Falling for a scam again

This guy must be a moron

[Habtom]

I was surprised to hear on a local radio station today, a guy actually very recently went down to Nigeria to get a share of his promised million dollar, only to find that there is no bank of such a name at all at the address given.

The guy himself with quite a good finanical background and working at a bank himself, I couldn't believe it at all he went down there to personally collect his share.

What would you call this? Greed?

[rocker]

A county treasurer in Michigan got scammed. Not only did he send his personal money, he also sent over a million dollars that he embezzeled from the county fund.

[michigan.gov...]

[Habtom]

rocker, what in the world was he thinking? What was he expecting to get by sending a million dollars?

[wyweb]

What was he expecting to get by sending a million dollars?

Two million, I'd imagine.

[timster]

What would you call this? Greed?

I think some folks, their brains just start to short-circuit when they see enough zeros.

About 10 years ago, I was explaining this scam to a salesman I worked with. The guy just kept saying, "But what if it's true!?" He could barely hold still he was so excited.

[rocknbil]

People have disappeared chasing their money off to Nigeria. Yeah I'd say greed is always at the root of it.

[vik_c]

I had a far relative call me recently wanting to know if the Yahoo lottery was genuine. I laughed it off and asked him not to fall for that con game. He appeared disappointed, even a little irritated and implied that maybe since I 'didn't know much' he had better ask someone else. I insisted that it was a con game. He wanted to know if there was a Yahoo email address he could send mail to, for confirming the lottery prize. He 'didn't want to take chances' because 'the amount involved was so huge'. Exasperated, I gave him the Yahoo support email address and ended the call politely. Some people are sitting ducks when it comes to these con games, almost begging to be taken.

[ronin]

What would you call this? Greed?

Naivety.

It's not that they're so greedy that they don't know any better.

They just don't know any better.

[Old_Honky]

I think it's stupidity and lack of creative thinking. If you need some money to send to validate the win on the lottery you never entered just borrow it from the nice Nigerian guy who has $35M to send you.

My old gran used to say "you don't get owt for nowt" but she also said "you can't educate pork". :~)

[Lipik]

Money is for some people like a drug. It makes them 'dizzy' in some way.
In the city I live, some years ago, there was a 'banker' who promised much better intrest over a Swiss construction (and in black - in Europe you pay taxes on intrest). When normal intrest was around 5% he promised 15% to 20%. Every normal person would now it's impossible, but yet lot's of (rich) people stept into his trap and never saw back their money. These people where all kind of persons, including high educated like doctors, big entrepeneurs, even lawyers!
So yes, many zeros makes people stupid.

[Green_Grass]

In India , hundreds of little guys keep falling for this scam. They simply donot have the 'internet' knowledge or knowhow to, discern it is a scam. And they keep reading the newspapers where they keep applauding 'internet' millionaires..so when the email comes..they think YES..this is our chance! The small folk at small towns are particularly suceptible and we keep hearing of 'Nigerians' being arrested from some hotel or another with thousands of USD.. It Sad really.. The money they send over is really hard earned and when it vanishes..It hurts. (really hurts, and it is not really funny.. it is a crime)

Then on another note, my friend who is a post graduate in law, asked me..what if this was true.. he really wanted to try it!

So greed is the motivating factor.

[vincevincevince]

I put it down to a combination of trust and greed. I guess people everywhere will learn not to trust and not to be greedy at some point in their life; hopefully just once and hopefully with something small.

When you're a baby you learn to trust people; if you don't then you have a really tough time of things. You've got to trust that someone carrying you is not going to drop you, that you'll not be left alone and hungry or needing a change. By the time you're a teenager, you've got to have learnt to trust nobody but those who have proved themselves to you over a long period of time.

Otherwise, you're a sitting duck waiting to fall into someone's scam. Perhaps it should be a secondary school subject for first years: Distrust; with an exam in which you need to spot ways that people in various situations might cheat you.