[ExI] could a nigerian theoretically give away money?

[Brent Allsop]

Hi Spike,

I like the way you think!  That would be a very good charity, in a kind 
of Darwan award kind of way (as in anyone fool dumb enough to get 
suckered by a 419 scammer, does not deserve the money as much as poor 
Nigeria does.)

There is surely a good chance any legitimate person would get answered 
by a 419 scam baiter (Google for it, if you don't know what that is.)  
Most people probably can't understand why anyone would spend time doing 
anything like that, but I find the whole idea very intertaining.  It is 
quite fun to read the stories about what these scam baiters have sucked 
out of these scammers.  Of course, the ultimate goal is to scam them out 
of money.  I dabled in doing this a bit several years back.  I listened 
to their scam with great intention, and came up with a reverse scam 
story that required them to get money to me, so I could pay off some 
medical stuff, that would free up some assets, which I could then fill 
their request with, and so on.  Everything is designed with the goal of 
dragging them on for as long as possible, wasting as much time as 
possible, and getting them to expend as much resources as you can get 
them to expend, trying to get money from you.  This guy I got on the 
line spent hours sending me e-mails, calling me multiple times - 
international calls.  I got him to send me some quite nice casheres 
checks that look like they are worth $6000. Googling for fake casheres 
checks, I was able to validate that they were not legitimate  but I keep 
them as a trophy and so on.   We were good friends, having fun with each 
other, for quite some time.

Bottom line is, if any lagitimate non scamer got caught on the line with 
one of these scam baiters - my guess is they'd eventually find some way 
to prove to each other they were legitimate, and finally accomplish 
whatever it was they were legitimately attempting.  And as you say, it'd 
probably make it in the news, and do exactly what you describe, leading 
many others to fall prey to the scheme.

Brent Allsop



On 12/25/2011 11:19 AM, spike wrote:
>> ... On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
>> ...Subject: Re: [ExI] could a nigerian theoretically give away money?
>> ...Someone would, eventually.  However, a SSN is not needed to transfer
> money...
>
> The SSN is needed in order for the donor to report to the IRS that the
> recipient owes a pile of tax on the gift.
>
>> ...and neither is an address...  Adrian
> The address is needed in order to alert the local media that some random
> gullible prole has given an internet stranger from Nigeria her name,
> address, SSN and bank account number.  It also allows the giver to verify
> that the recipient is legitimate, by calling the bank and the recipient's
> neighbors and so forth.  It allows basic due diligence on the part of the
> giver.
>
> In this scenario, the fortune was legitimately made and is legitimately
> given away, but the motives are not entirely pure, depending on one's point
> of view.  The giver asks for a lot of personal information in order to
> intentionally design the phony spam to resemble the other countless Nigerian
> genuine spams.  If she manages to give away her money, the gift is widely
> publicized, which then lends enormous credibility to all the other spam
> offering to give away Nigerian fortunes.  Since the legitimate giver
> realizes her own country is desperately needy, she realizes perhaps her gift
> is seed money which would return many fold the investment.  Greedy rich
> Americans would read the story and be more likely to fall for the
> traditional spam, handing over bank account numbers, which are then
> plundered by dishonest Nigerians.  This would bring enormous wealth into
> that benighted land, even though it would have the disadvantage of being
> funneled through thieves.  At least some of it eventually ends up in the
> hands of poor and deserving Nigerians.
>
> The original Nigerian giver makes no deals to share in the plunder from rich
> greedy gullible Americans.  She gave the money and told the truth all along,
> even if she was aware of (and was perhaps intentionally motivated by) the
> possible illegitimate consequences.  But all this actually had a cheerful
> end, again depending on one's point of view: plentiful American money
> flowing into desperately needy Nigeria.  She can think of herself as perhaps
> the greatest of philanthropists, using a million of her own dollars to
> indirectly coax a manifold return of that amount back into her own country
> from a greedy rich country which already has way too much of everything.
>
> Where is the flaw in my reasoning?
>
> spike
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>