Western Union comps scam victim
The UK’s Daily Mail reports that Western Union has compensated 77-year-old Fred Haines for the $110,000 that he sent to a Nigerian prince;
Fred Haines, 77, will get back the six figure sum that he wired between 2005 and 2008 to scammers who had promised him $64 million in inheritance from a Nigerian prince, if only he could pay the fake fees to move the money.
Last year, Western Union admitted in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to knowingly looking the other way regarding employees who had been helping scammers to steal the money of its customers, including Haines.
A $586 million fund was created to pay back victims, throughout the US and Canada.
The lure of $64 million was too much for Fred to resist;
‘Those Nigerians know how to talk.’
Haines shared that the prospect sounded too good to be true, but after investing so much time and money, it became too difficult to believe it was all a lie.’
‘It got to the point where they were showing me that the President of Nigeria had sent me a letter. It had his picture on it and everything,’ Haines said.
‘I looked it up on the computer to see what the Nigerian president looked like, and it was him.’
Haines kept one email which appeared as if it was signed by Robert Mueller, who at that time was the director of the FBI, and called Haines ‘B-DOG’ as a code name.
That email read, in part: ‘I wish you can remove doubt and suspicious and go ahead I assured you that you will never regret this fund release.’
The article claims that B-DOG is one of 344 Kansas residents who have been compensated from the pool of money created from the lawsuit.
Category: Who knows
Go ahead and be a dumbass, folks. You’ll get your money back! Just ask Fred.
Sheesh. This fool doesn’t know how lucky he is. IMO he shouldn’t have gotten a penny back.
Western Union is in the business of transferring money from one place to another. They’re not in the “background check/be your parents” business.
Agree!
I’d like to think the only reason he got reimbursement was because Western Union employees were actually involved in this scam.
But, I haven’t read the whole thing and I don’t feel up to it. I wish I had 110 grand of dispensable income like this chap does.
It is quite common for the folks working for WU in the destination countries to be in on the scam – they do everything from simply turning a blind eye to suspicious activity to actively participating in scamming the vics. And are rewarded for their assistance.
So yeah, I am on the side of “a fool and his money are soon parted” – but WU has been ignoring this kind of thing for years because they get their cut – so I am kind of ambivalent about seeing them have to suffer a little bit too.
I’m absolutely sure that the WU critters on the receiving end get a kickback, otherwise funny things would happen to the stolen loot!
I know it for a fact. A few years ago I played around with the “scambaiting” community – those folks who respond to scams in order to learn more about them, waste their time and money, etc…
Nothing pisses a scammer off more than telling them that the WU employee on their end “chopped their dolla” – you want to see some creative swearing?
*grin* – I wish I had access to live video feed of the scammers confronting their WU plants when their expected payment disappears.
Anyone with a scrap of common sense knows that they are not secretly related to some obscure billionaire in a 3rd-world country who will bequeath them ten figures out of the blue. They will also know that on the off chance something like that were to happen, any “fees” would be deducted from the lump sum being moved, not charged from the recipient in advance. And most importantly, everybody knows that something that seems to good to be true, IS.
I’m sorry these folks got swindled, but as they say, a sucker is born every minute.
He is… The Most Gullible Man in the World.
” I don always drink from the Kool-Aid Bowl but when I do its Dumb-Equis!
seems like ive heard about this somewhere. ah yes, something about “a fool and his money are soon parted.” or something.
just as true in 1573 as it is now.
I’ve always heard that you can’t cheat an honest man.
How true. That’s how SO many confidence games work. Appealing to the little thief in everyone – getting something for nothing.
My little thief left me when I was about 10.
W.C. Fields said that you can’t cheat an honest man.
P.T. Barnums sums it up about the best…
“Sucker born every minute”!!!
P.T. Barnum didn’t say that. It was one of his critics talking about one of Barnums scams.
That Western Union was compelled to pay speaks volumes, and not in a good way. At some point ‘stupid’ should carry its own penalty.
If WU had refused to forward money from “American” sounding names and only forwarded ethnic money, they’d be getting called racists.
