Monday, August 04, 2008

Gullible's Travails

If I were to tell you that at this very moment, there are over 100,000 people in this world awaiting a return of $55,000 in return for a subscription of $35 or so, I’m sure you would question my sanity.
If, moreover, I were to tell you that, in order to reap this vast return on their ‘investment,’ the aforesaid 100,000 were sending off their personal details including copies of passports, birth certificates and driver’s licences to an anonymous E-Mail address, you would reckon that it’ s high time the men in white coats came to carry me away.
Yet that is exactly what members of the so-called Global Pension Plan are doing.
As Einstein once remarked, he suspected that there was no limit to human stupidity, and GPP, along with a number of copycat scams, are doing much to prove his hypothesis.
It is almost the perfect crime. The amounts lost per individual are low enough to discourage them from taking any further action, the funds are collected by way of one of the on-line money exchangers, effectively disguising the money trail, and the only communication is by way of E-Mail to an entity calling herself (or quite possibly himself) ‘Stella.’
The website promoting this remarkable opportunity is naturally hosted anonymously and contains no address or telephone number.
Members who have stumped up their money console themselves with the thought that, “Well, it’s only a small amount,” but the sum total is not a bad return for the crooks. And, if not used to fund their personal life styles, who knows to what use the funds are being put? Terrorism and drugs are high on the list of possibilities.
And now, with a prospective database of over 100,000 financially gullible persons to work with, even if identity theft is not a problem, the future for the scammers is looking bright.
I forgot to mention that the scheme was supposed to have closed nearly a year ago but ‘administrative problems’ have held up the payout, giving the lucky punters more time in which to buy additional policies which have become mysteriously available.
Law enforcement is not in the business of preventing fools from parting with their money, but much could be done by outlawing the so-called money exchangers and removing the possibility of registering websites anonymously.
Google ‘Global Pension Plan’ for all the gory details.

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