Y2k bug "pills"

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Hong Kong woman digs deep for Y2K bug "pills" Updated 10:58 PM ET October 4, 1999 HONG KONG, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong woman forked out HK$120,000 (US$15,440) to buy stomach pills from conmen after they told her they could cure the millennium bug, police said on Tuesday. The 43-year-old woman, who apparently did not know if the millennium bug was a computer problem or a physical ailment, handed over the money on Monday after the conmen convinced her she could make handsome profits by reselling them.

"The two men took the pills out and told the woman they could cure the Y2K bug. She then went to a bank to withdraw the money...for 430 of those pills," a police spokesman said.

"Experts later found the pills were for stomach ache."

Another woman handed over HK$40,000 on Monday to buy electrical components from three conmen, believing they could be resold for astronomical profits to fix the millennium bug.

-- a mom (take2@andrest.com), October 04, 1999

Answers

Note that the key word in both these instances was that the so-called victims believed that the "merchandise" could be RE-SOLD at profit -- i.e., that these women could find people even stupider than they to sell to. Pretty typical of most confidence games, the people who fall into them generally do not have the sincerest of benevolent motives to begin with.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), October 04, 1999.

It's difficult to cheat an honest person.

-- Sam (Gunmkr52@aol.com), October 04, 1999.

Shouldn't this be in the prep forum?

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), October 05, 1999.

mad monk, LOL.

-- PH (ag3@interlog.com), October 05, 1999.

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