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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

#61

Post by tashi »

herbig wrote: post #34
saraid216 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm talking about correlations You realize that's what superstitions are made of, right? Fancy science words don't make you rational.

It is the express lack of correlation that makes up a superstition, so the opposite of what you're saying is true. I wasn't aware that "correlation" is a fancy science word, I guess it depends on your personal background.

I would say that most superstitions are formed by noticing that two things in one's past experience were related in some way and assuming that the relationship will continue in the future. That's correlation.

Of course, some people only notice data that fit their preconceived perspective, and some people have received superstitions based entirely on the words of others. I'm sure there are other exceptions too. But in my mind, the conceptual framework for understanding irrational thought is that we have these brains that are amazing pattern matching machines and we don't know how to turn them off. Once we've noticed a pattern, most of us assume it's a real correlation, and no matter how many exceptions to the pattern we see, we don't know how to stop believing.

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

#62

Post by Crito »

smsm42 wrote: post #46
eurleif wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most religions frown on other religions, too.

I really can't understand why you chose to answer my comment with this. I pointed out pretty clearly that a practice of homebrewn divination, in which the hero of the article engaged, is not "religious" and actually is explicitly forbidden by many religions. In response to that, you offer me meaningless platitude not connected to anything on the topic. What are you trying to accomplish here?

Now maybe my brand of Christianity was pretty unusually wacko (Lutherans are the real nutters right? Total extremists, rivals of those Westboro chaps really... /s), but I am pretty sure they explicitly endorsed homebrew divination. The idea that you could "do it yourself" is actually a rather central concept to that particular brand of religion, though instead of tea leaves it used sore knees...

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

#63

Post by jscheel »

j_baker wrote: post #60
jscheel wrote: post #45

Never hide anything from your spouse. Ever. Especially not financial troubles. Some openness and trust could have gone a long way here. Perhaps his wife could have helped him figure out their financial problems, maybe she would have even directed him away from the scammers.

It's simply not possible (or even preferable) to have zero secrets from your spouse. I mean, I agree it's generally preferable to be open, but I think you're exaggerating. Do you tell your spouse everything about your life?

Absolutely every single thing. There are NO secrets. When we married, we became one person. It's great, I promise :)

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

#64

Post by auctiontheory »

I read somewhere that the grammar/spelling mistakes in the original "query letter" are intentional, to filter out all reasonably smart and skeptical people, and thereby "qualify the leads." See how the author managed to justify the mistakes to himself, thereby self-identifying as an easy mark.

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

#65

Post by Crito »

mikeash wrote: post #59
smsm42 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which religions do you mean and how exactly do you know they encourage telepathic communications with their God? Do you have sources that confirm your opinion and if so, which sources are those? >>> they only frown on those which aren't approved by the religion. That's a vacuous statement - of course religions approve only things that they approve, and disapprove things that they disapprove. But among the things many…

I was using an unconventional way to describe prayer. The Abrahamic religions all, as far as I know, encourage prayer, and most of them that I know of encourage attempting to receive and interpret a reply. It's common enough that major national political candidates talk about attempting it without getting laughed off the stage. My point about "aren't approved" is that many religions explicitly recommend divination, f…

Exactly. In mainstream Christianity in the US at least, asking your god or saints for help or advice is totally kosher. It is only when you try to communicate with other sorts of beings or things that all of the "witchcraft" stuff kicks in.

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

#66

Post by eggdude »

austenallred wrote: post #56
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…

I ran into the same sort of scam back in the day. I was trying to get by as a content writer, and a guy called me up and said, "Look at my site, I think it needs some new content." He wasn't sure what he needed, and it was definitely poorly written, so I figured I could help out. He told me he wanted to meet me at his office at a local community college. Community colleges regularly have offices available for small s…

Sounds like the company was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LegalShield I remember going to one of those meetings as well.

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

#67

Post by smsm42 »

eurleif wrote: post #53
smsm42 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really can't understand why you chose to answer my comment with this. I pointed out pretty clearly that a practice of homebrewn divination, in which the hero of the article engaged, is not "religious" and actually is explicitly forbidden by many religions. In response to that, you offer me meaningless platitude not connected to anything on the topic. What are you trying to accomplish here?

My point was that Christianity forbids practicing Hinduism just as much as it forbids practicing divination. Being forbidden by religions does not make something non-religious.

That is true, I can imagine a religion which encourages divination and for such religion divination would be a religious practice, of course. However, if such religion exists it is nowhere common in Western world. So a claim that significant amount of religious people belong to such religion would still be wrong.

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

#68

Post by dec0dedab0de »

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…

2003 was not as recent as you may think. There was still a ton of people who were using the Internet for the very first time.

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

#69

Post by eurleif »

smsm42 wrote: post #67
eurleif wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was that Christianity forbids practicing Hinduism just as much as it forbids practicing divination. Being forbidden by religions does not make something non-religious.

That is true, I can imagine a religion which encourages divination and for such religion divination would be a religious practice, of course. However, if such religion exists it is nowhere common in Western world. So a claim that significant amount of religious people belong to such religion would still be wrong.

If anyone ever makes that claim, be sure to tell them that.

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

#70

Post by eplanit »

j_baker wrote: post #54

I don’t recall the exact wording of the email, but the gist of it was that the governor of Lagos West constituency, Bola Tinubu, had hidden around $1 million in a secret bank account to avoid taxes. The money had been stolen from public funds, the email continued, and the Tinubu family couldn’t use it because they were being closely monitored by the government. What did this guy expect? I mean, it's one thing to fall…

"My concern is less about the intelligence of the author."

He was, after all, playing chess on his PC when the scam e-mail arrived. Chess implies intelligence, right?

I agree with you, except I think it's relevant to point out that is naivete in the extreme for anyone to be persuaded by a "Nigerian Prince" e-mail...even in 2003. Would he have been just as gullible had the scammers used postal mail?

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