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Wait, There Really Are Mysterious Nigerian Fortunes Of 55 Million Dollars US?
from the pleased-if-you-would-be-helping-me dept
It's still surprising to us when we hear about anyone falling for a Nigerian 419 scam. The damn things are so common that you should immediately know to ignore them. So, what do you do when an actual story shows up about a mysterious Nigerian fortune of a man who died in a plane crash that's being fought over by his two wives? Slashdot points us to a story the BBC has published about the Nigerian government seizing $55 million of illegally gained assets, that only came to light after the guy who had it died in a plane crash and his second (previously unknown to the first) wife showed up to claim it. Honestly, the BBC piece reads like it was taken straight from a scam email, and even quotes the anonymous "our correspondent" who provides details on the deceased being "patriotic and selfless" (when he wasn't skimming money, apparently). We have to believe that the BBC did their fact checking on this one, but it sure does read like any of the 30 or so Nigerian scam emails sitting in my spam folder right now.
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"...but it sure does read like any of the 30 or so Nigerian scam emails sitting in my spam folder right now"
Come on... you don't really still get those do you? I haven't gotten one of those for years. I thought all the Nigerians had moved on to selling V1agra and R0lex watches.
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Scam??
What do you mean "Scam?" He was probably coming to deliver MY money!! It's taken 22 responses and countless wire transfers, but apparently he was coming to finally give me the money he said I would get. Yay!
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Re:
They are still out there. I get one every now and then . . .
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Fans of the Scam
Fans of the scam should also know about this site.... darn funny in my opinion...
http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/
as for this article... if it is indeed true your sure to see a few hopefuls try to reference the BBC article in their next lot of scams...
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I am not suprised
I know for a fact that there are Nigerian fortunes out there ( I am from Nigeria and know people whots work for the Govt.) A lot of oil revenue from Nigeria ends up in a select few's pockets. Think! of a country that has over 60% of its GDP go to some form of Graft. Sometimes I am ashamed to say I am from the country:(
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Scam baiting... have some fun
http://www.419eater.com/html/hall_of_shame.htm
Yes, thats a real link, it goes press sometime back, very funny stuff.
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ZeFrank
Have you seen ZeFrank re-enact the email? Priceless: TED 2004
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God, I have gas....
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Re: Fans of the Scam
EbolaMonkeyMan.com is hilarious! I'm friends with the guy who runs it :)
Hopefully this doesn't give these scams legitimacy in the eyes of the easily fooled....
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nigerian fortunes
Maybe Dan Rather did the story for the BBC and forgot to check if it was factual...there's been a lot of that going around lately...
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What's next?
Great, what's next, Cialis will really allow me to please my woman better?
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Don't laugh
Those emails are my bread and butter. I've got to live too, you know.
By the way, I'm a lonely Russian widow, 24, 5'9", 112 lbs. I'm looking for a generous, gentle man who is interested in exploring the possiblity of a relationship and perhaps even marriage. I just need enough money for a first-class ticket to America.
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Pity
Has techdirt gotten so bad that it now just reposts slashdot postings? I thought we read techdirt cause we wanted to get away from slashdot mindless ramblings.
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bbc spam
maybe the bbc got spam in the new story inbox and some tard passed it off as news.
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Re: I am not suprised
I agree with you about the fortunes Dayo, but I don't get ashamed for my country to the extent of denying it. If we spent all our time criticising and moaning about our fate instead of bestiring ourselves to activity, things would just get worse. So some of our generation take time out to devise practical and sustainable solutions to the problems at hand with emphasis on the grassroots, and see no need to resort to rhetoric nor attract publicity to ourselves.
As to the late pastor Akanni, I knew him personally and he always struck me as a very quiet and frugal person, which was why the discovery that he was worth N7 billion was astounding, but then again, considering what I know about top civil servants in Nigeria, it wasn't so surprising. Na just say nobody sabi say INEC get that kind of money.
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