Phuket Features : Once upon a time in the land of the dumb
I’m not too sure of the morality one is supposed to derive from the Jack and the Beanstalk tale… On first consideration I guess it’s all about being careful for what you buy at face value or something about glitterless gold or other parables that issue pre-emptive warnings.
To begin with the warning seems justified, as the bean that Jack purchases does actually get him into some serious peril. At the end of the tale, however, Jack slays the giant and returns to his homestead a rich young country boy… which leads to confusion and a very morally ambiguous fairytale. Should we buy magic beans or not? Was he scammed?
It is not just Phuket residents who can be seduced by the allure of quick gain.
All around the world people are being duped and tricked out of their confidence, underwear, money and even their identity. In 1986 all wine exports from Italy were halted when it was found that numerous bottles of cheap plonk were being compromised with methylated spirits to raise the wine’s alcohol content to 12 percent.
At least 20 people died from neighbouring countries when they mixed the concoction with their own varieties.
Last year, parents of the aptly named Falcon Heene (6) claimed that he had floated away on a helium balloon in Fort Collins, Colorado.
World-wide coverage followed when the balloon was later found sans young Falcon. Where was balloon boy? Has he just floated away into the clouds? Perhaps he was up there fighting alongside Jack.
It was later revealed that Falcon had been hiding in his house the whole time and on an interview with Larry King Live, he explained why, “You guys {his parents} said that, um, we did this for the show.” The incident was denounced as a hoax and the father was sentenced to 90 days jail and his mother 20 days in weekend jail. They were also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution.
Victor Lustig is arguably one of the most accomplished conmen in history. He had 45 known aliases and was fluent in five languages.
In 1925, Victor was living in Paris when he noticed a small article in a newspaper claiming that as the Eiffel Tower was in need of repair it might be cheaper to rip it down than to repair it.
Victor’s mastermind began working and he proceeded to send letters to five different scrap iron dealers posing as the Deputy Director General of the Ministère de Postes et Télégraphes.
He wrote that “The tower had been built in 1889 and was never intended to be a permanent structure,” He stressed that tearing the tower down was a very controversial decision and begged for their secrecy.
Victor chose André Poisson as the winning bidder and accepted his generous offer before escaping to Austria with his fortune.
He would have got away with it as well, had it not been for his greed tempting him to return to the city of love to try the exact same scam, but this time the highest bidder went to the police.
If you can’t beat him then try to make him join you was very much the philosophy of the FBI and police in America with regards to Frank Abagnale, immortalized as Leonardo Dicaprio’s character in the movie: ‘Catch Me If You Can’.
His ‘successful scams’ included posing as a pilot, a teacher, a doctor, an attorney and making bad cheques in 26 countries totaling $2.5 million. He was finally arrested in France in 1969. After serving five years the United States federal government released him on the condition that he would help the federal authorities without pay against crimes committed by fraud and scam artists, and drop by once a week.
He later founded Abagnale & Associates, which advises the business world on fraud and is now a legitimate multi-millionaire through his legal fraud detection and avoidance consulting business.
Frank is the antithesis of Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk in many ways, and surely someone needs to write a modern-day fairytale containing these two morally ambiguous characters. Who would prevail and what would that mean? Anyone?
Although the methods of scamming have changed over the years, the technique of gaining a victim’s confidence before taking advantage of it remains the same.
By far the most common form of confidence trickery these days is done over the internet, we’ve all received a Nigerian scam letter, but most of us ignore them… most but not all. They in fact make up 2.8 percent of all complaints issued to the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3).
Other common scams include: Fake charities, counterfeit cashier’s cheques,
opportunities to invest in bogus foreign lotteries, unclear loan and mortgage conditions, ‘romance’ scams and telemarketing ruses.
Here are some pieces of advice offered by the IC3:
- Take time to research any offers you receive over the
Internet or telephone.
- Do not deposit any checks that are supposed winnings from a lottery or sweepstakes, especially if you didn’t enter one.
- Do not provide your sensitive, personal, or financial information unless you know who you are dealing with.
- Consult friends and family or a trusted advisor before making any major financial decisions.
- Don’t buy any magical moneymaking ink from Patong or any grow beans from the market in exchange for your mother’s cow.
The last is from the Post.
