Fields, a great comedian of the '30s and '40s, carefully recapitulated the true core of all confidence scams with the title of his 1939 film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. All confidence tricksters depend on the victim's own greed to hook him into the scam that cheats him out of his money. Maybe the most generally known today is the notorious “Nigerian scam,” also called the “419 fraud” for the section of the Nigerian criminal code it violates. The victim receives a letter, a fax or, most often today, an e-mail, stating that the sender possesses a hidden, usually illegal, hoard of money, and needs the help of an honest person to launder the money. The sender promises huge profits from this illicit partnership-and only needs your detailed bank account information to start sending the funds. You can guess what happens next.
In the past, most confidence scams go unreported, because the victims are too embarrassed to admit they have been taken by a story that, looked at impartially, is wildly unlikely. When the victim, or mark, does come forward, our sympathy is usually diluted by our laughter at the mark's foolishness. It's a socially satisfactory form of blaming the victim.
That's all well and good when the mark's greed is for money. But what about when the “greed” is for a spiritual goal like the aged pensioner scammed by a fluent televangelist? She wants only to do good and, at worst, increase her holy riches. Only the crassest observer laughs at these victims.
And-the point of today's column-what about the victims of immigration scams, where the mark is simply looking for a better life, in a better place? At the far end of the scale are the processes involving illegal immigrants, which often pose real risks to the life and health of the snakeheads' customers. Remember the two shiploads of people intercepted by the Coast Guard and briefly interned on Tinian over a decade ago? No one here was very concerned, in large part because most people resented the CNMI being used as a holding cell to keep the boats' passengers from applying for sanctuary once inside U.S. borders.
Today's column is not about this kind of aspirant immigrant. Rather, it is about the people we have been seeing more regularly, who have believed fables based on the idea that the CNMI-federal immigration transition provides a path to legal immigration. Some think that they are developing loopholes cleverly discovered by the confidence tricksters, and others just don't know U.S. immigration doesn't work the way they have been told. All have spent extensive sums of money, typically between $10,000 and $30,000, sometimes more. Except for some high-end “investors,” this money represents life savings plus everything they could borrow. All had hopes of legal immigration. All have been resentful, and many have inadvertently become illegal here.
In the past, most confidence scams go unreported, because the victims are too embarrassed to admit they have been taken by a story that, looked at impartially, is wildly unlikely. When the victim, or mark, does come forward, our sympathy is usually diluted by our laughter at the mark's foolishness. It's a socially satisfactory form of blaming the victim.
That's all well and good when the mark's greed is for money. But what about when the “greed” is for a spiritual goal like the aged pensioner scammed by a fluent televangelist? She wants only to do good and, at worst, increase her holy riches. Only the crassest observer laughs at these victims.
And-the point of today's column-what about the victims of immigration scams, where the mark is simply looking for a better life, in a better place? At the far end of the scale are the processes involving illegal immigrants, which often pose real risks to the life and health of the snakeheads' customers. Remember the two shiploads of people intercepted by the Coast Guard and briefly interned on Tinian over a decade ago? No one here was very concerned, in large part because most people resented the CNMI being used as a holding cell to keep the boats' passengers from applying for sanctuary once inside U.S. borders.
Today's column is not about this kind of aspirant immigrant. Rather, it is about the people we have been seeing more regularly, who have believed fables based on the idea that the CNMI-federal immigration transition provides a path to legal immigration. Some think that they are developing loopholes cleverly discovered by the confidence tricksters, and others just don't know U.S. immigration doesn't work the way they have been told. All have spent extensive sums of money, typically between $10,000 and $30,000, sometimes more. Except for some high-end “investors,” this money represents life savings plus everything they could borrow. All had hopes of legal immigration. All have been resentful, and many have inadvertently become illegal here.
June 21, 2010 at 11:14 AM
June 21, 2010 at 9:13 PM
I hope more people are being more careful nowadays.
September 7, 2017 at 3:35 PM
How Bad of a Problem is Japan partner Inc?
Buying a car from Japan or Japan Partner for personal or business use is to anyone a major milestone. It's easy to say, buying a car will likely be one of the most expensive purchases you have ever made before. However buying online can be a risky and a daunting experience, there are far more risks involved while buying a motor vehicle online in comparison to venturing out to a face to face dealer. Needless to say, online purchase is a convenient and increasingly mainstream way to find the car of your dream, but it's also the most common media where fake or fraudulent dealerships use to con people off.
As our company was to find out, you can never be too careful when you venture online to purchase motor vehicles. Scammers have mastered the art of making their activities appear legitimate by; registering a business, establishing genuine looking websites and using physical addresses in order to avoid Japanese government scrutiny.
As an experienced second hand motor vehicle buyers, and with a fleet of over three hundred commercial vehicles, our company was confident that we knew all the pitfalls of online buying, but we got a rude awakening, when we got coned by Japan partner inc.
Japan partner appeared genuine, and at first contact with them, sounded reliable and professional, but nothing could have being farther from the truth. As we were later to find out, Japan partner Inc is made up off a small number of cronies operating from a small registered garage, but by appearance they seem established, thanks to numerous fake and enhanced photos on their website.
Japan partner Inc defraud online buyers in different ways
Japan Partner Inc drastically clock back the mileage.
Selling dodgy cut and shut cars. This are makeshift cars comprised of more than one car put together that could literally fall apart at any time.
Not shipping a car after payment, or months and months delayed shipping.
Featuring vehicles they don't have in stock on their website to roar in potential victims.
Concealing wear and tear.
Japan Partner ship different vehicle than the one paid for, usually broken or in bad condition.
If you are reading this you probably have being conned or was about to be conned by this expert scammers, take our hint, don't wire your money to them, you will end up CONED!
Tip: make sure to read Japan Partner review carefully to learn from other consumers experiences!!!