I Just saved someone $10,000!

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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:26 am

Guys, please don't remove or lock this... I can't take the feeling of stupidity Crying or Very sad

. JK

. Remove it if you want. Which I am sure you will do.

I for one think that Western Union needs to stop all payments to Western Africa...

They need to at least ask you when you get to the WU office why you are sending to West Africa to see if you are sending it to a scammer or a relative.

I bring this topic up because I was out with some friends today and I just so happened to pass by a WU office (I will not post where) and decided to stop in. As I was in there, I overheard a woman say that she was sending to Benin, and her question was "FOR WHAT" and the answer was "A CARD". I have seen these before, so I immediately ran up to her and stopped her. I asked her if she had sent any money to this person, and she said "No." She told me about the telltale email and I explained to her that it was a scammer and that she must NEVER listen to this again. She thanked me with a $5 reward ( Laughing

) and I walked out. I felt so good about myself, considering I have never baited a person yet!

Has anyone ever brought this up or tried to do something about it?

I just had to post this... it is the first time I have felt good regarding something I have done with scammers (because I haven't baited anyone yet!)

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:40 am

Maybe us baiters should just go to Western Unions and loiter there all day, listening for anything having to do with Africa. Then, when we hear something, we can intervene.

Or maybe that would be excessive...

Uber kudos to you for saving the day like that, though.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:50 am

yeah, if only people had that kind of time...

considering that the WU office was a little tiny crack in the wall, and i decided to stop in after seeing it when i turned around to pick up a quarter!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:05 am

Well done you for possibly saving this person' being scammed of their life savings.

simpsonman3000 wrote:

I for one think that Western Union needs to stop all payments to Western Africa...

How then would you expect all those mugus scattered worldwide without a bank account to transfer their oga's cut back to him in west Africa?

As an aside, shouldn't this thread be in 'Main' as it is scam related?

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:23 am

^^ Yep. Moved from GC to Main. Laughing

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:58 am

Simpson:

Was she really there to send $10,000???? Wow that is a lot of cash for you to have saved her good job.

While it is easy for us sitting here in baiter land to think that ALL transfers to West Africa via WU are scam related there are a lot of remittance payments made via WU legitimately to West Africa. By this I mean people that have emigrated LEGALLY to the "First World" (i.e. US, Eurpoean Union and the like) for what they feel is a better life. They then remit back to their home country a portion of their wages for their family to have a better life back home.

In the US we see this a lot more with people from Central America (predominately Mexico), but there is a fair population from various African countries.

So I would suspect that a small portion of WU payments to Africa are scams. Now if we were to look at non-African WU payments to Africa (i.e. a person born say in the US sending money to Africa from the US) I would suspect a large amount of those are fraud/419 related.

I think that WU could and should do a much better job of education. If that lady you saw was talking to the WU agent the agent should have questioned the transmission and discussed 419 fraud with her.

Anyway, good job!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:08 pm

Good job, Simpsonman! Too bad you don't have the scammer's email so you can brag to him that you chopped his dolla. You don't have to say it was $5, but still...

Seriously, you potentially saved a person from ruining their life savings. Too bad we can't stop them all but at least we can try to educate the people around us as much as possible and bait these effing scammers to hell and back!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:23 pm

The Man wrote:

Simpson:

I think that WU could and should do a much better job of education. If that lady you saw was talking to the WU agent the agent should have questioned the transmission and discussed 419 fraud with her.

That's my opinion too. An African sending a relatively small amount to Africa is no problem. A white person sending a large amount, should ring alarm bells with the WU agent.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:26 pm

Good job! That lady is very lucky that you were there to intervene.

On a related note I've started a campaign to inform my family about this. My parents use the internet a bit, and I hope they wouldn't get suckered into something like this, but better safe than sorry. Also, when I get voodoo cursed by angry lads and die they will understand why. Laughing

Thankfully, the rest of my family are luddites, so I have very few worries about them.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

Hey mr tambourine man: (I'll stop there.) Why should the colour of their skin affect if they get help or not. I too think it's probably mainly white people who get scammed, but that's probably a huge pile of BS. Scammers will scam anyone of any race, colour, or creed.

Also, it usual only starts with small amounts, so by the time they are sending the big money, they will assure the teller that they "know" the person and it's all legit.

Every WU office has countless warnings around the place, but people assume it won't happen to them. Or that their transaction is a real one. Also they are told to lie about the nature for reasons of confidentiality so if the teller were to ask, then it wouldn't do much good.

/rant.

Superb work simpsonman. Well done on being in the right place at the right time and having the balls to intervene.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:00 pm

@ The Man

Quote:

In the US we see this a lot more with people from Central America (predominately Mexico)

Mexico isnt in Central America... but i dont think you were saying that..

@ mr tambourine man

i agree with newdonym. it should not depend of if they're white or not. i do, however, think that WU employees need to be taught that ANY TIME a person OF ANY COLOR is sending money (especially a large amount) to Western Africa, they need to QUESTION the people on why, where they met the person, etc. That was, if a person tells the agent "Oh I am going to get 5 million dollars if I only send them $10,000, they can STOP them

@ Newdonym (sorry if misspelled)

Quote:

Every WU office has countless warnings around the place, but people assume it won't happen to them. Or that their transaction is a real one...

