[Ads-l] The Nigerian Scam revisited

Sun Oct 2 21:23:23 UTC 2016

Don't bonobo monkeys also constantly copulate?

On Sun, Oct 2, 2016, 5:02 PM Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com>
wrote:

> Well, to be picky, the Nigerian 419 scam, specifically a web-based
> phenomenon,
> is a variant on the Spanish Prisoner Con.  Pushing it back to England in
> the
> 1600s, I suppose guinea dropping could be considered a slighter variant of
> the
> same business, as Guinea Droppers, Spanish Prisoner Conmen, and Nigerian
> [not
> necessarily from that physical area, but so-called from the first
> identified ISP
> address associated with the phenomenon] Scammers all appeal to the mark's
> cupidity, thus in each case there being a hint of impropriety, never quite
> reaching the level of illegality, in what the mark is expected to do to get
> Loadsamoney.
>
> Hey, let's not knock it -- it worked (well enough) in 1600, and it still
> seems
> to work often enough today for it to be still worth practicing.
>
> Sad old world, if you can bear to think about it. The Web seems intent on
> (among
> other things) replicating, while spinning the electrons, scams which prolly
> reach back to the time when a sharp chimpanzee first conned a silver-backed
> gorilla out of his [sic] territory, while a couple of  bonobo monkeys
> looked on
> disapprovingly.
>
> Robin
>
> (Aside: In the scale of primate social co-operativeness, homo sapiens as a
> whole
> sits on a level with chimpanzees, above silver-backed gorillas but well
> below
> the heights achieved by bonobo monkeys.  Puts us in our place, that does,
> in
> more ways than one.  Bonobo monkeys are apparently even happy, or at least,
> willing, to welcome immigrants from other tribes.  R.)
>
> >
> >     On 02 October 2016 at 21:23 Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >
> >     Isn't "Nigerian _letter_" the older term for this particular scam,
> which
> > is
> >     two days older than water?
> >
> >     Esquire - Volume 77 - Page 184
> >     https://books.google.com/books?id=gWJXAAAAYAAJ
> >     William S. Burroughs - 1972 - ‎Snippet view
> >     A typical _Nigerian letter_. The correspondence closes with three
> >     "references of long standing business" and the illegible signature
> of a
> >     "Director." I answered. "Dr. Mr. Director:
> >
> >     "Many good thanks for your letter.
> >
> >     "We at X-Pando are not financially equipped to send $400 [approx.
> >     $3700, today] worth of free samples sight unseen even to such a
> >     well-established firm as yours. We promise you that the X-Pandotite
> in the
> >     one-pound can is exactly the same X-Pandotite as in the 100-pound
> drum.
> >     Only more of it.
> >
> >     "We have checked your three references. At present writing two have
> >     answered:
> >     "We do business only on the basis of an irrevocable letter of
> credit."
> >
> >     I thought that had ended it. Yet I am surprised by yet another
> letter.
> >
> >     On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 11:18 AM, Margaret Winters <
> mewinters at wayne.edu>
> >     wrote:
> >
> >     > The "IRS" has been sending threatening emails and - even worse -
> >     > threatening phone calls for quite a while now. One version demands
> >     > payment
> >     > by gift cards (!) for a 'student tax', targeting undergraduates
> new to
> >     > grown-up finance, but there are many versions. We get a call once
> or
> >     > twice
> >     > a week and delete from our answering machine - no spam filter
> equivalent
> >     > there.
> >     >
> >     >
> >     > sigh,
> >     >
> >     > Margaret
> >     >
> >     >
> >     > ----------------------------
> >     > MARGARET E WINTERS
> >     > On Leave
> >     > Office of the Provost
> >     > Wayne State University
> >     > Detroit, MI 48202
> >     >
> >     > mewinters at wayne.edu
> >     >
> >     >
> >     >
> >     > ________________________________
> >     > From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf
> of
> >     > Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> >     > Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 11:06 AM
> >     > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >     > Subject: OT: The Nigerian Scam revisited
> >     >
> >     > I've just had an email (which my ISP rightly decided, with acute
> >     > disdain,
> >     > to
> >     > relegate to my Spam folder) threatening [sic!] me with legal
> action from
> >     > everyone from the IRS to the United Nations, if I don't send them
> at
> >     > least
> >     > a
> >     > token payment on an overdue debt.
> >     >
> >     > I don't remember coming on this particular variant on an
> old-established
> >     > ritual
> >     > before.
> >     >
> >     > Anyone else had one of these? Or am I the only sad person on this
> list
> >     > who
> >     > checks their Spam folder?
> >     >
> >     > Robin
> >     >
> >     > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >     >
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> >
> >
> >
> >     --
> >     -Wilson
> >     -----
> >     All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to
> >     come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >     -Mark Twain
> >
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> >
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