Classic "divorces" of the 90s, which people are still being led to
Naive post-Soviet citizens were an excellent target for fraudsters in the 90s. However, modern Russians have not gone very far from them. In fact, the fraudulent schemes of those times still work now, they have only slightly changed — names, brands, names have changed… But the good old scam is alive and well.
Let's remember together the classic "divorces" of the 90s, which safely migrated to the present.
The Limpopo Millionaire
"Nigerian letters", or "Deception 419" (named after the corresponding article number of the Nigerian Criminal Code), appeared in the late 80's in the United States. The "Nigerian letters" broke into Russia in the early 90s. At first, messages came to people in ordinary paper envelopes or by fax. Then via the Internet via email.
These letters were sure to tell some pitiful story of a Nigerian princess, a rich heir, a Limpopo millionaire, etc. In fact, they were written by ordinary scammers. The letter ended with a request for a money transfer.
At the same time, the recipient was promised a huge percentage of the amount of this transfer. And God forbid a person fell for the bait: more and more money was gradually lured out of him for various, but "vital" purposes.
Here is one of the most striking examples of the "Nigerian letter»:
Later, he took part in the flight of the Soviet Soyuz T‑16Z to the secret Soviet space station Salyut-8T. In 1990, he was just at the station. All the Russian crew members managed to return to earth, but my brother didn't have enough space in the ship.
Since then and until today, it has been forced to stay in orbit, and only a few Progress cargo ships supply it with the necessary supplies. Despite everything, my brother is not losing his presence of mind, but he is eager to return home to his native Nigeria. During the long years he spent in space, his gradually accumulating salary was 15,000,000 US dollars.
At the moment, this amount is stored in a bank in Lagos. If we can get access to the money, we can pay Roscosmos the required amount and arrange for my brother to fly to Earth. The amount requested by Roscosmos is 3,000,000 US dollars.
However, we need your help to get the amount, as we, the Nigerian civil servants, are prohibited from all transactions with foreign accounts. Forever yours, Dr. Bakare Tunde, leading expert in astronautics."
Well, just an action-packed thriller! But the saddest thing is that people were led and sent money. Some because of their own greed, others - to raise money for an expensive operation to a loved one.
Resourceful " Canadians»
"Canadian wholesale company" - so called by those who sold people absolutely unnecessary cheap rubbish for a lot of money. Salesmen would catch a passerby at the entrance to the subway or in other crowded places and hand him something with a big smile (a pot, a pen, a kettle, a razor-anything). And, starting with the phrase "You are very lucky today", without letting you come to your senses, they told about the" useful and necessary " product. The magic tricks were the expressions: "today is the only sale", "have time to buy several times cheaper than in the store", "this thing performs 1001 functions" and so on.
And they did buy it. Only when they came home, they found that the miracle frying pan or supershvabra had a defect or did not "furychat" at all.
Representatives of the "Canadian Wholesale Company" (and others like it) followed the four golden rules:
"If you want to lose weight, ask me how!»
This inscription was emblazoned on the badges of thousands of people with shopping bags who sold miracle supplements for large "money". We are talking about "Herbalife" - a product that is supposedly able to destroy excess weight, cleanse the body, rejuvenate and cure the most dangerous diseases.
Working at Herbalife promised to bring in a lot of money. And so it was for someone. The principle is simple: you had to pay an entry fee of $ 150 for the initial set of products. Then it was necessary to attract other buyers with this product.
If the buyers became distributors of "Herbalife", then the person received a percentage already from someone else's sales volume. It was a sort of pyramid, a system familiar to anyone who worked for Oriflame, Mary Kay, Faberlick, or similar organizations. Only these three companies sell cosmetics, and Herbalife has been selling useless weight-loss cocktails.
In Russia, "Herbalife" appeared on sale in 95. The first shipments of goods that were actually smuggled into the CIS from Israel were mostly overdue. After some time, the media began to print devastating articles about the product and even that it is harmful to health. Sales of weight loss products have declined. It was also said that the meetings of Herbalife distributors were more like sectarian ones.
But the most interesting thing is that until 2010, there were still those who sincerely believed in the power of "Herbalife" and defended it. In principle, it is clear why-such funds, when used for a long time, cause people to become addicted.
Herbalife's products are still on sale.
Fact: the founder of "Herbalife" (translated from English - " the grass of life») Mark Reynolds Hughes died in 2000 at the age of 44 — a miracle drug did not help him…
Not a random passerby
In the early 90s, there were so‑called lototrons on the streets — devices that throw balls with winning numbers. The journalists of "Moskovsky Komsomolets" in their article about fraud called this case a scam. So this word appeared, later denoting any"wiring".
Now about the most street "scam". The scammers handed out "free" lottery tickets to passers-by (although in the original version you had to pay, but literally pennies). As a rule, some household appliance was played in it. Next to it was a bright box from under this unit, but what was inside it was not visible.
Next, the person got a winning ticket. However, it immediately turned out that literally the same one was also given to some "random passer-by".
The organizers of the lottery began to apologize to the person (the prize is one) and offered to hold a kind of auction between him and the "random passer — by" - who will give more, he takes both the prize and the money of the loser.
And here is what a coincidence: the "random passer-by" looked poor, as if by chance he could let slip that he had only a thousand rubles, or opened a wallet where there was very little money. Naturally, the one who got into the lottery voluntarily, noticing this, agreed to the auction.
Further developments suggested several options. In the first "true" and" random "passers-by put their money in envelopes and give them to the organizers of the "scam".
The victim's money was quietly added to the amount of the "random passer-by". Therefore, when opening the envelopes, it always turned out that the "random" person had more money, and he won.
In the second option, the auction is held with a double bid increase each time. But both participants give the money to the organizers at once.
According to another scenario, there were indeed household appliances in the box, but they were defective and very cheap. People were stupidly bred for excitement. As a result, they overpaid for the thing at times.
"You clipped my car!»
Very common in the 90s were autofill, more like extortion. Imagine: you do not suspect anything and are driving in your lane, when suddenly you notice a car behind you. It is actively trying to drive your car into the next lane: flashing lights, "beeping".
As a result, you give way. At this moment, suddenly, a second car appears in front of you or behind you from the "blind" zone, into which you, of course, crash.
The first car quickly leaves, and a jock-criminal comes out of the second car that you hit. He enthusiastically explains how much it costs to repair his cool car. As a rule, cars for such a scam were used really expensive brands — "Mersy", "Audi", "Bahi", etc.Only inside such cars were a wreck.
Thus, you had no choice but to pay the money for the repair of the car. Otherwise, the scammers called fake traffic cops.
As a victim, the scammers chose people from the middle class or inexperienced drivers. Especially often such things happened then on the MKAD.
After the introduction of compulsory motor liability insurance (CTP), such cases on the road became much less.
Keywords: Russian Federation | History | 90s | Fraud | USSR