Appealing Ideas #2, The Sequel: Is It Just Me?
I'm in two minds whether this is a perceptual or an actual phenomenon, and maybe I'll find that out as I write this. As I said in Appealing Ideas #2, over a period of some months I've received three of these scam-mails, and just to make the point, another plopped into my Junk-Mail Inbox today. This is coincidence of course, but it reminds me of when someone close to me died of cancer. Whenever I turned on the TV, it seemed, or opened a newspaper, there it was; cancer. At the time it almost most felt like some vast conspiracy; in retrospect, it was obviously perceptual. Cancer was and is and probably will be for a while always in the news, some breakthrough or setback or miracle cure. During the months I was grieving, I just noticed it more. But I'm just an observer of the phenomenon of e-bribery, I was commenting on its evolution because I received three, and the appearance of another so soon can hardly be perceptual. I've been "noticing" them, deliberately, for months now; the appearance of two in three days does suggest the scam is getting wider, or more popular.
I think I can discount targeting; after all, I've pointedly ignored two, and once offered to pass the details of the Innocent Widow's predicament to Amnesty International, or any one of a number of legitimate legal organisations who'd help her with an honest claim. Strangely enough, the Widow didn't reply; clearly she wasn't looking for legal advice. Since then, as previously described, they're growing more and more blantant.
Today's example is from a Mr. Taylor Smith, a PA to the Head of African Banking in the World Bank. That ought to be fairly easy to verify, surely, which suggests that Mr. Smith doesn't exist. However, he goes on to say that "Through the sale of World Bank allocated oil quota from OPEC and other activities which I cannot reveal for now (my italics), I have been able to make US $10.2 million, which is currently deposited in a Finanace and Security company". He goes on to explain that the deposit wasn't made by himself, and that he can't claim it personally because it's (and who would have guessed it?) against the "code of conduct" for civil servants in his country (not specified) to "acquire such an amount of money".
My stake in this virtuous enterprise has now increased to 30%, Mr. Smith colunteering to have deposit records altered to "reflect" that I was the "depositor and beneficiary", and all necessary paperwork supplied. Mr. Smith even goes on to mention the laws we'll be breaking, and the new post 9/11 International Monitoring of large international transactions. Nobody could possibly take up this offer and claim they weren't aware that it was illegal, and maybe that's the scam in itself. In the three months or so that I've been "observing" this Idea, it's changed from the Widow in Distress (which might fool some people, but not many) to a simple open invitation to break international law. An International Law which was, incidentally, specifically instituted post 9/11 to combat international terrorism.
I have to admit here that I'm a shameful conspiracy buff; I'm not saying, for incident, that Princess Di really was bopped by MI5 (although I do think that if she hadn't played Twister with the Pont D'Alma they'd have done it eventually), but it would certainly be more interesting if they had......Ahem. I'm just as interested in the "folklore" that's growing up about it. Each to his own, as the old maid said when she kissed the cow; recently, a few of my fellow conspirophiliacs have been getting twitchy and muttering into their metaphorical beer that you get "pinged" by the CIA if you visit certain sites, of which Al Jazeera is one. Also that there are certain "trigger words" that activate "internet surveillance", whatever that might mean; 9/11 is allegedly one of them, which is a damn shame for me because that happens to be my birthday.
This may be linked to my reading too many books by Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz, coupled with a more than average interest in and knowledge of subjects like the Iran/Contra fiasco and Watergate, but for some reason the CIA and the FBI have always seemed to me to be two-dimensional entities with one-dimensional ethics and null-dimensional intelligence. As I said in Appealing Ideas #2, I can't believe this is an serious attempt at international money-laundering, it's too random and stupid. Maybe I'm grossly maligning the creative departments of both these excellent, God-fearing agencies, but given their unparallelled innovation in the art of bidet-poisoning, it's fairly easy to imagine this Idea as a particularly stupid (even insultingly stupid) honey trap for anyone "guilty" of having Al Jazeera on their favourites list.
I'm not quite far gone enough to believe that this is directed at me personally; sadly my blog has a readership of 1 (me), so I'm not getting any feedback as to how diverse or wide-reaching this particular scam is. I could trawl the blogoshpere and come up with some info, I expect, but at the moment this is 1) my pet project and 2) a Clue, if I happen to be accidentally shot in the head (memo to self: keep away from libraries) and if Jessica Fletcher happens to be staying in the same hotel.
