Pickles by Brian Crane for September 25, 2015

good call, Nelson

Opal’s got it!! Hip hip!!

There’s a Nigerian prince somewhere who’s saying to himself “Stop using my name, damn scammers!”

no, Nelson…THAT kind of pretending grandma’s LIKE!

Wait. You mean you’re not a Jedi knight?

She’ll really be off her rocker then !

There is a difference between pretending and lying, Nelson.

“Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’”

-—Autobiography of Mark Twain

I only get emails from low level bureaucrats in the Nigerian Insurance department. Usually that happens after the Prince dies, and leaves no heirs, and naturally the guy in the Department of Insurance has to do SOMETHING with the money, so obviously he wants to put it in my bank account. The Prince seems to die a lot more often than most people I’ve known.

I never get angry with this sort of stuff. I just block the address and move on.

xxx

You might want to look at CalLadyQED’s comment to you yesterday.

I rest my case.

Neslon Skywalker…“Episode 22 StarWars”(Lucas is penning it as we comment)

One thing worth pointing out about scams in general is that most scams rely on one human trait: greed. This one is no exception. People give out their bank account because their greed gets the better of their logic, and they think they will come out ahead, rather than thinking “is it seriously possible that someone I don’t know wants to put money into my bank account” (to which the answer is obviously “NO!”)

People should also be aware that these scammers don’t stop after they have taken someone’s money. The victims go onto a “sucker list”, and are targeted for more scams. Thus, if someone is foolish enough to give out their bank account, and loses, say, $5,000, then six months or a year later they are likely to get a call from someone claiming to be an attorney from England on the trail of the scammer who is pretty sure he can get your money back. All you need to do is send him a $500 retainer to represent you. Of course, you’ll never see the $500 again, nor hear from him again (though you will probably hear from other scammers after that).

Don’t sweat it, young padwan….

Plausible might work better than possible here.

So close! Go to 4/15/05