“Section 419” scammers arrested in Netherlands; Danish flag flies proudly

Date:January 31, 2004 / year-entry #44
Tags:non-computer
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040131-00/?p=40793
Comments:    9
Summary:Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of defrauding gullible Internet users in one of the largest busts of the infamous "Nigerian e-mail" scam. Hooray for the Dutch police. Their next target: Web sites that illustrate a Dutch article with the Danish flag. (I must sheepishly admit that I too mistakenly identified the home of...

Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of defrauding gullible Internet users in one of the largest busts of the infamous "Nigerian e-mail" scam. Hooray for the Dutch police. Their next target: Web sites that illustrate a Dutch article with the Danish flag.

(I must sheepishly admit that I too mistakenly identified the home of Ikea as Denmark rather than the Netherlands.)

Comments (9)
  1. gohai says:
    January 31, 2004 at 8:07 am

    I thought IKEA is from Sweden?

  2. Raymond Chen says:
    January 31, 2004 at 8:20 am

    IKEA’s spiritual home is Sweden, but its headquarters are in the Netherlands. Probably for tax reasons.

  3. Ifeanyi Echeruo says:
    January 31, 2004 at 3:35 pm

    Ohh the poor victims!!! All they ever wanted to do was aid in illegally exporting money from a third world country for a small cut. Just a little pre-tax income to get Jr. through college.

    I get a little irked about the way the scam is portrayed. It makes sense when you realize that some guy wants to sell a story and needs victims or people would go… "what’s the point?"

    But honestly the only victim I see here is everyone else that gets to deal with the spam and a whole country whose ability to do business internationaly is damaged

    Oh and yes I am Nigerian.

  4. Augie says:
    February 1, 2004 at 1:09 am

    The Dutch-Sweden connection reminds me that Volvo (cars) has a factory in the Netherlands and another one in Belgium. In fact nowadays more Volvo cars are made outside of Sweden than inside. More useless trivia.

  5. Gareth's Weblog says:
    February 1, 2004 at 10:19 am

    I wish there was some way to regulate the internet. There needs to be some editing process. Maybe a tool that marks a webpage as has been edited or is full of bullshit. Take this article for example. It talks…

  6. DotFrandsen says:
    February 2, 2004 at 12:44 am

    Can someone explain to me why Americans keep interchanging Denmark and Holland?

    Okay, so you’re not experts on European geography? That’s okay, I can’t tell you the name of the capital city of North Dakota.

    But it’s always Denmark and Holland. Never Denmark and Latvia, Denmark and Austria or even Denmark and Belgium.

    In fact, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this conversation:

    – Where are you from Sir?

    – Denmark.

    – Ohh, So then you speak Dutch!

    – No, I speak Danish.

    And this is where the funny guys go:

    – Danish? Ain’t that something you eat?

  7. Raymond Chen says:
    February 2, 2004 at 7:26 am

    For me, it’s strictly due to the similar names. I should know better. (I’ve heard some people confuse Austria and Australia.)

  8. Raymond Chen says:
    August 3, 2004 at 3:42 pm

    Commenting closes after two weeks.

    http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/21/77681.aspx

  9. The Old New Thing says:
    August 4, 2004 at 11:51 am

    Nigerian 419 spam via the contact form.

Comments are closed.


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