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Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers

from the um.--ok. dept

Fri, Oct 14th 2005 10:32am — Mike Masnick

It must be that time of year. Every so often someone official in the Nigerian government will make some sort of public statement about how the country's going to crackdown on 419 Advance Fee scams and every year, nothing much happens -- probably because those scams represent a noticeable percentage of the country's economy. So, here they are again, but this time, the plan appears to be twofold. Step One: outlaw spam. Step Two: bring in Microsoft to track down the spammers. Considering that Nigerian scams are already quite illegal and mostly go unpunished in Nigeria, does anyone actually think that outlawing the lesser offense of spamming is going to do much good? Also, while Microsoft has some experience going after spammers in the US, it seems like the Nigerian situation is a whole different game, involving complex organized crime rings. Well, we wish them luck, and while they're cracking down on Nigerian scammers, we'll suggest they listen to our favorite "geeksta rap" song about 419 scammers, MC Frontalot's Urgent Business Relationship.

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16 Comments

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Ben McNelly, 14 Oct 2005 @ 11:24am

Ah, now were all safe...
Ah, in another clever ploy to apear to get somthing done about it, they have employed a seemingly biable resourse to "help them" while knowing full well that they are incapeable of ay sort of advancement.
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bak, 14 Oct 2005 @ 11:35am

Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
This is rather amusing. I am a Nigerian and know as a matter of fact that scams do not represent "a noticeable percentage of the country's economy." Nigerian officials are craking down on 419 scam, which you may or may not notice because all the news you hear or listen to is one that says there is some new victim. However, common sense dictates that those efforts to deal with the problem would be greatly helped by people refusing to fall for such scams. It beats me how someone who does not walk with his brains under his feet would agree to surreder his/her bank account to a stranger with the promise of a cut of some money s/he did not work for. This is not charity, nor some lottery. Blame the crooks and, in this case, it is rightful to blame the victims. sorry if it sounds hard. Two: the law is necessary. If something is not illegal, it cannot be unpunished. Plain common sense. Criminal laws are old in the statute books, and unless they reflect modern realities, these acts would go unpunished. Scamming is not necessarily spamming. Spamming is not necessarily about scams. Other countries are also legislating against spam, not content with old laws serving that purpose. So,what is Nigeria's fault in seeking to outlaw spam (which is commonly used for scam)? If nothing is done, you would still say "nothing much happens." Something happens, it is met with skepticism. Bottom line for 419 scams: demand and supply. Again, sorry to say that. But if no one seeks "quick money" they would not fall for such stupid schemes. Be sure that it is the personal economy of the scammers that is at stake, not Nigeria's economy. Those profits remain largely in foreign banks, serving the economy of those countries.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2005 @ 11:50am

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
"However, common sense dictates that those efforts to deal with the problem would be greatly helped by people refusing to fall for such scams."

Efforts to deal with murder would be greatly helped by people refusing to be murdered.
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bak, 14 Oct 2005 @ 12:16pm

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
sorry, scamming is not murder, neither is it its equivalent. People fall needlessly for these scams. You dont have to agree with that.
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Chris, 14 Oct 2005 @ 12:37pm

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
I agree with you bak, if there was no one to fall for these scams then we wouldn't have a problem. Unfortunatly there are a lot of idiots in the world who think that there is such a thing as easy money. Somebody has to protect the weak and it doesn't matter if the are physicaly or mentaly weak.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2005 @ 1:21pm

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
So attempting to commit a crime is okay as long as nobody "falls for it"?

I guess that makes attempted murder okay, since the victim - er, intended victim - didn't die.
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moy, 15 Oct 2005 @ 1:23am

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
I have seen this e-mails, the scam consist in inviting people to commit a fraud, and to help in money laundering. so in this case the victims are themselves failed scammers. they should punish the perpetrators, but the victims are as morally flawed, only more stupid
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moy, 15 Oct 2005 @ 1:31am

Re: Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers
anonimous coward, would you be in favor to punish the victims of this scam since they themselves are scammers?

