From: Stephen Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Fri Nov 11 2005 - 09:25:47 PST
On Nov 10, 2005, at 9:32 PM, m35products wrote:
> If you are serious (which I hope, and expect, that you are not) in
> believing
> in the inherent goodness of the human race, Nigerians in particular,
> then
> would you care to bid on some Official Brooklyn Bridge Municipal Bonds
> that
> I have for sale? You may contact my attorney, if you are interested.\
I've never been scammed and I'm not about to start now, even though
that bridge offer is tempting. I hear you can make a lot of money from
tolls on bridges in Brooklyn :-)
The interesting thing about this guy's contact is that I've not seen
this scam before (and yes, I'd say it is 99.9% likely a scam). So what
I'm trying to do, out of pure curiosity, is figure out how this guy
intends on pulling it off. To avoid trouble is to know what trouble to
anticipate. For all we know this is the beginning of a new take on
their old ways. The Nigerians might be shifty, but they ain't dumb.
In fact, my impression is that the average Nigerian is a lot smarter
than the average American due to all the suckers who have been taken
for a ride (and not by Nigerians alone) ;-)
If this guy bids and wins then we'll see where it goes. I suspect he
is using Western Union as bait and then will try and switch it on me
after he wins. That is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and
therefore a likely possibility. The other one, which is more devious,
is sending a faked WU check and expecting me to treat it as if it were
cash. It would be easy enough to fake the check (I could do the first
one in probably 1/2 an hour, then 2 minutes for each subsequent check)
so I'd say that is also a decent possibility.
In relation to the discussion I came in on... remember that Western
Union is only "fool proof" for the seller if the check that arrives is
actually from Western Union. Just like the cashier's check scams out
there, Western Union checks are NOT the same as cash.
Steve
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