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I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

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Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#231

Post by hosh »

clueless123 wrote: post #176
Johnny555 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my elderly father was becoming careless with his money and giving it away to anyone he perceived to be in "need" ($1,000 or $10,000 at a time), we managed to convince him to give my brother power of attorney - ostensibly to make health care decisions, but in reality, the family moved his funds to a new account that dad didn't know about. This was likely illegal as it was done without his knowledge, but it proved…

There is a point in life when like it or not, switching roles with our parents is the right thing to do. The hardest part is accepting that this is necessary.

There's an interesting myth that Joseph Campbell explained: A Victorian-era dinner table. Everyone dressed up to the nines, about to start a civilized dinner. When the course is served, you realize they were eating their children.

Sounds gruesome if you take it literally. Taking it mythically, though, the Father eats the Son, meaning the child becomes the adult.

Roles and life is not forever. There is a natural cycle to things, from birth to death, from one generation to the next. In this case, in switching roles, you truly become the adult, and leave behind the last remanent of childhood.

And when you grow old enough, it will be your turn, just as it will be for me.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#233

Post by hosh »

jhulla wrote: post #154
michael_h wrote: post #53

My mother in law is currently $150,000+ deep on a Facebook romance scam. I believe she's about to send him another $200k or so when her house is sold. Instead of living out her retirement in relative comfort, she will be scraping by on social security. Adult services can't help, because moonshot-level stupidity is not a mental disorder. She can't live with us, as she can no longer be trusted. She can't live on her ow…

I am sorry for your situation. For others who are concerned about this range of problems, consider the following issue carefully: elderly parents who for whatever reason compromise their financial and/or physical health are placing a direct burden on you. Although their debts do not transfer to you, you may very well be on the hook due to familial obligations. E.g. your MIL gives up all of her assets to a fraudster.…

I wrote above about the myths (as in folklore, ancestor wisdom, not "myth" to mean something is superstitious to be dismissed with prejudice) on role reversals. So I get it. Setting up trust funds and other legal instruments is sensible, and it is what I'm planning with my children.

On the flip side, I grew up in a Taiwanese household in America.

Culturally, such a thing is not considered a burden, and is part of the continuity of lineage.

What's fascinating for me is that:

(1) There is an assumed incompetency for the elderly

(2) Deeper still, seems to me a lot of people in America has trouble with death and dying.

Several years ago, my father died of lung cancer. I only got to visit him once, for a week. We arranged for a limited power of attorney to try to get the finances in shape, but I wasn't able to accomplish everything he wished for me. He wanted to make sure I had a legacy from him. I wasn't able to visit him one more time to tell him what his real legacy he left behind was.

My sister is an MD, and arranged for an in-home care. She financially took care of my parents even before my dad died -- bought a car for him to drive, bought a fridge for my mom to replace that crusty old thing, paying gas bill because my mother insists on keeping the house at 50F to save on money.

I don't think either my sister or I consider that heroic. It's just the thing to do.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#234

Post by logicallee »

yesbabyyes wrote: post #211
logicallee wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

read this. also fascinating. yes, write it up if you find a good medium (hint hint) to publish it on. question: you write in one point here "I'm interested in magic myself." You can't say that to this crowd if you said it I would stop reading your article for credibility reasons. So if you believe that any kind of magic or spells exist (that aren't tricks), then you should separate out this belief from your report, b…

I get what you mean, I've been frequenting HN for years so I know the crowd. Regarding magic, to me it's not so much about whether magic exists but what it is. Sure, it's trickery, originally I guess it is what we would call technology, only wider, technology and psychology perhaps. It's about making things come to happen. I guess I could put it this way, Clarke's quote ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indis…

from what you've just stated it's fine. What I meant is that there are people who believe you could levitate objects with your mind (like in the xmen comic books) and since you're writing about things that are already really, really outlandish it's SUPER-important not to fall into a comic-book style of narration!! :) If you thought you (or anyone) could actually levitate objects with your mind (and no technology) then it would make everything that you wrote about what you've just shared with us really suspect.

if you write it the way you've just written it, that won't be an issue. Just be clear that what you've shared with us just now already sounds like a comic book!! :) I mean, you've literally written that there are people who ask people to kill someone and get body parts, as part of voodoo. There are people walking around naked after being given drugs. The last thing that is needed is for the narrator to themselves also be suspect, for example by reporting that someone shows him how to levitate objects with his mind (no tricks and technology), and that it works.

