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I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

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

#121

Post by hilop »

M_Grey wrote: post #111
kba wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

William Miller predicted Jesus' return in the year 1843. When that didn't happen, he adjusted his calculations to mean March 21, 1844. When that failed, it became October 22, 1844. He kept modifying his prediction whenever it failed. You'd think being constantly proven wrong would make people stop believing him. That's how the Seventh-day Adventist Church was started. A church that today has more than 18 million memb…

This is also how the JW's started, and frankly continue. The simple, sad reality is: People mostly believe what they want to believe.

Once the snowball starts rolling, the later generations don't care much for the ridiculousness founding myths. It just becomes a traditional culture. Same for all religions, and heck, even nations

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

#122

Post by pavel_lishin »

M_Grey wrote: post #111
kba wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

William Miller predicted Jesus' return in the year 1843. When that didn't happen, he adjusted his calculations to mean March 21, 1844. When that failed, it became October 22, 1844. He kept modifying his prediction whenever it failed. You'd think being constantly proven wrong would make people stop believing him. That's how the Seventh-day Adventist Church was started. A church that today has more than 18 million memb…

This is also how the JW's started, and frankly continue. The simple, sad reality is: People mostly believe what they want to believe.

You could argue the same thing about Christianity in general; didn't Jesus prophesize his return to occur within a very short time after his death?

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

#123

Post by digler999 »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #54

Some people trick the scammers into traveling places, or losing money. They've managed to get them stranded for months in war-torn countries, to sell their cars for airline tickets, and gotten them thrown in prison in foreign countries for immigration violations. I have some family who was tricked by a scammer doing "Microsoft support" once, but we convinced her it was a scammer in time for the police to trace the ca…

I saw an article a while back about an older man, college professor I think, who fell for some "girl" in south America. She tricked him to flying to Peru, picking up a suitcase of dope, then flying it to Argentina where he was arrested. Never met the "girl" and still believes she was for real.

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

#124

Post by hilop »

easytiger wrote: post #66
michael_h wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

UK is pro intervention, but they also go too far seizing children from families. It's impossible to get right in every case.

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

#125

Post by hongloumeng »

UnfalseDesign wrote: post #56

There seems to be a lot of commenters here saying Johnny is playing the long con. Whereas I don’t entirely disagree, I think they are missing the point of the story. The point is not just that Johnny’s life improved from below average to average. The other point is that Maria’s life improved from average to above average. At an age where many Americans are retiring and spending their days trying to stay busy, Maria i…

I don't think it is quite a long con. Johnny might seem to be exploiting her my Western norms of social relationships. But if he has turned her into a patron of sorts, it is still out in the open, and he might sincerely care for her. After all, it would probably seem less weird if their genders were reversed.

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

#126

Post by gambiting »

kba wrote: post #110
voxic11 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States and most countries I'm aware of debts cannot be inherited.

I think most places, debts can be inherited voluntarily, but you can't cherry pick. If your dead aunt had a Mercedes 190SL, but also owes $200,000, you can either take both or nothing. But yeah – they won't end up in debt themselves, unless they choose to.

That's exactly how this works. Either you take all of it, debts included or nothing. Or in some countries you let lawyers sort it out first, where they make sure all debts are paid off, they take their fee, and then you inherit whatever is left.

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

#127

Post by pavel_lishin »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #87
michael_h wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It might be too late now, but I wonder if you could've convinced her to put the money into a trust and have it slowly distributed to her over the remainder of her life. At the very least, whatever enjoyment she's getting out of helping this person could be stretched out for decades, and it reduces the risk she'll be out on the streets with no options. And if the story is the guy is in debt, usually creditors are will…

> It might be too late now, but I wonder if you could've convinced her to put the money into a trust and have it slowly distributed to her over the remainder of her life.

At which point? Before meeting her paramour, she wouldn't have much incentive to lock her money away from herself. (Would you agree to this?) And afterwards, well, he really needs that money...

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

#129

Post by hilop »

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…

What's the Gini coefficient on that GDP?

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

#130

Post by tedmiston »

oblio wrote: post #81
whack wrote: post #69

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?

> Why do a disproportionate number of these scams seem to originate from Nigeria? We (Romania) prefer to steal credit card numbers instead. Less work and instant benefits!

Not sure if you're being facetious or if this is actually more prevalent.

I haven't been to Romania but did notice and personally experience credit card numbers being stolen in Greece, especially in tourist areas in Athens, presumably via skimmers.

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