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

Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

notla.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 146 posts

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#31

Post by sharkweek »

patdennis wrote: post #22

"If people in the U.S. aren’t suspicious of free money, PayPal payments that look fake, the absence of a payment in their account, fake emails from PayPal’s FBI department or just Nigerians in general, then they deserve to have their money taken from them." I could easily see my parents falling for this. I don't think they deserve to have their money taken. Although, to be fair, I doubt my parents could set up and us…

I used to work as a bank teller while in school. About once or twice a month someone would come in with checks from these types of scams. The spectrum of who was falling for it was a lot wider than I would have ever imagined.

We were trained pretty extensively on stopping these checks from being deposited, but it sure broke my heart being the bearer of bad news so often.

I remember one guy who didn't believe me that it was a scam, asked that I at least try to clear the check (we'd put it on hold for about a week). Lo and behold, he came back in a week later to tell me it turned out to be fake.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#32

Post by dkokelley »

sjtgraham wrote: post #21

After seeing the stickers I was hoping the OP actually sent the computer with an undercover style backdoor installed so he could remotely control the computer, e.g. take shots with webcam, screenshots, install key logger, etc. That would have been incredibly amusing.

This is what I was expecting as well. It would be an interesting study into what happens when you 'fall' for one of these scams, although most likely this laptop was sent to a legitimate buyer as part of a larger scam, detailed by ben1040 here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4566587

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#33

Post by OoTheNigerian »

Excuse me, before we get all excited, where did Rebecca say that she is from Nigeria? Or are all internet scams now called 'Nigerian scams'?

The number of times Nigeria was used in that post, you would think the Nigerian flag and Rebecca's Nigerian passport accompanied the emails.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#34

Post by DanBC »

patdennis wrote: post #22

"If people in the U.S. aren’t suspicious of free money, PayPal payments that look fake, the absence of a payment in their account, fake emails from PayPal’s FBI department or just Nigerians in general, then they deserve to have their money taken from them." I could easily see my parents falling for this. I don't think they deserve to have their money taken. Although, to be fair, I doubt my parents could set up and us…

God help us if the scammers ever find someone who can write correct English. I know many people get caught by these scams, and I suspect that the numbers would increase if the wording was improved a bit.

There's a metaphor about conversions and copy-writing and startups in there somewhere.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#35

Post by astral303 »

patdennis wrote: post #22

"If people in the U.S. aren’t suspicious of free money, PayPal payments that look fake, the absence of a payment in their account, fake emails from PayPal’s FBI department or just Nigerians in general, then they deserve to have their money taken from them." I could easily see my parents falling for this. I don't think they deserve to have their money taken. Although, to be fair, I doubt my parents could set up and us…

+1. Plenty of people in the US have a subpar grasp of English (and yet are not retarded). For example, my dad was not born in the US, but has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and used to work on power grid systems. He's a smart guy. However, it took him a good amount of time to recognize phishing e-mails, some of it requiring my guidance. For example, it's not easy to identify Misused Capitalizations, or to pick up on missed article in email, or to recognizing verbs not agreed with time.

Furthermore, it is completely plausible to an inexperienced person that PayPal might enlist FBI to enforce shipment of paid-for goods. It takes some experience in this country to realize that 1) this sort of matter is not referred to FBI unless it's super grave, 2) and not referred to any enforcement entity so fast (less than 30 days), 3) and not referred to any separate enforcement entity without at least several resolution attempts from the original business.

In fact, IMO, it's quite arrogant, on the part of the OP to say this. Unfortunately, this is a typical attitude in the geekdom: if something that's obvious to us isn't obvious to you, you're stupid.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#36

Post by enraged_camel »

sliverstorm wrote: post #23
patdennis wrote: post #22

"If people in the U.S. aren’t suspicious of free money, PayPal payments that look fake, the absence of a payment in their account, fake emails from PayPal’s FBI department or just Nigerians in general, then they deserve to have their money taken from them." I could easily see my parents falling for this. I don't think they deserve to have their money taken. Although, to be fair, I doubt my parents could set up and us…

Agreed on all counts. To many people, the internet and all are so new and unfamiliar, they have absolutely ZERO context to recognize fake-looking PayPal payments or emails from PayPal's FBI department. To them, they are still completely lost- you can't expect them to recognize a scam. As for being suspicious of free money, I think most people generally would be, but relax their misgivings when something appears to be…

The Internet has been around for fifteen years, and PayPal has been around for more than ten. I don't think either of them qualify as "new" anymore. Most people get scammed not because the technologies are new, but because they have been using those technologies irresponsibly, i.e. without educating themselves about their dangers first. They simply want to reap the benefits, and end up losing their money.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#37

Post by mlapida »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #33

Excuse me, before we get all excited, where did Rebecca say that she is from Nigeria? Or are all internet scams now called 'Nigerian scams'? The number of times Nigeria was used in that post, you would think the Nigerian flag and Rebecca's Nigerian passport accompanied the emails.

The shipping address?

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#38

Post by HyprMusic »

I can't help but feel that whilst there is a chance that this is a Nigerian scammer, he shouldn't instantly presume it is. He also directly warns to be wary of Nigerians, without providing any reasoning that this IS a Nigerian. Even if it was, it's not really very important to the story.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#39

Post by anonymouz »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #33

Excuse me, before we get all excited, where did Rebecca say that she is from Nigeria? Or are all internet scams now called 'Nigerian scams'? The number of times Nigeria was used in that post, you would think the Nigerian flag and Rebecca's Nigerian passport accompanied the emails.

Maybe the address he shipped to was in Nigeria? He never states that though.

I wasn't sure if this was just my impression, or if the blog author has some rather strong feelings against Nigerians, but his follow up comment ( http://www.notla.com/archives/2010/07/nigerian-scammer-gets-... ) leaves little doubt.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#40

Post by JulianWasTaken »

ben1040 wrote: post #5

Don't the scammers often use the victimized sellers as drop shippers? Say, Alice lists a laptop on eBay or Craigslist. The scammer has also listed a similar model for sale, and Bob has purchased it in what he believes to be a legitimate transaction. Scammer "buys" it from Alice, with either fraudulent funds from a stolen card (that would get charged back eventually) or just delivering a forged paypal mail. Or the fam…

OOC, what is the legal remedy in such a situation for Alice and Bob? Is Alice ultimately the one who loses out there presumably?
Post reply on HN