I'm all set-Bank of Nigeria came thru

[rfuerst911sc]

Yep you guessed it I'm financially set for life because today I received an email notification that the Bank of Nigeria has 7.5 million dollars with my name on it I think my first purchase will be a Carrera GT and who knows after that O.K. back to reality who falls for this crap Be careful with you wallets guys as there is always someone wanting to reach in and grab your money

[MRM]

Great news! If I send you a Certified Bankers Draft in the amount of One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (100,000 USD) drawn on the Bank of the Caymans and certified in any country's currency that you require, will you wire to me the small, small amount of $80,000?

[tabs]

How do ya think I got the Trust Fund?

[Porsche]

Originally posted by rfuerst911sc
who falls for this crap

A lot of people.

60 minutes in Australia did a segment on it recently:
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=266309

From Queensland alone, $500,000 is coming here every month.

LIAM BARTLETT: Amazingly, Graham and his wife, Dot, had been handing over money to the Nigerian conmen for 16 years. Five hundred thousand to dozens of different crime syndicates with absolutely nothing to show for it — they're flat broke. How does a bloke who was smart enough to run two successful businesses manage to be dumb enough to fall for these scams?

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR BRIAN HAY: It is. We've interviewed 133 people and, collectively, those people have lost somewhere in the order of just over $80 million.

LIAM BARTLETT: But it's going to be a battle. Such is the addictive lure of the Nigerian scams that even for Graham Schoenfisch, even after all he's been through, there's still a niggling hope. Do you still believe that you are entitled to a share of that $31 million?

GRAHAM SCHOENFISCH: I still believe it. I want my money back that I put into it, anyway.

It's a con job that is very well done and "addictive" like that guys says. Quite carry. I know people who have been conned, and they are smart people.

[red-beard]

Most scams rely on the greed of the victim. It's sad, but most of the people who fall for these are the ones who can least afford them.

For example, the lottery...

"Oh, sorry, no winner this time. Just send us another dollar next week and we swear someone will win, even bigger!"

And the way the "payoff" is structured, even a very low interest rate on what was collected will pay the monthly winnings.

Oh, wait, we're not talking about how the government scams us. Sorry, my bad.

[djmcmath]

Con work is much easier than you might think. A friend of mine, on a whim, set up a completely false web site pretending to be a business start up. He built a neat little page which would allow you to give the new business money as an investment, registering your investment and sending you a neat confirmation e-mail and everything. An afternoon's work for a computer geek, of course.

Then he started calling banks. He figured it would take him all afternoon to find someone dumb enough to give him money, but it only took 5 banks before he found one. "Yes, that's right, we're asking for investments as small as $5000 from a variety of sources in order to help get our business off the ground. Thank you for your support, Mr. Bank Director."


Another classic scam is the old Violin Scam -- a con artist offers up his violin as collateral against the price of dinner while he goes to get payment from his hotel room, or the nearby ATM. While he is away, a second con approaches him about the violin. "It is as I suspected -- it is an original Strad! That violin is worth a fortune, my friend! I would wait for the owner to return, but I have a flight to catch -- please give him my card when he returns!" And he's off. When the first con comes back, the owner, if he is a good man, simply gives the man the message. If, however, he is greedy, he offers to buy the violin, losing everything in the process.

Ultimately, any good scam will rely on the mark's greed to succeed.

[coldstart]

I have a client whose father sent over $40K to a Nigerian scam AND THEN went over to Nigeria to attempt to either (a) get his money back or (b) collect the big one. He is lucky that he returned in one piece.

[KFC911]

Originally posted by Porsche
... I know people who have been conned, and they are smart people.

Are they? I mean that in all seriousness. I think we've all known a few "intellectual dumba$$es" and I can't imagine anyone falling for this...