Irish Victim of 419 Scam Rescued By Police(Merged)

ballooba

How could anybody be so dumb as to fall for one of these scams?


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dramatic-rescue-for-hostage-in-internet-cash-con-1209127.html

Slow Motion

ballooba wrote: »

How could anybody be so dumb as to fall for one of these scams?


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dramatic-rescue-for-hostage-in-internet-cash-con-1209127.html

Heard this on the radio this morning, couldn't help thinking there is a Darwin award waiting in the wings for that guy.

seamus

ballooba wrote: »

How could anybody be so dumb as to fall for one of these scams?

Greed overrides intelligence a lot of the time.

Nice scaremongering though Indo

Unsuspecting victims hand over their bank details only to find money has been stolen.

:rolleyes: That paper's only fit for wiping your arse with. Really.

biko

Not everyone are as savvy as boardsies.
Good thing they managed to free him.

ballooba

biko wrote: »

Not everyone are as savvy as boardsies.
Good thing they managed to free him.

My dad first told me about 419 scams. He's in his 60s and can barely use a PC. I think he said they originally arrived by conventional mail.

andrew163

biko wrote: »

Not everyone are as savvy as boardsies.
Good thing they managed to free him.

You really don't need to be savvy in anything to be able to tell that "I AM NIGRIAN ROYLTY. I HAVE LARGE SUM OF MONEY AS MY KING IS DIED, I REQUIRE YOUR ACCOUNT DETAILS SUCH TO BE RICH. I ALSO CANT SPELL ROYALTY. OR NIGERIAN." is a scam

Slow Motion

andrew163 wrote: »

You really don't need to be savvy in anything to be able to tell that "I AM NIGRIAN ROYLTY. I HAVE LARGE SUM OF MONEY AS MY KING IS DIED, I REQUIRE YOUR ACCOUNT DETAILS SUCH TO BE RICH. I ALSO CANT SPELL ROYALTY. OR NIGERIAN." is a scam

I like your roylty and will love to make you rich me, here am me details.......:D

_blank_

What a plank.

spudington16

biko wrote: »

Good thing they managed to free him.

That's highly debatable; arguably, anyone gullible enough to get scammed like that in the first place, or think they could retrieve their money subsequently, is of little real use to society.

Honestly - how stupid can you actually be? The guy sounds like a total plank.

Canis Lupus

Happens all the time. Had a guy email me this morning saying the manager of Western Union has emailed him (Dear owner of this email address) and he has $5,000,000USD (FIVE MILLIONS US DOLLARS) waiting for him if he just sends some fees which cannot be deducted from the $5,000,000USD (FIVE MILLIONS US DOLLARS). The email address was from Yahoo and your man was asking me if the email was real....

It's very frustrating to have to reply in a civil manner to idiots like this....

Terry

Dear Mr. Lafferty,

You are a greedy man, and this greed had endangered your life.
It is because of people like you that these scammers thrive and keep making money.

I hope you are now ashamed of your greedy ways and realise you were extremely foolish.

If you are reading this, then I suggest you turn off your computer now and never turn it on again.

Yours sincerely,
Terry.

SimpleSam06

Canis Lupus wrote: »

It's very frustrating to have to reply in a civil manner to idiots like this....

Why the christ do you bother replying at all? Just bin them, or spam filter them, or if you are feeling nasty send them on to 419eater.com or one of those.

Canis Lupus

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

Why the christ do you bother replying at all? Just bin them, or spam filter them, or if you are feeling nasty send them on to 419eater.com or one of those.

Nah, it was just an ordinary punter asking me if the email he received was real. I have to reply as it's part of my job (altho not for much longer thank f***).

I get a couple of emails every week asking me the same thing and we get lots more in the way of complaints when people blame us for some reason when their millions of oil dollars stored in a trunk hidden during a military coup doesn't get delivered by SUPER SECURE INTERNATIONAL TRUST COURIERS.

It amaze me how peoples greed switches off their common sense although for the most part I'm not sure if they had any to begin with.

Degsy

Look at the amount of people who fell for Eircom shares,collectivley we havnt goty an ounce of cop on.I used to work with a bloke in his 60's who fell for scratch cards in teh sunday pares(you ring a premium line to claim a prize worth pennies),he responded to a 419 letter(nothing happened),bought 70 grand worth of eircom shares and signed up for more than one pyramid scheme.There really is no fool like an old fool.

Sleepy

You can't con an honest man.

m_stan

It's sometimes worth replying just to have some fun leading them down a rabbit hole.

dudara

It just beggars belief that people still fall for those things. In fairness, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably isn't.

Gran Hermano

I remember 419 scams from the early 90s when you would receive a fax with
a similar scam/offer as you now receive by e-mail. The internet and e-mail
are not to blame - it's merely the latest method for communicating this
type of age old cons.

