At 04:29 PM 09/23/2001 -0700, Tim May wrote:
On Sunday, September 23, 2001, at 04:25 PM, Karsten M. Self wrote:
on Sun, Sep 23, 2001 at 07:35:58AM -0400, Steve Furlong (sfurlong@acmenet.net) wrote:
Karsten M. Self wrote:
...neatly sidestepping the fact that fraud is a crime, stupidity isn't.
Stupidity _is_ a natural crime. Mommy states have attempted to repeal that law, but succeed mainly in redirecting the costs of stupidity from the stupid to society as a whole.
Oh. So it *is* legitmate to swindle senile dowagers of their investments?
We didn't say it was "legitimate"...we said it is part of the natural trend of stupidity. A "senile dowager" who mails some of her money to Nigeria has herself to blame.
The 419 scam is a bit different from most "Can you help me get my money" scams that need the mark to contribute some up-front money, or too-good-to-be-true investments, or house-repair jobs that never get done. In this one, the cons are pretty much admitting that the money was stolen by some corrupt official who's their relative, and they're asking the mark to help them get the loot. So the mark isn't an innocent dupe, but a guilty dupe, and has no business complaining about the lack of honor among thieves, and if anything, the mark who complains to the cops about being ripped off would deserve to be busted if there were in fact any stolen money in Nigeria.