Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me

Re:Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me by graue on Monday September 24, 2012 @06:18PM (#4567322)

I'd still think paying $100 more than the asking price (with no explanation as to why) would be a strong clue something is amiss in this case.

But you're probably right that the use of English and the FBI enforcement letter are obvious only to a subset of people who grew up in a Western, Anglophone culture.

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Re:Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me by DrStalker on Monday September 24, 2012 @07:38PM (#4567701)

I only skimmed the article; I'd assumed that was part of the scam (forward the extra $100 on via western union, or paypal it back to me on this different account, etc)

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Re:Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me by sliverstorm on Monday September 24, 2012 @08:23PM (#4567847)

The extra money is usually not a scam in itself if they are trying to actually get you to ship the item. Once upon a time scams were all about moving cash, but I surmise those have gotten harder, so now they secure your item and (presumably) resell it.

Thus, the promised extra money is actually just a way to both ensure you'll "sell" to them as they made the highest bid, and also perhaps an attempt at triggering just a touch greed which does wonders for putting the blinders on.

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Re:Nigerian scammer gets a laptop from me by tvladeck on Monday September 24, 2012 @08:22PM (#4567842)

Isn't that graue's point though, that it looks like it would be part of the scam and thus should throw alarms?

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