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ORIGINAL: GroupW

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ORIGINAL: kernsfamily

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...that is too funny!!

I got one of those Nigerian scams.
I got the one where someone had figured out that, legally, I was somehow the legal inheritor of some great fortune. The csammer would help me get my money.

They told me to contact a 'barrister" (lawyer) in some city in Nigeria.

I remember some reporters on "Dateline NBC" or somewhere....actually went through with a few of the "Nigerian" scams....went overseas (to somewhere in Europe, I believe)....met with them "face to face" (playing along as if THEY were the "victim" in the scam).....you should've seen the looks on their faces when they said, at the end "Iam not really who I said I was....Iam 'so and so'....from NBC news".......VERY INTERESTING

NPR carried a segment where two guys here in the US used the same scam techniques to convince the scammers to travel to some backwoods town in some awful part of Africa to collect on a fictitious wire transfer. It was both amusing and disturbing at the same time.

The interesting thing was that even the people that USE these techniques can be taken in by them and be deceived themselves. So anyone that's ever been taken in by one of these scams can at least rest easy with the assurance that even the people using these techniques - and more than anyone else should know better - still get taken.

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Here in the USA turn it over to the Postmaster General. It's a federal crime to use the USPS for such scams. Is there an equivelant in Canada?

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There's also a funny story about the Powerbook Prank:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

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It hurts big time. Once you've initiated contact with these scammers, they will stop at nothing to get what they're after - access to your bank account. They will harass, threaten, and even use physical force to achieve their goal.

Most experts agree, the best thing to do is ignore them and hit the delete button. Many have told me, however, that they have (or at least were tempted to) reply to the sender just to let them know that they are "on to" them. However, this is highly inadvisable. These are not bored teenagers looking to score an easy buck. These are hardened, organized criminals who will not be discouraged by threats of contacting the authorities. They see every response from you as an opportunity to exploit and aren't afraid to do so.

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Yes Tricia ... here in Canada you would contact the RCMP, and more specifically, the fraud division.