I'd very much like to have some kind of overall picture of who's been getting these particular scams; I'd really like to compare browser notes with them. There definitely seems to be a "progression" here, the Idea is evolving (though not in the direction of extra links, as I at first naively speculated) but towards an open invitation to commit a crime. That does seem a bit odd if the scam is really to get hold of your bank details; I think, on balance, I'd be less rather than more inclined to trust an avowed thief, at least not without some recognisable security. I can conceive of circumstances, maybe, perhaps, where I'd break the law for a stranger; I've broken it for a fox before, what the hell, a really good sob story might just possibly work on me if I was in a philosophical mood. I certainly wouldn't trust some crooked public servant; for US$300,000, I'd be more likely to get a discreet and succesful "suicide".
I wonder if I can get any information on this? What if, for instance, I typed in Taylor Smith, African Bank, Personal Assistant" - I think there'd be a fair chance of a "Did you mean....?" followed by a lot of legitimate organisations which sound vaguely similar but in fact have no connection with the alleged Mr. Smith. I'm half-tempted to go to stage one with this one, just to see what happens; at the moment I'm being asked to submit my "private telephone and fax numbers for easier communication" to smith1@coolkiwi.com, and I'd so like to follow this along and find out the real heart of the scam. The first thing they're asking for is a phone number, and you can get a lot of info from area codes etc. Then again, you can't tell where scammers (or others) are buying their information, or how extensive that is; asking my phone number may just be confirming they've got the right person/address.
I think Appealing Ideas may already be spawning a spin-off, something along the lines of Loony Conspiracy Watch; I think I may actually go to first base with the next one, just for research purposes, and keep Appealing Ideas as an "ongoing project" (unless I come across a really good one). This could be my Pulitzer Prize, man; I've read "All The President's Men", I could be on the point of exposing either 1) the stupidest attempt at international money-laundering ever carried out or 2) one of those gloriously insane "plots" that the US Security Agencies (both internal and external) seem to enjoy so much. You have to admit it, they really do. Who poisoned who's bidet again? And who among us doesn't have a private snigger when a politico or a high-ranking "moral authority" comes a cropper? Bishops in the bedsheets, Princes in tampons, Chief-Super-Intendents caught in brothels wearing lizardskin thongs, that's what we (at least in the UK) have come to expect of our elected and non-elected leaders.
And remember, when you read about suspected CIA involvement in the dramatic suicide/ murder/alien abduction of an obscure European woman who scrawled the message "Oh bugger, I was wrong all along, it was......." in her own blood as she was spirited away, you'll know you could have read it here first, if you'd bothered.
holojojo
I think I can discount targeting; after all, I've pointedly ignored two, and once offered to pass the details of the Innocent Widow's predicament to Amnesty International, or any one of a number of legitimate legal organisations who'd help her with an honest claim. Strangely enough, the Widow didn't reply; clearly she wasn't looking for legal advice. Since then, as previously described, they're growing more and more blantant.
Today's example is from a Mr. Taylor Smith, a PA to the Head of African Banking in the World Bank. That ought to be fairly easy to verify, surely, which suggests that Mr. Smith doesn't exist. However, he goes on to say that "Through the sale of World Bank allocated oil quota from OPEC and other activities which I cannot reveal for now (my italics), I have been able to make US $10.2 million, which is currently deposited in a Finanace and Security company". He goes on to explain that the deposit wasn't made by himself, and that he can't claim it personally because it's (and who would have guessed it?) against the "code of conduct" for civil servants in his country (not specified) to "acquire such an amount of money".
My stake in this virtuous enterprise has now increased to 30%, Mr. Smith colunteering to have deposit records altered to "reflect" that I was the "depositor and beneficiary", and all necessary paperwork supplied. Mr. Smith even goes on to mention the laws we'll be breaking, and the new post 9/11 International Monitoring of large international transactions. Nobody could possibly take up this offer and claim they weren't aware that it was illegal, and maybe that's the scam in itself. In the three months or so that I've been "observing" this Idea, it's changed from the Widow in Distress (which might fool some people, but not many) to a simple open invitation to break international law. An International Law which was, incidentally, specifically instituted post 9/11 to combat international terrorism.
