419er Lost in Space 198
rjp writes "The Register has what is probably the best 419 scam attempt ever! 419er's in space, if only! As always, check out 419 eater for more 419 goodness."
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419er Lost in Space
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Those who can, do; those who can't, write. Those who can't write work for the Bell Labs Record.
as the proverb says (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:3, Informative)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:2)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:2)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:5, Funny)
But have you noticed that the proverb never tells you how the fool gets the money in the first place?
Re:as the proverb says (Score:3, Funny)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:2)
My bad: Here ya go [amazon.com]!
Re:as the proverb says (Score:2)
Re:as the proverb says (Score:2)
In my family, he inherited it...
After much geneological research, it was determined that the reason my mother's family never became wealthy was because of a long-standing tradition of leaving everything to the dumbest son.
English too good (Score:2, Insightful)
Scams (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Scams (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scams (Score:2)
(Sorry about linking to the moonies. I was gonna say it is a wire story, but it's UPI which is also the moonies of course. Whatever.)
What the hell is "on the spoke"? (Score:1, Interesting)
Thanks.
Re:What the hell is "on the spoke"? (Score:4, Funny)
no, that is genuine.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:no, that is genuine.. (Score:2)
In Soviet Russian spacecraft, you scam Nigerians!
Warp (Score:4, Funny)
I wish I still had it in my archives.
Re:Warp (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
I received a message like this... (Score:2)
I received a message like this more than once. I think the sender is mentally disturbed, and not looking to make money.
Or, maybe the sender is a scam artist looking for mentally disturbed people.
Re:Warp (Score:4, Interesting)
This came across the Hydrogen list awhile back. Enjoy! ;)
No, there wasn't a secret link that I could see.
Re:Warp (Score:2)
Re:Warp (Score:3, Funny)
Hello,
I'm a time traveler stuck here in 2003. Upon arriving here my dimensional warp generator stopped working. I trusted a company here by the name of LLC Lasers to repair my Generation 3 52 4350A watch unit, and they fled on me. I am going to need a new DWG unit, prefereably the rechargeable AMD wrist watch model with the GRC79 induction motor, four I80200 warp stabilizers, 512GB of S
Re:Warp (Score:3, Informative)
Wired did an article about him, available here. [wired.com]
A followup here. [wired.com]
Re:Warp (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, here we are: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/timetravelspam.html [museumofhoaxes.com]
Re:Warp (Score:3, Funny)
Well, color me convinced...
DANGER!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Dr. Smith: Shush, you blithering imbecile! Nobody could POSSIBLY fall for something so obviously fake!
Fool me once... Fool me twice... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Fool me once... Fool me twice... (Score:5, Funny)
our beloved president, George W Bush.
Re:Fool me once... Fool me twice... (Score:5, Informative)
There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.
Re:Fool me once... Fool me twice... (Score:2)
Re:Fool me once... Fool me twice... (Score:2)
It's not just a matter of being stupid or gullible, either; they're appealing directly to greed and the willingness of people to get involved in shady or illegal dealings on the promise of a quick and easy payoff. So no, I don't have any sympathy either...
What's a 419? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What's a 419? (Score:5, Informative)
419 is a Nigerian penal code number.
Re:YHBT HAND FOAD --- twit. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:YHBT HAND FOAD --- twit. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's a 419? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's a 419? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What's a 419? (Score:3, Informative)
No reference this time, use google for more info
-1: Trivial Google search (Score:2)
Re:What's a 419? (Score:2)
It's bogus! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It's bogus! (Score:3, Funny)
Morons.
Wow!! (Score:4, Funny)
Any one knows a Ferrari dealer around here ??? I just spent 100 bucks on a new optomagnetic mouse which cures AIDS and cancer (After all I will be getting millions soon)
Thanks again
The way these scams work. (Score:5, Insightful)
I just wonder how many people already have fallen for this one.
Re:The way these scams work. (Score:2)
Re:The way these scams work. (Score:2)
The people who fall for 419 scams usually don't have the money they lose. They often resort to borrowing, theft and embezzlement themselves (after all, when they have their ONE BAZILLION U.S. DOLLARS, they'll be able to pay everything back, nobody will notice...).
$3,000,000 eh? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Whoops. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whoops. (Score:1, Funny)
it said right at the top: "STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL".
Re:Whoops. (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually.... (Score:2)
...if I guy had been stuck in orbit for a decade, he'd have lost so much bone and muscle mass that bringing him home suddenly would be a death sentence.
Re:Actually.... (Score:2)
Ways of collecting. (Score:2, Funny)
It does exist! (Score:5, Interesting)
Good job!
Re:It does exist! (Score:3, Funny)
Oddly, you're actually telling the truth. (Score:5, Informative)
or rather the GP is (Score:1)
Re:It does exist! (Score:1)
Maybe its a.... (Score:2)
you should all be ashamed of yourselves (Score:4, Funny)
Obvious bank to pay them from ... (Score:3, Funny)
(That's from "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", and yes, that's Luna City as in the Moon colony...)
419 Scam (Score:5, Informative)
For those wondering what the heck a 419 Scam is, Wikipedia explains [wikipedia.org].
Re:419 Scam (Score:2)
Brilliant! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Brilliant! (Score:2)
Beam me up, Scotty!! (Score:5, Funny)
On another optimistic note, his grasp of the Klingon language is quite vast.
i think the real issue here is (Score:4, Funny)
Some take it seriously... (Score:4, Interesting)
As hard as it is to believe, the 419 coalition [rica.net] takes a serious stance on those Nigerian scams. They claim that it is the third to fifth largest industry in Nigeria and suggests the government is actually involved. It seems to have been around since the early eighties.
