Monday, February 19, 2007

Government launches ad campaign for stupid people

The Office of Fair Trading has launched a campaign to help stupid people that respond to obvious email scams and dodgy lottery. You know the sort. The emails that come from a Prince in Nigeria who cannot spell Nigeria and says that if you send him £20,000 he'll give you £600 million - because it sounds so believable doesn't it?

I suppose there will be lots of people who think this is worthy campaign to have, but you can bet your bottom dollar the leaflet is on expensive glossy paper and god knows how much they spent on the radio advert. According to the press release they will be mailing thousands of these leaflets out across the country.

You have to wonder how stupid the people who fall for these scams really are though. After all the OFT has felt the need to define the word "scam" for them as well, just in case they don't understand."A scam is a scheme designed to con you out of your cash." Never! They lie!

Frankly, anyone who falls for these things deserves it. I think its called social darwinism.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didnt you miss out Greedy in stupid people

Anonymous said...

Most of the victims are about 80 years old Dizzy, you heartless little man.

We should help little old ladies cross the road so to speak.

They didn't have all this in their day, the sad truth is they kind of become hooked on doing it, and keep on sending the cash off until they have drizzled away all of their life savings.

People who target the elderly with scams are scum, they do not deserve to prosper from it while we sit back and moan about government waste.

These scams cost the economy a fortune every year.

dizzy said...

Most of the victims are about 80 years old Dizzy, you heartless little man. - and 88.4538% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Anonymous said...

The word "scam" should now be used to describe 10 Downing Street's e-petition website!

Devil's Kitchen said...

"...on expensive glossy paper..."

Will people stop repeating this crap: glossy paper is about the cheapest shit there is for lithoprint.

This is because the glossy laminate hides the fact that the paper inside is shit.

DK

dizzy said...

DK you're assuming the Government negotiated a cheap deal.

Anonymous said...

if i were a fraudster i'd get a copy of this on how NOT to do a scam or fraud. then i'd use a different technique.

thanks government - you just gave the fraudsters a blueprint on how to not conduct scams.

Anonymous said...

"Most of the victims are about 80 years old Dizzy, you heartless little man."

so why arent the police doing their job?

oh - its the human rights act again.

Anonymous said...

Dizzy, I do not agree that the Government should spend our money telling us the bleedin' obvious. But you should remember that in addition to the elderly, there are vulnerable adults, such as those with autism, who are extremely susceptible to the fraudsters' tactics. The solution is clearly to target this campaign at such people, rather than blanket mailshots.

dizzy said...

You're assuming these vulnerable adults can read.

Devil's Kitchen said...

Dizzy,

Now, if you'd said "printed on expensive recycled paper" (generally at least double the price of glossy and used by most of the Scot. Exec.'s departments), I'd not feel the need to correct you...

DK