Time to IP ban Nigeria?

[mjc]

If the high ranking government official in this article is to be believed, all the poor souls who fall for scams need to be jailed...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080822-nigerian-official-greedy-marks-as-guilty-as-419-scammers.html

So...why not just ban Nigeria internet and not worry about it any longer, because, obviously the government of Nigeria is involved in the mess along with slimeballs doing the scamming...

Some of this guy's quotes are quite laughable...

"The Nigerian Government frowns very seriously on these scams... and every day tries to track down those who are involved,"

According to him...'fewer than 0.1 percent' of the 140 million in the country are responsible...umm isn't that something like... 140,000 people...shouldn't be to hard to find a few?

[Lostatsea3]

That would make my day...

I sell some stuff on Ebay and whatnot. Not too much but a good amount. It pisses me off so much when I get those bullcrap winners...

[jlreich]

Actually I think it is a great idea. Yes there are some good people that would be banned, but the problems coming from Nigeria are so many, what else can you do?

[Variable]

Sounds good MJC. But it won't work. You bring up a interesting point of discussion though (to me at least.) It is a bit long so read only if your interested in the topic.


There is no way to block Nigeria dirt bags from sending email scams unfortunately. Blocking Nigerian IP's would do little, they would simply send the emails from another email hosting account in another country. Not to mention the fact that you would have to add ACL's to many different companies core routers. ACL's cause overhead on the router - instead of just routing, it is now also a firewall. You could add a route statement and route them to null. That might be better. Still it would be a huge invasive step on the internet and would do nothing to stop the problem. The internet is a huge mesh network. You would have to get every country to sign on. It is a good idea but, so far, Internet 1 has no simple solution for this type of issue.

If you think blocking Nigerian IP's is a good idea, ask yourself why spam is not blocked by IP at the routers. Everyone agrees that spam is out of control and it has a much wider impact across the board on the internet infrastructure and those that use it. The problem and it's solution is complex. There are many reasons why you don't want to have less traffic. There are nice solid business realities that push for more bandwidth not less. Problems beg for solutions. Solutions cost money. Who pays for those solutions?

Now understanding how the internet works is fundamental in analyzing the problem. It is a tiered system. The tier one bandwidth suppliers currently wash their hands of all these issues. They get a pass and the clean up is done in the "last mile." Take your pick of "bad things" the internet brings. Who is now held responsible for clean up of the "bad things" - the service providers and ultimately the end user.

I'm a big fan in analogies when explaining complex subjects so, let's assume the internet's "bad things" is the drug problem in the US. In this analogy, the Nigerians play the part of the coca farmers in Bolivia, the Nigerian scammee's part (those that fall for the Nigerian ruse) is played by the drug users.

Here is where the analogy gets interesting. The traffickers in the drug trade are those that fly, hump, boat their drugs across the US border. In the internet scam, the traffickers part is played by the tier one bandwidth suppliers. The local Officials part is played by the ISP's and they are not channeling hard charging law makers/enforcers. In acting parlance, the ISP's "motivation" would be more akin to the liberalist San Francisco Mayor's office. Always slow to react, scared of stepping on rights and legal action while cloaking themselves in a layers of bureaucratic consensus and side stepping. In this play, traffickers are simply transport businesses who provide a service. They staunchly argue that policing the cargo is for law enforcement, while taking no responsibility for their part in the problem. In the real world, trafficking illegal goods is punishable by time in prison. If transmitting scams or child porn over the internet is illegal, why do the transport companies get a pass?

People who fall for these scams do bare a majority portion of the blame. Gullible, greedy and ignorant people will always be victim to those that pray upon those vices. How do you protect these people from themselves?

[PrntRhd]

People who fall for so-called "Nigerian scams" aren't victims at all—in fact, they're greedy and should be jailed, according to Nigerian high commissioner Sunday Olu Agbi. He said today that Nigeria has gained a bad reputation because of the scams perpetrated by a minuscule number of people, and that those who find themselves involved with the scams are equally as guilty as those running them.
So society is to blame, not the purveyors of the scams?

