One born every minute
Have you ever wondered, as I often do, whether anyone really falls for all those hokey phishing schemes that often are said to originate out of Nigeria?
Apparently a sucker is indeed born every minute, and so the phishers know that if they spread theirs nets wide enough chances are they will be able to catch enough to make their efforts worthwhile.
This morning’s Daily Yomiuri had a story of a how the former president of the Japan Skating Federation got into trouble when he embezzled 9 million yen of organization funds in order to cover personal losses he suffered “in a fraudulent asset management proposal that originated in Nigeria and which was widely circulated on the Internet.”
Due to his losses, he allegedly embezzled about 90 percent of the 10 million yen that NHK contributed to the federation’s preparatory fund for the 2003 figure skating NHK Cup in Asahikawa, Hokkaido.
After the hole in the federation’s funds was discovered, an executive board member filled the gap with his own money. The executive has reportedly not been repaid.
One final note on this type of scam. . . Though it is easy to imagine that this is something that was spawned with the advent of the global Internet communications, variations have been around since the 1920’s.
The Nigerian Scam has been emptying the pockets of victims for decades — first through letters, then with faxes, and now via e-mail. In its earliest incarnation — which dates to the 1920s — it was known as ‘The Spanish Prisoner’ con. In that long-ago version, businessmen were contacted by someone trying to smuggle the scion of a wealthy family out of a prison in Spain. But of course the wealthy family would shower with riches those who helped secure the release of the boy. Those who were suckered into this paid for one failed rescue attempt after another, with the fictitious prisoner continuing to languish in his non-existent dungeon, always just one more bribe, one more scheme, one more try, away from being released.
Image via Chessbase News
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that in ancient china if you were REALLY fat that meant you were...
omg i feel so bad for a that monkey help it some one plzzzz
New York Times tech columnist David Pogue was selling his house to someone. But the sale never went though, because those darn people in Nigeria never sent the prospective home buyer her money. Aiyiyiyiyi.
April 27th, 2006 at 12:59 amThey have conference rooms filled with these guys sending out e-mails and trying to bring in the few respondents. They will always answer a return e-mail and can be a bit of fun to play with if you’re feeling cheeky.
April 27th, 2006 at 7:24 amLOL ghoti, I play with em all the time!!
Sometimes you can drag this kind of thing out for weeks.. Just make sure to come off really excited at first yet stupidly naive. Then when you’re finally bored tell them you saw on CNN the U.S. is about to nuke their country and therefore you decided to back out.
It’s totally cool wasting people’s productivity like that.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:38 amIt passes the time. I only once responded to a letter from the widow of President-for-Life of some craphole in Africa. She was looking for business opportunities for her ill-gotten stash. I wrote back suggesting a whorehouse. All of her husband’s former subjects would pay a pretty penny for a poke at their former dictator’s wife. I asked if he had children, as they would bring in even more, and we could all get rich together. I was surprised to get a response that made her out to be highly offended. Those guys have more free time than me, it seems.
I like the nuke back-out, though. Dress it up with “my brother is in the Pentagon” and you might give them a run.
April 27th, 2006 at 11:17 pmsome craphole in Africa
Nice one, there, ghoti, keep up the good work. First the reference to African-American speech as “trash”, now Africans living in “crapholes” … No pattern here, of course, nothing to see folks …
April 28th, 2006 at 12:53 amWow. My very own troll!
April 28th, 2006 at 8:25 amComplete your thoughts, PP, and explain if you are able. Then I will answer. Insinuation is for cowards.
I’m only a “troll” if calling you on your language is “trolling”: I don’t need to “insinuate” anything, as your own words do the job well enough.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:26 amMy language? Since you find bitch and ho’ acceptable terms for women, I am quite at a loss as to what exactly your standards are.
You seem have a reading disability, which may explain your peculiar sensibilities. I refered to a particular kind of speech as trash, and it is to anyone with a shred of awareness of the implications of words. That would exclude you.
I am sure you are pleased with what happens in the Sudan, Zimbabwe and other places you apparently feel are good enough for Africans (what do kids need two hands for anyway, eh?), but my comment was not general. It refered to the place my email came from. You read it as saying all Africans live in crapholes. Unfortunately, many do, but you seem not terribly concerned about that. Perhaps you can volunteer in your favorite craphole, and teach the locals useful skills that will lift them from their misery, like how to say bitch and ho’. I am sure they will show you their appreciation.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:32 amGunma’s quite picturesque too!! (you 2)
April 28th, 2006 at 10:44 amPuyo, I see nothing racist in what he said. Go back to 4-chan and exercise your PC stick there, god knows it really needs you.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:45 pmni-channeru…take it over there….(U2)
April 29th, 2006 at 4:48 pm