This is the second leading industry in Nigeria. Legal there since 1960. If you fall for these computer versions of the "Pigeon drop," you deserve to be shit on.

And by the way RIA, the noble UK, Spain, and half the Western world refuses to prosecute these and similar crimes (e.g. telephone securities sales) so long as the fraud victim lives outside the borders of the scamming company.

The elderly make up 95% of the victims in this crime. So long retirement. Hello Walmart greeter.

As I said in a previous thread these criminals are getting more and more sophisticated and finding new ways to con people out of wiring money. They may not ask you to wire the money to Nigeria, but another part of the world where they've already stolen someones identity.

I applied for a job on a reputable UK website. Turns out the job was a scam. Not only did they send me a dud cheque for doing bugger all they also used my address with my CV on to send "tenants" to my house and scammed them also by asking them to pay to view a house that wasn't available to rent.

We can laugh at what we now are very knowledgable about, but when you least expect something like this to happen to you...what more can I say.

Anyone who actually falls for this scam deserves to be parted of all their savings.

Scam artist: So all I need now is your social security number.
frogio: It's 453.
Scam artist: ok..4-5-3...and then what?
frogio: That's it. You did ask me for my credit score, right?
Scam artist: Man, that's not even right.
frogio: So does that mean I don't get my cut? What about my sick, dying mother? Are you there? Hello?

Only wire money to middlemen in Chad and Niger.

ATTENTION CITIZENS OF RATE IT ALL. THIS IS GENERAL UMBASA. WIRE TEN MILLION DOLLARS TO NIGERIA OR OUR OPERATIVE, DISGUSTING FAT SMELLY PIG, WILL BE ORDERED TO TRIPLE PRODUCTION OF HIS SHITTY REVIEWS.

Jeez, ya figure?

Update: I just had a new variant on this scam sent to me. According to the the latest quasi-literate email, if I don't respond within 3 hours, they are turning my file over to the FBI..... I think I'm going to piss my pants....

Oh. Does.....this......mean.......I'm not the only person to get this.....e-mail?

I can't believe that people actually still fall for these scams.

Ok, I won't do it anymore.

Yes, it would be real dumb to get caught up in this scam. But it has to do with real monetary theft, not identity theft.

You have to be gullible or greedy, or both, to fall for something as patent as this. But, as P.T. Barnum famously said, There's one (sucker) born every minute

Wiring money isn't reversible like some other financial transactions. The scammer may have faked a money order into your account, leaving you on the hook for all the money you transfer along to an overseas account. Maybe there is no real deposit, just an attempt to steal your bank numbers and ID. Or the classic transfer a small sum to Nigeria today, and we'll give you a share of our millions later fraud. One of the latest variations involves preying on desperate-for-love types, and a friend of mine actually fell for it. His lovely overseas sweetheart simply needed a few hundred to work out her trip to America, which she promised would be paid back in full when she arrived. Then, she had passport problems that made her stuck in another country and needing another temporary loan to get her out of a jam. Of course, his dream girl vanished online without any way to trace her, along with his money.