I've been "Nigeriaed"!
Yesterday I got my first ever Nigeria phonecall!
This lady called and spoke in heavily accented English (possibly African) and said that "a friend or colleague or business associate of yours has contacted us to suggest that we make you a business proposition". She said she worked for a company whose name I couldn't for the life of me descipher, but the word "Africa" snook in there without possibility of mistake. There was also the mention of lots of money to be made with very little effort on my part.
When I asked who this friend or colleague or business associate was, she refused to tell me because "that information is confidential". Very well, but then she continued to say "we need some personal information from you so that we can tailor this business proposition perfectly to you", which is where the alarm bells that were already ringing went into a deafening dissonant version of Beethoven's Fifth. Are not my personal details confidential? They wanted things like my social security number, my bank account numbers (plural, not singular), etcetera. I told her that they are indeed confidential, and I would not readily give them to a company I've never heard about, who apparently have heard about me from sources I wouldn't consider reliable (none of my friends or colleagues would have contacted them because they all know that I don't have money to invest anywhere, and my business associates – well, there aren't any business associates whatsoever, since I don't do business of any kind). Clearly their claim about who they got my name and number from was bogus, and I suspected this to be a fraudulent call. I told her that, and she got delightfully angry!
"You say you have never heard of my company. How can you say that a foreign company you have never heard about is a bad company, and that it can't be trusted?"
I'm not sure if she herself was able to see the boomerang logic of what she just said. I thought the whole conversation was becoming hilarious. I told her that I work for an Internet company, and one of the things we deal with is the occurence of so-called Nigeria-emails (also known as 419 frauds). This entire conversation was like a telephone version blueprint copy of such an email, and I told her that too. She was not amused and ended the call with a "Goodbye Sir!" that would have made George W. Bush pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.
I don't know the exact source of their information, which included my full name and telephone number, but it's all publicly available through the Norwegian online telephone directories, on my homepage, and in the ICANN registry as well (because I've registered internet domains and stated my full name and number there).
The lady called from a hidden number (this may be because it was foreign, since they usually don't show on my phone display), and my phone company wasn't willing to trace the call unless I first reported the incident to the police (this is normal policy), which I just can't be bothered to do at this stage. I may, if it becomes repetitive.
The sad part is that there are more than enough those who are ready to jump at such "opportunities" coming from dubious sources, and thousands of people lose lots of money to those fraudians every year. I've had several emails going along the same lines as this phonecall, and they've all gone into the trash bin on the grounds that if someone you've never heard about before offers you lots and lots of money for nothing, chances are that you'll be the one driven to bankruptcy paying for it.
A colleague of mine used to have a small company, a few years ago, but it is no longer active. Yet because he has kept the company registered, his name and number are publicly available through the national business registry. He may get several such calls a week, and has resorted to replying "sorree, no speekee englees!" when they start yabbing about possible gazillions of whatever currency he should prefer waiting for him on the horizon. It's not something that causes him much grief, he says, because he knows exactly what they want and why he shouldn't give it to them, and the only actual problem is the nuisance of African callers at 5AM. His phone does have an "off" button and he is not afraid to use it ;)
Anyway, it was fun as a first time experience ;)
This lady called and spoke in heavily accented English (possibly African) and said that "a friend or colleague or business associate of yours has contacted us to suggest that we make you a business proposition". She said she worked for a company whose name I couldn't for the life of me descipher, but the word "Africa" snook in there without possibility of mistake. There was also the mention of lots of money to be made with very little effort on my part.
When I asked who this friend or colleague or business associate was, she refused to tell me because "that information is confidential". Very well, but then she continued to say "we need some personal information from you so that we can tailor this business proposition perfectly to you", which is where the alarm bells that were already ringing went into a deafening dissonant version of Beethoven's Fifth. Are not my personal details confidential? They wanted things like my social security number, my bank account numbers (plural, not singular), etcetera. I told her that they are indeed confidential, and I would not readily give them to a company I've never heard about, who apparently have heard about me from sources I wouldn't consider reliable (none of my friends or colleagues would have contacted them because they all know that I don't have money to invest anywhere, and my business associates – well, there aren't any business associates whatsoever, since I don't do business of any kind). Clearly their claim about who they got my name and number from was bogus, and I suspected this to be a fraudulent call. I told her that, and she got delightfully angry!
"You say you have never heard of my company. How can you say that a foreign company you have never heard about is a bad company, and that it can't be trusted?"
I'm not sure if she herself was able to see the boomerang logic of what she just said. I thought the whole conversation was becoming hilarious. I told her that I work for an Internet company, and one of the things we deal with is the occurence of so-called Nigeria-emails (also known as 419 frauds). This entire conversation was like a telephone version blueprint copy of such an email, and I told her that too. She was not amused and ended the call with a "Goodbye Sir!" that would have made George W. Bush pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.
I don't know the exact source of their information, which included my full name and telephone number, but it's all publicly available through the Norwegian online telephone directories, on my homepage, and in the ICANN registry as well (because I've registered internet domains and stated my full name and number there).
The lady called from a hidden number (this may be because it was foreign, since they usually don't show on my phone display), and my phone company wasn't willing to trace the call unless I first reported the incident to the police (this is normal policy), which I just can't be bothered to do at this stage. I may, if it becomes repetitive.
The sad part is that there are more than enough those who are ready to jump at such "opportunities" coming from dubious sources, and thousands of people lose lots of money to those fraudians every year. I've had several emails going along the same lines as this phonecall, and they've all gone into the trash bin on the grounds that if someone you've never heard about before offers you lots and lots of money for nothing, chances are that you'll be the one driven to bankruptcy paying for it.
A colleague of mine used to have a small company, a few years ago, but it is no longer active. Yet because he has kept the company registered, his name and number are publicly available through the national business registry. He may get several such calls a week, and has resorted to replying "sorree, no speekee englees!" when they start yabbing about possible gazillions of whatever currency he should prefer waiting for him on the horizon. It's not something that causes him much grief, he says, because he knows exactly what they want and why he shouldn't give it to them, and the only actual problem is the nuisance of African callers at 5AM. His phone does have an "off" button and he is not afraid to use it ;)
Anyway, it was fun as a first time experience ;)
posted by inShadowz at 6:31 PM
1 Comments:
Do you ever check for comments here? Am trying to contact you re Phlog.
Have news about Alan Bradburne.
Left you a message at Phlog under your last post there.
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