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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
I am so glad I caught this in time... It's my LUCKY DAY!!!
We have a FedEx package containing $850,000.00 USD to be delivered to your home address. Your email address was among the ten lucky winners and has qualify you to win $850,000.00 from UK National Lottery Draw. Send Fullname, Home address, sex, telephone. Note: Delivery fee is $125 only.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
No problem. Take the $125 out of the package and send me the rest.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
www.georgefledo.net Latest column: "Sorry about the photos in my posts here" |
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Salguod Nairb Room 101 0 Posts |
Did the subject begin with a 'Re:'?
We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness...
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
No idea. Long gone.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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rockwall Special user 762 Posts |
Quote:
On Oct 15, 2015, Michael Baker wrote: Oh come on! The letters I get are MUCH more entertaining than that! The misspellings, the broken english, etc. You're gonna have to do better than just a boring, "You've won $850,000; send us your personal info." |
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imgic Inner circle Moved back to Midwest to see 1339 Posts |
I read "Think Like a Freak" ( by the authors of Freakanomics) not too long ago. The talked about email scams with bad grammar and misspellings. It actually serves a purpose, as a self-selecting mechanism.
If somebody gets such an email and sees its an obvious scam, they don't reply and the scammer does not have to waste time following up. But if person replies, they are obviously not with it enough to note problems in the email and are more likely to be scammed. If the scam artists were to put time and effort into crafting a more legitimate looking email, with precise spelling and even legitimate looking graphics. There'd be more upfront costs, then more time and effort following up as they'd get more replies, and higher failure rate as more people would realize it's a scam later in the process. There's method to their madness, and with email churning out hundreds of the and of emails, they just have to hit a tiny fraction to make money.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21245 Posts |
Yea I was about to mention the psychology being doing that but you covered it pretty well.
That tiny fraction is amazingly easy to hit. Science long ago grossly underestimated the birth rater of the average sucker. But lets not forget these are victims. People can be and are taken by this stuff.
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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rockwall Special user 762 Posts |
Quote:
On Oct 15, 2015, imgic wrote: You can't help but wonder if people actually fall for this stuff. Is there any data on how many people do? It would be interesting. |
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rockwall Special user 762 Posts |
So I decided to google it myself.
http://www.geektime.com/2014/07/21/milli......n-scams/ "Millions of victims lost $12.7B last year falling for Nigerian scams" Except that part of the report in this article kind of disputes what you read in Freakanomics. "The report also notes that contrary to wide beliefs, high achieving professionals are more likely to be defrauded than poorly educated or financially desperate people. Maybe this is because people with more money may be more likely to risk money to make bigger sums." Amazing! I guess I'm in the wrong business. |
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imgic Inner circle Moved back to Midwest to see 1339 Posts |
I avoid say people who are stupid fall for this, because it's also those with diminished capacity or those unfamiliar with emerging technologies. My mother is into her 80's an just now getting comfortable with a computer after taking a class at the senior center. More than once I've had to tell her that the bank will not be asking for her information via an email, and not, there is no Amazon gift card waiting to be delivered if she just sends postage. It just takes one time...
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
Quote:
On Oct 15, 2015, rockwall wrote: So, are you saying you attract a higher class of idiots than I do? I guess my luck was fleeting. LOL
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21245 Posts |
It is always wrong to blame the victim. Stupid? Perhaps. Often confused or desperate or many other things. Some are just blinded by greed and I find it tough to work up too much sympathy there.
But indeed many fall for this. When they send out tens of thousands only a small percentage have to hit.
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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rockwall Special user 762 Posts |
Quote:
On Oct 16, 2015, Michael Baker wrote: Maybe not higher class but definitely more entertaining! Next time I spot one, I'll post in this thread. We could start a 'Top This' contest! |
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rockwall Special user 762 Posts |
Wow, I need to check out my spam folder more often! After writing the above post, I decided to take a look. I found several offers, most of them quite boring, just telling me I won some money and to reply to collect it. But then I came upon this gem. From Bill Gates no less!!!
"Greetings to You You have been gifted $5 MILLION USD From Mr Bill Gates. Contact me at this email for your claim: billgatesdonation@****** I hope this information meet you well as I know you will be curious to know why/how I selected you to receive a sum of $5,000,000,00 USD, our information below is 100% legitimate, please see the link below: http://www.cnet.com/news/bill-and-melind......ericans/ I BILL GATES and my wife decided to donate the sum of $5,000,000,00 USD to you as part of our charity project to improve the 10 lucky individuals all over the world from our $65 Billion Usd I and My Wife Mapped out to help people. We prayed and searched over the internet for assistance and I saw your profile on Microsoft email owners list and picked you. Melinda my wife and I have decided to make sure this is put on the internet for the world to see. as you could see from the webpage above,am not getting any younger and you can imagine having no much time to live. although am a Billionaire investor and we have helped some charity organizations from our Fund. You see after taken care of the needs of our immediate family members, Before we die we decided to donate the remaining of our Billions to other individuals around the world in need, the local fire department, the red cross, Haiti, hospitals in truro where Melinda underwent her cancer treatment, and some other organizations in Asia and Europe that fight cancer, alzheimer's and diabetes and the bulk of the funds deposited with our payout bank of this charity donation. we have kept just 30% of the entire sum to our self for the remaining days because I am no longer strong am sick and am writing you from hospital computer.and me and my wife will be traveling to Germany for Treatment. To facilitate the payment process of the funds ($5,000,000.00 USD) which have been donated solely to you, you are to send us your full names................. your contact address................ your personal telephone number............... so that I can forward your payment information to you immediately. I am hoping that you will be able to use the money wisely and judiciously over there in your City. please you have to do your part to also alleviate the level of poverty in your region, help as many you can help once you have this money in your personal account because that is the only objective of donating this money to you in the first place. Thank you for accepting our offer, we are indeed grateful You Can Google my name for more information: Mr Bill Gates or Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Remain Blessed Regards Mr Bill Gates" OK, Who can TOP THIS??? |
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
Hello,
I am Miss Geraldene Dozzy from (KwaZulu-Natal) South Africa, I am contacting you because I need your help in management of some amount that my father left for me before he died. My father was a very successful business man into timber plantations and exportation but was poisoned by his step brothers, my uncles that was assisting him in his business due to envy and they are now after me so I had to escape my way to Benin where I am presently. Please I want you to stand as my guardian to enable you receive the money in your country and as well assist me secure papers that will enable me come over to your country immediately for continuation of my education and investing of the money according to your advise since I am only 17 years without mother or father. Please indicate if you are interested in taking me along because my present situation here is critically frustrating. I will be waiting for your response. Please kindly let me know if you are not willing so that I can continue searching. Yours sincerely Miss Geraldene Dozzy
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
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imgic Inner circle Moved back to Midwest to see 1339 Posts |
Gee whiz, all I got n my spam folder is an offer for some pills guaranteed to enlarge certain parts of my anatomy.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
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Salguod Nairb Room 101 0 Posts |
They have doughnuts in pill form now??
We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness...
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Man, Brian is on a hot streak with the one-liners!
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
How about a personal note from the Secretary-General of the United Nations?
Quote:
UNITED NATION SCAM VICTIM COMPENSATION NOTICE. Nothing like scamming from the top!
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
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mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
If Paul Williams is the representative in the US, why does he have a Spanish email address? And you'd think these non-English speaking spammers/scammers would at least have someone check their posts for the horrible spelling and grammatical errors.
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