Comments on: The Nigerian 419 Scam: Man Gives $150,000 In Scam Lasting Over a Year

By: David R. Darrow

David R. Darrow — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:32:36 +0000

I get these scammer e-mails in my mail every day. Every once in a while, one strikes me as funny because of the audacity, or the name of the person, or the spelling... Anyway, I started writing back to these people just to poke fun at them, but in a way that sounds like I am falling for the scam. You might get a kick out of reading my responses (sometimes the scammers even write back). I post them with the original names and e-mail Subject lines (to be searchable, in hopes of alerting other potential victims) at a blog I created just for my sarcastic responses, called Scam and Eggs.

By: tishrei

tishrei — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:52:41 +0000

Perhaps this is a wrong attitude, but he was scammed because of greed. Even so, I have a difficult time understanding how in this day and age, how one can fall for such a scam. This would seem to fall under the category of “I have a beach front property to sell you in Arizona for a great price if you send in your money before the end of the month.”

By: 3L

3L — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:53:01 +0000

On this episode of This American Life, some guys doled out vigilante justice to a Nigerian scammer, basically turning the tables.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=363

By: Buddha Is Laughing

Buddha Is Laughing — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:00:03 +0000

RCMP

No doughnuts. Bad fingers.

By: Buddha Is Laughing

Buddha Is Laughing — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:59:26 +0000

Pardon me. Way to go RMCP!

By: Buddha Is Laughing

Buddha Is Laughing — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:02:50 +0000

Ah, the smell of Neocon propaganda in the morning. Smells like . . . fear.

The Nigerian 419 scams and our law enforcement’s seeming inability to apprehend these criminals is due to several factors. One of the primary reasons though is target selection and human behavior. Many victims of this scam are not sophisticated and the embarrassment of it surely makes this an under reported crime. In addition, most who fall prey to this are not the “uber wealthy”. The pattern of who is getting the preferred treatment by the government, including law enforcement, after 8 years of Bush is clear for all to see. We’re the victims big donors of some sort, count on the Feds giving the full court press instead of usual result in these kinds of cases, “Sorry, we’ll take your report and make clucking noises of sympathy but we can’t help you.” But citizens getting in positions that, had law enforcement been involved, arrests could have been made?

That IS embarrassing, just not for the victims.

Way to go, FBI!

By: Iraq is free

Iraq is free — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:44:42 +0000

Obama Keeps Renditions Tool Option For CIA

By Greg Miller | Washington Bureau
Reuters

February 1, 2009

WASHINGTON — Most of the CIA’s secret prisons may be shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are mostly off-limits. Guantanamo Bay may eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling the more controversial and now publicly known aspects of these programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counter terrorism tool intact.

Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA was assured it still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role under Obama.

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-renditions_31jan31,0,2998929.story