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> I recently struck up a friendship a Nigerian scammer.

...

> I've chosen to send him a trivial (for me) amount of money [...]

Uh oh.

If it is really a poor person then it's no different than giving some cash to a beggar on the street. The problem is not the money, the problem is the "if" in that unlike the beggar on the street you can't easily verify who that person really is, and how much they need the money.

While you're somewhat right, my expectation is that the scammer just switched up their script to be something more spontaneous and suited to their mark.

And it worked.

It's absolutely possible. I think I was pretty explicit about that. It was a conscious choice. In the event he's actually better off than myself, then I suppose I got scammed. I doubt that, as someone with a tech career in the Western world. But if he's a poor young man in a desperately poor country, then I didn't get scammed even if he lied to me about specific details. I just helped someone.

> But if he's a poor young man in a desperately poor country, then I didn't get scammed even if he lied to me about specific details. I just helped someone.

Alternatively, you just paid someone so they can continue scamming others. :(

Unfortunately, while the other scenarios are only _possible_, the alternative view above _actually happened_.

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