[SUBMITTED - 5/14/2020] Fresh Inheritance in Your Location

[East Blepia]

[description] Kawandalandian e-mail scammers steal a great deal from @@NATION@@ per year. The Kawandalandian government are too corrupt to do anything, so it is up to you to take action.

[validity] Invalid for nations without computers or internet

[option 1] "I had a nice retirement fund built up, and was prepared to leave a great estate to my children. That is, before those damned scammers came along, and took every penny!", hollers @@RANDOMNAME@@, a victim of advance-fee scammers. "I behoove you, invade Kawandaland and have those scammers' heads on pikes!"

[fallout] countries are invaded over the darndest things

[validity] valid for all nations

[option 2] "Now, now, don't get worked up", @@RANDOMNAME@@ chimes in. "An invasion will do nothing but further destabilise the country and leave its residents even poorer than they are now. Perhaps if we aid Kawandaland to develop its administration and root out corruption, the government will start working against advance-fee fraud. Of course, this program may drain even more money from our economy than the scammers, but that's not the point."

[fallout] third-world countries do the darndest things to get aid

[validity] valid for all nations

[option 3] "What is the internet good for, anyway?", asks Farmer @@RANDOMMALENAME@@. "My father, and his father before him, and his father before him, &c., got along just fine without it. Besides, I doubt those Kawandalandians are going to come rob us in person. Sure, getting rid of the internet might do a lot worse to the economy than the scammers, but it'll help our society in the long term."

[fallout] one bad email ruins the whole IT sector

[validity] valid for all nations

[option 4] An email pops up in your mailbox. "Listen here. It has no bearing on you whether or not these people are scammed. You've already got their tax money. Why not live and let live?"

[fallout] the most likely demographic to be homeless are the elderly

[validity] valid for all nations

[Noahs Second Country]

The 'a few people even having killed themselves' seems very abrupt in the description, nor do I feel like it is necessary to create an issue since a significant amount of money is already being taken away from citizens. I also feel like your doppelganger option 1 is unnecessary, just pick one.

[East Blepia]

The 'a few people even having killed themselves' seems very abrupt in the description, nor do I feel like it is necessary to create an issue since a significant amount of money is already being taken away from citizens. I also feel like your doppelganger option 1 is unnecessary, just pick one.

In real life, many people have killed themselves because of being scammed. One man even set himself on fire. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/3444307.stm)

The point of the issue is more about what to do about issues like this when no treaties regarding force of law across international borders exist.

Also, I think the two options for atheists and everyone else are a nice touch to make the text a bit more immersive. Nobody will ever see both.

[Tinhampton]

This issue seems a bit disjointed. Is this a generic foreign-affairs issue, or an issue about internet scams? Here's how it reads so far:

DESCRIPTION: Nigerian Prince/419 scammers from Kawandaland have swindled @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ out of billions of @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@! What do you do?
1/2: Invade Kawandaland and kill the scammers in question
3: Send foreign aid to Kawandaland, perhaps they might extinguish the need for scamming
4: Cut off the internet, no need to worry about Kawandalandian spammers

[East Blepia]

This issue seems a bit disjointed. Is this a generic foreign-affairs issue, or an issue about internet scams?

It's about internet scams as a vehicle for foreign affairs policy.

[East Blepia]

This issue seems a bit disjointed. Is this a generic foreign-affairs issue, or an issue about internet scams?

It's about internet scams as a vehicle for foreign affairs policy.

I've realised that doesn't really help much. The issue is not so much about the economic impact that the scams are having, but the issues surrounding the various proposed solutions or mitigations of this issue. West African governments are not often willing to work against internet fraud because they benefit, either directly through taxes and bribes or indirectly through economic stimulus, from it, so long as it is not aimed at residents of that same country. Western governments are not willing to invade or do anything drastic at all over what is a relatively trivial issue in the grand scheme of things. All they can do is take complaints, which are rarely ever acted on as there is usually a lack of good information to go on. What has resulted is an internet subculture and several online forums and communities dedicated to emailing these scammers back and forth, wasting their time with which they could have been scamming actual victims, causing them to go to great lengths in an effort to get you to pay whatever sort of fee they behoove of you, and generally frustrating them so much as to perhaps causing them to think twice about scamming. This isn't encouraged by governments because their advice is just to recognize scam emails and not reply in the first place. It's not forbidden, it's just not recommended.

[Trotterdam]

How many Nigerian prince scams are actually run from Nigeria?

[Noahs Second Country]

How many Nigerian prince scams are actually run from Nigeria?

In general, call centers hosting scammers tend to be found in developing countries.

[East Blepia]

How many Nigerian prince scams are actually run from Nigeria?

In general, call centers hosting scammers tend to be found in developing countries.

A distinction should be made between email scams and phone scams.

I don't have any statistics to back this up (although some can probably be found), only my personal experience. Phone scams tend to come from India and Pakistan, and email scams tend to come from West Africa. Phone scams typically have a very brief and simple plot and are not supposed to last longer than a few days at most, where you go to Western Union or Moneygram and make a wire transfer. Most of these take the form of a classic advance fee scam, with any number of plot excuses for why the advance fee is required, while email scams can drag on for a long while, and all the email scammers I have dealt with have very long blocks of plot which they will split up into several emails back and forth with you. Nobody claims to be a nigerian prince any more as most people are familiar with that sort of scam. The scammer usually wants some sort of advance fee, for an inheritance, a loan, having won a lottery, or some other excuse, before some supposed great payout can be made to you. If you pay the fee, they will keep asking for more and more fees, purporting each one to be the last required, until you finally realise that it is a scam.

[Tinhampton]

8.6 billion @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ seems arbitrary, as does your claim that having two Option 1s that barely look different adds any more... "verve" to the issue than simply having one that all nations can receive.

