I'm gonna be rich!

[organic]

Well - maybe if it wasn't a scam.

Just had a call from someone claiming to work for the North German Lottery or some such.

I was running the numbers while he was trying to rip me off and this is what I came up with. (Some numbers rounded as I didn't want to mess about with cents)

Ticket that lasts 30 days with a draw on each day = 17 euro.
Chances of winning something in the space of the month = 54%
Smallest prize = 140 euro.
Tickets available = 300,000
Total prize fund must then be 5.1 million euro.

So...
Every month there are 162,000 winning tickets, each winning at least 140 euro.
Each month if nobody wins anything other than the minimum at the predicted rate of winnings, then, the prize payout is a staggering 22.68 million euro.
Not a bad markup at 445% of the prize fund.


I'm gonna be so rich I'll make Scrooge McDuck look like a PAUPER!


Just for fun - here's the numbers the first person I talked to gave me (yes, he did pass me onto the supervisor and I did speak to both - I love playing games with scam artists):
Take the same numbers as above but with a 54% chance of winning EACH DAY.
That gives a total prize payout over the month, if nobody ever wins anything bigger than the minimum is a whopping great big 630million euros!
That, unless I've really screwed my numbers up - and I sometimes do - is an increase of 12353% on the available prize pool!


I'm in the mo-ney...
I'm in the mo-ney!!!

Don't need an allotment now - I'll be buying half the English countryside, some of Ireland and living out my days digging and growing - that is when I'm not sailing on my bespoke blue-water sailing yacht of course!

Haha.

[SueA]

Wow, I'd buy two tickets & then you'll have 108% chance of winning! (Maths was never my strong point even though I got 2 O Levels in it!)
It's nearly as good as the ones who tell you you've won the Spanish/Italian/Nigerian lottery even when you haven't entered it!

[organic]

Apparently with the REAL Nordwestdeutsche Klassenlotterie (NKL) gives a 100% chance of winning something if you buy 10 tickets.
As lotteries go it's probably got the best odds of any... but one that creates wealth out of nothing (logically if you kept playing you'd soon end up with all the money in the world, play again and then what? I suppose they'd start importing wealth from alien planets... maybe that's why the aliens came here in War of the Worlds! Their lottery spiraled out of control and they came here to mug people so they could pay the winners!) is a bit far fetched.

I just thought the numbers I was given by the con artists on the phone were absolutely hilarious. It was a struggle not to laugh out loud at times.

[organic]

They are on the phone AGAIN.
I dunno whether to string them along again or just tell them to shove it.

[organic]

Well - another agent, another supervisor, two completely different sets of numbers.

The last supervisor's numbers were, while complicated, even worse than the 12353% one above!


I told a bit of a porkie and said I was a mathematician (I did A-Level Maths and Statistics) to which he chuckled and said "I see you are an educated person" and from that point was just half trying to get me to confirm my details so he could send an "invoice".

Absolute madness... I did break down into laughter this time though.

"Is this a bad line or are you just not listening? I am not interested" ended the call.

He tried again but I asked him not to phone and not to send anything. I hope they got the hint this time.


Fun as it was I just can't be doing with another call though - too much work!

[smallblueplanet]

So you don't want to know my sure-fire way for picking the Pools numbers?

[organic]

Haha - depends if it'll cost.

[enrich100]

you might like this site

Welcome to the 419 Eater

Its a site devoted to scam baiting

You know the ones where a if you give them your bank details they will send you millions

This site shows how you can string them along, the Baiters ask them to send a picture proving that they are who they say they are by either holding random objects or having a personal message written somewhere in the picture

some of the pictures made me cry with laughter

[organic]

I've seen that site before.
I have to say it makes me a bit uneasy...
...while if you can make a con-artist look like a fool it's all good, I've heard they often force other people to do the dirty work for them. That's something I'm really not too keen on the idea of.

Apart from that though, it is a pretty good idea... the way I see it, the more time the scammers waste on people like me, the less time they have to rip off the people who might actually fall for it.

[quark1]

Sounds like classic boiler room activity - I'd advise a swift foxtrot oscar to this one - but do have some fun in between-times!

[enrich100]

Whilst I agree with what your saying
I don't have sympathy with anyone trying to take advantage of other inocent parties

Just this week I had a letter saying I had won the euro Lottery, they were sorry that they had not told me I had been entered before now but they had a problem sending the letters out, This is the first time I have had a scam letter via royal mail and not just an email

funnily enough I didn't reply

of course most people know its a scam, the trouble is the people most likely to fall for it are vunerable groups

[Peter]

On another forum I frequent one guy got fed up with a bunch of scammers ringing him, easily recognisable by the Nigerean accent.
As he and his wife are Welsh they took to answering every question in that tongue.

After about the fifth call they had the satisfaction of hearing the guy on the other end say "Oh f*** it!" and hang up, since when they have not been bothered.

Another good technique is to say, "Hang on a mo, just let me take the pan off the stove." or similar and then leave the phone line open for around five minutes.

To liven this technique up you could add dramatic effects of your own choice to keep them on the line.

Waste their time and money while enjoying yourself.

[organic]

Enrich - I'm right with you in no sympathy for people who rip off others. My uneasiness isn't with the pictures, but with the pictures considering what I've heard about innocent people with no connection to the scam being forced to pose with a fish on their head and things like that.
Agreed that the people who fall for it are typically those least able to afford the losses.



Quark - Foxtrot Oscar, indeed. I got a third call off them the following day and was about as short and abrupt as I've ever been with a cold caller. I usually take the "everyone has to make a living" tack and politely tell them I'm not interested. It usually works too.



Peter - the Welsh language one is a great idea.
I've taken some calls in the past where they were contacting me about problems with my computer (very common one I believe, I've had 2 calls like that in the past) while I was working. I kept saying "can you hold on a minute? My computer's really slow... it must be all the viruses and spyware you've called me about." and then carry on working while they wait.

I'm half thinking about setting up some way to record the calls I get and see how much fun I can have. As soon as I hear the tell-tale... "Hello?... Hello is that Mr. Organic?" I'll press record and have a blast.

[organic]

I dunno how I've got this far and only just remembered this guy.

YouTube - The Greatest Prank Call Ever

A true inspiration to all of us.

[lottie dolly]

rofl,that is really funny,but it's a matter of having the gift and nerve,and hope your not busy at the time,another good way is put some music on,what DH did a few years ago when we could not get someone of the line,was but a tape on,it was a train coming from a distance passing very loud,and go away again,boy was that funny