9 out of every thousand? And the Order of The Red Breast

Scam Detectives has an interesting interview with a former Nigerian 419 Scammer.

You know the scam, if you have an email account you must have received many email offers promising millions of dollars if you help some poor Nigerian widow or Banker get rid of extra money that they don’t need.

I was always puzzled by these emails, maybe once upon a time people could be fooled, but today I would have thought that everyone has seen these types of scams hundreds of times and could see right through.

What amazed me in the interview is that the ex-scammer claims that almost 1% of emails get a response (he says 9-10 at of every thousand) and 5% of responses lead to a successful scam, averaging about $7500.

That means that if a scammer sends out 500,000 emails (which doesn’t sound unreasonable to me) he could make well over a million dollars with little or no cost to himself.

The interview was a very interesting read, here are some of the highlights:

John: I’m 23 years old and was released from prison in Nigeria in October last year where I served two years for fraud. I am now doing a business studies course at college and am in the UK on a student exchange programme. As part of my rehabilitation I am also working with the EFCC in Nigeria to help them understand more about scams and how the gangs work. I don’t do scams any more.

Scam-Detective: What kind of scams were you involved with?

John: Mainly advance fee fraud where we would tell people that someone has died and left millions in a bank or safety deposit box and that we needed help to get it out of the country.

…

Scam-Detective: But where do the “foot soldiers” find the email addresses?

John: Lots of people sign guestbooks online and leave their email addresses all over the internet on forums and websites. We would just visit the guestbooks, forums and websites and harvest the email addresses….

Scam-Detective: What percentage of emails would get a response?

John: Maybe 9 or 10 out of every thousand emails. Then maybe 1 out of every 20 replies would lead to us getting money out of the victim in the end.

Scam-Detective: And how much money would you expect to get from a victim?

John: On average, about $7,500 (£4,600) but the most I know about was $25,000 (£15,400)….

John: In the year before I was arrested I earned about $75,000 (£46,000) for my family. I bought my family a better house and drove a BMW. I had mobile phones and laptops and everything that comes with having lots of money.

Please, if you know someone who may have been taken in by this type of scam, please alert the police or appropriate authorities.

Ohh – and for people not familiar with Holy Church of The Order of The Red Breast, take a look at this great example of how to out scam the scammers:

http://www.419eater.com/html/joe_eboh.htm

Other interesting stories here:
http://www.419baiter.com/games.html

Avner Netanayhu - Tanach Champion

When we were first married we lived in Givat Mordechai and had an older neighbour who personified the old world Secular-Labour-Zionist ideology.

He was very careful in his use of Hebrew and often corrected my use of language. To him the revival of the Hebrew language was one of the great achievements of the Zionist movement and it distressed him to hear the language abused, particularly in the media.

He was one of the first people I knew to get an Internet connection which he used to study Tanach, which was one of his hobbies. He was delighted when we named our first child Yehoshua a biblical name,

On Shabbat afternoons he used to drive to Har Herzl to meet with other like minded people and in the Shadow of Herzl's grave used to discuss and study Zionist text, poetry, and ideology.

To me he represented the world view of Ben Gurion and the other founders of the State who came here out of a firm sense of Jewish history, language, and geography based largely on the Tanach.

Unfortunately these values seemed difficult to pass onto future generations. Our neighbour's children all left Israel and grandchildren hardly spoke Hebrew. Similarly Ben Gurion and Chaim Weiztmann had children or grandchildren who left Israel.

It seems that this inability to pass on a love for Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael was a big failing of the Labour Zionist movement.

This is why it was so refreshing to see the son of our current prime minister, who comes from several generations of prominent Zionists is continuing in his father's footsteps, not only in his love for Eretz Ysiarel, but he has won the Jerusalem Regional Bible competition and will go on to represent the region in the National Championships on Yom Haatzmaut.

Well done Avner Netanyah, may you continue in your father's footsteps in your commitment to the Jewish People and the Tanach.

(As an aside, the article uses the phrase "נתניהו ג'וניור" this abuse of the Hebrew language is a great example of what upset my former neighbour)

Hat Tip: Life in Israel

An Israeli, a Palestinian, and Peace Negotiator walk into a Bar

Here are 2 cute jokes courtesy of Barry Rubin…

An Israeli, a Palestinian, and an American peacemaker walk into a bar. They each order a drink. The American turns to the Israeli and says: "You pay for everyone as a confidence-building measure."

……

The UN secretary-general announces the creation of a great UN world soccer team, including all the member countries.
But, asks his deputy, "Then who would we play against?"
"Well, Israel, of course," the secretary-general answers.