If you wish to issue an international complaint, visit www.ic3.gov or if you wish to complain locally you should call the police or visit the Office of Consumer Protection Board at consumer@ocpb.go.th or telephone the hotline on 1166 or 02 1413410-4.
To begin with the warning seems justified, as the bean that Jack purchases does actually get him into some serious peril. At the end of the tale, however, Jack slays the giant and returns to his homestead a rich young country boy… which leads to confusion and a very morally ambiguous fairytale. Should we buy magic beans or not? Was he scammed?
It is not just Phuket residents who can be seduced by the allure of quick gain.
All around the world people are being duped and tricked out of their confidence, underwear, money and even their identity. In 1986 all wine exports from Italy were halted when it was found that numerous bottles of cheap plonk were being compromised with methylated spirits to raise the wine’s alcohol content to 12 percent.
At least 20 people died from neighbouring countries when they mixed the concoction with their own varieties.
Last year, parents of the aptly named Falcon Heene (6) claimed that he had floated away on a helium balloon in Fort Collins, Colorado.
World-wide coverage followed when the balloon was later found sans young Falcon. Where was balloon boy? Has he just floated away into the clouds? Perhaps he was up there fighting alongside Jack.
It was later revealed that Falcon had been hiding in his house the whole time and on an interview with Larry King Live, he explained why, “You guys {his parents} said that, um, we did this for the show.” The incident was denounced as a hoax and the father was sentenced to 90 days jail and his mother 20 days in weekend jail. They were also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution.
Victor Lustig is arguably one of the most accomplished conmen in history. He had 45 known aliases and was fluent in five languages.
In 1925, Victor was living in Paris when he noticed a small article in a newspaper claiming that as the Eiffel Tower was in need of repair it might be cheaper to rip it down than to repair it.
Victor’s mastermind began working and he proceeded to send letters to five different scrap iron dealers posing as the Deputy Director General of the Ministère de Postes et Télégraphes.
He wrote that “The tower had been built in 1889 and was never intended to be a permanent structure,” He stressed that tearing the tower down was a very controversial decision and begged for their secrecy.
Victor chose André Poisson as the winning bidder and accepted his generous offer before escaping to Austria with his fortune.
He would have got away with it as well, had it not been for his greed tempting him to return to the city of love to try the exact same scam, but this time the highest bidder went to the police.
If you can’t beat him then try to make him join you was very much the philosophy of the FBI and police in America with regards to Frank Abagnale, immortalized as Leonardo Dicaprio’s character in the movie: ‘Catch Me If You Can’.
His ‘successful scams’ included posing as a pilot, a teacher, a doctor, an attorney and making bad cheques in 26 countries totaling $2.5 million. He was finally arrested in France in 1969. After serving five years the United States federal government released him on the condition that he would help the federal authorities without pay against crimes committed by fraud and scam artists, and drop by once a week.
He later founded Abagnale & Associates, which advises the business world on fraud and is now a legitimate multi-millionaire through his legal fraud detection and avoidance consulting business.
Frank is the antithesis of Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk in many ways, and surely someone needs to write a modern-day fairytale containing these two morally ambiguous characters. Who would prevail and what would that mean? Anyone?
Although the methods of scamming have changed over the years, the technique of gaining a victim’s confidence before taking advantage of it remains the same.
By far the most common form of confidence trickery these days is done over the internet, we’ve all received a Nigerian scam letter, but most of us ignore them… most but not all. They in fact make up 2.8 percent of all complaints issued to the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3).
Other common scams include: Fake charities, counterfeit cashier’s cheques,
opportunities to invest in bogus foreign lotteries, unclear loan and mortgage conditions, ‘romance’ scams and telemarketing ruses.
Here are some pieces of advice offered by the IC3:
- Take time to research any offers you receive over the
Internet or telephone.
- Do not deposit any checks that are supposed winnings from a lottery or sweepstakes, especially if you didn’t enter one.
- Do not provide your sensitive, personal, or financial information unless you know who you are dealing with.
- Consult friends and family or a trusted advisor before making any major financial decisions.
- Don’t buy any magical moneymaking ink from Patong or any grow beans from the market in exchange for your mother’s cow.
The last is from the Post.
If you wish to issue an international complaint, visit www.ic3.gov or if you wish to complain locally you should call the police or visit the Office of Consumer Protection Board at consumer@ocpb.go.th or telephone the hotline on 1166 or 02 1413410-4.
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