Tue 02 Dec 2008

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Aussies fall for Nigerian Scam

Daft drongos cough up £12 million

INSPECTOR KNACKER of the Queensland Yard is worried that so many Aussies are falling for the Nigerian scam.

Apparently more than £12 million is transferred from Aussie bank accounts to Nigerian scammers every year.

Coppers fear this might be the tip of the iceberg because victims fail to report incidents and some of the cash might be wired through other countries.

Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, part of the Queensland Police fraud squad, said Australians sent about £1.1 million a month to Nigeria, at least 80 per cent of which was fraud related.

He said that New South Wales people seemed to be the biggest victim group in Oz, quite why is another matter.

Hay got on the blower to 139 people who had sent money to Nigeria and found 135 were fraud victims. One romance victim lost more than £10,000 and a business invested in £2.5 million in a fictitious oil pipeline. µ

L'Inq
Sydney Morning Herald

Comments

Come on!

In this day and age, if people are still getting caught in internet scams, then they deserve to lose their money and the old adage, "A fool and his money are soon parted", still holds true.

posted by : Darrell MacLennan, 20 August 2008

penal colonies lol :O)



yeh well its genetic in the white folk in auzzzzzzzifurkintralia innit lol, dont forget they were deported out of blighty for their criminal activities here :O)

stands to reason that anythin with a huge potential return PARTICULARLY if its illegal (dodgey nigerian bank officials etc) got to be a winner with um, hasnt it lol O_o
posted by : psychochief, 20 August 2008

Quite why

Perhaps New South Wakes are sending the most over because NSW has the largest population in Australia?
posted by : Wayne Carter, 20 August 2008

crazy

WOW, I never suspected that so many people were so dumb. Maybe it's time to start my own business... let's see, what lie could I invent, as I can see, we don't need anything fancy, they seem to believe everything...
posted by : cocoloco, 20 August 2008

Stupid people deserve being victimized?

We shall thus avert our eyes to all criminals?
posted by : Feh, 20 August 2008

throw some brains on the barbi!

When your average Aussie's IQ is 84, then what do you expect?
posted by : Markus Wallett, 20 August 2008

View?

They should track down those poor sods and put them in a home, and redistribute their money amongst random people in their area.
posted by : W.-, 20 August 2008

afd

I'm pretty sure that here in Australia we use dollars, not pounds of any variety

[SM writes... Yes but this is a British Web Site and we don't understand your funny see through plastic money]
posted by : asdf, 20 August 2008

erm...

"He said that New South Wales people seemed to be the biggest victim group in Oz, quite why is another matter."

Uh, because NSW is the most populous state? And if they include Canberra in the figures, which they probably do, with all of those bored civil servants (when not otherwise overworked), "why" doesn't seem to be in question.
posted by : /mjh., 20 August 2008

Con Men

Darrell, there still exist real con men working on the internet. It's not all just spam about the uncle of a rich Nigerian prince. The whole reason con men succeed is because they're good. Over the internet they can work a lot easier, forging real relationships with people before convincing them to give them money, and they can do it in minutes per day writing emails to their mark. If you fall for a mass market spam scam, sure, you're dense, but even for a lot of on-the-ball internet savvy users, it can be hard to spot a good con man.
posted by : RJP, 20 August 2008

it's in the mail...

i too am feeling a bit queasy... so gullible... so used...

catch the l'inq: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/02/win-prize-choosing-intel
.
posted by : number9, 21 August 2008
IThound
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