When I was a cop, I once got a customer complaint call at our WU. Customer was pissed because the clerk wouldn’t let her send her money overseas in an obvious scam. She was hell bent on sending her life savings apparently.
Wow. Why is WU paying back this guy, again?
Because he was stupid, Yef. Wake up. Get some caffeine into your blood. That, or go run the vacuum.
HEY Yef, your 1SG wants the hallway buffed RIGHT NOW, NO HUFFING the floor wax AND DO NOT be late for Police Call and Motor Pool Cleanup!
The floor buffer by now has grown into his hands like a fat shut-in’s couch cushion.
I did notice on the way past the motor pool that the olive drab has become too drab on some of the vehicles. This SSgt would like to see that drab paint re-drabbed to regulation drab levels.
Because Western Union knew or should have known that they were abetting a scam. I say, “Tough shit.” Anyone who wants to make fast money the way Fred thought he was going to deserves to lose it. It’s one thing to fall for a hard luck story and quite another to try to make a fast buck Fred’s way.
Agreed in full. There is ALWAYS one key factor in people like this getting scammed, in spite of some being too senile to use reason. That one factor is GREED. Ditto for all the Ponzi schemes presented to the gullible.
Go paint those rocks outside of the CP, Soldier!
344 Dumbfucks in Kansas. Doesn’t say much for Kansas.
It’s a big state. The number of dumbfucks to be found in California, Massachusetts, etc. is far higher.
Population of a bit over 2.9 million… works out to .00011 of the populace. Last election showed a higher percentage of Teh Stoopid nationwide.
Shakes my damn head.
What the flying monkey fucking fuckery?!?!
I’ll just leave this here. *spew alert*
Ever notice that it’s mostly the over 70 crowd that gets fished into these scams. a couple of years ago, I got one of those Nigerian Prince WU emails on my spam window. Email says that a Western Union rep has the money etc. I called western Union and I forwarded the email to their scam website. I get this shit all the time and some of it I print and give it to the senior citizen crime reporting room next door to my Sisters doctor’s office whenever I take her there. I and one of the employees try to outdo each other on how rich we would be if all this scam shit were true. Got another scam email on my spam and would have pasted it if I knew this post would be about scams.
This is no different than my relatives explaining their “story” to me and then asking if I can help them out. It’s always a “story”. Storytelling is an artform. Goes all the way back to ancient Nigera. What? Wait. Nigeria has no ancient history. It’s a made up country.
http://www.419eater.com
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
I doubt Forrest Gump, Sling Blade or Simple Jack would have fallen for this obvious scam.
Why the fuck is WU responsible for a gullible old coot’s stupid decisions?
In my spam file today:
Only $200 to get $4.7M – whatever could go wrong?
“You must thank them very much since they saved you from loosing this recompense ATM card worth $4.7million united state dollars which was almost canceled as a result of your negligence.”
Jebeebus.
I’d like to say he’s a total dumbass, but before passing my Father in Law had gotten weak enough that it was easy to scam him in similar fashion. I had to talk like a devil to get him to stop one such transaction – and he just insisted that I call the number they gave to confirm that they were legitimate. Once they find someone, they are like a bunch of vultures – I finally had to change his phone # to get some of them to stop, and 1 year after his passing, there’s still mail being sent to his house from them.
Don’t know who pisses me more, the greedy doofus who thinks there really is a Nigerian prince. I’d like to take a hammer to the Nigerian trash and smack around the greedy doofus. Have to remember, though, that it may not be a case of being greedy. It could be senility, which explains a great deal. Even then, though, there is some element of greed involved at some level.
I haven’t spoken to a Nigerian in many years, since we got an answering machine. The outgoing message instructs to leave a message and we’ll return call if interested. Not one Prince has left a me a message. I get NLT a dozen hang ups a day. That’s a dozen potential crooks I don’t have to deal with.
But I do like the idea of the hammer applied to joints: knees, ankles, elbows, etc. Oh, how I despise white collar crooks who would take advantage of the elderly.