PS: don`t take it personally, I like many of your comments. and I would like to have your take on this.
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Nigerian, 15 Oct 2005 @ 3:20am

You should get ur head checked
Personally, I think your comment shows how much people from the Western World know about the World around them. How on earth can you say "probably because those scams represent a noticeable percentage of the country's economy", Nigeria is the 6th largest supplier of crude oil to the world. If Nigeria shuts down its oil supply today, US would be in trouble. So how do Spam mails contribute to our national economy? The reasons why the Nigerian Govt. can't stop this menace is because no amount of laws can stop these evil practises. Appealing to the hearts and minds of young Nigerians is what the Govt. has to do but is yet to do.
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Nerdcore Bob, 15 Oct 2005 @ 10:37am

MC Frontalot
Just want to point folks to the real MC Frontalot site, and the new location for that lyrical masterpiece Message No. 419
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Seun Osewa, 16 Oct 2005 @ 3:31pm

Scams and Nigeria's Economy??
90% or more of my country's foreign exchange comes from crude oil. The idea that 419 scams are a major percentage of our economy is so absurd that I'm surprised to hear it from someone who sells "corporate intelligence".
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Pete Austin, 17 Oct 2005 @ 3:05am

Fraud Links
"Nigeria, in West Africa, is the world's 6th largest petroleum exporter, the world capital of child trafficking (UN report, 2004) and the centre of a huge criminal web" - Data Wales.

"....Nigeria is still ranked as one of the most corrupt countries on earth. U.S. citizens lose approximately $2 billion ($2,000 million) a year to Nigerian fraud -- be it credit card fraud, insurance fraud, or 419 scam letters, or counterfeiting," which totals about "two and one-half times the value of our total U.S. exports to Nigeria."
-- Nov. '99, Robert L. Mallet, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Google

Seun, Foreign exchange is basically payment for international trade: "the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries. In most countries, it represents a significant share of GDP." It is not the same as GDP so you can't simply compare a percentage of one against the other.

If Nigerian readers disagree with the above, please link to your sources. Simply denying that there is a problem is unlikely to convince people.
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Bob3000, 17 Oct 2005 @ 5:56am

Re: Fraud Links
Looks the nigerians wankers got owned a little bit.
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AFRICAN TEACHER, 11 Dec 2007 @ 6:51am

DO GOOD OR BAD???
WELL THE WORLD IS FULL OF HELPS AND GIVING,ONE DOES GOOD BECAUSE GOOD THINGS COMES TO GOOD PEOPLE,ALWAYS WHITES ARE GOOD AND MUST BEAR IN MIND THAT BLACKS ARE IN MUCH LOVE WITH THEIR GOODNESS IF THEY CAN SEE HOW THEY HELPING BLACKS ALL OVER THE WORLD.
MAYBE I THINK SCAM WILL STOP ONEDAY WHEN WE ALL KNOW THE ONE TRUELY DOING GOOD IN HERE X.X.X.X

CONCIOUS ALWAYS RULES....
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SUBMISSIVE MAN ON EARTH, 11 Dec 2007 @ 7:21am

WHO BUILD THE ANONYMIZER?WHICH COMPANIES SELLS THE SOFTWARES?THE SOFTWARES ARE VERY USEFUL AND VERY EFFECTIVE TO THIS SCAM ASSISTANCE AND WHO CREATES THEM???WANT TO KNOW IT USE AND WHY WAS BUILD....???
CAN ANYONE ANSWER ME AND LET ME "BRAIN WII, BRAIN SAH" I????
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AFRICAN TEACHER, 11 Dec 2007 @ 7:28am

BrotherSoft.com $ GoldDownload.Com

check this 2 sites and tell them what they want to know,they sell the tools for action scammers and got broked after being RAID by their SOFTWARE TEAMS AND COOPERATION,

Infact they also assisting the best and may they also receive same punishment as their glorious scammers are prasing with their TOOLS,
Its so cooperating B/W colours hehehehe man be KIND...MANKIND........

SAY HI TO 1000FILES.COM AND WISH THEM MERRY X,MAX AND THEIR GOODWORKS.PLATINUM.......
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Nigerians Let Bill Gates Fight Their Scammers

from the um.--ok. dept

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Ah, now were all safe...