Nigeria Scam, Again

[catcul]

Maybe they're getting their money from Zimbabwe. A US penny is worth $350 trillion.

BTW, "Loretta lynn" sent me another email today.

[Kit-Ginevra]

I much prefer Tanya Tucker *mmm*

[Argabarga]

FWIW: Back at jury duty 6 months ago, the Judge took some time to warn us that should any of us get an email telling us we have failed to report and are now in contempt of court and will be arrested on the spot unless we pay some arbitrary amount now now now now now to this account .... it isn't real.

While we may have been in some hot water if we hadn't listened to our summons, he assured us that NOBODY gets summarily arrested for that and the court will always contact us on official paper via mail first anyway... so don't listen to it, that's apparently a popular new kind of scam that's been going around, though it's nice to see the Classic Nigerian hasn't gone quite extinct....

[taxguykarl]

Last summer my mom got this (transparent scam) phone call.

Caller: This is your daughter J [to mom's surprise the caller got the name and pronunciation correct]
Mom: My daughter does not speak with a Spanish accent and I'm looking right at her.
-CLICK.

[Deserted]

Caller: This is your daughter J

Anyone who falls for this is an idiot. Nobody calls their parents and says, "Hi, this is your son Deserted." Calling my parents was more like, "Hi, mom," or at most, "Hi dad, it's Deserted." I guarantee my parents knew my voice.

[dawnfire]

hubby got the I'm lost overseas with no money or passport from a work college. The funny thing was hubby had just finished producing her radio show. He was her online producer and was responsible for getting her audio and video feed out onto the internet, so he could see that she was in her home studio in Texas and definitely not in London.

[taxguykarl]

Anyone who falls for this is an idiot.... my parents knew my voice.

No kidding, I can't help but wonder which is worse: the attempted scam or the credit (or lack of) that the scammer gives the mark's intelligence.

[Deserted]

The worst thing is that I heard of this scam years ago... because people were falling for it. Perhaps the scammers weren't acting like their child, but certainly close relatives. (A person would have to be further out from me than second cousin for me to not recognize their voice on the phone, and I have a fairly large family.)

[Nunavut Pants]

No kidding, I can't help but wonder which is worse: the attempted scam or the credit (or lack of) that the scammer gives the mark's intelligence.

It may actually be an advantage to the scammer. After all, if someone isn't bright enough or with it enough to notice all of the problems with the note, they are more likely to fall for the scam in the first place. The scammer wastes less time trying to convince the skeptical that way.

[catcul]

It may actually be an advantage to the scammer. After all, if someone isn't bright enough or with it enough to notice all of the problems with the note, they are more likely to fall for the scam in the first place. The scammer wastes less time trying to convince the skeptical that way.

It looks like Microsoft agrees with you.

[AccountingDrone]

hubby got the I'm lost overseas with no money or passport from a work college. The funny thing was hubby had just finished producing her radio show. He was her online producer and was responsible for getting her audio and video feed out onto the internet, so he could see that she was in her home studio in Texas and definitely not in London.

I got one from one of my email accounts spoofed to another of my email accounts telling m that I was broke and needed money for a ticket to fly home from London =)

[Argabarga]

It also worked on my Grandma, who's too old and feeble-minded to accurately recognize my voice over the phone anymore, only the fact an alert neighbor who was visiting quickly realized what was up and pulled the plug on the phone did it not work.

This is the kind of person they're after......

[Sparklyturtle]

About six years ago I got an e-mail from an aunt telling me she'd gotten one from my brother telling her he was in England, had been robbed of his money and passport, and the U.S. consulate wasn't going to help him without him paying $XXX. In his case it wasn't totally out of the question, as he was military and in a job where he traveled frequently. She asked me to look into it. I spotted it as a scam right away, but I called him to tell him his e-mail had been compromised. I spoke with his wife, who told me my brother was expected home for dinner in about an hour. I let my aunt know and told her if she ever got another message like that to check with me before doing anything (although I didn't know it at the time she had early-onset dementia). I also got one of these e-mails, and another sister got one but she recognized it as the scam it was.