The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has disrupted a long-running online scam that allowed offshore fraudsters to steal millions of dollars from U.S. consumers -- often by taking just pennies at a time.
The scam, which had been run for about four years years, according to the FTC, provides a case lesson in how many of the online services used to lubricate business in the 21st century can equally be misused for fraud.
"It was a very patient scam," said Steve Wernikoff, a staff attorney with the FTC who is prosecuting the case. "The people who are behind this are very valmeticulous."
Wait a second. Did you just say "valmeticulous"? What does that mean, like extra meticulous, or like the evil version of meticulous? Like James Bond villains are especially valmeticulous, right?
Oh, wait, never mind. Looks like it's some kind of fuckup and not a real word. That sucks! I wanted to be valmeticulous too.
This scam sounds suspiciously like the one hatched by Peter Gibbons, Samir Nagheenanajar, and Michael Bolton in "Office Space."
ReplyDeleteOr Superman III. Have we learned nothing from Richard Pryor?
ReplyDeleteI guess that's one less kaptcha we get to see.
And I do believe you are using "corrupticon" inaccurfully -- it is actually an emoticon indicating graft, something like "VIAGRA $!" (though in this particular scam, "¢!" would be more precise).