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Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

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Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#111

Post by jlgreco »

sliverstorm wrote: post #107
jlgreco wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I was trying to say is that your hypothetical does a good job of showing why blame is not zero sum. Obviously in either case the criminal receives the same blame, but I think it is fairly clear that the victim who took drastic measures to reduce risk is less to blame than the one who did not. The important thing to remember is that the blame of the victim, while present, has no relation to the blame of the crimi…

I don't think we are talking about the same thing.

Perhaps not. I am just trying to expand upon what enraged_camel mentioned about blame not being zero sum.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#112

Post by jlgreco »

DanBC wrote: post #110
jlgreco wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Internet does not have such an obvious dark alley. http://p3n1zp1llz.48djkhcd.com.shadyurl.info/freemoneyz.exe ;) Edit: Forgot about this site, but perhaps it could be used as a training tool for family members you feel are not quite as savy as they should be: http://www.shadyurl.com/ Make a page that just says "Grandma, don't click links like that!" , convert it to a "shady" url with shadyurl.com, then email i…

A nice idea! But [urls are disguised so easily]( http://horribleurl.example.com ). The A element has split the real URL from the text description since forever.

Good point. Training family members to look at the status bar first is probably pretty hard, and probably not even effective. At the very least you would have to train them to recognize and avoid url shortening services...

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#113

Post by kleiba »

icebraining wrote: post #54
JulianWasTaken wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This might be dependent on the country in which the transaction takes place. Under some circumstances, if Bob believes that the laptop is now his, it actually is his property in some legislations.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#114

Post by sharkweek »

esrauch wrote: post #109
sharkweek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Did you ever have the opposite, where you thought something was a scam check but it turned out to be legit?

Many times -- they made you pretty paranoid about fraud at training with horror stories of people who got fired for letting checks get through too loosely, so I was always proactive about it.

After about four years of it, you got really good at being able to analyze every deposit in under 30 seconds or so before the customer even knew what was going on.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#115

Post by borplk »

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.

That's what I thought when I read the title.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#116

Post by ebun »

yohui wrote: post #72
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it was never mentioned. In addition, because there are a lot of scams that seem to originate from Nigeria (not all that say they're Nigerian are), the author wonders why people should not be suspicious of ALL Nigerians like they are of fake FBI notices. Interestingly, that paragraph is the most hilighted of this thread and no one thinks that type of blatant sterotyping and discrimination is odd. As a Nigerian,…

This suggests it was the address: "On the customs form, I put the value at $500 and the description said “cardboard art.” I’m not completely sure of this, but I think Nigerians have to pay a small percentage of the value to customs, so putting a high price on the customs form hopefully cost them a little money." That bit about the customs fee wouldn't make sense otherwise.

That still doesn't mean it was sent to Nigeria. It just confirms that, for whatever reason, the author assumed the recipient was in Nigeria. The recipient may have very well been in Nigeria but he offers no definitive evidence.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#118

Post by Kelliot »

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 provide technical support for Americans from the UK. +1 for understanding some of my audience.

Re: Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

#120

Post by lollerpops »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #18
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

This can go badly of course, taunting crooks is never the safe policy no matter how tempting it can be. The thing is, they are crooks, so they have already decided that they are willing to break the rules, what you don't know is how many they are willing to break.

> they are willing to break the rules, what you don't know is how many they are willing to break // Isn't this true of almost everyone in society - whether it's jaywalking, or [minor] speeding, or not declaring income, or under-age drinking, or taking a sick day, or 'borrowing' a ream of paper from the office, or ... My point I guess is that scamming people online doesn't seem to be a gateway to violent crime or anyt…

You listed a series of victimless crimes to prove that two crimes that do have victims are unrelated?
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