Now if those scams were sent specifically to some rich blokes with the official Nigerian government's letterhead printed on top, I might understand their concern, but as it stands, it is so obviously a fraud that I can't help but think that those who swallow it, deserved it.
Alternatively, you could see it as one of the more original ways for a third-world country to reclaim some of the riches we stole from them.
Re:Some take it seriously... (Score:2)
Re:Some take it seriously... (Score:2)
Hm... that gives me an idea...
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Greetings US Citizen,
I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Politician, Former Governor Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in office when he made a secret campaign to become mayor in 1979. He was on a later cabinet post, Undersecretary to the secret military tribunal in 1989. He was stranded the
Re:Some take it seriously... (Score:2)
Who's "we"? I didn't steal anything from Nigeria.
Re:Some take it seriously... (Score:2)
Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:2)
The poor schmuck is supposed to be a real live government-style astronaut, not a space tourist. But we have actual, real space tourists these days (of course, not many.) There are now people in space more or less continuously, and have been for some years...so many that even the average space fan may not be able to name the ISS crew on orbit for a given mis
Re:Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:3, Insightful)
Even the most causal observer of the news should at least know that.
I don't think this is anywhere near plausible. Plausible and this don't live on the same planet. Plausible waved from it's Jumbo Jet win
Re:Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:2)
Re:Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:2)
Too lazy to look up the actual length and the name of the cosmonaut, but very impressive indeed!
Look it up if your interested
Re:Just plausible enough, even if it's parody. (Score:2)
saw it first on Slashdot... (Score:2, Informative)
It cannot be a 419 scam ... (Score:4, Funny)
Advance fee fraud (Score:1, Informative)
ASSISTANCE REQUIRED FOR ACQUISITION OF ESTATE (Score:1, Funny)
ASSISTANCE REQUIRED FOR ACQUISITION OF ESTATE
I write to inform you of my desire to acquire estates
or landed properties in your country on behalf of the
Director of Contracts and Finance Allocations of the
Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Nigeria.
Considering his very strategic and influential
position, he would want the transaction to be as
strictly confidential as possible. He further wants
his identity to remain undisclosed at least for now,
until the completion of the transaction. Hence our
d
14 years in Zero-G?? (Score:4, Interesting)
IANANASASOD (I Am Not A NASA Scientist Or Doctor), but all the sci-fi and sci-non-fi I've read have mentioned muscle atrophy and bone density degeneration, even with the best diet and exercise programs we currently have for "zero-gravity" living. That's why these guys who set endurance records for being in space often meet the press in a wheelchair.
Of course, picking apart these letters for accuracy is sort of silly in its own right.
Re:14 years in Zero-G?? (Score:2)
IAAD, and in short (Score:4, Informative)
The human body works best when exercised and used... use it or lose it. Ask any body-builder what happens when he stops lifting; his muscles will lose their strength-training-induced hypertrophy, and he'll get smaller. Zero gravity studies on returning astronauts have shown very rapid bone loss and strength loss... 14 years in orbit would render him unable to stand up... it would probably be a herculean effort to even lift his head. His bones might be so weak by that point that simple gravity could leave him with multiple fractures.
Think it can't happen? It happens all the time in elderly ladies with osteoporosis... and these are people who live in normal gravity (9.8m/s/s). I can't tell you the number of elderly patients I've had with rib fractures from a simple coughing fit... or spinal compression fractures from sitting down too hard in a chair.
14 years in zero g? He'd be weak as a kitten, and probably break half his bones simply from gravity.
Re:IAAD, and in short (Score:2)
I envision a singer by the handle: Jello Ball, he sings/raps from his Craft-Matic adjustable bed and gets worn as a cape by some athletic looking dancer.
Re:IAAD, and in short (Score:2, Funny)
Please help! I am returned Nigerian astronaugt with having many health problems...
Scam-baiting (Score:4, Interesting)
20% of $15M (Score:5, Funny)
20% of $15M is $3M which is what they're asking for so you'd only make money on the intrest between receiving the money and giving it back. Looks like a scam to me. I'd avoid it.
/sarcasm
Its true (Score:3, Funny)
The thing that makes it obviously a scam... (Score:5, Funny)
The one thing that would make this 419 scam better (Score:2, Funny)
Transporter
Not only a 419.. (Score:2)
(if you don't get it: http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.htm)
Soundtrack song (Score:2, Funny)
Worth your while to checkout 419 eater (Score:5, Informative)
They got this [419eater.com] scammer to pose with a loaf of bread on his head and mail them a photo!
And this [419eater.com] scammer actually spent $21.50 to mail this guy a $20 USD bill!
Just browse the trophy room [419eater.com] and then read teh entire message.
Lusting for space (Score:2)
My name is mark, and according to what I was told 40 years ago, I'd be on the wheel-shaped space station several years ago. Since I am out of work in the Bush Depression, I am asking for donations to take myself and my SO to the ISS by Russian launch vehicle (since I don't know how to contact the facility that launched Pitr of UserFriendly...).
This, of course, will require $40M US, and so it is imperative that you contact me soon, with whatever size donation you can afford.
Re:419 goodness? (Score:2)
Re:..huh? (Score:2)