It's down to an individual's greed and gullibility whether they are stupid
enough to get suckered into these scams.

Third_Echelon

.... I D I O T ! ! !

djsctt

dudara wrote: »

It just beggars belief that people still fall for those things. In fairness, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

fyp

Maple

what a fcuking tool. :rolleyes:

BOOBLESS

There is always one gob***** out there willing to be stupid. I bet he will be keeping clear of his local for a while... Silly People.

fletch

Third_Echelon wrote: »

.... I D I O T ! ! !

+1

seamus

BOOBLESS wrote: »

There is always one gob***** out there willing to be stupid. I bet he will be keeping clear of his local for a while... Silly People.

Indeed. The thing about these scams is that they don't need a massive response rate. I worked out before that a company selling a €50 sex product could afford to send out over one million spam mails for that €50. Think about how many people 1 million is. And they only need two of those people to bite in order to make a profit.

In the case of these scams, all they need is one greedy idiot out of tens of millions and they're rolling in stolen cash.

speaktofrank

That Irish guy had a lucky escape, a South African a couple of years back was not so lucky


I have been a member of www.419eater.com for the last four years, our aim is to spread public awareness about these type of scams and also to bait them.
We have had considerable success so much so that we have being under a massive DOS attack for the last three weeks.

some examples of how far we have got some of these guys to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiCqefRhZdg

really funny stuff but serves a useful purpose as it spreads public awareness about these criminals.

digitally-yours

In this day and age I thought everyone knew of these scams but i have been proved wrong here.


"An Irish man who was kidnapped after falling for an email fraud scam was rescued when police raided a hotel in the capital of Ghana where he was being held captive.

James Lafferty, 49, from Ennis, Co Clare, had been held hostage for about five days while kidnappers demanded money for his safe return. He was freed after police received a tip.

Lafferty visited the west African country last week in an attempt to recover money he had paid the email scammers. The kidnappers took him hostage, then contacted his family and business associates in Ireland and demanded more money.

"He is currently safe and well in the Honorary Consulate in Accra after being freed by local police, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs told the BBC.

One man has been arrested. It is understood that the kidnappers were unarmed

Link here

WindSock

Cuz der tick.

biko

You're 8 hours late
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055175139

digitally-yours

ohhh i tried to "search" but i couldn't find

I will leave the fate of this thread to MODS

Apologies

KamiKazi

what an idiot

Keith186

Does everyone fall for them or just thourough bred culchies?

Dave!

KamiKazi wrote: »

what an idiot

Leave the OP alone, it's not their fault they missed the previous thread!

cooperguy

People like that deserve to be scammed...

KamiKazi

DaveMcG wrote: »

Leave the OP alone, it's not their fault they missed the previous thread!

haha :P

speaktofrank

If anyone is interested in joining 419 eater please PM me.

walt0r

He wasn't going over to "retrieve" any money I can tell you that...poor fella though all the same

Sizzler

Greedy fcuker

Meanwhile I got a letter off "Bono Lotteria International" today to tell me I have won $889,000 I am just about to email Senór Manuel Perez (Vice President) that I'm too busy to fax him all my personal details and he should just give the money to a charity instead.

Karoma

Merged threads.

speaktofrank

anyone watch that youtube video, really funny. I am sure most of you remember the Fall Guy from the 80's so getting a conman to re-enact stunts was a masterpiece.
thanks for the Pm's so far, we have over 20,000 registered members but new members are always welcome

MOH

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Nah, it was just an ordinary punter asking me if the email he received was real. I have to reply as it's part of my job (altho not for much longer thank f***).

Can you not just tell them that the e-mail is real?

Then after they get scammed and complain, you can point out that while it was a scam, it was a real e-mail inviting them to be scammed.

galwayrush

Sizzler wrote: »

Greedy fcuker

Meanwhile I got a letter off "Bono Lotteria International" today to tell me I have won $889,000 I am just about to email Senór Manuel Perez (Vice President) that I'm too busy to fax him all my personal details and he should just give the money to a charity instead.

i always tell them i don't like sending personal details over the internet and would it be possible instead if they could meet me personally in either Aberdeen or Southampton in the UK.:D I strung some of them along for quite a while , once getting a very nasty e-mail wondering why i didn't turn up.:D
Another time i was asked for my phone number so i gave a Garda Station's number.

Sizzler

galwayrush wrote: »

i always tell them i don't like sending personal details over the internet and would it be possible instead if they could meet me personally in either Aberdeen or Southampton in the UK.:D I strung some of them along for quite a while , once getting a very nasty e-mail wondering why i didn't turn up.:D
Another time i was asked for my phone number so i gave a Garda Station's number.

Classic ! I havent replied yet but you have given me some food for thought

I will post the email address later and everybody can have some fun with the Manuel and co.