You too can receive up to 40% of $15M US...

Ki

there isn't a day go by where I don't receive an email such as this. Unfortunately some people have been duped out of their entire life savings with scams such as this.

A much worse version of this was on a news program. People went to match.com, thought they had met their dream partner only to be asked to have all of their savings mailed to these people. Little did they know that the girl they were talking was a guy in Africa, and the Army officer was yet another deadbeat there. Remarkable how good these people were to cheat these people out of their money over many weeks and months of communicating with them.

I'd say if you thought you had met your dream person on match.com and your dream person asked you to mail all of your money to them, they are probably not so dreamy.

Did you hear about the woman suing the guy she met on Facebook? He's from Washington.

Mich. woman sues after Facebook romance fails

I'd say it will get tossed out. I don't know what it is but older females just seem more gullible. I noticed this when I was dating not long ago.

If the $8000 she says she spent were for gifts and not a loan, she won't get anything back. That's why they are called gifts.

"The single mother said they met playing Mafia Wars, and that the friendship became romantic. For months they spent as many as six hours a day communicating online."

I am behind times. Didn't think you could get "romantic" just typing text to each other. Wonder what word they use to describe real romance!

Scams are a conspiracy between the greed and wishful thinking of the "victim" as much as the deception of the scam artist. The effect can be so potent on the "victims", an observer might think that the "victims" were born to be fooled and hypnotized by the scam artists and are just waiting for the con artists to come along due to some odd vulnerability in their psyche.

I read an article about a swindler in Britain many years ago who ran a massive scam based on the "Sir Francis Drake" myth. He had thousands of correspondents sending him money from all over the world. The scam generally stated that the "victims" were identified as distant relatives of Sir Francis Drake, who had a secret fortune mouldering and increasing in private vaults in England for centuries, but which was close to being released to the "rightful heirs". The "victims", of course, merely needed to provide some funding for the ongoing legal efforts to release the "fortune" in order to become wealthy. The appeal was to greed, with a dollop of vanity thrown in as being an heir to a historical figure.

When the perpetrator was unmasked, and the scam revealed to the "victims", some of whom had been sending money for years, they were enraged that con artist had been arrested and rushed to defend him. They were so locked into the idea of the myth, that they literally refused to wise up. They more or less elected a new con artist who maintained their delusions while swindling them. The "Francis Drake" swindle has a devoted polity, and has thus been one of the most persistent and intractable cons ever.

Maybe that's why we have the politicians we have, everybody is looking for a good con artist to maintain their myths and delusions.

I keep getting e-mails like the one that I received earlier today from all over the world including Nigeria regarding sale of my photographs:

Hi,
I am Kristin Scott, an American but I live and work here in Australia. This mail is to make inquiry on the below question.
1- Do you carry overseas? (though i already know of a freight forwarder that will pick my packages from you,since they ship lesser than any other courier and they are so effective in shipping my goods to me here in Queensland,Australia is estimated to be 3-4days) I have used their services in the past and it was splendid.
2- Do you accept credit card for payment(my U.S.A Master and Visa card to be precise)?
Kindly let me know your comments on these, before i send the items i am interested in purchasing from you.

Kristin

For the several initial contacts trying to make purchases I tried to cover my butt and have some payment requirements. Needless to say, the people contacting me never agreed to the sale.

Since then I have just ignored such contacts.

Rich

amirm said:

"The single mother said they met playing Mafia Wars, and that the friendship became romantic. For months they spent as many as six hours a day communicating online."

I am behind times. Didn't think you could get "romantic" just typing text to each other. Wonder what word they use to describe real romance!

Click to expand...

You do not think texts such as "U R my M8 4 life" are romantic

Cheers
Orb