[tommy]

Whether the scam is offered over the Internet, through the post office , over the telephone or __________(name your favorite communication method) some people do not realize or will not accept the fact that "there is no free lunch". Hence they are susceptible to the scams.

That is not to say the scammers do not bear the major portion of the responsibility, but the the lack of personal responsibility is a major societal problem today. Many times brought on by reliance on the government as the Saviour of last resort.

[Rick]

A lock will not stop a thief

It will only help keep an honest man honest

[Whyzman]

Olu Agbi is most definitely a politician! :D When these two quotes are looked at side by side the doublespeak is apparent. Here: "People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money." And here:"Those who want to transact business with us are always very suspicious." Perhaps this later quote is demonstrative of Larry the Cable Guy's wisdom quotes: #24. Life isn't like a box of chocolates; it's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your butt tomorrow.

So, the net is cast far and wide, "damned if you do...damned if you don't!" :rolleyes"

I've a friend who was asked by his brother to attend a meeting in Montreal or Quebec Canada a number of years ago. It was in regards to what turned out to be a Nigerian scam. Upon returning to the US he reported it to the FBI. What was relayed to him was that the Nigerian government viewed such tactics as viable businesses for their struggling economy...and were complicit in their undertakings.

The government documents my friend viewed at the meeting were either high quality forgeries or furnished by the Nigerian government as they contained all the seals and modern safety measures to prevent duplication.

There's not much the US can do if the foreign governments aren't willing to prosecute fraud...

Who's to blame?? I would define "Greed" as a vice (The Parson's Tale ;)), however I'm reluctant to grouping "Gullibility and Ignorance" into the same category, especially, to dish out the "majority portion of the blame" to the guillible and ignorant.

I don't want to start a whole new government program to educate folks on the "Evils of the Internet," but it might not be a bad idea for an occasional public service announcement. Or, perhaps before someone buys a computer or ventures on line they would need to get a learner's permit and have a number of supervised hours behind the wheel. :rolleyes: Oh, that might involve a government program... :(

Con artists perpetually target one's Achilles' Heel, many of which are actually admirable qualities or what we would deem virtues, e.g., Trust, Honesty, Generosity, etc. I once saw a 100% positive feedback individual on eBay being "blackmailed" by someone who threatened to tarnish their record with a negative. Or, my wife would view getting a boat load of money as being able to finish the orphanage in Mexico, or helping the many we know who are struggling financially and could use some relief...

I like the "To Serve and Protect" motto! Protect the innocent and nail the scammers...whose intent is to defraud! ;)

[malcore]

I received an interesting e-mail recently and thought I would share it as an example of ugly spam. It definitely doesn't play on the better human qualities:

Hi,

Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before
making you this offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by
virtue of its nature.

I write to solicit your assistance in a funds transfer deal
involving US$ 3.5M.This fund has been stashed out of the excess
profit made last year by my branch office the International
Commercial Bank which I am the manager.

I have already submitted an approved end of the year report for the
year 2006 to my head office here in Accra-Ghana and they will never
know of this excess.

I have since then, placed this amount on a Non-Investment Account
without a beneficiary. Upon your response, I will configure your name
on our database as holder of the Non-Investment Account.

I will then guide you on how to apply to my head office for the
Account Closure/ bank-to-bank remittance of the funds to your
designated bank account.

If you concur with this proposal, I intend for you to retain 30% of
the funds while 70% shall be for me. Kindly forward your response to:

While the sender is culpable, if one responds to such a plea hoping to gain, but rather loses, is he/she inculpable?

[Variable]

utterly confidential and genuine by
virtue of its nature.

Got a ring to it, don't it?

[jlreich]

Sign me up! :D

Only thing is that I would insist on at least 50% for my cut. :p

[Cobol to Java]

I've seen a video of this on the Onion, about how Nigerian Economy would collapse should the internet crash. really funny..

But yeah, some Nigerians are dependent on the internet..It's just sad that some of them get into scamming, spamming and such.