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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

#91

Post by arjie »

herbig wrote: post #2

"I’m superstitious, so one night I told myself, All right, if I win a game of hearts with less than 15 points, I’ll do it. I’d never scored that low in my life, so when I landed at 11 points, I thought it was a sign and decided to buy a ticket." There's your problem right there. People like this are prone to other irrational thinking. I would bet that the vast majority of people who fall for this stuff are also deepl…

It's being down on his luck that did it. I read something a while ago that the reason why many poor people do stupid things (like spend large amounts on the lottery) is that they tend to have poor judgement in general. However, the poor judgement arises from the poverty. When you are highly stressed about money, you find it hard to think rationally, apparently.

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

#93

Post by Crito »

arjie wrote: post #91
herbig wrote: post #2

"I’m superstitious, so one night I told myself, All right, if I win a game of hearts with less than 15 points, I’ll do it. I’d never scored that low in my life, so when I landed at 11 points, I thought it was a sign and decided to buy a ticket." There's your problem right there. People like this are prone to other irrational thinking. I would bet that the vast majority of people who fall for this stuff are also deepl…

It's being down on his luck that did it. I read something a while ago that the reason why many poor people do stupid things (like spend large amounts on the lottery) is that they tend to have poor judgement in general. However, the poor judgement arises from the poverty. When you are highly stressed about money, you find it hard to think rationally, apparently.

I am not convinced that adequately explains the correlation. The poor may gamble away an irrational amount of their money because they are too stressed to think rationally, but it may also be the case that the endorphin hit that gambling gives them offers them a sort of temporary escape. Gambling addiction looks, at least on the surface, to have a lot in common with addiction to substances.

I agree with your general premise, hardship probably does drive people to attempt the irrational, but I think gambling isn't necessarily a great example of this since there is likely more going on there.

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

#94

Post by vacri »

smsm42 wrote: post #37
herbig wrote: post #2

"I’m superstitious, so one night I told myself, All right, if I win a game of hearts with less than 15 points, I’ll do it. I’d never scored that low in my life, so when I landed at 11 points, I thought it was a sign and decided to buy a ticket." There's your problem right there. People like this are prone to other irrational thinking. I would bet that the vast majority of people who fall for this stuff are also deepl…

You know there's a difference between being religious and asking Hearts game to tell you if you should participate in the 419 scam? Most religions actually frown very hard of those kind of things. For Avraamic religions, there's a direct prohibition of such practices in Leviticus 19:26.

Leviticus prohibits all sorts of crazy things that devout people ignore.

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

#95

Post by yaliceme »

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…

Couldn't agree more. My mom almost got taken in by a classic Craigslist scam, which did a lot to make me appreciate how easy it can be for even smart people to fall prey (she's an IT professional, has an advanced degree, and is quite smart in general).

Basically, she'd listed some furniture for sale. A guy contacted her with praise for the item and said he was a purchaser for a regional furniture reseller -- he finds nice used furniture for them and gets a cut of what they pay to the original owner (e.g. my mom). The two of them agreed on a price (including his commission), then he mailed her a check from "his company" and asked her to wire him his cut. At the point I found out about this (it came up in passing completely by accident), she'd deposited the check and was planning to wire the money the next day.

I told her it was a classic scam and to please not wire the money. She didn't believe me; she'd successfully sold furniture on craigslist before, the guy's e-mails sounded legit, and the bank seemed to have accepted the check just fine. I told her it takes a few days for the check to fail. She still thought it was fine, but for my sake, agreed to at least wait a few days.

Sure enough, the check bounced. My mom described how masterfully the scammer worked upon her feelings in the meantime, asking where the money was, sounding hurt and angry that she was withholding his "cut" on purpose and trying to cheat him, saying he'd trusted her with the check because she seemed nice. Even with my dire warnings, she felt bad about waiting for the check to clear, but luckily she did.

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

#96

Post by vacri »

livingparadox wrote: post #8
herbig wrote: post #2

"I’m superstitious, so one night I told myself, All right, if I win a game of hearts with less than 15 points, I’ll do it. I’d never scored that low in my life, so when I landed at 11 points, I thought it was a sign and decided to buy a ticket." There's your problem right there. People like this are prone to other irrational thinking. I would bet that the vast majority of people who fall for this stuff are also deepl…

I nearly choked on my water when I read his method for vetting it. Also, I take a slight offense at that last part...

It's pretty clear in the article that he was trying to convince himself despite his doubts. If he didn't get the low score in his game, he would have found something else to convince him it was right.

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

#97

Post by hbmnn »

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."

It's Vice, check out the quality of their other articles. They'll take anything that sounds seedy, from the mundane to the fake.

I don't buy it at all, it feels like something I'd write if I was trying to troll a magazine for money.

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

#98

Post by nikatwork »

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."

It's very real: http://www.419eater.com/

The letters are deliberately implausible to weed out smart people so the scammers don't waste time on them:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...

Personally, I want to know where all these dumb people are getting their money, and can I please have some too :(

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

#99

Post by tedunangst »

mikeash wrote: post #79
Crito wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My favorite quote on the matter: "The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive." (Note: don't take my quoting of Sam Harris as an endorsement of him in general. I ha…

"everybody" knows God is omnipotent (and omnipresent). He can hear your prayers without the hairdryer amplification, which the President should surely know. Using a hairdryer to communicate implies that the President believes in a God that cannot hear unamplified prayers; i.e. the President doesn't believe in the "real" God.

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

#100

Post by tedunangst »

Crito wrote: post #62
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?

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...

Divination or guidance? Saying "Please God, help know whether to take the job in Cleveland when I wake up" and then sleeping on it was probably acceptable. "Please God, let me roll snake eyes if I should move to Cleveland" is probably less acceptable.
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