Did you ever suffer from the Pierre Salinger Syndrome ?

None so far, I am happy to say. That is, unless I have posted serious responses here in the Relationships forum that are just Slappy in disguise.

So you are Slappy?

<hurrying to post this news quickly on some other forums>

I am no Slappy....but sometimes newbies or 'just hatched' have been accused of being Slappy.

Just joking :wink:

I know, so was I. I am Slappy's cousin, lol.

But seriously, so many of these internet scams are so prolific, and sent out by so many spammers, how can people get sucked in? This is what I do not understand. I just deleted over 200 spam messages today from my e-mail.

Well, I'm wondering, too.

I am sitting here waiting for notification for deposit of 40 million dollars from dr Bono Nobo , a famous person from the nation of nigeria. All I had to do was to send Dr nobo, my account numbers in order to facilitate a direct wire transfer of 40 million, Im gonna have the laugh on him because he expects me to send 20 million to him and keep only 20. Ha Ha , Im going to keep it all and he will be surprised how Ive outsmarted him.
Imagine, trusting a perfect stranger with all that money. This is going to be like taking candy from a baby.

HA!

I think that people who are taken in by scammers can be put into a few different categories:

The unsophisticated- very young people, or people who are uneducated.
People from foreign lands, new to the country, can fall into this category.

The gullible- They will believe anything that someone tells them. They usually want to please, so they will go along with some outrageous stuff.

Those who want something for nothing- They want it so badly, that they are blind to the warning signs.

The elderly- Often older people are targets for scammers of all types. Some are lonely, and will do anything for a little attention. Others are a bit confused, and do not have the mental capabilities to really understand what is happening to them. Also, the older generation was brought up to be obedient, and not to question. Therefore, they are ripe for the picking by scammers.

Well, but what about those, who for example post here an hoax from 1999?

so, howabout my 40 million? am I not smart to keep it all?

Walter- The problem is, that some of these hoaxes seem so credible, that even smart people like us are taken in on occasion! :wink:

Since I was hookwinked some time ago (about a hoax, not a scam) I check just about everything before I give it my seal of approval!

farmernan

Just wait :wink:


Phoenix

I remember :wink:

farmerman,

Perhaps after you receive the 40 million you might hold dr Bono Nobo up for another 50 bucks by making payment of his 20 million contingent upon your receipt of a $50 processing fee. After all, what have you got to lose?

JM

Horrible horrible syndrome.

I think it was 1997. So not the very first years of the internet.
A rumour was spread. Nobel prize winne Gabriel García Marquez had terminal cancer.
A poem of his about death had appeared in the internet. In the home pages of some Latin American writers.
The poem was nice. A couple of great lines; others not so good.
The Culture editor at our paper said it "looked" like García Marquez. He phoned one of the South American writers, who confirmed the authenticity of the poem.
We spread it in our front page.
The next day, García Marquez wrote to us. He said he was laughing, had no terminal cancer and would never write that bad.
We found out that the poem was written by a Chilean ventriloquist, and was about his puppet's "life".
All of us -starting from the writers who published the poem in the web as Garcia Márquez's- were guilty of the Pierre Salinger syndrome. Our Culture editor will never forget. He now has a nickname: "Mofles", the name of the puppet.

Thanks, fbaezer! I enjoed this story - although it might have not so much much fun for the involved at the paper :wink:

I thought some of the "newbies" seemed a bit strange.
Someone having a laff, no doubt.

I've not fallen prey to this on the internet, but i have uncovered such things in my reading, and although most of the minatory effect took hold, it is still possible to have fallacious notions, which can be dispelled by the internet.

I had read Leon Uris' account of an incident involving King Christian of Denmark during the Second World War. I had read an interview of him, in which he affirmed its veracity. I took it at face value, even though i ought to have learned by then. Our Walter pointed out the error, and directed me to a Snopes article on the subject.

The ills derived from the virtual world also have their cures there.