WARNING: Member fraud - Page 2

juantoo3 · 07-23-2007, 02:07 PM

Kindest Regards, Angel!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

How do so many people fall for such things?

While I agree with you, I think people "fall for such things" because of our inherent attitudes. One needn't be greedy, per se, but surely one could use a few extra bucks now and then? What difference between this and "falling for" an advertisement to get a new credit card, or automobile, or step up to a new house? That is why these scams, and many others like them, work. People see a means to "step up" in the world with little or no real effort on their own part (using "OPM," other people's money). In the "legitimate" offers, one extends oneself into the servitude of debt to satisfy this innate desire. In the "illegitimate" offers, there is the play on this innate desire and if one is not careful, as you suggest, then one can be "scammed." It is a delicate dance, because even legitimate offers can ultimately bring one to financial ruin. Few of us are disciplined well enough to live within our own means.

wil · 07-23-2007, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

I too have received such emails. Before deleting them I inform their email providers who are always fast to reply and assure me that they take this seriously. But I agree with 17th, to fall for such scams you must be either sick with greed or over-dosing on stupid pills.

Chris Hansen, Dateline has been doing some expose's on these things... In the US a lot of folks get taken by spammers...while greed is often a factor some of it is older folks who just get inundated with all the charity stuff, and get to the point where they are sending money off every week to someone...once they get on the list they get on everyones list....plus they've added plain old ID theft to the mix...get them to give $10...and then clean out their bank account...

In Nigeria there are now schools teaching the con...and thousands sitting at internet cafe's spamming the world with the old ones and all the new twists..anything to get a piece of info to add to the database to complete the picture...Benin is now being used as the world is slowly getting hip to Nigerian scams...the nigerian scammers buy products in the US and have them shipped to someone and then get that someone to ship it to Benin...where they collect billions of dollars of products which if they sell it at 10% of its value on the black market turns into millions of revenue...

Francis king · 07-23-2007, 03:27 PM

I have had two such emails this past week, one from nigeria and one from a woman in supposedly saudi... I did not give CF or my other forums that email addy, and was curious as to how I'd been found... am curious to see if others get them and also if those who do from this site also signed the womens rights petition which was a link some of us followed from this site which a member had posted sincerely, as that was the only occasion I have used this other email addy...

adios

17th Angel · 07-23-2007, 03:30 PM

You don't -just- get spam from forums..

There are thousands of ways...

Jaun.... I wouldn't put it on greed.. I am a selfish barsteward... But I am careful you know? You scope it out you see hwo you can do something while keeping your hands clean, like a shadow.. No trace nice and easy bam, the old in and out... Got it, get it... gone

I guess some fail to risk assess situations oh well, I am sorry for them... They will live to fight another day, they have burnt finger tips and have learnt to never do it again.

flowperson · 07-23-2007, 06:22 PM

One of my prime directives every day..."If it seems too good to be true...it ALWAYS is."

flow....

wil · 07-23-2007, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flowperson

One of my prime directives every day..."If it seems too good to be true...it ALWAYS is."

flow....

I surely don't believe that...I've had too many too good to be true things happen...

Of course I do look a gift horse in the mouth as well...

flowperson · 07-23-2007, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wil

I surely don't believe that...I've had too many too good to be true things happen...

Of course I do look a gift horse in the mouth as well...

wil...Then you wouldn't be averse to telling us of your many experiences in life regarding how one deals with "gift horse breath". Feed him/her an apple first ?

flow....

wil · 07-23-2007, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flowperson

wil...Then you wouldn't be averse to telling us of your many experiences in life regarding how one deals with "gift horse breath". Feed him/her an apple first ?

flow....

Note, All of the google ads on this thread are regarding internet scams...

It isn't the breath that will get you, it is being diplomatic to alleviate the disappointment upon refusal, and/or knowing the what the rendering factory will pay, note I am only continuing the analogy here, no animals were harmed during this post and I have never sent a horse to the glue factory...

I have however purchased property that nobody wanted for a song because I knew someone who would provide and orchestra in exchange...

greymare · 07-24-2007, 05:52 AM

we had a big exposay on the tv show 60 minutes a few months ago. people were just sending these criminals money and then whining about how now they have to sell their house etc just to get by. stupid. this man who had sent over over 30 000 dollars to this mob was still doing it because he couldnt believe that he didnt have the "millions" of dollars coming. fool

juantoo3 · 07-24-2007, 01:25 PM

Kindest Regards, greymare!

