I must get a dozen of those e-mails a week and I always wondered if there was anyone stupid enough to fall for it, now I know. Can't say that I'm filled with sympathy for the plonker, nor the family members he seams to have sucked into the hole he's dug for himself.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Then he got an e-mail from a government department — he’s not sure which country — saying he owed $250,000 on tax on his inheritance. Rempel spoke to his contact, who told him they negotiated the fee down to $25,000.
Riiiiight there is where he became a complete idiot forevermore and always. I mean, fuck's sake- a phone call or Google search on such "inheritance tax" would have saved this turnip.
A couple of years ago I saved some loser from that scam one night. Guy was asking for help faxing something internationally and when I saw he was sending a copy of a check and it was going to Nigeria, I printed him a bunch of info from the FBI's website.
He really did not believe me at first either.
The guy still comes in sometimes and I always point him out to my fellow employees as "that moron". He was just trying to do something nice for someone and get incredibly wealthy at the same time.
There are entire websites of people that do nothing but screw with those Nigerian scammers: the (great) radio program This American Life did an entire episode on them. It's really funny and worth listening to.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Damn...I've done so dumb things in my life, but this guy...I mean...Damn.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
They should brand "DUMBASS" right across his forehead.
Posted by Vanguard (Member # 1780) on :
Sadly, it's what happens when you get two generations (and counting) of people living under the delusion that the world owes them something. It's NEVER too good to be true, so long as they THINK they can get something for free.
Sad, really.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
My friend strung along one of these scammers for weeks until he got bored with it. It was funny until I got bored too.
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Besides these Nigerian email scams, I'm on Craigslist a lot, buying and selling used computers, and I see this kind of flim-flammery all the time. Usually it's an ad for a MacBook Pro or something similar, for a ridiculously cheap amount of money. However, when you email them asking why they're selling the computer so cheap, their response to you ignores your question. That's because the response is cut-and-paste; something along the lines of "I'm currently in the UK right now, but I'll ship you the laptop. Just wire the money through Joe's Moneygram Service."
Unfortunately, stupidity and greed go hand-in-hand, and people are still falling for this crap.