DevilsAdvocate
26th March 2011, 03:06 AM
Michael Shermer presented an article in the Swift commentary about his interactions with a 419 scam. But is it a real Nigerian Prince scam, or someone pulling legs?
I am skeptical of the legitimacy of the “scam” for a number of reasons.
The alleged scammer says he chose to contact Shermer based on his profile information from http://www.amazingmeeting.com/speakers. Shermer has said that all of people on that site “all received the same invitation to speak”. Go to that website. The website does not have email addresses, links to personal websites, or any information about the speakers other than a name. And in some cases, such as Penn & Teller, there isn’t even a name. In other cases, the name is a common name such as Rebecca Watson, Heidi Anderson, Richard Saunders, or Maria Walters.
If this “scammer” has contacted many people from that website, why did he choose that website and where did he get the contact information? We know that scammers and spammers mine email addresses from websites. But there are no email addresses (or even any other contact information) on that website. But Shermer says other people listed on that website got the same email that he did. There are people on that website who have reported receiving that same email as Shermer, even before Shermer’s report.
So we would have to believe that the scammer came up with a scam to target public speakers, and for some reason they decided to target a group of skeptics, and got the list of targets from a website that doesn’t have any email or contact information, and then looked up everybody’s name to find their email, and then sent a scam email to those people. Is this starting to sound a little bit ridiculous to you?
There are many other indicators of this being a false scam. There are no records of similar text being used in another scam. The language and grammar of most scams long ago shifted from this kind of dumbed-down language to overly-complex language. The mechanism for payment is not clear: with the information given, I’m not even sure if it would possible to send a Western Union payment to MRS KELLY CONMAN. The scammer lads usually don’t give out verifiable information. The picture of the professor in front of the school is absurdity stupid. The “I’m Skeptical” pictures are absurdity stupid even after Shermer calls them out as photoshoped. The scammer doesn’t seem particularly interested in the rich donor.
I know that these scammer lads can be weird and out of touch, but this all seems unreasonable. And the concept that they picked out a group of skeptics, especially from a website that has no contact information, makes no sense at all.
I would call this most likely a hoax, and probably an April Fools joke. It may be perpetrated by someone just having fun, or by someone looking for a chance to make fun of skeptics.
I am skeptical of the legitimacy of the “scam” for a number of reasons.
The alleged scammer says he chose to contact Shermer based on his profile information from http://www.amazingmeeting.com/speakers. Shermer has said that all of people on that site “all received the same invitation to speak”. Go to that website. The website does not have email addresses, links to personal websites, or any information about the speakers other than a name. And in some cases, such as Penn & Teller, there isn’t even a name. In other cases, the name is a common name such as Rebecca Watson, Heidi Anderson, Richard Saunders, or Maria Walters.
If this “scammer” has contacted many people from that website, why did he choose that website and where did he get the contact information? We know that scammers and spammers mine email addresses from websites. But there are no email addresses (or even any other contact information) on that website. But Shermer says other people listed on that website got the same email that he did. There are people on that website who have reported receiving that same email as Shermer, even before Shermer’s report.
So we would have to believe that the scammer came up with a scam to target public speakers, and for some reason they decided to target a group of skeptics, and got the list of targets from a website that doesn’t have any email or contact information, and then looked up everybody’s name to find their email, and then sent a scam email to those people. Is this starting to sound a little bit ridiculous to you?
There are many other indicators of this being a false scam. There are no records of similar text being used in another scam. The language and grammar of most scams long ago shifted from this kind of dumbed-down language to overly-complex language. The mechanism for payment is not clear: with the information given, I’m not even sure if it would possible to send a Western Union payment to MRS KELLY CONMAN. The scammer lads usually don’t give out verifiable information. The picture of the professor in front of the school is absurdity stupid. The “I’m Skeptical” pictures are absurdity stupid even after Shermer calls them out as photoshoped. The scammer doesn’t seem particularly interested in the rich donor.
I know that these scammer lads can be weird and out of touch, but this all seems unreasonable. And the concept that they picked out a group of skeptics, especially from a website that has no contact information, makes no sense at all.
I would call this most likely a hoax, and probably an April Fools joke. It may be perpetrated by someone just having fun, or by someone looking for a chance to make fun of skeptics.