Still, I would think that the agent should give a warning, like "are you sure that you know what you are doing? there are countless scams in western africa that have the same exact sounding people that you do...

Maybe Western Union should need proof or something before allowing a person to send more than $500 to West Africa... Maybe like if the person got emails, they can send the email in to be checked.

NOTE: Can someone please tell me who/where those fake visa forms are? I remember seeing a post of someone with a 50 page visa form fillout for the USA. does anyone know where those forms are?

Master Baiter Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 108

Difficult....obviously WU should do everything they can to educate people and question doubtful transactions, and this could help a lot more.

But, as newdonym says, there will always be a certain number of victims who think, despite every warning and all logic, "it can't happen to me" or "my African contact/Russian girlfriend/Ebay buyer or whatever isn't like that" or even "it's different this time"!

It's human nature, (and not necessarily always greed), and we all know that the cleverer scammers rely on understanding this psychology. Thankfully a lot of baiters understand it even better! Laughing

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:34 am

Congrats on being at the right place at the right time AND being bold enough to speak up for this unknown person!

The WU forms that I have looked at in person DO have a warning and there are signs up too, but who reads such thing when there are $$ in their eyes?

Sadly there is no way to help everyone. Today you did your part and I applaud you for that! clapping

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:13 am

Quote:

but who reads such thing when there are $$ in their eyes?

** Retired ** Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 750 Location: Air

well done simsonman - not everyone gets a chance to intervene like that.

The gravity of your actions will forever be unknown. There have been posts in here that have highlighted the effects that scams have caused their victims, which in its worst outcome has led to suicide.

It may seem a bit far-fetched to think that you not only saved somebody their money, but also their life - but its perfectly possible.

The WU debate has raged on for longer than ive been here and then some and for what its worth, I believe that WU should not be held accountable for the naivety of victims. WU have actively taken steps to combat fraud and have altered their forms numerous times. It is ultimately down to the victim to use their common sense and use this wonderful internet to research the legality of such a proposal.

Anyway, here's to you SM-3000 Wink

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:09 pm

^^^ Yeah, I guess you are right... WU really can't be held responsible for these stupid people who fall for these scams that have been around for years, been on the news, etc....

But, you know, you just always think that they could do more...

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:39 pm

Good job, SM3000. Watching a scene like that enroll before your very eyes must have given you a new perspective on scamming.

WU officials/ clerks are in splits .. Fact is a fair percentage of their returns are obtained by facilitating transfers from scam related payments. For the outside world they seem to do a lot in warning clients, to maintain some credibility, but there's a lot more they could do if they wanted to. They won't because it would hurt them financially.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

I am Joe Bloke who happens to be lucky enough not to have to use Western Union services
Given that it is a way of moving money from country to country for people who don’t have bank accounts it is a vital service, which is being abused by the Lads.
Western Union is a conduit of stolen money and I feel they should be more proactive in their
Security measures when money is going to West Africa

Before I get beaten up for naming West Africa, you have to start some where and the Elephant in the room is located in that region.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:15 pm

^^ Totally agree. Last time I looked at a WU transfer form it just had a very small warning about, IIRC, lottery scams.

However, in the UK at least it appears to me that most if not all WU outlets are just franchises (or whatever) that are operated by money changing outlets or even by corner shops and newsagents. It's not as though WU employ their own staff who could be fully trained to spot potential scams, even if they were inclined to do so.. How much interest is the shopkeeper going to take, especially as dealing with all the forms takes time in any case and there may be a queue of customers behind?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Quote:

Western Union is a conduit of stolen money and I feel they should be more proactive in their Security measures when money is going to West Africa

Just ignoring the fact that a fairly decent percentage of the lad wires are supposed to be going to other continents, what else would you have WU or any other money wiring service do?

Should they quiz everyone one who is going to wire money somewhere? If they do, then they are accused for encroaching on rights of privacy.

Should they stop all wires to certain areas of the world? That is completely meaningless, since lads and AFF are everywhere, and not just limited to one section of the globe, or one ethic group.

This isn't directed at just Doodle- you folks hand wring about how WU and others aren't doing enough and, frankly, come up with rather outlandish suggestions to fix things, or just wander off into the realm of xenophobia, and I find it a bit surreal.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:03 pm

^^ Warm fuzzy TS post #978 Laughing

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:09 pm

it's not simple. Scammers will fiddle anyone, and operate from many locations.

Simpsonman, however, was operating from just the right location at just the right time, and did a good job. Well done lad!

Smartbomb is right, you may well have saved their life. At the very least you've stopped it from being severely hobbled. There was a chinese student not far from my sister's place who hanged herself after being scammed ... she'd "only" lost £1,000 but it was all she had, and I guess she just couldn't face telling her family how she'd been fiddled.

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:31 pm

^^^

Quote:

Simpsonman, however, was operating from just the right location at just the right time, and did a good job. Well done lad!

LAD!??!!?

Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:35 pm

Nailgunner doesn't mean it like that. He means it in the sense of "young man" unless I am very much mistaken.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

It's a friendly way to refer to a young person.

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