people are still falling for this?

[MadduckUK]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...t-MySpace.html

durrrrrr

i dont read the daily mail btw, its pinched from somewhere else

[Fraz]

A fool and his money are soon parted. That guy must be a real numpty. I feel sorry for the guy and all, but falling for the same trick twice makes him exceptionally stupid.

[[GSV]Trig]

I would of thought all he'd have to do was look in a mirror, then look at the picture of her, then step away from the PC....

[Litts]

I would of thought all he'd have to do was look in a mirror, then look at the picture of her, then step away from the PC....

Why oh why he even handed over a penny I don't know. Only thing I can think of in his defence is it's not exactly a traditional Nigerian scam where they contact you randomly for money straight off, he thought he 'knew her'

Still, goes to show you can't trust your 'friends'

[[GSV]Trig]

I might try to scam some poor idiot out of some money, need £30k to clear all my debts, anyone got an email address for this muppet?

[Fraz]

I might try to scam some poor idiot out of some money, need £30k to clear all my debts, anyone got an email address for this muppet?

No, but I know this really nice girl who wants to be your friend. Here's a pic:



Send me your email address and I'll introduce you.

PS: Is your IQ below 70? She really likes dumb men.

[badass]

A fool and his money are soon parted. That guy must be a real numpty. I feel sorry for the guy and all, but falling for the same trick twice makes him exceptionally stupid.

Couldn't put it better myself. Still can't help but feel a little sorry for him.
Spotting an internet scan is easy. If you are approached and asked for money, it's a scam.

[cptwhite_uk]

He said that he became suspicious when the woman stopped communicating with him and contacted what he thought was a website run by the FBI in America but which turned out to be another scam.

[TheAnimus]

Spotting an internet scan is easy. If you are approached and asked for money, it's a scam.

CRAP.

I fell for it

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/

[Fraz]

CRAP.

I fell for it

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/

n00b. Everyone knows you're not supposed to pay taxes.

[eshrules]

Meh, £130k?

I prefer to bait the scamming peeps

--- On Mon, 15/9/08, Eshrules wrote:

From: Eshrules
Subject: Re: purshase



Dear mr adesina .e.

"Esh really does rule" is english for authenticity, once you've provided the picture of yourself, holding a piece of paper saying this, I will be only too happy to enter into a transaction with you for your monies.

kind regards

EE

EBENEZER wrote:

Sir,i just recieved your message now and i can tell you that i have taking the picture you requested for in which i will send to you before this runs out nad the reason for
yhe delay is because my system got damage and when gave it to the person that will repair it after some weeks he then advice that i should get another system which it took something to put the money together

and for my country i can still tell you that we have alot of honest people is only few that are
tring to give the country bad image again sir,im giving my number for record purpose 234-8034052875,234-79938999

regards







and his response when I told him I'd ousted him as the scammer that he is?

EBENEZER wrote:

what an insult and i think i have tolorated you enough and it look as if you do not respect yourself niether other people.to hell with what ever you think you are and to hell with you and your VAG CABLE.Idiot like you calling some a scamer without any regards.FOOOOOL

[shadowmaster]

[XA04]

I read this, this morning. I genuinely felt sorry for him at first cause not everyone is as tech minded as us guys but the more I read the less sorry I felt.. total idiot tbh.

[mallett]

The 32-year-old said he was friends with 'Angela Gates' for several weeks

I'm sorry but this says it all really! Who starts to give out money to someone they never met and have been 'friends' with on myspace for several weeks, and then to be scammed AGAIN with exactly the same scam after finding out the first scam was a scam?!

Saying all this though I do feel sorry for the bloke but then cant help wondering how a 32 year old postman had £130K savings

[Flash477]

I know not everyone is tech savvy, but honestly have people got no common sense!

Saying all this though I do feel sorry for the bloke but then cant help wondering how a 32 year old postman had £130K savings

You'd be supprised how much money gets sent by post

[Saracen]

A fool and his money are soon parted. That guy must be a real numpty. I feel sorry for the guy and all, but falling for the same trick twice makes him exceptionally stupid.

Yes, but .....



...... these people are skilful at picking suitable targets, and "building a relationship". It's FAR more subtle that the typical "my uncle died, help get £30m out of the country for 20%" type scam.

There was quite a long radio interview with a Nigerian scammer's victim just before Christmas. They'd played her for a long time before tapping her for money. They'd spent ages (Months, IIRC) on the phone, they knew details of her kids, grandkids, and so on, the she "knew" details about their lives, college attendance, family issues and so forth. They really had her convinced they were friends. And then it starts small. It's a pretty trivial sum. Then a bit more .... and it builds. And the victim? An elderly lady, widowed, lonely and, clearly, vulnerable.

And that's the particularly heartless part of all this. By and large, they won't get young, technically savvy people, because they see it coming. They won't get me either, because if you ring me out of the blue, you've got at best about 5 seconds to convince me you've got a valid reason why I want to be talking to you or I hang up, and I mean valid to me. Oh, and marketing anything isn't a valid reason.

I have an elderly, widowed mother-in-law that's comfortably off. Fortunately, she's cynical enough to see golddiggers coming (and despite being in her '70s, she had men sniffing round within a few weeks of her husband's funeral). So I've spend quite a lot of time keeping her up-to-date with scams, so that if she does get this kind of contact by phone or post (and she doesn't use a PC) she knows the type of thing that happens. And she runs things past me when getting anything involving money through the post, whoever it's from. If she gets something unexpected from her gas company (or it was her water supplier last time), I get a phone call. And I'm glad, because while she's fairly cynical, I'm a intergalactic Grand Master cynic. I DO look an apparent gift horse in the mouth, and check for unexpired Hire Purchase.

So while it's easy for most of us to think you have to be stupid to fall for this (and I suppose you do), most people are fairly trusting at heart, especially with "friends", and if you've targeted a vulnerable, lonely person, I suspect that even if they have an inkling it's a con, they want to believe in this "friend".

It's a powerful approach if played right. And sure, it won't work with most people. But when you hit a goldmine like this poor bloke from time to time, it doesn't need to work for most people. These cons work because they're typically done very gently and it can be quite a while before they start to reel the fish in. Up to then, there's plenty of slack.