F*cking stupid scammers, why do they bother?

And whilst I would say that yes, people can and do work themselves out of poverty, by and large it's massively difficult and incredibly unlikely.

And yes, it is true that there's a lot of black Africans screwing over other black Africans. I don't see how that changes the fact that the West is also screwing over Africa. If anything it makes me feel more obliged to help.

OK, I don't want this to turn into trolling and yes I have been deliberately provocative but so have others in this thread. Your first para is key, because working yourself out of poverty by scamming is just as difficult and unlikely as trying to do it honestly. My point being that those who try to better themselves via fair and honest means deserve support, whether it be from the west or their own governments, while those who choose to try and line their pockets cynically via scamming, robbing, intimidation, violence, etc, etc, deserve everything coming to them - including international ridicule, prison, a slap, etc.

However, your second para I'm not so sure about so we'll have to agree to disagree. The point I was trying to make was that the predicament many African countries find themselves in is just as much of their own manufacture as it is a result of the west leeching resources for example. And this is not something that we should feel responsible for. For anyone or anywhere with serious problems there is nearly always an element of get your own bloody house in order before you go begging, regardless of history this is now - today. The guilt-hangover from things like slavery makes it very difficult for many in the west to be truly objective about this and see that sometimes dipping into your pocket to relieve that guilt actually isn't helping in the long-term.

I'll give you another example (different but similar in some ways) closer to home that hopefully gives you an idea of where I'm coming from. I was eating lunch a couple of weeks ago in a park when a very smelly, scruffy, guy came up to me and asked me for money. I asked him if he was hungry and he said he was. So I said I couldn't give him any money (I had a pocket full of change) but if he wanted a sandwich he was welcome to it. He was happy with that. I don't give money to people begging because 9 times out of 10 (and if the whiff of alcohol coming off him was anything to go by this was certainly the case with him) they'll go to the nearest offy and spend it on liver rotting strong cheap booze. And I don't want to be responsible for that. I know it's not a great example but hopefully you can see the parallel.

Anyway, unless I'm mistaken I feel that we've pretty much exhausted this exchange but I've enjoyed swapping views. I have mine and you have yours. Peace.

albeit fair play wrt specific local government attack vector hookup, (or lucky with fool mark), either way another solid effort shown by by the the lads from lads from lagos; once more managing to achieve a well-deserved positive result (against the Scottish).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/24/counci_419/

go fuck yourself, you dippy pedophile cunt

I have some sympathy for African internet fraudsters. When people who have very little, living in a fucked-over country like Nigeria, manage to use their wits to reach out across the ocean and pull in a bit of Western wealth, I can't help but feel a twinge of admiration. Yes, it's wrong and all and the victims tend to be vulnerable people, but compared to the real crimes that go on every day - for example, the murderous destruction that Shell have been getting away with in Nigeria - blagging some cash by email seems fairly far down the scale to me.
I only wish they'd sort out their prose a bit. I had a really good one back in Gulf War II, purporting to be sent by a US Marine from his laptop while sat in a recently captured palace with huge bales of dollars in the cellar and no way to get them out. It had real urgency and excitement in it - I actually wrote back to say that although I would not be contributing any actual money, I did want to express my appreciation of their writing abilities. But since then, nothing's come through that's offered any real literary merit or advancement of the medium.

I see your tongue is in your cheek, which is a good thing. But let us not forget that the people most likely to be taken in by scammers (as you rightly allude to) are those that are at their most vulnerable. I remember reading about two lonely widows (separate events and surely there are more these were just two cases made public by the media) who were conned out of their life savings. Because they were lonely, naive, and vulnerable.

These UK women were both in their late 50s / 60s and fell hook line and sinker for the scammers. One even had to sell her home to cover the debts she'd mounted up due to helping out her loving 'boyfriend'. It's this level of cynicism and bloody cruelty that sickens and saddens me. Please don't try to dress it up in any way as romantic, as in 'cheeky Nigerian lads getting a couple of quid from some silly westerner' it's much more than that in terms of literally ruining people's lives. Although I don't think you are suggesting this but the line about feeling a twinge of admiration is highly dubious in light of what the real repercussions of scamming can be.

Well, yes, but also we shouldn't forget that the Nigerian Letter is a classic con in that it plays on the greed of the mark. People go for these scams because they want free money, often from a source that is represented as being illegal. It's not just a question of vulnerability - to go for a lot of these scams you would have to be happy to collude in a criminal enterprise.

Well, yes, but also we shouldn't forget that the Nigerian Letter is a classic con in that it plays on the greed of the mark. People go for these scams because they want free money, often from a source that is represented as being illegal. It's not just a question of vulnerability - to go for a lot of these scams you would have to be happy to collude in a criminal enterprise.

