Man Conned Out of Millions for ''Virus Protection''
That's some real-life malware.
Computer viruses are serious business. Like real viruses, infections must be dealt with quickly and thoroughly. Sadly, just like real-life healers of viruses, sometimes there are crooks out there.
Such goes the story of 58-year-old Roger C. Davidson from Mount Kisco, NY, who has been cheated out of millions after bringing his computer into a repair shop for fear that his machine had been infected with a virus.
In August 2004, he brought his computer to a shop on Main Street. There, Vickram Bedi, 36, the owner of the shop, told Davidson that he indeed had a virus. This wasn't just any computer virus – oh, no – it was a particularly vicious one that had infected all the computers in the shop.
Thankfully, Bedi's uncle was a military officer in India and was put on the mission to retrieve the source of this virus on a hard drive located in Honduras. From there, Bedi learned that the virus was linked to Polish priests who were tied to the conservative Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei. This organization had plans to harm Mr. Davidson.
Naturally, Bedi persuaded Davidson to not only pay for removal of the virus, but also for personal protection. Davidson paid Bedi's shop through credit card payments over the years, which have totaled to over $6 million.
While all of this sounds impossible and a very simple scam to steer clear of, Mr. Davidson was in no way a computer expert. His specialty is in music and he wanted to save his compositions that he stored on his computer.
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I can understand the normal $50 or so for a fake anti-virus, but seriously, $6 million... Wouldn't you look something up or get a second opinion before spending this kind of money, even if you're not computer savvy?
Oh dear...
O . o
well, there ARE some stupid people out there and it is our duty to exploit them!
And those are the kind of idiots that vote in our elections :-/
I just lost about 7 IQ points on behalf of Mr. Davidson...
well, there ARE some stupid people out there and it is our duty to exploit them!
That's Norton AV in a nutshell.
that's some music composition huh...
Holy mother of.....normally I would make some comment about all the low life cheats in the world, but if you are so...so...I don't even know what to call you, but it goes way beyond "stupid" to fall for this, then you are getting you just rewards.
One is born every minute. DON'T feed the Trolls! Cons can't be encouraged, but neither can "born again stupid"...
They deserved it. Rich people should get conned. They con people to make their millions
They deserved it. Rich people should get conned. They con people to make their millions
Not all rich people con others, some work damn hard for their money (and no, I'm not rich, not even averagely wealthy). He didn't deserve to be conned but he is a total F'ing idiot for believing all that bs.
They deserved it. Rich people should get conned. They con people to make their millions
It doesn't appear you read far enough into the article to see that this millionaire is a musician. Kinda hard to con people out of money when they are buying your music out of their own free will.
You can only be conned if you are willing to be conned. Sad story but in the end its his own ignorant fault.
I would accuse him of deserving it despite knowing absolutely nothing of his character (like others before me), but now I wonder how a musician acquired 6 million...
Just one more question: How did he find out he was conned ? o.o
Whether or not you know about computers doesn't justify being stupid.
Dang. I knew those Polish priests were up to no good!!
That's odd.....I figured it would have been a nigerian antivirus that protected him - the kind that is so good their royalty uses it
This is just stupid, so stupid that I almost don't believe it.
Mr. Davidson, 58, knows music, not necessarily computers. A pianist, he is president and founder of a nonprofit sacred-music group in Katonah, N.Y., where he lives. He is also the great-grandson and the great-grandnephew of the two brothers who founded Schlumberger Ltd., the giant oilfield-services company.
This is the most burning stupid I have seen in quite some time, and I work in a corporate office. Scammers are scum, but seriously, this guy... I have a very hard time feeling sorry for him.
It doesn't appear you read far enough into the article to see that this millionaire is a musician. Kinda hard to con people out of money when they are buying your music out of their own free will.
***Roger Davidson, heir to the Schlumberger oil fortune. He did not earn his money, he inherited it.
Wow this guy is well beyond stupid. no other words come to mind when I think of this story honestly
damn..i love my country men....they go places behave like they like jews and christians and then scam....
6 million is nothin.....these things happen everyday here......the amount isnt significant tfrom my perspective
but he must be really f'ing stupid to have believd all that bs.....really opus dei??? should have just told him dan brown was after him....would have worked..... really dumb....
love the way he changed his name to sound "western" from Vikram to "Vickram" .....ah like they say.... add a letter and they call you "Vick" just like "Nick" no one would notice it!!!!
well... artist and musicians may have some twisted logic magically working in their minds.
Feels good being a computer tech and working with music, after reading this one :-)
While it's easy to sit back and call this guy "stupid," that isn't the way the law sees it. He is a victim of fraud and is entitled to compensation. I know, there's no way we will ever be as old and stupid as he is. Not in a million years.
He would have lost less money had he responded to the Nigerian King's e-mail instead.
If only he'd somehow died in the process he'd be a shoe in for the 2010 darwin award.