Sunday, July 11, 2010
Nigerian Scams do work!
Alright. You know what I am talking about? Those email scams that claims to want to give you money due to some reason or another, but then in the end con you of your money? Anyone ever wondered why anyone would fall for those? Well, my friend did and in a way I did too.
Although these scams are not necessarily all from Nigeria, I just call them Nigerian scams because it's the easiest way to identify it.
It was funny. I had recently resolved to never lend people money (not the $10, $20 type lah) for any frigging excuse (this debt that debt) and then my friend ends up calling me for a loan. Claims that her uncle needs money urgently due to a friend's business problem. My other friend and I lent her some money, although it wasn't enough for her. She called the lawyer who was dealing with the case and settled the rest through negotiations with the lawyer.
The case did not sound logical at this point in time as there were some weird parts. For example she was saying that she needed money to pay for a cheque to release funds or some crap like that. However, we didn't probe that much at that time because she is the type that comes across as not really knowing what happens in the world (she can't even download avg without me giving her a direct URL leading straight to the download page) and not making much sense is quite normal for her.
This time, this proved to be our downfall. Ok, maybe downfall is a bit strong.
A few days later, she called up again and asked what is the fastest method of tranferring overseas funds into a local account. I helped her check and then I told her that I hoped the funds would come through smoothly although I had an inkling that it wouldn't.
Two more days passed and she called up to say that she needed funds to secure some certificate from IMF to release the transfer of funds as the funds was stopped by IMF. I was suspicious of this but as there was something else going on at my workplace I didn't have a chance to check it out before I stupidly transferred some more money to her. I was probably thinking that as long as she didn't get the full sum, she can't do anything anyway and the money would still be safe with her. At this point she had admitted that she had lied about her uncle needing the money (KNS!!) and that it was her colleague who needed it. Said colleague was an item with her (I was like since when did she get a boyfriend!!??) and were contemplating marriage once he gets his inheritance from UK and migrates to Singapore.
This is where I should have suspected another lie but I didn't, sounds like a scam but I couldn't figure out was why they would actually get to know someone in person to scam them. Waste of time and resources imho.
I ran a check on the net when I had time and I confirmed that it was a scam. Sheesh. So pissed with myself for getting scammed too. SMS'ed my friend that the cert was a false claim but she had already transferred the money over. Figures. They just want to get every cent they can ASAP.
Long story short, pulled my friend out for a meeting with my other friend and we managed to pull out the entire story. Bloody hell it was a typical Nigerian scam. She got to know the person through email. *Everything falls in place now*. Said person likes her and wants to come to Singapore to be with her. Wants to transfer inheritance to her name so that there will be lower taxes on the inheritance. Along the way hiccups happen and she needs money.
Yes, I know some people will tell me that maybe my friend is the scammer. I don't deny that she might possibly be the one scamming us but to go through such a lot of trouble to scam us of a bit of money and risking friendship over it? I dunno. Anyway, according to what I know her total loss is about 64.5k. Heck I wish I could save money like her. Her personal savings were somewhere over 55k. All gone. To a email boyfriend of 1 month.
Tried to convince her to make a police report. She did not want to, but finally agreed. At the station she changed her mind as she was worried that she might lose her job over this. I got so pissed I didn't even want to talk to her.
I'm mostly pissed cos I got conned by her lies. Not at her, but at myself. Bloody hell, I need to be more hardhearted!! This will impact my financial / study plans for the rest of the year because I didn't have much to begin with..... Probably lucky cos then I won't have much to be conned out of too.
I just wanted to post this because... YES, Nigerian scams REALLY DO WORK!!! They don't even have to work on you. They just have to work on your friend if you are kindhearted enough to help friends!
Be kind and helpful to others, but be wary and take care of yourself first :(
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Alright. You know what I am talking about? Those email scams that claims to want to give you money due to some reason or another, but then in the end con you of your money? Anyone ever wondered why anyone would fall for those? Well, my friend did and in a way I did too.
Although these scams are not necessarily all from Nigeria, I just call them Nigerian scams because it's the easiest way to identify it.
It was funny. I had recently resolved to never lend people money (not the $10, $20 type lah) for any frigging excuse (this debt that debt) and then my friend ends up calling me for a loan. Claims that her uncle needs money urgently due to a friend's business problem. My other friend and I lent her some money, although it wasn't enough for her. She called the lawyer who was dealing with the case and settled the rest through negotiations with the lawyer.
The case did not sound logical at this point in time as there were some weird parts. For example she was saying that she needed money to pay for a cheque to release funds or some crap like that. However, we didn't probe that much at that time because she is the type that comes across as not really knowing what happens in the world (she can't even download avg without me giving her a direct URL leading straight to the download page) and not making much sense is quite normal for her.
This time, this proved to be our downfall. Ok, maybe downfall is a bit strong.
A few days later, she called up again and asked what is the fastest method of tranferring overseas funds into a local account. I helped her check and then I told her that I hoped the funds would come through smoothly although I had an inkling that it wouldn't.
Two more days passed and she called up to say that she needed funds to secure some certificate from IMF to release the transfer of funds as the funds was stopped by IMF. I was suspicious of this but as there was something else going on at my workplace I didn't have a chance to check it out before I stupidly transferred some more money to her. I was probably thinking that as long as she didn't get the full sum, she can't do anything anyway and the money would still be safe with her. At this point she had admitted that she had lied about her uncle needing the money (KNS!!) and that it was her colleague who needed it. Said colleague was an item with her (I was like since when did she get a boyfriend!!??) and were contemplating marriage once he gets his inheritance from UK and migrates to Singapore.
This is where I should have suspected another lie but I didn't, sounds like a scam but I couldn't figure out was why they would actually get to know someone in person to scam them. Waste of time and resources imho.
I ran a check on the net when I had time and I confirmed that it was a scam. Sheesh. So pissed with myself for getting scammed too. SMS'ed my friend that the cert was a false claim but she had already transferred the money over. Figures. They just want to get every cent they can ASAP.
Long story short, pulled my friend out for a meeting with my other friend and we managed to pull out the entire story. Bloody hell it was a typical Nigerian scam. She got to know the person through email. *Everything falls in place now*. Said person likes her and wants to come to Singapore to be with her. Wants to transfer inheritance to her name so that there will be lower taxes on the inheritance. Along the way hiccups happen and she needs money.
Yes, I know some people will tell me that maybe my friend is the scammer. I don't deny that she might possibly be the one scamming us but to go through such a lot of trouble to scam us of a bit of money and risking friendship over it? I dunno. Anyway, according to what I know her total loss is about 64.5k. Heck I wish I could save money like her. Her personal savings were somewhere over 55k. All gone. To a email boyfriend of 1 month.
Tried to convince her to make a police report. She did not want to, but finally agreed. At the station she changed her mind as she was worried that she might lose her job over this. I got so pissed I didn't even want to talk to her.
I'm mostly pissed cos I got conned by her lies. Not at her, but at myself. Bloody hell, I need to be more hardhearted!! This will impact my financial / study plans for the rest of the year because I didn't have much to begin with..... Probably lucky cos then I won't have much to be conned out of too.
I just wanted to post this because... YES, Nigerian scams REALLY DO WORK!!! They don't even have to work on you. They just have to work on your friend if you are kindhearted enough to help friends!
Be kind and helpful to others, but be wary and take care of yourself first :(
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