I have to admit here that I'm a shameful conspiracy buff; I'm not saying, for incident, that Princess Di really was bopped by MI5 (although I do think that if she hadn't played Twister with the Pont D'Alma they'd have done it eventually), but it would certainly be more interesting if they had......Ahem. I'm just as interested in the "folklore" that's growing up about it. Each to his own, as the old maid said when she kissed the cow; recently, a few of my fellow conspirophiliacs have been getting twitchy and muttering into their metaphorical beer that you get "pinged" by the CIA if you visit certain sites, of which Al Jazeera is one. Also that there are certain "trigger words" that activate "internet surveillance", whatever that might mean; 9/11 is allegedly one of them, which is a damn shame for me because that happens to be my birthday.
This may be linked to my reading too many books by Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz, coupled with a more than average interest in and knowledge of subjects like the Iran/Contra fiasco and Watergate, but for some reason the CIA and the FBI have always seemed to me to be two-dimensional entities with one-dimensional ethics and null-dimensional intelligence. As I said in Appealing Ideas #2, I can't believe this is an serious attempt at international money-laundering, it's too random and stupid. Maybe I'm grossly maligning the creative departments of both these excellent, God-fearing agencies, but given their unparallelled innovation in the art of bidet-poisoning, it's fairly easy to imagine this Idea as a particularly stupid (even insultingly stupid) honey trap for anyone "guilty" of having Al Jazeera on their favourites list.
I'm not quite far gone enough to believe that this is directed at me personally; sadly my blog has a readership of 1 (me), so I'm not getting any feedback as to how diverse or wide-reaching this particular scam is. I could trawl the blogoshpere and come up with some info, I expect, but at the moment this is 1) my pet project and 2) a Clue, if I happen to be accidentally shot in the head (memo to self: keep away from libraries) and if Jessica Fletcher happens to be staying in the same hotel.
I'd very much like to have some kind of overall picture of who's been getting these particular scams; I'd really like to compare browser notes with them. There definitely seems to be a "progression" here, the Idea is evolving (though not in the direction of extra links, as I at first naively speculated) but towards an open invitation to commit a crime. That does seem a bit odd if the scam is really to get hold of your bank details; I think, on balance, I'd be less rather than more inclined to trust an avowed thief, at least not without some recognisable security. I can conceive of circumstances, maybe, perhaps, where I'd break the law for a stranger; I've broken it for a fox before, what the hell, a really good sob story might just possibly work on me if I was in a philosophical mood. I certainly wouldn't trust some crooked public servant; for US$300,000, I'd be more likely to get a discreet and succesful "suicide".
I wonder if I can get any information on this? What if, for instance, I typed in Taylor Smith, African Bank, Personal Assistant" - I think there'd be a fair chance of a "Did you mean....?" followed by a lot of legitimate organisations which sound vaguely similar but in fact have no connection with the alleged Mr. Smith. I'm half-tempted to go to stage one with this one, just to see what happens; at the moment I'm being asked to submit my "private telephone and fax numbers for easier communication" to smith1@coolkiwi.com, and I'd so like to follow this along and find out the real heart of the scam. The first thing they're asking for is a phone number, and you can get a lot of info from area codes etc. Then again, you can't tell where scammers (or others) are buying their information, or how extensive that is; asking my phone number may just be confirming they've got the right person/address.
I think Appealing Ideas may already be spawning a spin-off, something along the lines of Loony Conspiracy Watch; I think I may actually go to first base with the next one, just for research purposes, and keep Appealing Ideas as an "ongoing project" (unless I come across a really good one). This could be my Pulitzer Prize, man; I've read "All The President's Men", I could be on the point of exposing either 1) the stupidest attempt at international money-laundering ever carried out or 2) one of those gloriously insane "plots" that the US Security Agencies (both internal and external) seem to enjoy so much. You have to admit it, they really do. Who poisoned who's bidet again? And who among us doesn't have a private snigger when a politico or a high-ranking "moral authority" comes a cropper? Bishops in the bedsheets, Princes in tampons, Chief-Super-Intendents caught in brothels wearing lizardskin thongs, that's what we (at least in the UK) have come to expect of our elected and non-elected leaders.
And remember, when you read about suspected CIA involvement in the dramatic suicide/ murder/alien abduction of an obscure European woman who scrawled the message "Oh bugger, I was wrong all along, it was......." in her own blood as she was spirited away, you'll know you could have read it here first, if you'd bothered.
holojojo
posted by holojojo at 9:48 AM
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