When Will People Learn?

So this morning I was talking to the wife of the president of Togo who unforunately, as it happens, passed away a few short months ago and only went and left his wife with the horrible task of shifting $21,000,000 out of the country to invest in a business. So she hits me up… you can imagine the conversation…

“Ken, hows it goin, Marie here!” (thats her name)

“Ah Marie, Jesus, long time no see… hows himself keeping?”

“Ah sure you know, kinda died and stuff, so now I need your bank account details to help me move $21 million out of the country. I know you’ve recently started a new business, is there any chance of an investment?”

“$21,000,000…. God Marie, I dunno, it’s normally a $30 million buy-in but for you – no problem”

And so the conversation went on…

Yeah right. In fairness folks, when will people learn. Its the oldest trick in the book. The 4 F’s of conflict – find the enemy (or victim), fix them (keep them occupied), flank them (take them by surprise if you can…) and finish them off. The forgot to add a fifth – fishing. Or more precisely, ‘phishing’ – the technique of getting information out of someone under a guise. Working for a previous internet technologies company I had experience in dealing with people who had lost out financially in this situation, or in the simplest of cases just given up their password on the ruse of a ‘security check’ only to have their credit card details lifted, massive bills… you know the rest.

If someone offers you twenty million dollars as soon as you walk into the office, its bound to be too good to be true…..

When will people learn….