419 Programme - Channel 4 UK

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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 6:40 pm

On Now! Other mods will flail me if its posted elsewhere, but I couldn't see it.

419: The Internet Romance Scam

Channel 4 UK

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Jun 2011 Posts: 1

All so familiar
Fair play to that woman for going on national tv and admitting to being such a fool

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Posts: 229

Possible to find it on youtube?

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:19 pm

It's just finished.

That very first clip that showed a lad claiming it was "payback to the Westerners for the slave trade" made my fists itch...

Apart from the first victim whose obvious suffering was painful to watch, it seemed to me the programme was saying:
"Look... scammers aren't all bad.."

That one who paid back $1000 to his vic? I wonder how much of his victims money furnished his house... and were there any other victims he didn't pay anything back to?

..and the one who formed a relationship with his victim? Weird.

I would have liked to have seen more of the 'Lads are bad' as well as refuting the opening 'slave trade' argument.
A few more emotionally and financially damaged vics would have been better.

This programme just gave the impression that if a vic sticks with her scammer, everything will be ok!

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:45 pm

Scammers are sensitive people and all that stealing really hurts their poor little emotions.

Whoever produced and researched that steaming pile of shite needs a good fucking punch, full on in the face. The sheer ignorance displayed in the narrative made me mad.
Rarely have I seen something so misinformed and so potentially damaging to potential victims.

Reporter on a lad who managed to score a well hooked victim: "I don't know if he really loves her".
You stupid limp-dicked fucktard. What he really loves is the £40k plus he's hit her for. If he really loved her, he wouldn't have cleaned her out of her whole fucking inheritance would he? If he really loved her, they'd have found a way to be together for more than a couple of months, wouldn't they?

My overall impression was that Channel 4 got scammed into portraying lads as people who give a shit.
Wankers.

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:00 pm

Roycropper wrote:

On Now! Other mods will flail me if its posted elsewhere, but I couldn't see it.

Bend over

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205773

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205786

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:20 pm

kizkiz wrote:

All so familiar
Fair play to that woman for going on national tv and admitting to being such a fool

Welcome kizkiz,
you need to realise that most everyone can become a victim. A lady in a vulnerable state of mind who otherwise is very smart can be manipulated by a scammer who has been trained for his "job" by his gang boss and has years of experience. University professors of economy have fallen for investment scams. Jobless and desperate persons have become cheque mules. Scammers are very good at what they are doing.

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:26 pm

spot wrote:

Roycropper wrote:

On Now! Other mods will flail me if its posted elsewhere, but I couldn't see it.

Bend over

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205773

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205786

Now, now Spot.
Be fair on poor Roy.
That second thread is locked, you know Wink

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:36 pm

There was one bit during the interview with the scammer that gave a good idea how their minds work.
He said "we take a few thousand off them but the system pays them back"
Leads me think that is why they dont believe the victim when they are told that the victim is broke.

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:09 pm

^^^
and he suggests that all victims are white "if their white, they have money", what about everyone else?

This is exactly why we strike every blow we can Twisted Evil

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:07 pm

Here is the Link to it on 4OD

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/419-the-internet-romance-scam/4od#3216499

Must say some of the comments Here are interesting... Exclamation

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/419-the-internet-romance-scam/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Posts: 229

419: The internet romance scam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9FDRInbuzI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18aiKJZ-3w

These scammers make me sick. Makes me wanna bait one lad to a unknown island and let him starve to death there.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:07 pm

The first part of this minus the lad talking about the slave trade BS was not too bad. The busting in to presumable arrest a lad had my hopes up (of course that was probably just some stock footage). The first romance victim painted a pretty good picture of what the lads do to ruin your life.

Then it went all down hill. The second victim is clearly firmly hooked by the lad. He apparently had a moment of truth and admitted he was not who he was pretending to be but he never said hey I am a lad. She never says he is a scammer she still believes the money she sent was lost in an "oil deal". Very sad but the lad will take her for every penny she has. I have a gut feeling there was more to the story about his "revelation of truth" too. She said she thought his accent was wrong. I'm guessing the victim questioned the lad enough he decided to try playing it with the truth well at least that he was a black man from Africa and not a white man from Scotland.

