274
votes
Why do Nigerian email scammers openly say they are from Nigeria?
They say "Nigerian" because the savvy ones ignore it. So any answers must be from lower risk victims who are more likely to send the money.
- 1,431
206
votes
Is this work legal? Someone promises payment for converting money transfers to Bitcoin
It's a scam. It's called a money mule. Typically the way this will work is that the scammers will make a fraudulent money transfer into your friend's account. Your friend will convert the funds into ...
- 12.4k
193
votes
Accepted
A friend asks me all the time to pick up money for her (Western Union, Moneygram)
I think it is likely that your “friend” is doing something illegal, and that she is putting these payments in your name to avoid getting caught. You may be being used as an unwitting money mule.
I ...
- 115k
173
votes
Is this person doing illegal money transfers?
She is laundering money for criminals, either knowingly or unknowingly.
There are lots of ways to make a fraudulent money transfer from an account one does not own. Stolen credit card numbers, direct ...
- 23.8k
142
votes
I believe this to be fraud — hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
Absolutely a scam 100% chance. This is one of the most common scams out there.
Here's how you will get ripped off.
They send you a check which will deposit in your account
Seeing the deposit went ...
- 52.9k
88
votes
Is this work legal? Someone promises payment for converting money transfers to Bitcoin
It’s a money-laundering scam, and your friend is likely to get into serious trouble, and possibly lose a lot of money, if he takes part.
- 22.9k
64
votes
I believe this to be fraud — hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
Yes, it’s a scam. There are red flags all over it. Ask yourself whether you really think a huge multinational like Nissan would work in this way.
- 22.6k
61
votes
Is this person doing illegal money transfers?
What is she actually doing? Is it illegal?
She is running some kind of scam and it is illegal. Quite often these are fronts. Generally people get suspicious if they haven't seen anyone. So you social ...
- 57k
57
votes
Why do Nigerian email scammers openly say they are from Nigeria?
There are different types of scams. If you browse through the scam tags, you will find some very sophisticated scams that have quite a bit of hardware as well as people.
In the Nigerian scam, they ...
- 57k
56
votes
A friend asks me all the time to pick up money for her (Western Union, Moneygram)
So just to be clear, she gets so many of these ~$500 transactions she can't even make the time to show up and collect them all? Yet, she still holds down a day job cutting hair? You are on here ...
53
votes
Why do NFTs have value?
An NFT has no fundamental value. Its selling price is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It reminds me of Tulipmania where something worth next to nothing suddenly sells for a fortune....
- 75.7k
50
votes
I believe this to be fraud — hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
I contacted a lawyer, told to talk to Dept of Labor, DOL said they will not get involved that this is between my and my employer. Advise?
What employer? You are 100% not employed by Nissan Motors.......
- 48.9k
45
votes
Why do Nigerian email scammers openly say they are from Nigeria?
Scammers appear intentionally bad at their first contact in order to weed out people who are too smart.
Sending mass spam emails to random addresses is cheap. But interacting with someone who replies ...
- 23.8k
42
votes
Is this work legal? Someone promises payment for converting money transfers to Bitcoin
Your friend should go to a lawyer. The lawyer can then make a deal with the government where your friend testifies as to the activities. Your friend may be asked to communicate with his "employer" ...
- 21k
41
votes
Is this person doing illegal money transfers?
She claimed that she makes money. When you wanted to make some too, she asked for your account credentials - which are only needed to take money away, never to give.
The simplest explanation would be ...
- 1,352
34
votes
I believe this to be fraud — hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
What bank account are you supposed to cash the check into?
My guess is "yours", and that's a complete and utter proof of scam. There is absolutely and categorically no way that a reputable company ...
- 2,586
29
votes
Is this work legal? Someone promises payment for converting money transfers to Bitcoin
This is definitely a scam
Most electronic fund transfers are reversible, whereas bitcoin transactions are final. Your friend will successfully receive the money and transfer it as bitcoin. When the ...
- 878
28
votes
Why do Nigerian email scammers openly say they are from Nigeria?
Obligatory XKCD (CC BY-NC 2.5):
The scammers are targeting those 10,000, as they're easier targets. Calling themselves Nigerian princes is a good way to focus on that audience.
From a cost/payoff ...
- 2,905
28
votes
A stranger from Norway wants to have money delivered to me
The possibilities are endless. (The only thing that's not in doubt is that it's a scam, and if you're not in on designing it, you're an intended victim. Very often even if you think you're in on it).
...
28
votes
Why do NFTs have value?
The idea behind NFTs as art is that they create a kind of scarcity for digital art that already exists and drives the value of physical art. The theory is that the reason high value art has such high ...
- 5,300
27
votes
I believe this to be fraud — hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
It's not really Nissan.
The bank will put a hold on all but $100 of the check amount.
After a few days, they will release the money, conditional on you making the money good if the check later ...
25
votes
Is this a money laundering scam?
Classic scam. The check will bounce and you will be out of 1650
- 57k
23
votes
A friend asks me all the time to pick up money for her (Western Union, Moneygram)
is this legal?
No, in most places. You are likely participating in money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, or other sorts of crime. You are acting as a money mule. It is bad enough if you receive no ...
- 4,093
19
votes
Is this person doing illegal money transfers?
This will end badly, the only question is how long it will take.
Performing bank transfers is not difficult and there is no way a 3rd party would be paying her large sums of money to perform these ...
- 291
19
votes
Someone asked me to log in into their bank account
It's a scam. Ask yourself why someone you've never met would trust you with $19,000. Also, why the 'wi-fi' on the 'cruise ship' is good enough for him to send you emails or get checks written and ...
- 679
18
votes
Scam — wire transfer recall not possible
It is true - your bank can do nothing
You wired the money, then realized you'd been duped. It wasn't an unauthorized wire transfer. You authorized it. Things like and wire-transfers are designed so ...
- 4,099
17
votes
Victim of being used as money mule. What should I do next?
You need to talk to a lawyer about that. Don't talk to the bank, let alone the police, about any of this, until you've talked to a lawyer first.
Other than that, the bank has already taken care of ...
- 3,118
17
votes
Accepted
What is actually done in AML checks?
source: I used to alongside the AML team on other (trading) compliance but this was a few years back and I was mostly involved with a specific system.
Most of the AML check that are done are to check:
...
- 8,630
16
votes
A friend asks me all the time to pick up money for her (Western Union, Moneygram)
You need to get yourself a lawyer now! Your name is on the money transfers. Your face is probably on surveillance cameras picking up the money. Worst of all, it sounds like you did a lot for her, ...
- 261
14
votes
Why do NFTs have value?
Like anything else, the NFT is worth whatever price you can find someone willing to pay for it. Unlike virtually every other asset, the NFT has no other use: it represents ownership for the sake of ...
- 4,456
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible