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Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

wired.com

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Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#31

Post by heresie-dabord »

nottorp wrote: post #10
spoonjim wrote: post #6

Americans are great marks because we are so relentlessly optimistic

It helps that marketing that is defined as fraud elsewhere is legal for you ... you get used to it.

From TFA:

"You've probably noticed that online scams are everywhere.

You see them on job recruitment sites, in your text messages,on dating apps and across social media.

And while people are getting better at spotting these scams, scammers are constantly advancing too.

Arguably, the most hurtful,personal and financially damaging of these scams is romance scams"

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#32

Post by samlinnfer »

Krasnol wrote: post #27
pembrook wrote: post #25

Certain cities in countries like Nigeria and Morocco have become fraud “Silicon Valleys” where there’s quite literally tens of thousands of people collaborating and sharing best practices on how best to scam Americans and Europeans. This will only get worse with AI. When I worked for a certain large inbox provider a few years back, I was astonished at the volume of fraud and phishing attempts that actually originate…

It is good to hear that it is coming from countries which has been played by the Western World on the globalization front. Then ripping off those who profited from their low status and relevance on the world market gives it a nice Robin Hood touch.

It's good to hear that scammers are taking your grandparents retirement money as reparations for colonial acts?

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#34

Post by rightbyte »

pembrook wrote: post #25

Certain cities in countries like Nigeria and Morocco have become fraud “Silicon Valleys” where there’s quite literally tens of thousands of people collaborating and sharing best practices on how best to scam Americans and Europeans. This will only get worse with AI. When I worked for a certain large inbox provider a few years back, I was astonished at the volume of fraud and phishing attempts that actually originate…

Invade Nigeria?

Jingoist war mongerers have been trying to use hacks with baseless claims about ethnicity of the hackers as casus belli for quite some time now.

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#36

Post by prawn »

wongarsu wrote: post #18
matsemann wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

All three of those plus more, but language barrier might be the biggest reason. Most Europeans speak English, but most scams are only plausible in your native language or the national language of your country. Europe is a patchwork of different languages. English has a much bigger "market" of victims for international scammers, many of them might already know some English before their career

Also, generally known network of payment methods, banks and brands to phish via?

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#37

Post by throwaway48476 »

ggm wrote: post #13

Not that there aren't massive downsides, but I do wonder where the spend side of this $1T goes. If it's shifted out of the USA then its being spent somewhere else. I've never seen a decent write up of how the crooks invest the money, where they accept losses (muling?) and how they re-invest.

See "I go chop your dollar". Scammers also buy a lot of stolen luxury vehicles in 3rd world countries. The CBC did an investigation where they they to a Nigerian car dealership and everything was stolen, usually from Canada or the US.

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#38

Post by rightbyte »

matsemann wrote: post #9
roenxi wrote: post #4

I'm not going to read the "article" because it is a transcript and looks a bit rambly and I don't expect it to be talking about anything interesting. But just going to the headline here; consider the base rate. North America has huge per-capita wealth (by a bit of a margin over most other large players). It is expected that scammers would target them and make the most profit there.

But why less Europeans? A language barrier for some countries? More regulations about robocalls etc? GDPR and better privacy so our data isn't as easy to exploit?

I think more Americans manage their own pension funds. Also worse consumer protection?

Re: Scammers Steal $1T a Year – Mostly from Americans

#40

Post by pembrook »

rightbyte wrote: post #34
pembrook wrote: post #25

Certain cities in countries like Nigeria and Morocco have become fraud “Silicon Valleys” where there’s quite literally tens of thousands of people collaborating and sharing best practices on how best to scam Americans and Europeans. This will only get worse with AI. When I worked for a certain large inbox provider a few years back, I was astonished at the volume of fraud and phishing attempts that actually originate…

Invade Nigeria? Jingoist war mongerers have been trying to use hacks with baseless claims about ethnicity of the hackers as casus belli for quite some time now.

Who said that? Can easily inflict pain via sanctions and other means to get the corrupt Nigerian government to meaningfully do something.

Nigeria is not like Russia, they do not have super valuable energy resources nor a scary military they can lord over the rest of the world with.

By allowing this activity it actually hurts Nigeria the most as it prevents the country from ever developing the institutions and international trust necessary for economic development.

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