Then you have Felix saying the guilt was too much and he had to "set himself free". Evil or Very Mad

This just gives false hope to victims who have been scammed,

What was missing from this was a third party who really understands about scams. Someone to explain how the second victim is clearly still hooked into the lads web of lies. Explain that if this Felix lad really gave back the money (which I have my strong doubts or at least that he will give it all back) is a one in a billion situation.

Very careless news story. The reporter clearly does not understand scams if he thinks its possible for genuine relationships to develop or if it is common for lads to suddenly decide to give money back.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:21 pm

bravo95 wrote:

The first part of this minus the lad talking about the slave trade BS was not too bad.

They did at least offset that with photos of Lagos buildings signed "Not for sale - beware 419".
It doesn't seem to have occurred to the producers that if you interview a scammer, he is unlikely to tell you the truth.
It was an awful program.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:25 pm

Just look at the size of Felix' flat - who believes he will move back to a small one just to pay back his victim? And in Lagos, is there a way to earn a considerable sum legally in a reasonable time? Unless he is scamming fresh victims, of course. Evil or Very Mad

It's very nice to try and "see both sides" of an issue, but in this case, the journalist did a disservice to the public.

here · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 8:38 am

^^^^^^^^
agree with all above

watched it live, it made me firstly angry (slave comment) then despair ("the system pays them back"), then sad (for the poor ladies) - then angry again at the useless reporter (is there any other kind around nowadays?)

I understand that this series is to give new documentary makers opportunity - this one clearly needs to chose a new profession Wink

and yes I did watch it again yesterday with a coffee in hand rather than a beer (watching it live) - my emotions were all the same

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:02 am

Has anyone here complained about the programme?

If not, would it be an idea to do a multple (dare I say "mass") complaint?

The comments section (from the link supplied by Vampiremerchant) make interesting reading.
There are clearly a lot of victims that the programme has encouraged to speak out (even if only in the comments section).
There's one whose sister is planning on making a trip to se a 'Christian lawyer' in Lagos!
It's a real pity that the programme didn't give a 'helpline' (or more appropriately a 'helpwebsite') for those affected by the programmes subject.

As an aside; I wonder what the viewing figures were?

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:33 am

^^^ Yeah, it seemed people from romancescam.com (even moderators) shared your disgust based on their comments. I'm going to watch it now, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like it either.

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:33 pm

I did drop a couple of comments on that thread..... Wink

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Posts: 229

I find this picture interesting and also seen it in the documentary.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yish/4395168531/

Are scams usually common in Nigeria? Then I mean nigerian scammers scamming innocent nigerians.

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:27 pm

^^^
Yes. Scammers will scam anyone. Claims that they only target whites are self-serving nonsense.

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:29 pm

^^^^^
Nigerian scamming Nigerian? Why not? There's no ruling that says that Nigerians are exempt from Advance Fee Frauds.
The '419' number doesn't just apply to Internet scams that we deal with.

From here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Quote:

The number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud.

From the look of the properties in the documentary, and the need for the warning sign, they were empty and therefore susceptible to con men 'selling' (or more probably renting) them to unsuspected tenants / buyers.

Pay a months or more rent in advance and the 'landlord' disappears with your cash.

Lovely people, aren't they. Evil or Very Mad

here · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:47 am

^^^^^^^^^^
also happens in the UK, such scum are everywhere

and wherever they are hiding there is a baiter who would like to play Twisted Evil

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:21 am

Nigerian love rats (romance scammers) go to Nigerian social networking sites and scam the girls to get photos from them so they can send their male victims pics which are not obviously from modelling agencies and don't show up on image searches.

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:45 am

Hey, here in the US, our whole credit/debt system is so half-ass backwards you can sell someone else's house without them knowing a thing until the new "owners" are at the door, ready to move in. Confused

Even the FBI is trying to warn people about it:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/march/housestealing_032508

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