Do you believe as some in the Nigerian government, that people who fall for scams are as guilty as the..?

Question

ones who are scamming?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080822-nigerian-official-greedy-marks-as-guilty-as-419-scammers.html

I sort of understand the disgruntleness with greedy people, but to claim they're 'as' guilty?

Answer 1

As the old saying goes, "If it looks to good to be true, it probably is".  Why people aren't living by that rule is beyond me.  I'm sure many of them have learned valuable lessons here.

Edit: As for the car, never buy sight unseen.

Answer 2

No! the Nigerian government should bare the brunt because they let this go on. Anyone who believes they won some contest in Nigeria where the people are lucky to have one meal a day is a fool to begin with. You know the old saying. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Answer 3

No. I think people who go through life trying to play the blame game are stupid & miserable.

Answer 4

Absolutely not.  I noticed that he mentioned how Nigeria's reputation has suffered because of the scams, but somehow forgot about the kidnapping of foreign oil field workers and how this also negatively affects his country.   He's simply blaming the victim.

Answer 5

Although I wonder how people fall for those things, I disagree with blaming the victim.  That's like saying that a victim of sexual harassment or of racism had it coming.

Answer 6

Alot of investors that get burnt are ones who know the person their investing in. They already have wealth and are trying to expand it. The other side are people that have little and want more, I don't think that's greed, that's want. So either way you have to watch where you put your money. Its yours, so its your responsibility.

Answer 7

No, I don't think that they're as guilty.

However, I do have a problem with people being stupid enough to fall for something like this and then expecting someone (usually the government) to give them their money back.

I have the same problem with people who signed adjustable rate mortgages on multimillion dollar homes and then expect the government to help them out when they can no longer afford it.

My God, I sound like a conservative.

Answer 8

It is about the flip side of greed.