Why stupid scams?

[Howard Barlow]

We all marvel at the stupid emails we get from scammers. But, there is only one reason they continue...they work. This morning on Glenn Beck, he spoke of a woman who sent over $400,000 to Nigeria over two years, trying to get that $26,000,000 she was promised.

He reports everyone, including police, told her it was a scam, but she persisted. Finally, I think Beck said some Oregon state bunch was pursuing another scam, when they noticed a transfer of $140,000 to Nigeria. They investigated her. The only reason she stopped was Oregon told her she would be charged with some kind of crime if she continued.

Why do they send those stupid emails? They work.

[ggeen]

So now it's a crime to be stupid?

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by ggeen

So now it's a crime to be stupid?

"Book'em Dano !!"

[kenw]

Originally Posted by ggeen

So now it's a crime to be stupid?

don't we wish.......(probably a technicality on money transfer/laundering laws)

and I know of a church that lost over 400k to one of these......

[ggeen]

Originally Posted by kenw

don't we wish.......(probably a technicality on money transfer/laundering laws)

I was thinking it could be under aiding and abetting. By continually throwing good money after bad, that is essential what one does. I'm just not sure it would stand up. The good news, it appears to have stopped her.

-G

[kamari]

Psssst, I've got a truckload of D300s but I can't bring them into the states myself. What I'm willing to do is set up a "repair business" for cameras in the country that I am currently in. Send me your D40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100 and I'll send you back two D300s: One for yourself and one to mail from your house to my home address in the states. As an added thank you, send me your strobes and I'll have my good friend at B&H give you a $2,000 store credit.



Think this will fly? Heck, it's worth a shot

[Torrey]

It would be nice to see some kind of history of the Nigerian scam. I bet the originators made a ton since nobody knew it was a scam at the time.

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by ggeen

So now it's a crime to be stupid?

I don't remember what he said would be the actual charge. No, being stupid isn't a crime. However, the fruits of being stupid oft times are.

[ESHernandez]

We were talking about this over lunch today and a co-worker told me a story about what his dad pulled several years ago.

He received similiar emails and responded. " WOW, that's awesome" "I'll send it as soon as I can", and so forth.

Applied for a CC and informed the card carrier that he wanted a daily spending limit of no more than $100 dollars placed on the card. Anything over that would have to be verified by him. Something like that.

Well he proceeded to email back the account number and sat back and waited for the phone call. Sure enough within 1hour they called him from the card clearing house and informed him of three "pings" on his card for 5k; 10K and one crazy one for 11k for a new motorcycle in Miami.

He was informed by the operator that the one of the persons was waiting for approval before releasing the item and so they informed the local police at that particular city and the perps were picked-up.. He originally did it just for the fact that these idiots were actually going to attempt to get something and end up with jack. However the end result was better than he anticipated.

You have to understand my co-worker's dad is a retired detective and enjoys doing elaborate things like this just to get a laugh.

Anyway, I thought it was funny..

I enjoy watching people getting arrested for "Felony Stupidity in public"..

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by ESHernandez

I enjoy watching people getting arrested for "Felony Stupidity in public"..

Stupidity is its own reward.

[sandy_ruotolo]

While I've been e-mailed that I've won every lottery in the world, Irish, British, Micorsoft-Yahoo, etc, I havent believed it for a minute. For a while I used to answer them and say for my profession I was an murder for hire, and even gave the address of the state prison, they still persist. Some people really believe this. Sad really, one woman deposited a check from one of these places, of course it bounced, bank told her if she did not pay the money back, she would face criminal charges and she's been banned for establishing another bank account with this bank, they've notified other banks. I just wish someone could nab these people.