Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 263 posts

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#61

Post by mattkevan »

amelius wrote: post #5

Reminds me of [1], where a scammer was scammed into sending a photo with a fish on his head. [1] http://www.419eater.com/html/tope.htm

The 419eater forums are something else.

There's some incredible forum threads where members have perfected the art of scamming the scammers to such a degree that they can get them to travel for years at at time in the hope of a payoff, constructing such a pervasive reality bubble that they never suspect they're being played.

Reading the forums, where the members are posting in real-time what they're doing and the correspondence from and to the scammers is highly engrossing.

Prepare to lose a lot of time: https://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=66

It's hard not to feel sorry for them, scammers they may be.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#62

Post by michael_h »

easytiger wrote: post #58
whiddershins wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't fully understand your situation, and it must be horrible and frustrating and painful, but there must be some way you can get through to her?

Any court will let you take power over her finances. This is a clear cut case. Just ask any bloody lawer

No, they won't.

We can take over her finances if she is declared mentally incompetent. She's not mentally incompetent - she understands everything, but she just disagrees with the crucial bit: that the dude doesn't love her and is scamming her. As the judge told us yesterday: we are walking a fine line, taking over another person's autonomy, but it's not illegal to fall in love and do colossally stupid things.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#64

Post by OoTheNigerian »

It's practically impossible for any positive tech stories to stay on the front page of Hackenews. Be it our tech companies making or raising a lot of dough and/or having impact.

HOWEVER, when it comes to stereotypes and cliche negative stories, we usually have our day at number 1

I wonder why ;)

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#65

Post by michael_h »

whiddershins wrote: post #57
michael_h wrote: post #53

My mother in law is currently $150,000+ deep on a Facebook romance scam. I believe she's about to send him another $200k or so when her house is sold. Instead of living out her retirement in relative comfort, she will be scraping by on social security. Adult services can't help, because moonshot-level stupidity is not a mental disorder. She can't live with us, as she can no longer be trusted. She can't live on her ow…

I don't fully understand your situation, and it must be horrible and frustrating and painful, but there must be some way you can get through to her?

The first day he messaged her, we told her it was a scam to take window's money. Four months later, when we discovered she had been talking to him in the intervening months, we showed her a few websites that detail exactly how the romance scam works (matching her situation exactly). Last weekend, when we found out all of her money was gone, we had the police and adult protective services come out and tell her point blank that she was being scammed.

She listens, agrees, and then sends him more money.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#66

Post by easytiger »

michael_h wrote: post #62
easytiger wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any court will let you take power over her finances. This is a clear cut case. Just ask any bloody lawer

No, they won't. We can take over her finances if she is declared mentally incompetent . She's not mentally incompetent - she understands everything, but she just disagrees with the crucial bit: that the dude doesn't love her and is scamming her. As the judge told us yesterday : we are walking a fine line, taking over another person's autonomy, but it's not illegal to fall in love and do colossally stupid things.

I guess the jurisdiction depends. In the UK you'd stand a very good chance of intervening. Indeed oddly enough there was an article about just this yesterday in the UK, i'll see if I can dig it out

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#67

Post by 6stringmerc »

joewee wrote: post #23

Nigeria is #1 / #2 wealthiest country in Africa (GDP). It ranks amoung the highest in terms of advanced degree graduates in Africa. But it has a extremely low Human Development Index, there isn't much opportunity for the educated. Nigerians outside of Nigeria will generally be better educated than the local workforce but unable find work for various reasons. Common issue in Europe, where many 419 scams actually opera…

Intelligent people with time on their hands an on the border of desperation makes logical sense that petty crime or white-collar type fraud crimes would extremely appealing. High ROI.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#68

Post by Noseshine »

elcct wrote: post #31
shasheene wrote: post #21

> With her assistance, he left Nigeria shortly afterwards, to study in America. > Although they have not met each other again since, she continued to provide him with financial assistance until he completed his degree a few years ago and got a job in the American oil sector. Heh, maybe the 419 scam is continuing! The long con! :P

Reminds me of: Go to a bank. Get a job there and work there for years and years learning the place from the inside, and also learning how all of the processes and procedures are done, earning everyone's trust and respect, and simultaneously building up a 401k with matching while also going up the career ladder and taking more and more positions with more responsibility and more pay until one day you finally decide th…

I admit I'm confused now. I think, but I'm not entirely sure, that you are making fun of the reply, thinking "that guy got a job, what more do you want?"

As I read it though the point was

  > Although they have not met each other again since,
followed by

  > she continued to provide him with financial assistance
the last part

  > until he completed his degree a few years ago and got a job in the American oil sector.
is completely unverified, and given that the whole thing was a scam to begin with IMHO certainly does need verification in order to be believed.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#69

Post by whack »

One thing I never quite understood. These "Nigerian prince" scams can originate from any developing nation where the exchange rate makes for very lucrative prospects. Ie, Chile, Egypt, Romania, Kazakhstan, China, India, Thailand, etc etc. Why do a disproportionate number of these scams seem to originate from Nigeria?

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#70

Post by zyrthofar »

michael_h wrote: post #62
easytiger wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any court will let you take power over her finances. This is a clear cut case. Just ask any bloody lawer

No, they won't. We can take over her finances if she is declared mentally incompetent . She's not mentally incompetent - she understands everything, but she just disagrees with the crucial bit: that the dude doesn't love her and is scamming her. As the judge told us yesterday : we are walking a fine line, taking over another person's autonomy, but it's not illegal to fall in love and do colossally stupid things.

But wouldn't that mean that you and your SO would inherit these debts when she dies, and there's nothing you can do about this? That's truly awful :(.
Post reply on HN