
Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria? (2012) - behnamoh
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-nigerian-scammers-say-they-are-from-nigeria/
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c3534l
I mean, there's a very practical reason for this. Back when the scam was
popular, they asked you to send a Western Union transfer to Nigeria. I had a
girl I was chatting with ask me to donate money to needy kids in Africa, which
happened to be in Nigeria. Now they want iTunes gift cards so they can resell
them. It's not game theory, it's just regular old money laundering.

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reaperducer
_Now they want iTunes gift cards so they can resell them._

Interestingly, when I bought an iTunes gift card at the Apple Store last week
for a Christmas present, the Apple guy ringing me up required me to sign a
document stating that I wasn't trying to pay someone with them. Some kind of
scam prevention mechanism. I wonder how well it works.

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wolco
They required you to sign a form that you wouldn't trade it for goods or
services? Did you sign it? That part feels like the scam.

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reaperducer
No, they asked me to sign a form (on an iPhone, FWIW) stating that I knew that
strangers calling out of the blue and asking for payment in iTunes cards was a
scam.

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Havoc
The spelling is (believed to be) attrocious for similar reasons.

There is significant overlap between people that can't spell to save their
lives and people who know very little about real world finances ("We need you
to send us 10k for fees to unlock the 50 million").

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ncmncm
Misspeling "atrocious" was a nice touch.

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Havoc
Let's just pretend that was intentional...

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perl4ever
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better)

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lexxed
The article feels generated

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olliej
I’ve always loved this rationale.

