Reflections, Reflections

Though many of the alleged Nigerian e-mails originate in other countries, Nigerian government officials said more than $700 million relating to 419 crimes had been seized in the last two years. Twelve people have been convicted in connection with the scam during that time, officials said.

I can't comprehend this. At. All. $700 million???? What kind of completely irrational people inhabit this globe? I mean, these are people with money!!! If the Internet scam artists had been able to swindle 100 thousand dollars from 100 turnip heads around the globe, I could understand, but 700 million?? Can this possibly be true?

Anthony Pratkanis, a UC Santa Cruz scholar and author of "Weapons of Fraud," said his studies show that cyberspace scam artists are adept at exploiting a victim's weakness, whether it's diminished mental capacity, greed or compassion.

"Then there's a line that gets crossed when they send in the money and then they're caught in a rationalization trap," Pratkanis said. "One way to convince yourself the scam is for real is to send more money, ironically enough."

Then again, rationality is always at a disvantage when competing with psychology/emotions, so there you go.

It is just amazing though, the sheer volume. Unfortunately the money is just going to crappy crooks. I wouldn't mind if it went to starving babies or child abuse prevention or some other humane programme, to punish the people who fell for the scheme because of their greed.

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LOLOLOL - I just noticed my big typo above!!! (which I will correct, but make a copy of how I had first written it here:)

Then again, rationality is always at a disvantage when competing with rationality, so there you go.

And on a thought about rationality too!!! hheehehhh That's how rational I was at that moment!! :-) Actually I changed around the wording in my head and didn't notice I didn't change it correctly in the typing.