A wonder of opportunity, momentum now extinguished:

[G]irls were not allowed to wear a chadri (burka) on their way to secondary school.

(#10 then & now.)

I knooooooow this much is true....

Snoozing bastards.

I received an email from the "FBI" once. They had intercepted a trunk full of money, and I needed to complete some paperwork to access it. If I failed to contact them, I would be charged with numerous offenses, including money laundering.

The email address cracked me up. It was something like - JoeFBI at gmail dot com.

Don't come here again. Never mention us to others. We've never heard of you, "Meloni"....

"Blog comments"? What "blog comments"?

Fake Cashier's Checks
Protecting Customers from Fake Cashier's Checks
01/17/09 - BankersOnline by Mary Beth Guard

Bank Checks or Cashier's Checks can be fake. It takes 10 days to detect the fraud. Crooks are sending fake checks and asking for some or all of the money back before the fake is discovered.

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Some banks say that the check will be good in 24 hours, or that the check is guaranteed good, so there are no worries about using the funds. Feeling safely assured, the bank customer goes through with the transaction [and sends money to the fraudsters]. Days later, when the checks are found to be counterfeit, the banks hold their customer responsible for the entire amount of the check, even though the bank had assured them that the funds were good.
=== ===

If you feel like geeking out, read this Microsoft research paper:
Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?

The author writes:

Far-fetched tales of West Africa riches strike most as comical. Our analysis suggests that is an advantage to the attacker, not a disadvantage. Since his attack has a low density of victims the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce false positives. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor.

(Jaw-dropping. Go fullscreen.)

(I happened across this last night, and wondered where those wacky French got their inspiration for their movies. Then I saw this, and it's real.)

You're just receiving what the U.S. government spends in 3 seconds.

Thanks to JD for that link

That's a great link, JD.

It also helps explain the woman in the news today, a 49ers fan who sent $4900 to a stranger who claimed he had Super Bowl tickets. In return she received an envelope with a slip of paper that said GO RAVENS LOL.

Putting an ad for bargain-priced Super Bowl tickets on Craigslist would automatically self-select only the suckeriest of the suckers, and from there it was probably a process of sucker elimination to find the one who would send thousands to a completely unknown person.

Some days I wish I were a world class hacker.

I'd send them their money, the drain every account they had and make their lives living hell for years on end. Maybe drain a few government accounts and frame them as a final FU before I loosed them from my web.

Other days I wonder when the psychotorpic drugs for elaberate delusional revenge fantasies will hit the market

I've gotten several emails purporting to be from FeDEx advising me to click a link - first red flag - to print a receipt and go get my undeliverable package. Called FedEx first time just to confirm mys suspicions it was bogus, they nicely advised me I could fwd it to an addy they had to try and combat the scam. The other red flag? As FedEx was unable, for some vague reason, to deliver my package, it had been "returned to the Post Office." Sorry, Charlie... Different service!

Scamming the Scammers.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/05/baiting-nigerian-scammers-for-fun-not-so-much-for-profit/

Several years ago I stumbled across a website devoted to people who had scammed the scammers. They posted hysterical pics of their scammer posing with ridiculous signs, etc.