That's the classic but it's not the only type of scam that goes on. For example these women were approached through online dating sites and scammed. As things like the classic 'hello I am a doctor and I want to give you $50,000,000 because I think you are an honest person and I need someone to free up my deceased father's oil bonds' approach becomes less profitable due to familiarity the smart scammers will change their tack. And indeed they have.

According to the articles these women were groomed over a period of months and ended up paying for what they thought were urgent medical costs for the men's families. Sad and horrible in the extreme.

My mum lost 50 Euros in Barcelona betting on that game where there is a pea under one of 3 cups. She was sad.

go fuck yourself, you dippy pedophile cunt

This seems a bit harsh. How am I a pædophile, suddenly?
I do concede however that my previous post in this thread is unedifying, painful to read, ill-considered in terms of content and also poorly judged in tone.

If it's any defence, I can say that I have no memory of making this post as I was wasted at the time of posting (true). Or I could claim that a relative and/ or housemate has been using my account to post (untrue, I should say).
If not, apologies.

Ok - here's a way forwards. It would make a genuine contribution to the development of many countries if they had a thriving local industry paid in stable western currency. Email scams are a carbon-neutral, high-skill industry that incentivises literacy and IT training. However, at the moment, the product that they are producing is frankly not export-standard. And it's not very ethical, focussing as it does on extracting large amounts of money from people who can't afford it.
What Africa needs is better scams - scams that target the greedy, the unethical and the middle-class over here, yet sting each of them for a relatively small amount of money.
Here's my first contribution to ScamAid:

Dear Sir,
PLease allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr Alfredo Semi-Freddo. I am a Zimbabwean citizen, struggling to make a living under the crushing and oddly inept black-on-black tyranny that afflicts my country.
Not many people know that Mr Robert Mugabwe was a keen cyclist in his youth. Like many cyclists, as he has aged and put on weight he has spent less and less time on the bike and more and more on eBay buying highly desirable vintage bicycles.
My brother in-law is the Keeper of Mr Mugabwe's bicycle shed. The collection stored therein now amounts to over 1270 whole bikes and an uncountable amount of frames and components. This collection includes countless vintage steel bikes with lovely curly lugs and unmarked Italian classic track bikes, ripe for converting into repulsive baby-pink fixies.
A shipping container or so of this stuff would never go amiss. I am looking for a business partner who will front me £500 to hire a truck and get this shit on a ship to Europe. I will slap your address on it, you eBay the lot and we'll split the profits. Deal?
Yours etc,
Dr thingy whateverisaid

Ok - here's a way forwards. It would make a genuine contribution to the development of many countries if they had a thriving local industry paid in stable western currency. Email scams are a carbon-neutral, high-skill industry that incentivises literacy and IT training. However, at the moment, the product that they are producing is frankly not export-standard. And it's not very ethical, focussing as it does on extracting large amounts of money from people who can't afford it.
What Africa needs is better scams - scams that target the greedy, the unethical and the middle-class over here, yet sting each of them for a relatively small amount of money.
Here's my first contribution to ScamAid:

Dear Sir,
PLease allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr Alfredo Semi-Freddo. I am a Zimbabwean citizen, struggling to make a living under the crushing and oddly inept black-on-black tyranny that afflicts my country.
Not many people know that Mr Robert Mugabwe was a keen cyclist in his youth. Like many cyclists, as he has aged and put on weight he has spent less and less time on the bike and more and more on eBay buying highly desirable vintage bicycles.
My brother in-law is the Keeper of Mr Mugabwe's bicycle shed. The collection stored therein now amounts to over 1270 whole bikes and an uncountable amount of frames and components. This collection includes countless vintage steel bikes with lovely curly lugs and unmarked Italian classic track bikes, ripe for converting into repulsive baby-pink fixies.
A shipping container or so of this stuff would never go amiss. I am looking for a business partner who will front me £500 to hire a truck and get this shit on a ship to Europe. I will slap your address on it, you eBay the lot and we'll split the profits. Deal?
Yours etc,
Dr thingy whateverisaid

Repped, love it :D

Talk to frink about setting up a NGO and fuck it I'll sponsor you both for 50 dorra.

Just got an email today from someone who saw my classified on Bikemagic. The guy has a german yahoo email, ok nothing fishy there and he sent me an email asking for more photos and how much I wanted for the bike. I sent him a mail back saying I wanted £1400 but open to offers and that I would be away for a few weeks so he had time to decide.
He sent me an email back saying he would give me £1800 if Id take down my ad and that he would transfer the money from Ukrain.
Im not being unduly sceptical here right?