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Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

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Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#51

Post by enraged_camel »

DanBC wrote: post #44
enraged_camel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The Internet has been around for fifteen years WWW has been around for 20 years. But it's only recently that people have always on cable modems and active content. > without educating themselves about their dangers first. HN is full of stories of well funded, international businesses, with considerable sums of cash at risk, who do stupid insecure things. If they can't get it right why should Joe Sixpack be expected…

>>I'm interested to see what kind of help there is for people who want to learn how to protect themselves on the Internet.

What kind of help is there for people who want to learn to protect themselves in real life? Does the fact that there is no comprehensive resource somehow remove one's burden to learn anyway?

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#52

Post by RegEx »

enraged_camel wrote: post #36
sliverstorm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How would you know that responsibility is needed without proper education about the dangers?

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#53

Post by RegEx »

enraged_camel wrote: post #51
DanBC wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Internet has been around for fifteen years WWW has been around for 20 years. But it's only recently that people have always on cable modems and active content. > without educating themselves about their dangers first. HN is full of stories of well funded, international businesses, with considerable sums of cash at risk, who do stupid insecure things. If they can't get it right why should Joe Sixpack be expected…

>>I'm interested to see what kind of help there is for people who want to learn how to protect themselves on the Internet. What kind of help is there for people who want to learn to protect themselves in real life ? Does the fact that there is no comprehensive resource somehow remove one's burden to learn anyway?

You're extremely grumpy. Blaming the victim is not some brave, heroic concept.

People can imagine what it looks like to be in physical danger, and instinct can help them avoid the situations to some degree. It's hard to imagine what it's like being in an unsafe situation on the internet.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#54

Post by icebraining »

JulianWasTaken wrote: post #40
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?

If Alice can prove it's her laptop, Bob has to give it back.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#55

Post by gojomo »

I was somewhat hoping that the writer sent a real laptop, but deeply loaded with spyware so he could learn more about the scam operations. (Of course, such a tactic might just learn about a possibly-innocent later repurchaser.)

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#56

Post by anonymouz »

lotharbot wrote: post #49
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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_scam One of the most common early internet scams was about money from a deposed Nigerian prince, and a fairly large percentage of these scammers are in Nigeria (as well as the US, UK, Netherlands, and Spain.) The name "Nigerian scam" became a generic term to refer to this type of scam, particularly in pop culture.

Very first paragraph of the Wikipedia page: "Nigerian scams (also called Nigerian 419 scams), are a type of advance fee fraud and one of the most common types of confidence frauds in which the victim is defrauded for monetary gain.".

The scam the blog author describes is not of this type. Nigerian scam refers specifically to the type of scam where people want your help "transfering large sums of money out of their country".

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#57

Post by chc »

DanBC wrote: post #34
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.

I've heard that for many scams it's actually the opposite: They intentionally throw in huge warning flags so that the people who initially "bite" are less likely to have second thoughts later on, and thus the scammer wastes less time chasing false leads. They're basically prequalifying you as a good mark. (There is a good lesson about marketing here too — theoretically "perfect" copy or design may not be ideal for your market, so test and see what provides the best ROI.)

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#58

Post by lizzard »

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.

I agree, it's wrong for the poster to call it a "Nigerian scam". It doesn't fit the definition of a 419 scam, and it just seems unnecessary as well as likely to encourage people in racism and stereotyping.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#59

Post by defen »

DanBC wrote: post #34
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.

I read a theory (probably on this site) that using obviously terrible scams helps them select for the most gullible people - e.g. the kind who would wire $500 of their own money back to Nigeria when the laptop arrived and "didn't work", plus a few hundred to cover expenses.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#60

Post by joering2 »

dkokelley wrote: post #32
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

Im in! would someone please create a kickstarter project like that?

Goal: $400 for mediocre laptop and shipping cost to Nigeria.

$1: you get a photoshots in 5 sec intervals from the moment laptop comes online.

$10: you get a life video-feed from the moment the laptop comes online.

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