Nigerian Scam Artists Taken For $33,000 229
smitty777 writes "An Australian woman who was being used by a group of Nigerian scam artists stole over $33,000 from the group who employed her. Her bank account was being used to funnel the cash from a dodgy internet car sales website. Irony aside, it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter. Those of you wondering, this article offers some answers to the question of why so many of these scams originate from this area."
Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
Those of you wondering, this article offers some answers to the question of why so many of these scams originate from this area.
There was also a Fortune article [cnn.com] on this from years ago. It's hardly anything new. Anytime you combine poverty, internet access, and police/political corruption--you're going to get fraud. That's true in Nigeria. It's true in parts of eastern europe. It will be true about anywhere someone who makes $1 a day gets internet access and can suddenly interact with people who make $50,000 a year. Welcome to one of the downsides of a flat earth [wikipedia.org].
Bet it pays a helluva lot better than trying to farm on unfertilized poorly-irrigated soil with some crappy non-GM seed that Sean Penn gave you.
Actually, the Nigerian scammers got away... (Score:5, Insightful)
Another view of the reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
...why so many of these scams originate from this area.
I asked that same question of a missionary who had just come from Nigeria. His answer was that there is a culture there of "you're a clever individual if you can get the other fellow to pay for your lunch." For what it's worth...
~Loyal
Not an explanation... (Score:5, Insightful)
No actually, it doesn't. Poverty is not a reason for scamming. It might be a reason for stealing food or other things. Scams show a particular mindset, and that the most common type of Nigerian scam has originated elsewhere is irrelevant. What matters is how many people do it, and the information I have is that scamming is commonplace in Nigerian culture, so they do it to themselves, not just to others with a 'lot' of money outside Nigeria. This means poverty has nothing to do with why they all seem to be Nigerians. Though I suppose, being a Nigerian, seeing some scammer from your country make a lot of money, might influence you to do the same thus giving a flood of such people, but as I said, it seems to be commonplace behaviour in Nigeria itself.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:4, Insightful)
It will be true about anywhere someone who makes $1 a day gets internet access and can suddenly interact with people who make $50,000 a year. Welcome to one of the downsides of a flat earth
Oh, I agree, the big downside of a flat earth is that rich people are in contact with poor people. I see that, now. If only we could get back to a system in which there could be no interaction. Those systems are generally the best for humanity.
Lets count the ways the summary is wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
...a group of Nigerian scam artists
While this is technically correct (the scam artists were from Nigeria, therefore they were Nigerian), this scam was very different from the typical "Nigerian Prince" scam. It sounds like they were just running a fake online car dealership, and got two people to pay for a car based on pictures on the internet.
...it makes one wonder how these folks ever got the nerve to go to the police with this matter
If you're talking about the scam artists, they didn't. The article makes it very clear that it was the people who tried to buy cars who went to the police, which is why the Australian woman is the only one on trial--she's the only one who was in the local jurisdiction.
... why so many of these scams originate from this area.
It's possible that there are a bunch of fake online car dealerships originating in Nigeria, but I think it's more likely that the author of the summary thinks this is about a Nigerian Scam [wikipedia.org]. If they had actually read the article, they wouldn't be making that mistake. I understand that slashdot is all about not reading the article, but is it too much to ask that submitters read the articles they submit?
its the internet (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that I give any weight to your story, but I think if the only thing that stood between you making 500$ was a telephone number, anyone would go buy a 30$ burner with 10$ of minutes on it.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
....Anytime you combine poverty, internet access, and police/political corruption--you're going to get fraud....
And millionaire investment bankers / corporate raiders don't ever scam people? When poor people do it, it's criminal, when the wealthy do it, it's a free market.
Re:Another view of the reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hello, I am Ayn Rand and you're a mark (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
A successful scam is enterprising and clever. Its the dishonest and illegal parts people disagree with.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
e.g. Enron, Lehman Brothers, AIG...
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:4, Insightful)
It did not work for the French. Like most badly thought out movements it started with good intentions.
It ended in everyone worrying about weather or not there head was the next to get chopped off.
10s of thousands of people were murdered. Many with no real cause.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard that sort of argument before. My question is, if they need a tractor, why in hell aren't they building their own tractors? Or, much of anything else for that matter.
The ignorant love to point at America, and tell us that we have the most violent society in the world. The truly ignorant (and those with a political agenda) love to point at our right to bear arms as a source of that violence.
Meanwhile, warlords wander large areas of Africa, raping and pillaging where they please. Instead of building dams, water purification plants, water distribution and sewage systems, they invest in guns, draft young children into their "armies", and do their very best to tear down the fragments of civilization that African enjoy.
For the cost of maintaining a 1000 man "army", that warlord could have built a tractor producing factory. And, those tractors could have been priced so that a village could buy two or three tractors instead of one imported POS that couldn't be maintained.
Alright, so the warlord can't build a computerized behemoth like John Deere sells. Big deal. The village doesn't NEED said behemoth. They need an power source capable of being attached to plows, cultivators, manure spreaders, etc. If the village can get the equivalent of a 1930's tricycle John Deere "C" model, with a hand start flywheel, they can do what they need to do.
And, guess what? That ancient John Deere is easy to maintain. It meets the old engineering requirement, KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. There are few moving parts, no electronics, the only electricity is the magneto hooked up to the ignition system.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
We aren't talking about some bum in New York City living off the government. We are talking about people in poor countries where them providing something economically useful nets them about $1 a day. A successful scam is enterprising and clever. Its the dishonest and illegal parts people disagree with.
This is a pet peeve of mine so I'm going to point it out, because they made the mistake in the article and you're making the same mistake in your comment. I'm sure that many Nigerians live in poverty, but those numbers don't exist in a vacuum; the average income of a person given in our currency without any other figures is completely meaningless. The cost of living in Nigeria is obviously also drastically less, otherwise I guess half of the 150 million people who live there are going to die in the next few weeks from starvation.
Re:Hello, I am a Nigerian Prince and you're a mark (Score:5, Insightful)
While what you say is true, the difference between nominal levels and purchasing power parity is not nearly as big as the difference in wealth. To take my own country vs Nigeria as example:
Norway vs Nigeria GDP nominal: 96,591 vs 1,541 = 63:1
Norway vs Nigeria GDP PPP: 53,376 vs 2,589 = 21:1
Okay so the difference is 1/3rd of the nominal, but it's still 21:1. Yes, local food, local clothes, local services are cheap but anything that's following international prices are insanely expensive. For example computers only vary by a few percent around the globe, corrected for taxes and such. I look at a CPU costing $100 thinking that's not much, they look at $100 as something ungodly expensive they can never afford. So yes, you can do with less but you're also cut off from many things. A dollar a day gets you some water, rice, clothes on your back and a shed, it's not a good life anywhere.