So I really look forward to reading more whenever you write it up. What you've written so far is already comic-book style! But I hope you won't embellish and will stick to the facts. :)

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#235

Post by joewee »

mikk14 wrote: post #150
joewee wrote: post #23

Nigeria is #1 / #2 wealthiest country in Africa (GDP). It ranks amoung the highest in terms of advanced degree graduates in Africa. But it has a extremely low Human Development Index, there isn't much opportunity for the educated. Nigerians outside of Nigeria will generally be better educated than the local workforce but unable find work for various reasons. Common issue in Europe, where many 419 scams actually opera…

Nigeria is not the wealthiest country in Africa, not even close. They have the highest GDP just because they have twice the population of the second most populous country in Africa. If you look at GDP per capita, they're barely scraping the top 20 of Africa [1] which, as you can expect, is not very high. It's growing, though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_countries_by_G...

Nigeria has a higher per capita than India, which is considered the #7 economy in the world.

What low per capita income tells me is that despite being a wealthy country citizens don't have a lot of opportunity to earn wealth. Which is my point.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#236

Post by joewee »

6stringmerc wrote: post #67
joewee wrote: post #23

Nigeria is #1 / #2 wealthiest country in Africa (GDP). It ranks amoung the highest in terms of advanced degree graduates in Africa. But it has a extremely low Human Development Index, there isn't much opportunity for the educated. Nigerians outside of Nigeria will generally be better educated than the local workforce but unable find work for various reasons. Common issue in Europe, where many 419 scams actually opera…

Intelligent people with time on their hands an on the border of desperation makes logical sense that petty crime or white-collar type fraud crimes would extremely appealing. High ROI.

I think its the reason why there's a lot of cyber crime from eastern Europe.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#237

Post by losteverything »

I have had people come to the counter and ask to send money to Nigeria and other places. I have to make sure everyone at that money desk knows about fraud.

Never wire money to someone you don't know. Never. [0]

Have you won a prize? Once you deposit the moeny, will they send you more money? Was it a tax refund? Is there a serious medical situation you are helping with?

[0] http://corporate.moneygram.com/compliance/fraud-prevention/c...

All too often the people coming in to wire money know the fraud detection questions.. and say our answers in advance.. "Yes, I met them," for example. Plus, these are regular customers that buy and return other items.. they are friends by work-customer-association.

They know the workers who refuse their transfer..

They know the system that requires suspected fraud and how we have to report it..

They still don't know how to spell the persons name, so they take out their rabbit eared email out of their purse next to their cane and read each letter out loud..

"I think this is a scam," I say.

"Can I talk to a manager, please. Now"

"I am a manager. I will not proceed with this transaction. "

In the end if someone wants to send money to someone they don't know they will find a way...

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#239

Post by rdtsc »

wodenokoto wrote: post #78
whack wrote: post #69

One thing I never quite understood. These "Nigerian prince" scams can originate from any developing nation where the exchange rate makes for very lucrative prospects. Ie, Chile, Egypt, Romania, Kazakhstan, China, India, Thailand, etc etc. Why do a disproportionate number of these scams seem to originate from Nigeria?

According to wikipedia most don't originate from Nigeria, but claim to do so, which to me only ads to the mystery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam

Not surprising at all. This is all very rational actually.

The idea is this: Nigeria is a common place for such online scams. It is so well known, that only the most gullible and unaware people would believe and respond to the emails. And, guess what kind of people the scammers are looking for ...

Using a different place runs the risk of getting too many responses with a high percentage of those who are smart enough to soon quickly realize it is scam, so now scammers wasted their time on that.

They'd rather use bad English, really stereotypical phrases and so on. It is a good filter.

Re: I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

#240

Post by totony »

clueless123 wrote: post #176
Johnny555 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my elderly father was becoming careless with his money and giving it away to anyone he perceived to be in "need" ($1,000 or $10,000 at a time), we managed to convince him to give my brother power of attorney - ostensibly to make health care decisions, but in reality, the family moved his funds to a new account that dad didn't know about. This was likely illegal as it was done without his knowledge, but it proved…

There is a point in life when like it or not, switching roles with our parents is the right thing to do. The hardest part is accepting that this is necessary.

Sure, stealing someone's autonomy seems like the natural course of life.

As saddening as seeing that happen can be, stealing from someone "for is own good" is still stealing.

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