麻豆传媒

Prize-winning scams

TOO often, receiving a Nobel prize happens at the end of an eminent scientific career, but that鈥檚 certainly not true for the winners of the 2005 Ig Nobel prize in literature. The internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria continue to expand on the bold series of short stories, distributed by email, that earned them their Ig Nobel.

Consider Dr Ernest Ebi. He鈥檚 desperately trying to transfer money from the Central Bank of Nigeria into 鈥測our nominated account鈥� but hasn鈥檛 been able to 鈥渂ecause we are having a little problem with International Monetary Fund鈥�. However, he will be happy to send the cash by diplomatic courier service if you鈥檇 only supply your name, phone number, address, age and occupation.

He is so keen to tell you about this that he has posted on the internet photo sharing service Shutterfly.com, along with a message explaining his plight. He has followed this up by sending an email that appears to come from Shutterfly to, presumably, many thousands of people 鈥� including Feedback 鈥� directing us to his photo on the site.

If, perish the thought, you have any doubts about Ebi, you can check the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which does indeed list as deputy governor of corporate services. Unfortunately, the white-hatted gentleman who posted his photo on Shutterfly does not appear to be the same person as the one in the photo on the bank鈥檚 website. Never mind. This is literature, after all, as the Ig Nobel awards acknowledged.

鈥淭HE weekly email from Tesco supermarket that Tom Emmerson receives exhorted him to 鈥淭ry groceries online and save 拢15鈥�. What would an e-cabbage taste like, Emmerson wonders鈥�

Not all 鈥淣igerian鈥� scams come from Nigeria, of course. We recently received one from the 鈥淔reemason Society of Bournemouth鈥�, informing us that we had been awarded a 鈥渇oundation-laying grant鈥� of $2.5 million 鈥渢o better the lot of man through your own initiative鈥�, and offering membership in the Freemasons as an option.

Surely no one would fall for that, you would think 鈥� but that the 鈥淔reemason鈥� emails cleverly target academics, who are, of course, more accustomed than most to applying for and receiving grants. Three out of four of the people who fell for this ploy were university professors over the age of 50.

Wondering how many other people are hoodwinked in such scams, we delved into the from the US Internet Crime Complaint Center (ICCC). This shows that 661 people complained about losing, on average, $5100 each that year. It鈥檚 likely that many victims were too embarrassed to complain, and those outside the US wouldn鈥檛 have filed their complaint with a US agency, so Feedback conservatively estimates that only 10 per cent of these crimes are covered by the ICCC report. That would leave the scammers rolling in a pile of about $34 million, and lots of people with very red faces.

Destroy and return

WHEN Stuart Baker applied to renew his driving licence using the UK鈥檚 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority website, all went smoothly until the end, when he was asked to check a box declaring: 鈥淚 confirm that I have destroyed my driving licence and will return it to the DVLA.鈥�

Seeing no alternative he agreed to this apparently impossible request and his application to renew was accepted. It was only some time later that he went back to the website and found the statement had been clarified: the word 鈥渄estroyed鈥� had been replaced by 鈥渃ut in two鈥�.

Gordon Brown鈥檚 maths

THANKS to Marc Abrahams and The Annals of Improbable Research for directing us to a notable research paper by Gordon Brown entitled 鈥淎 Remark on Semi-Simple Lie Algebras鈥�. Brown is also the author of the equally notable 鈥淎 Class of Simple Lie Algebras of Characteristic Three鈥�.

No, this is not the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown. It is Gordon Brown the American mathematician, and both studies were published in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society.

According to headlined 鈥淣ational leaders and their doppelg盲ngers鈥� on , Brown is not the only politician to face the problem of having to compete with famous eponymous scientists: 鈥淕eorge Bush the American president has to contend with George Bush the neuroscientist (and vice versa) and other George Bush scientists.鈥� See for more on George Bush鈥檚 scientific achievements.

Correction of the week

FINALLY, correction of the week: we have just come across this delightful announcement sent out on 27 June by PR Newswire for Journalists. 鈥淚n the news release, 鈥楴anotechnology: Consumers Must Be Convinced Risks Outweigh Benefits鈥�, issued earlier today by Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies over PR Newswire, we are advised by the organisation that the headline should read 鈥楴anotechnology: Consumers Must Be Convinced Benefits Outweigh Risks鈥�.鈥