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A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

bbc.com

11–20 of 95 posts

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#11
post #5

> It's rumoured he was also forced to undergo an exorcism, to cure him of his belief in black magic. In a culture of woo, this doubtless makes some kind of sense.

We all live in cultures of woo, we just can't see the woo from the inside.

Cf. ICOs, irrational exuberance, etc.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#13
post #9

This guy sounds awesome. If there are any aspiring screenwriters out there this would make a great movie. Think Catch Me If You Can but more modern and international.

For some reason, reading this I had to think of the old movie "Brewster's Millions", as if this guy, too, had to get rid of all the money.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#14
post #4

The "send me your money and I'll send double back" scam is a staple among kids playing MMOs since at least the days of Runescape. Doubtless it goes a lot further back.

How does this work exactly?

I can see how it works in the short term e.g. you give me money, I give you double, you give me lots of money and I disappear with it. But it seems he had an ongoing relationship with the Daubi bank manager, how is that possible?

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#15
post #10

Reminds me of a great (now-deleted) tweet I saw a few years ago: "Everything is legal if you scale it up." Convert the cash to assets, then convert the assets to political clout---at that point the cash heist is in the rear-view mirror...

It will catch up to you in the end.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#16
post #10

Reminds me of a great (now-deleted) tweet I saw a few years ago: "Everything is legal if you scale it up." Convert the cash to assets, then convert the assets to political clout---at that point the cash heist is in the rear-view mirror...

It will catch up to you in the end.

The examples that came to my mind when I first saw that tweet were: Napster/Youtube (unauthorized content sharing scaled up to such a degree that the media industry had to shift to streaming business models), Uber, the ongoing US legalization of marijuana (too much of the population uses it for abolition to be effective).

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#17
post #11
post #5

> It's rumoured he was also forced to undergo an exorcism, to cure him of his belief in black magic. In a culture of woo, this doubtless makes some kind of sense.

We all live in cultures of woo, we just can't see the woo from the inside. Cf. ICOs, irrational exuberance, etc.

Yes, yes, everything is the same.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#18
post #4

The "send me your money and I'll send double back" scam is a staple among kids playing MMOs since at least the days of Runescape. Doubtless it goes a lot further back.

How does this work exactly? I can see how it works in the short term e.g. you give me money, I give you double, you give me lots of money and I disappear with it. But it seems he had an ongoing relationship with the Daubi bank manager, how is that possible?

I think it comes back to the part in the beginning where the article says that blackmagic is forbidden but there is a strong belief in it.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#19
post #4

The "send me your money and I'll send double back" scam is a staple among kids playing MMOs since at least the days of Runescape. Doubtless it goes a lot further back.

How does this work exactly? I can see how it works in the short term e.g. you give me money, I give you double, you give me lots of money and I disappear with it. But it seems he had an ongoing relationship with the Daubi bank manager, how is that possible?

    ... Mohammed Ayoub had claimed at his trial that Sissoko had put him under a spell ...
Mr. Ayoub is the person working at Dubai bank. So, I'd guess some form of social engineering, where Sissoko had been convincing enough to repeatedly make Mr. Ayoub wire money to different accounts around the world.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#20
post #9

This guy sounds awesome. If there are any aspiring screenwriters out there this would make a great movie. Think Catch Me If You Can but more modern and international.

The picture of him smiling with the Miami school band makes me incredibly happy. Look at their smiles. Those are infectious smiles.
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