Quote:

Originally Posted by greymare

we had a big exposay on the tv show 60 minutes a few months ago. people were just sending these criminals money and then whining about how now they have to sell their house etc just to get by. stupid. this man who had sent over over 30 000 dollars to this mob was still doing it because he couldnt believe that he didnt have the "millions" of dollars coming. fool

"There's a sucker born every minute." -P. T. Barnum

It never ceases to amaze me what some people will choose to believe. The internet is rife with charlatans and outright liars, yet "this is true, I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from some guy halfway around the world...", so be sure to pass this chain message around and kick back a few bucks to the person who sent it to you... Dum Dee Dum.

The bad part is when elder folks are marked as targets. A great many of them are no longer in full mental capacity to figure these things out. The perpetrators know this, and that is why a lot of their efforts are aimed at older folks. Besides, older folks often have larger nest eggs to pull from.

So yeah, it is important that we watch carefully for ourselves and our families, but it is also important that we help oversee what our parents and grand-parents are getting themselves into. It can be a dicey situation...a lot of folks don't freely share information about their financial situation even with relatives and those who have their best interest at heart. Yet these same people often expose themselves to be fleeced by these con artists, and the experience of financial ruin is a very, very hard lesson to learn the hard way.

Personally, I just can't figure out how such con artists can sleep at night with their conscience. How can one rob an elderly person of their life savings and leave them destitute at such a vulnerable point in their lives and manage to justify it with anything other than raw greed? Even if I were destitute, and I have walked very close to that for a good portion of my life, I could never justify stealing everything, least of all from a person who has no way to replace it. I have in the past justified taking what wouldn't be missed (and I have since concluded that even that is not "karmically" right). I cannot understand how someone can justify to themselves the taking of a person's livelihood, especially an elderly person.

suanni · 07-24-2007, 03:37 PM

I can't understand how anybody can beat up the elderly and disabled in order to rob them of the few possessions that they have. Worse still, some just do it for kicks. Yet if it were their grandparents they would be livid and out for revenge!

greymare · 07-25-2007, 06:02 AM

i received one of those emails not 2 days after the 60 minutes episode. i knew it was one of those bogus emails. the sincerity or lack of it was highlighted with the first sentence, "My dearest little One," . Oh yeah, this was a definate email from a reliable source. not!!!!!!!! All they wanted was for me to agree to send them some money, only $130. Because some long lost relative of mine had died in Africa and I was to inherit 30 million dollars. After I paid the relavent government officials,(of course). I mean to say, fair dinkum. what a lot of sh-t. I deleted it, after showing some friends, of course. It was good for a giggle. I have no one in Africa and I am not an idiot. what if it was true? oh well . i dont miss what i havent got. love the grey

17th Angel · 07-25-2007, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suanni

I can't understand how anybody can beat up the elderly and disabled in order to rob them of the few possessions that they have. Worse still, some just do it for kicks. Yet if it were their grandparents they would be livid and out for revenge!

People can be shot.... Dead, just for looking at someone the wrong way, or being on the wrong part of town.... So for an elderly person to be robbed... That isn't too shocking.... And It is sad because it should be... But (I know wil will come in with his stats and crap lol but) We have seen so much violence and crime and the crap we watch on TV and in the theatres... And we are simply becoming desensitised...

Muslimwoman · 07-28-2007, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis king

I have had two such emails this past week, one from nigeria and one from a woman in supposedly saudi... I did not give CF or my other forums that email addy, and was curious as to how I'd been found... am curious to see if others get them and also if those who do from this site also signed the womens rights petition which was a link some of us followed from this site which a member had posted sincerely, as that was the only occasion I have used this other email addy...

adios

Oh no, I posted that thread Francis, although I haven't had any emails. I do hope it didn't come from there. Although that one was for women in Iran but I don't suppose scammers care.

Would be interested to know if anyone else that followed the link got the scam email. Very sorry if it was from there.

Phylis, strong coffee one sugar please and a Marlboro light.

Muslimwoman · 07-28-2007, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juantoo3

Personally, I just can't figure out how such con artists can sleep at night with their conscience.

Clearly they don't have one Juantoo