[East Blepia]

8.6 billion @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ seems arbitrary, as does your claim that having two Option 1s that barely look different adds any more... "verve" to the issue than simply having one that all nations can receive.

I have edited the draft in line with your suggestions. However, I never used the word "verve".

[The Veiled Islands]

[description] Recent police statistics have shown that Kawandalandian e-mail scammers steal a great deal of @@CURRENCY@@ from the citizens of @@NATION@@ per year. They operate with impunity, and the corrupt Kawandalandian government does not stop this activity because it is actively beneficial to their economy. Victims from all over @@NATION@@ are dismayed, a few even having killed themselves. A panel of talking heads has been conjured.

This description could be more concise, particularly toward the end of it. By the time I'm half-way through, I basically know what the topic is, so I don't need so many additional words/sentences after that.

[East Blepia]

[description] Recent police statistics have shown that Kawandalandian e-mail scammers steal a great deal of @@CURRENCY@@ from the citizens of @@NATION@@ per year. They operate with impunity, and the corrupt Kawandalandian government does not stop this activity because it is actively beneficial to their economy. Victims from all over @@NATION@@ are dismayed, a few even having killed themselves. A panel of talking heads has been conjured.

This description could be more concise, particularly toward the end of it. By the time I'm half-way through, I basically know what the topic is, so I don't need so many additional words/sentences after that.

In accordance with your suggestions I have trimmed down the description.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

It's about internet scams as a vehicle for foreign affairs policy.

That's a solid premise. Maybe play that up in the opening, and look at the flow of the writing in general.

Read this description out loud, and imagine it's within a story being narrated to an audience, or in a news report by TV anchor. You'll hopefully see where it flows badly, and be able to fix that.

[description] Police statistics have shown that Kawandalandian e-mail scammers steal a great deal of @@CURRENCY@@ from the citizens of @@NATION@@ per year. They are not hindered by the Kawandalandian government. Victims from all over @@NATION@@ are dismayed, & so a panel of talking heads has been conjured.

[East Blepia]

It's about internet scams as a vehicle for foreign affairs policy.

That's a solid premise. Maybe play that up in the opening, and look at the flow of the writing in general.

Read this description out loud, and imagine it's within a story being narrated to an audience, or in a news report by TV anchor. You'll hopefully see where it flows badly, and be able to fix that.

[description] Police statistics have shown that Kawandalandian e-mail scammers steal a great deal of @@CURRENCY@@ from the citizens of @@NATION@@ per year. They are not hindered by the Kawandalandian government. Victims from all over @@NATION@@ are dismayed, & so a panel of talking heads has been conjured.

I have spent a while pondering over your words in their bountiful wisdom, and have made several edits to my draft. I express my great and sincere gratitude for your suggestions.

[Noahs Second Country]

The description now feels a bit to vague to me.

A couple of questions to consider:

How are the citizens being scammed?

How are your relations with the Kawandalandian government?

Why does the Kawandalandian government refuse to do anything?

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- most scams are through the telephone or mail. If one more persons rings up and ask if I've been in a car crash...

[East Blepia]

The description now feels a bit to vague to me.

A couple of questions to consider:

How are the citizens being scammed?

How are your relations with the Kawandalandian government?

Why does the Kawandalandian government refuse to do anything?

The citizens are being scammed through the Internet. It's just typical advance-fee scams.

The relations with the Kawandalandian government up till now are not really relevant. 419 scammers do not scam because of hatred for Western nations or the harm Western nations did to Africa (although they sometimes use that as a justification), it is money first and foremost; diplomatic relations with governments would not alone deter them.

I included a bit on these subjects in the description previously but decided to trim it down so that the text would flow better. I have now edited the text again to state that the Kawandalandian government is corrupt and that the scammers operate through e-mail.

The Kawandalandian government, like most West African governments in real life, refuses to do anything because they benefit either indirectly through economic stimulus or directly through taxes and bribes, and the people being scammed are not their own citizens. They have much worse crimes and general issues to deal with before they get to 419 scammers.

[East Blepia]

Option 3- most scams are through the telephone or mail. If one more persons rings up and ask if I've been in a car crash...

Well yes, but this is about internet scams in particular.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- most scams are through the telephone or mail. If one more persons rings up and ask if I've been in a car crash...

Well yes, but this is about internet scams in particular.

I know. So how does banning the internet prevent phone scams? If anything, it'll move the people on the internet through to the telephone. It's just common sense

[East Blepia]

Well yes, but this is about internet scams in particular.

I know. So how does banning the internet prevent phone scams? If anything, it'll move the people on the internet through to the telephone. It's just common sense

No policy exists for banning phones, and to me it just seems too far-fetched to be within the bounds of verisimilitude.

[East Blepia]

I think that I am going to submit this soon, perhaps in one to two days. Any more suggestions or general comments before I do so, especially if they are of particular import, would be greatly appreciated.

[Honeydewistania]

I mean for me personally I'd dismiss all the options, since I don't want to give up money on foreign aid or military. I think another option is letting the scammers have their own way, which could be humourous

[East Blepia]

I mean for me personally I'd dismiss all the options, since I don't want to give up money on foreign aid or military. I think another option is letting the scammers have their own way, which could be humourous

I suppose that is the approach that Western states are taking in response to these scams, but the issue writing resource cited in the news post states:

An issue should be (...) Proactive - Every option should do something actively. Doing nothing is the "dismiss" button.

Personally, I am torn here. I don't want to violate that maxim, but I can see many nations having that stance which you have just expressed.

[Honeydewistania]

There are many issues related to crime in which there's a shady guy from the shadows that will say "Back off, let us have our own way". It's not uncommon. Also unless scams were legal in your country before, it is doing something.