A few years ago I was bored. I was so bored, in fact, that upon receiving a Nigerian scam email, I decided to screw with the guy. Mercilessly. My friend and renowned author Mike Williamson documented the majority of the exchange I had with this particular scammer, who claimed to be a widow with AIDS who was looking for someone to adopt her two children, and to whom she would pay millions of dollars. All they’d need is a one-time fee… $1,650
Yeah. What they wound up getting was a week-long exchange with someone who forced them to send a photo of themselves to prove authenticity, who offered to sell them a computer security system that was marketed as Affirmed Security Standardized Home Organizational Lookout Evader (Version 2.9), who claimed to be a researcher working on AIDS and recommended that she be anally raped by a camel as a cure. Oh… and I made him sign a contract, which I later explained to him – AFTER I got his signature and had him fax it to me.
Here is what you have agreed to:
1 – Adoption services and financial services. 2 – Jerking off for the
camera and saving the pictures (that means stroking your own penis,
spanky) 3 – Sucking the penis of a hairy rhesus monkey, taking pictures
and saving them for me 4 – Getting large objects shoved up your ass and
getting sexually abused with whips and chains …
You get the message.
Why did I mess with this idiot for a week? Well, first, as I explained before, I was bored. But secondly, it’s because these criminals take advantage of the weakest in our society. Yes, people should know better. Yes, I’m aware of the whole caveat emptor thing. However, these scumbags harass the most naive and vulnerable in our society. If you know anything about me, you know that abuse of children and the elderly makes me absolutely crazy, so these people really deserve to be sodomized with large cacti and tossed off a bridge somewhere!
They truly are scum, and they deserve horrible things to happen to them. What I don’t understand, though, is the attitude of our law enforcement authorities when confronted with the fact that they really need to do something about these sub-human shitbags! Here is an elderly gentleman who was trying to help… trying to prevent other seniors falling victim to these scamming slime… and what do the law enforcement agencies of our nation do? Not a damn thing! This man got harassing calls at his house, claiming he would receive millions if he just sent them several hundred bucks. How many elderly folks don’t know any better? How many of them surf the web on a regular basis and know about this stuff?
Corl was fed up. He asked the phone company about the phone number.
It came back as being from Jamaica. Corl decided it was time for the
professionals to take over the case.He called the New Port
Richey Police Department. Corl lives outside the city, so someone there
referred him to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.The Sheriff’s
Office said the matter was outside its jurisdiction and to call the
FBI. So Corl called the Tampa office. They told him to call the
Pasco/Hernando field office in Wesley Chapel. He did. Twice. He got an
answering machine and left messages.Meanwhile, Corl kept getting calls. On Dec. 18 he got more than 20.
On
Dec. 19, another man called Corl. He said he was in Spring Hill and he
wanted to “finish the transaction while in the vicinity,” Corl said. He
told Corl to take a check for $500 to the Western Union near a Walmart
and there would be $5 million and a Mercedes in it for him.An FBI agent returned Corl’s call the following week, after the Times
inquired about his complaint. That agent told him the field office
can’t do anything about an overseas operation, but suggested Corl send
in the information anyway, so it could be forwarded to the Washington,
D.C., office.“I’ll do that,” he said.
The calls have
tapered off now, but Corl said he was surprised that law enforcement
didn’t seem more interested in protecting the public from such con
artists, especially when those victimized most often are the elderly.
I’m not surprised. This kind of thing seems to be too small or inconsequential to them or something. I’m sure if their funding was at stake, they’d quickly act. And I’m sure if this gentleman actually met with one of these scammers and shot them dead, the “authorities” would be all over him like Oprah on a baked ham.
Mr. Corl rightfully asks,”What are we paying them for?”
They sure don’t seem to care about actually enforcing the law or stopping those who violate it! They sure don’t seem to care about protecting the most vulnerable elements of our society.
I’ve always been one of those folks who believed that law enforcement is one of the very few legitimate functions of any government – not that we should rely on them exclusively, but that they should be a viable option that serves and protects.
If they won’t do what we’re paying them to do, why do we even have them?
Dec 27, 2009 @ 11:48:06
“If they won’t do what we’re paying them to do, why do we even have them?”An excellent question. But getting rid of them, and the burdens they impose on us, would appear to be impossible…without bloodshed, at least.More and more, government at every level and of every category resembles nothing so much as a giant protection racket that doesn’t protect us from anything, including itself.
