Help me sniff out a scam (1 Viewer)

[Hastur]

Just saw this on FB. Glad they don't know how silly they sound to Americans....yet.

Hello Sir and Madam With the love of God To reduce poverty in the world in this new year 2024, your profile has been selected for a "Donation of 1009000 euros (€) a Mercedes car and an iPhone resulting from the cooperation of honorable donors Mr. .Frédéric W. Smith". In particular, there is no competition or draw since the winners are chosen deliberately, expressly, intentionally, voluntarily. Contact the Foundation to receive your donation by clicking on the link below

 

[Hastur]

...and another:

I prayer for you today and always is that the favor of the Lord envelope you. May he cause his face to shine upon doors open you everywhere you knock hope you don't mind me asking if you can send me a friend request so we can chat as friends

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Anyone dumb enough to fall for these is pretty much their target audience.

 

[GroveDiesel]

Anyone dumb enough to fall for these is pretty much their target audience.

That’s actually exactly the truth. They intentionally make these somewhat obvious to weed out people that will figure it out quickly. They want the extra greedy, the easily confused, the elderly, the intellectually disabled.

 

[Hastur]

Anyone dumb enough to fall for these is pretty much their target audience.

That’s actually exactly the truth. They intentionally make these somewhat obvious to weed out people that will figure it out quickly. They want the extra greedy, the easily confused, the elderly, the intellectually disabled.

Exactly. They rely on 'the law of large numbers'.

TL;DR: You send out 100 emails/marketing/notices/etc., you get 10 responses, you get 3 inquires, and land one 'fish'.

In probability theory, the law of large numbers (LLN) is a mathematical theorem that states that the average of the results obtained from a large number of independent and identical random samples converges to the true value, if it exists.[1] More formally, the LLN states that given a sample of independent and identically distributed values, the sample mean converges to the true mean.

The LLN is important because it guarantees stable long-term results for the averages of some random events.[1][2] For example, while a casino may lose money in a single spin of the roulette wheel, its earnings will tend towards a predictable percentage over a large number of spins. Any winning streak by a player will eventually be overcome by the parameters of the game. Importantly, the law applies (as the name indicates) only when a large number of observations are considered. There is no principle that a small number of observations will coincide with the expected value or that a streak of one value will immediately be "balanced" by the others (see the gambler's fallacy).

The LLN only applies to the average of the results obtained from repeated trials and claims that this average converges to the expected value; it does not claim that the sum of n results gets close to the expected value times n as n increases.

Throughout its history, many mathematicians have refined this law. Today, the LLN is used in many fields including statistics, probability theory, economics, and insurance.[3]

This is also how MLM works.

 

[Gatorade]

I actually own timeshare in Mexico. We have enjoyed it for 13 years. Two years ago we started getting calls to either buy, sell or rent out our timeshare. Last year they became more frequent. We now get regular emails from our company warning us about these scams. This is a new venture of the cartels. Mostly to scam the elderly. Anytime someone calls you about this, it is probably a scam. They will ask for a deposit to get your transaction started. Ask for their company name and tell them you are reporting them to the authorities. The calls will stop for a while.

 

[El Floppo]

When I opened the thread I figured it was from the early, early days of the board. Kinda bummed it wasn't.

 

[arrow1]

When I opened the thread I figured it was from the early, early days of the board. Kinda bummed it wasn't.

 

[FiredMartz]

@bicycleseatsniffer to the front desk....