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I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

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Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#21

Post by gojomo »

columbo wrote: post #16

I'm glad the guy decided to tell his story. Most people are ashamed to admit that they fell victim to a hustler. They don't want to be seen as stupid, or get ridiculed by others. About the same time (ten years ago) I went in for a job interview that turned out to be a hustle. They promised they were looking for programmers (really generic, like they didn't know what they were asking for). When I showed up at the door…

What do you mean by "buy-in-application"? (I'm guessing something where you had to pay up-front for the rights to market or customize something that might never make you enough money to pay the up-front fees... but more details to confirm the outlines of the scam would be helpful.)

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#22

Post by ganeumann »

I really want someone to tell the story about the one time they flew to Nigeria to help a governor get some money out of the country and it turned out to be legit. That would be far more interesting.

My father used to get similar Nigerian scam correspondences back in the 70s/80s, in the postal mail.

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#23

Post by saraid216 »

columbo wrote: post #16

I'm glad the guy decided to tell his story. Most people are ashamed to admit that they fell victim to a hustler. They don't want to be seen as stupid, or get ridiculed by others. About the same time (ten years ago) I went in for a job interview that turned out to be a hustle. They promised they were looking for programmers (really generic, like they didn't know what they were asking for). When I showed up at the door…

What was the buy-in, may I ask? Did they ask you to "invest" in the company or something?

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#24

Post by saraid216 »

herbig wrote: post #7
Domenic_S wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One comment in and, bam, random religion bashing. Stay classy, HN.

How is religion as superstition religious bashing? I'm talking about correlations, not morality or religious truth. The stay classy thing is overused.

> I'm talking about correlations

You realize that's what superstitions are made of, right? Fancy science words don't make you rational.

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#25

Post by mathattack »

eaurouge wrote: post #10

You fly to Lagos with the willful intent to aid in the stealing of $1M from the Nigerian government and its people, but get beaten up instead. Your error, as you see it, is not that you were greedy and corrupt enough to steal other people's money. But that you were stupid enough to fall for the scam and have the tables turned on you. Interesting.

Are we sure this isn't fiction? I'm caught between, "People can't actually be this stupid" and "At least one person has to have been this stupid, otherwise they would have stopped long ago."

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#26

Post by the_watcher »

eaurouge wrote: post #10

You fly to Lagos with the willful intent to aid in the stealing of $1M from the Nigerian government and its people, but get beaten up instead. Your error, as you see it, is not that you were greedy and corrupt enough to steal other people's money. But that you were stupid enough to fall for the scam and have the tables turned on you. Interesting.

In terms of the mechanics of what happened to him, that was error. Even considering morals, it was still an error (although the theft was arguably the larger one depending on how you feel about the Nigerian government)

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#27

Post by the_watcher »

mathattack wrote: post #25
eaurouge wrote: post #10

You fly to Lagos with the willful intent to aid in the stealing of $1M from the Nigerian government and its people, but get beaten up instead. Your error, as you see it, is not that you were greedy and corrupt enough to steal other people's money. But that you were stupid enough to fall for the scam and have the tables turned on you. Interesting.

Are we sure this isn't fiction? I'm caught between, "People can't actually be this stupid" and "At least one person has to have been this stupid, otherwise they would have stopped long ago."

Flying to Nigeria to do this is the most extreme I have ever heard of. I do know one or two people who have been duped by the Nigerian scam emails, but just into sending money.

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#28

Post by columbo »

gojomo wrote: post #21
columbo wrote: post #16

I'm glad the guy decided to tell his story. Most people are ashamed to admit that they fell victim to a hustler. They don't want to be seen as stupid, or get ridiculed by others. About the same time (ten years ago) I went in for a job interview that turned out to be a hustle. They promised they were looking for programmers (really generic, like they didn't know what they were asking for). When I showed up at the door…

What do you mean by "buy-in-application"? (I'm guessing something where you had to pay up-front for the rights to market or customize something that might never make you enough money to pay the up-front fees... but more details to confirm the outlines of the scam would be helpful.)

Thinking back to what I remember I _think_ it was like a content management system / pyramid scheme, similar to stuff like Avon.

So you pay a monthly fee for this application then you need to find customers to use it, then you get a percentage back of the customers who are using it. This would explain why they were looking for technical people.

So for $50 a month I'll give you drupal, then you sell it to clients, then I give you a percentage of each sale you make. There was something else about that that made it like a pyramid scheme though... like you had to get more people to sign up with them to try and sell it. I unfortunately don't remember all the details. Maybe I should have sat through the whole presentation! :)

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#29

Post by pikachu_is_cool »

herbig wrote: post #7
Domenic_S wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One comment in and, bam, random religion bashing. Stay classy, HN.

How is religion as superstition religious bashing? I'm talking about correlations, not morality or religious truth. The stay classy thing is overused.

> I would bet that the vast majority of people who fall for this stuff are also deeply religious.

Re: I Flew to Lagos and Got Beaten Up Because of a Nigerian Email Scam

#30

Post by the_watcher »

smsm42 wrote: post #19

Even given proof that I have no reason to doubt, I am still find hard to believe there's an educated and, judging from the writing, reasonably intellectually capable person that can genuinely believe there's a Nigerian official in Lagos that would reach out to random stranger to seek help with stealing a million dollars. And then he has a friend who, being told everything and asked for the plane ticket money, didn't…

I can believe a corrupt official would reach out to a random person for help, just not that they would have any intention of honoring the bargain. I'd be worried about being killed as a loose end more than anything.
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