Live data from Hacker News

I went to Nigeria to meet a man who scammed me

bbc.com

71–80 of 263 posts

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

#71

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 think shes gone senile. Go see a doctor.

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

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they won't. We can take over her finances if she is declared mentally incompetent . She's not mentally incompetent - she understands everything, but she just disagrees with the crucial bit: that the dude doesn't love her and is scamming her. As the judge told us yesterday : we are walking a fine line, taking over another person's autonomy, but it's not illegal to fall in love and do colossally stupid things.

But wouldn't that mean that you and your SO would inherit these debts when she dies, and there's nothing you can do about this? That's truly awful :(.

I don't think you can inherit cash loan debt. You can inherit property that is still under mortgage (no problem there), but then it's a choice: keep the house and pay the mortgage debt or sell the house/give it to the bank.

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

#73
post #18

Reminder that most advance-fee scams do not originate from Nigeria. Such articles like this one stereotype Nigeria in a falsely negative manner. >While Nigeria is most often the nation referred to in these scams, they may originate in other nations as well. For example, in 2006, 61% of Internet criminals were traced to locations in the United States, while 16% were traced to the United Kingdom and 6% to locations in…

Microsoft published a research paper on "Why Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria". Was that research paper a stereotype that painted Nigeria in a false and negative manner? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...

The paper is wrong. The reason they say they are from Nigeria is simple - "Follow the money." Those who don't have a means of collecting money from outside the country must mention Nigeria eventually.

Those who've been in the game for a while, have the ability to collect money from any country the "victim" feels comfortable sending money to.

Also, about the intentional grammatical error. It's not intentional. Many of them aren't educated. In fact, most learn to use the computer and internet on the job.

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

#74
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?

One simple explanation is that Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Also Lagos is massive city and has good internet (better than more rural areas) so you have a lot of people without a lot money, but a lot of time and relatively cheap internet access.

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

#75
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of: Go to a bank. Get a job there and work there for years and years learning the place from the inside, and also learning how all of the processes and procedures are done, earning everyone's trust and respect, and simultaneously building up a 401k with matching while also going up the career ladder and taking more and more positions with more responsibility and more pay until one day you finally decide th…

Motherfucker, thats called a job!

For everyone who hasn't realised this is a Key & Peele sketch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly33QgeDphw

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

#76

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 think shes gone senile. Go see a doctor.

Probably not senile, but certainly a mental breakdown. Which makes 'seeing a doctor' easier said than done. She's not a gentle lady being tricked out of her cash, she's tenaciously ejecting her money to a dude she thinks she's going to marry, while everyone around her is making her miserable.

The whole situation is beyond surreal.

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

#77
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?

Success rate....

Also other countries have different scams. I ran an import export and frequently pakistan scammers looking for an business visa would try to fake a business with you.

They would waste hours of your time before dropping the act, annoucing they cant pay $ 10k and really just want to illegally work in your country.

Way worse.....one guy did actually show up after conning another guy successfully. Turns out he was legit in business but wanted to inspect wares first before wiring a ton of cash. That was a shock when he showed up on my doorstep. Imagine the nigerian prince dude you told to get lost ringing your doorbell 6 months later!!!!

Good ol alibaba chats...

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

#78
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

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

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't fully understand your situation, and it must be horrible and frustrating and painful, but there must be some way you can get through to her?

The first day he messaged her, we told her it was a scam to take window's money. Four months later, when we discovered she had been talking to him in the intervening months, we showed her a few websites that detail exactly how the romance scam works (matching her situation exactly ). Last weekend, when we found out all of her money was gone, we had the police and adult protective services come out and tell her point…

There's an interesting concept I read about, how members of doomsday cults tend to believe MORE strongly after the doomsday date passes and everything is shown to be false.

It's something about cognitive dissonance.

I wonder if there is a known way to convince someone who is in this state. Cult debunkers and such might have thoughts?

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

#80
post #24

Reminder that most advance-fee scams do not originate from Nigeria. Such articles like this one stereotype Nigeria in a falsely negative manner. >While Nigeria is most often the nation referred to in these scams, they may originate in other nations as well. For example, in 2006, 61% of Internet criminals were traced to locations in the United States, while 16% were traced to the United Kingdom and 6% to locations in…

> Such articles like this one stereotype Nigeria in a falsely negative manner. Err, the author actually WENT to Nigeria to meet her actual Nigerian scammer -- and others doing the same. What stereotype? She doesn't say that most Nigerians or only Nigerians do such things -- but that's what happened to her.

Just because this one did, doesn't mean most do.
Post reply on HN