Indonesia 1, Nigeria 0
Last week my driver fell for a clever scam that ended up costing him 4.5 million Rupiah (more than 3 months' salary).
On Friday somebody unknown phoned the driver's house claiming to be a doctor from a hospital in Jakarta, and told his son that the driver had been involved in an accident and was in hospital. The doctor advised that in order for the required emergency surgery and treatment to go ahead, the family would need to make a 2.0 million Rupiah bank transfer immediately, to pay the hospital bill. Thirty minutes later the "doctor" made a followup call requesting a further 2.5 million.
In the meantime, while these phone calls were taking place and family members were running off to the bank to transfer funds into the "hospital" bank account, my driver was either asleep in the car or gossiping with other drivers after having dropped me off at a hotel for a meeting. My driver's wife had tried to phone him to see if he was ok, but because the driver was in the underground carpark below the hotel there was no mobile phone coverage. Of course, to his wife this confirmed that something serious had happened to him, which is why the family were so willing to send their hard earned savings to the "hospital".
The hilariously incompetent Nigerian email scammers could learn a trick or two from their Indonesian colleagues.
On Friday somebody unknown phoned the driver's house claiming to be a doctor from a hospital in Jakarta, and told his son that the driver had been involved in an accident and was in hospital. The doctor advised that in order for the required emergency surgery and treatment to go ahead, the family would need to make a 2.0 million Rupiah bank transfer immediately, to pay the hospital bill. Thirty minutes later the "doctor" made a followup call requesting a further 2.5 million.
In the meantime, while these phone calls were taking place and family members were running off to the bank to transfer funds into the "hospital" bank account, my driver was either asleep in the car or gossiping with other drivers after having dropped me off at a hotel for a meeting. My driver's wife had tried to phone him to see if he was ok, but because the driver was in the underground carpark below the hotel there was no mobile phone coverage. Of course, to his wife this confirmed that something serious had happened to him, which is why the family were so willing to send their hard earned savings to the "hospital".
The hilariously incompetent Nigerian email scammers could learn a trick or two from their Indonesian colleagues.
posted by The Editor at 11:08 AM
1 Comments:
sorry I keyed your car
-Jeff
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