Dec 27, 2009 @ 13:51:46
they have those cool “FBI” jackets…
Dec 27, 2009 @ 16:15:18
The issue is much larger than law enforcement’s response to citizen’s needs; the issue lies with society’s increasingly popular attitude that “it’s not my responsibility, call someone else.” This attitude is prevalent throughout the private sector as well as the public sector. As a trainer I can teach you the law, how to make an arrest, how to testify in court etc. however I cannot teach you how to be responsible. Under my watch such a response was never acceptable and when it was brought to my attention, someone was held accountable. I know there are many other law enforcement execs who do the same.Then there is another issue: is it fair to take an incident in southern Florida and use a broad brush to paint all law enforcement in the USA as incompetent? I don’t think so. Two months back, a couple of airline pilots overshot the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles. The most likely reason they did this, as far as has been published, is that they were asleep at the wheel. Do we not question why we need airline travel? Is the airline system broken? If airline pilots are incompetent then why do we need them? Of course, Captain Sully sure made a nice water landing in the Hudson River, an example of why we need airline pilots.There is no question that there is room for improvement in law enforcement services. There is no question that there is room for improvement in practically every public and private sector function.There should be no question that as long as we are required to recruit from the human race, there will be a degree of imperfection in all tasks that are performed by humans.Of course, there is absolutely no excuse for this man in southern Florida, for any citizen anywhere, to be subjected to such law enforcement incompetence and irresponsible.”If they don’t do what we are paying them to do, why even have them?” My thoughts are that they are doing what we are paying them to do many more times than they do not.Glad you are back to your great work! ;+}
Dec 27, 2009 @ 16:30:16
I wouldn’t say I’m painting all law enforcement agencies as incompetent, but more commenting on the fact that he was passed off to someone else on every level. Everyone seems to have passed him off, because as you said, no one wanted the responsibility. We PAY taxes, so they take this responsibility! They are the recipients of our earnings so that they take action, not pass off the buck to someone else. He approached local, state and federal law enforcement authorities, and no one was willing to do anything about this. That’s why the question: what do we pay them for?Why have authorities who refuse to take any kind of initiative or responsibility? I would summarily fire those with whom this man dealt. But that is not to say that I’m impugning ALL law enforcement agencies as useless.Hope you had a great Christmas, Chief!
Dec 27, 2009 @ 16:51:48
The power of the written word continues to amaze me! You see, I ‘read’ your posting as a broad brushed description of law enforcement incompetence, nationwide.I try to remain open-minded but am prone to becoming defensive!OK, that’s it for the day! Thanks for helping me get my blood pressure up! ;+}Christmas was great, got to play Santa for my grandkids, playing Santa is something I had not experienced in many years! It really is all about the kids, family and friends! Hope you guys had an equally happy Christmas!
Dec 27, 2009 @ 16:56:41
Various courts, including some on the Federal level, have ruled that the citizen is not entitled to police protection as a matter of right or affirmative law — that the police respond (if they respond) as a matter of professional ethics, which are not enforceable. That is: if you call the tax-supported police on their tax-supported 911 line to report that someone is trying to kill you, they have no enforceable obligation to come to your assistance.On the other hand, if you decline to pay for the maintenance of those tax-supported police and that 911 line, they can and will incarcerate you in a reinforced concrete box guarded by men with guns — tax-supported men and guns.Apropos of all this, public police, supported by taxation, are a relatively new phenomenon in the history of governments. Sir Robert Peel introduced the idea in England in 1829, prior to which the notion of a standing civil enforcement arm for public law was not yet known in any Western nation. Those earliest police were generally referred to as “Peel’s bloody gang,” or alternately “the blue demons.”(For a fascinating survey of alternatives to “public” policing and jurisprudence, see Bruce Benson’s book The Enterprise of Law.)
Dec 27, 2009 @ 17:00:12
Now I know you’re NOT fat enough to play Santa! LOLHoliday was good at our house. Lots of presents (100 percent for the kids) and food, which means my ass is on a diet!!!
Dec 28, 2009 @ 05:39:35
Law enforcement is one of the very few legitimate concerns of government. Unfortunately most of it members and all of its administrators illegitimize it.Don’t bother calling me a cop-hater, I’m not. I’m just a great disrespector. Have been for almost 40 years, which has been a complete turnabout for me. I didn’t change, they did.