Talk about the Nigerian 4-1-9 scam in all its many variations, such as bogus checks sent from Nigeria to purchase used cars in the U.S. and many other variations of this scam.
THE Nigerian high commissioner says people who are ripped off by so-called Nigerian scams are just as guilty as the fraudsters and should be jailed.
Responding to a story in yesterday's (Sydney Morning) Herald, which revealed Australians lose at least $36 million a year to the online scams, Sunday Olu Agbi said Australians had failed to heed repeated warnings not to deal with shady characters on the internet.
He said media coverage of fraudulent activity stemming from Nigeria had given the country "a bad image" and "those who want to transact business with us are always very suspicious".
"The Nigerian Government frowns very seriously on these scams … and every day tries to track down those who are involved," he said. "It is not in the character of Nigerians to be engaged in this kind of scam."
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Professor Olu Agbi said "greedy" Australians who tried to partake in these crimes - even though they are scams - should be arrested as well.
"People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money," he said.
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He likened victims to gambling addicts. People were in denial about the scams even after being warned because the thrill of a possible windfall at the end raised their excitement and they became emotionally involved.
I'd agree with him to this extent. All the people fleeced thought that they were helping the scammers evade Nigerian (and possibly US) tax & currency laws, removing financial resources from Nigeria, and generally cheating the Nigerian government. This sort of dovetails with the Nigerian government's sluggishness about helping people who got themselves into this mess trying to defy the same government. Probably a great many victims are keeping quiet because, after all, they were cheated while trying to do something illegal.
I won't say that you cannot cheat an honest man, but none of the victims qualify as honest.
They learned: You can always find free cheese in a mousetrap.
What is obvious is that these Nigerian scams (which are simply modernizations of the old Spanish Prisoner swindle) appeal to people's greed ... and their dishonesty. The scammers are reasonably sure that the vast majority of their victims won't even publicize their loss because they were suckered into it by their willingness to violate US currency transaction and tax laws as well as Nigerian tax and national resources laws.
It may not be true that you cannot cheat an honest man, but it is definitely true that you can always find free cheese in a mousetrap.
fortinbras wrote:What is obvious is that these Nigerian scams (which are simply modernizations of the old Spanish Prisoner swindle) appeal to people's greed ... and their dishonesty.
And it helps if there is a heathy dose of stupidity.
It may not be true that you cannot cheat an honest man, but it is definitely true that you can always find free cheese in a mousetrap.
What I find interesting is that while I was getting one such scam mail almost every week for so long, recently they seem to have petered out. I doubt that the majority of Nigerian Scammers (of any real nationality) have been locked up so I wonder if the gilt has slid off the lily somewhat.
The number of scam e-mails I get has tapered off, but only a little, in the last few years. What astonishes me is that, after all the publicity, in all the newspapers and on TV and even on the internet, over and over again, people are still falling for it enough for the scammers to keep doing it.
fortinbras wrote:The number of scam e-mails I get has tapered off, but only a little, in the last few years. What astonishes me is that, after all the publicity, in all the newspapers and on TV and even on the internet, over and over again, people are still falling for it enough for the scammers to keep doing it.
Do you think Phineas T. was wrong and there are more than one suckers born every minute.
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I supose with the population growth that might be inevitable.