, for the weak or gullible, and fruequently--though not always--for the greedy. It's still hard to feel sorry for the greedy, but the gullible and well-intended get hooked, too. Once you've been hooked I think it's fairly easy for a pro to get to the sting.
Coming up with an outrageous analogy, if people were leaving bear traps (the snap-onto-your-leg kind) around, most people would be smart enough to avoid them. But there would be a small few who would be distracted or just ignorant enough to step into one. (Let's ignore kids since these types of scams we're discussing seem to be unable to target kids.) To the rest of us the traps are just an annoyance we can step around like deleting a 419 email or passing by the man selling Rolexes or whatever. Should we laugh at those who step in the bear traps and say it's their fault for being stupid and applauding Darwin selection?
But I'm not being indecisive.
(splunge)
And you're going to tell me that a 40% markup is no big deal?
If downtime costs your business $50,000 per hour or $5,000,000 per hour, $10,000 or $15,000 difference in equipment costs every few years is nothing.
A lot of other factors enter into it, of course (support, training, etc.), but an $800 Via C3 PC to type up memos is plenty but a $50,000 RISC server may or may not be reliable enough to base mission critical operations on.
Some businesses can operate at reduced efficiency in a contingency if the main server is down while others may be unable to conduct business at all if the server is down. (A supermarket versus Amazon.com or eBay, for example.) And some operations can rely on redundant cheap equipment for fault tolerance while others need one big machine that never goes down. (A renderfarm versus a central database, for example.)
I have received hundreds, and every one of them has been in broken english, some of the phrases are laughable at best.
Scamming is about distracting the brain away from the absurdity of the scam. It's a cleverly crafted letter, believe me. The details such as the upper case and bad spelling are distractions; the large amount of money is a distraction--either a temptation for you to steal it all or 'proof' that these people have plenty of money and don't need to scam you, depending on your type. The government employee or royal relationship, the details of why they can't get it out or why it's stuck, etc..
It's all designed to distract you and to be interpreted different ways by different personality types. Your brain throws out what's not relevant to you and rationalizes the existing information into something you can trust. The brain rationalizes the bad grammar as the fact that they are from Nigeria or that the writer is stressed from being in a hurry or from political strife and somehow that enhances the feeling of trust. In the case of the grandparent post the letter was directed more specifically, probably as a legitimate business case, and in that situation a different approach (proper spelling and grammar, correct title and name) is used to create the distractions and trust.
Some suckers see an opportunity to steal the whole bankroll; some see an 'honest' chance at getting a large fee for helping these people out (and yet somehow ignore the fact that the people are violating rules and laws in the process); and so forth.
After making contact the scammers are skilled at presenting plausible-sounding scenarios where the money they need from you decreases or increases as they find out what you're able and/or willing to pay.
I'm speaking from personal experience and not from reading or traditional schooling: I got conned once on a small time basis ($117 by two guys on the street, but I was 18 and that was all the money I had that week), and in retrospect I see all the ways I discarded some of the information they gave me and rationalized the rest, and how different people would've fallen for the same scam for different reasons; it's quite a marvel what the brain does and how scammers exploit it. In retrospect my guys tempted me with greed, good samaritanism, religion, sex and race relations (political correctness) that I can recall--there was probably more. I fell for the good samaritanism and race relations and ignored the other temptations, but once they find out what you're about they work on trust and confidentiality. The key is to build mutual trust so they can walk away with your money (literally in my case), and for you to not tell anyone else because a third party will almost always immediately see how stupid the whole thing is because they didn't go through the ridiculous brain conditioning you did to arrive at the mental state you're at.
That con was the most humiliating event in my life. At the time $117 was a lot of money but not so much that I went hungry or lost my home, but the shame and humiliation is for how I fell for something so stupid. 15 years later I can now look back on it as a cheap lesson and thank God it didn't happen later when I had more to lose, but come to think of it I've never told anyone outside the family about it until now. I was living week-to-week then; I can't imagine how people who've lost months or years of work/money would feel; probably suicidal.
It is hard to feel sorry for people who fell for the 419 scam, and even I had no sympathy for them. But now that I recall my con, you need to realize these con men are very professional and know how to twist your head off of your shoulders and make you believe anything; once you fall for the initial hook they are experts at maneuvering you to the sting.