BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Donuel
Date: 18 May 23 - 07:40 AM

Serial Swindlers is a Netflix series on the MO of various global swindlers and is a helpful education for everyone.
Charming narcissist social psychopaths are often the usual suspects but there are many types to look for.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 23 - 10:45 AM

Thanks for the tip! I'll add that to my Netflix queue.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Donuel
Date: 19 May 23 - 05:55 AM

The more pics and video one has on Facebook and podcasts, the greater the risk of AI video reconstructions of you. Capturing your voice from video makes fakes easy. Banking may require more in-person transactions.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Donuel
Date: 19 May 23 - 06:14 AM

Natural History Museums will have a new AI competition.
Artificial History has always been with us but has a new power.
Noah's Ark and Bible museums can enhance their impact with AI.

Stealing the imprimatur of important people combined with small donations will net millions.
It is already legal to make political donations disappear.
I see test scams a plenty soon.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Donuel
Date: 21 May 23 - 07:52 PM

The scamming of seniors in the US is about 10 billion dollars a year
Only one in 20 report it. It is wise to be politely paranoid and not believe your child or grandchild is asking for immediate cash due a fearful, desperate or unusual incident. With scamming tools, the name and phone number may be correct. Getting duped is 100% initially but putting a halt to it before you hand over cash is possible. With AI we are seeing a doubling of these kinds of scams.
Don't be embarrassed that you do not disbelieve the voice of your child or a known authority.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 23 - 01:30 PM

The real estate scam is an ongoing one - every week I get mail, calls, and texts from people who want to give me a "fair offer" on my house. Yeah, right. I have a bridge to sell them.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: leeneia
Date: 24 May 23 - 01:12 AM

"The more pics and video one has on Facebook and podcasts, the greater the risk of AI video reconstructions of you."

I've taken care not to have my picture appear on the internet. I was dismayed to see that the university hospital I use had taken my picture unbeknownst to me and put it up. I told them to remove it, and they did.

I checked, and my address isn't on the internet either. I've worked at that. And when a site asks for my birthdate, I give them a fake one.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 23 - 05:21 AM

I got an actual Nigerian one yesterday from "Mr Boss Mustapha," with the nonsensical heading "Urgent transmitted," promising me the earth of course. :-)

I'm with leeneia on the photo thing. A family friend (not my friend) took some photos of us in our house and promptly put them up on Facebook, showing us gleefully what she'd done. She was taken aback when I ordered her to remove them immediately. What a bloody cheek.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 May 23 - 09:49 AM

I could have sworn I've written this at least once before, but apparently not in this thread:

Nonsensical or clearly-wrong cold-call messages are an optimisation technique used by spammers to preselect those who reply for gullibility; essentially, they outsource the first-level triage to the potential marks. You, Steve, have failed the test. Good on yer.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 23 - 12:25 PM

I use a helpful phone app called Hiya that is one of several on the Google Store marketplace. It filters calls and flags any that are already know as scams or spam, and offers other alerts when needed.

My Facebook got locked down pretty tight back in the years of the old Mudcat Troll - may he rest in pieces hopefully - he harvested photos then commingled them with soft core porn and created new albums or accounts in the names of various Mudcatters. It was a lesson in how to get lots of things removed from online sites.

The other day I was looking at my childhood street in Google maps and there are a couple of houses on the block that are totally blurred out. If this is a witness protection service attempt at anonymity, I'm sure there are ways around it, but for now, it kept me from seeing those houses. Photos of my house off of Google maps are regularly printed on letters offering me top cash for my house, and that alone is a good reason to erase the photo, though I think by now that opportunity has passed, it turns up in several places.

Subject: RE: BS: A new wrinkle on Nigerian Scams
From: Donuel
Date: 24 May 23 - 06:27 PM

Why would witness protection announce their safe houses by blurring out only their witness houses?