I have to agree with Willy Nilly, if the Journal Star is going to print a story about how State Rep. Aaron Schock (R.-Peoria) -- four years ago, mind you -- helped the FBI track down the perpetrators of an Internet scam, they need to speak to at least one source within law enforcement. And since this is "smack dab in the middle of the campaign" (the JS's own words, not mine) then it's proper from now until November to make sure the other side gets a phone call. I'm sure someone in the Democratic Party might have something to say about whether someone gullible enough to fall for a Nigeria-based Internet scam should be serving in the General Assembly. The JS can redeem itself by finally getting a hold of those "local officials who pursued the case" rather than let a politician's word go unverified.
Crossposted to Peoria Pundit.
5 comments:
Bill, did you read the article? It said Aaron Schock got scammed trying to buy an organizer off a Yahoo Personal ad (much the same as buying from EBay). It said the scammer then utilized his personal credit to scam others while operating as an escrow account.
This is pretty far from what one considers the typical Nigerian scam which involves sending up front money in return for millions of dollars from the fictitious estate of someone.
That said, I will agree with you that the new law is tenuous at best to have a story like this surface as a 'supporting' incident.
Did you read the article to the end, where Schock claims they traced the perpetrator to Nigeria? A Nigeria-based scam, albeit not a typical one.
The fact remains that Schock put his personal information into a Website run by some guy who promised too-low-to-be-real prices on merchandise.
He found the page by way an on online classified ad.
Sounds kind of naive to me.
By the way, four years ago Schock was serving on the Peoria School Board and was going around telling folks what a financial watchdog he was.
Yeah I did read where the suspects were ultimately traced to Nigeria. I also am 'with it' enough to know that the implication of a 'Nigerian Scam' is a 419-style scam where dupes are solicited via email to front money to help transfer 'large sums of money' for a percentage. People get ripped off on e-commerce transactions via Ebay or other sites all the time. Your implication was to imply a situation where the representative appears to be 'more foolish' when in reality he falls into a category with millions of others who get burned by faulty sales. He had the additional burn of having his financials pilfered further.
Be fair. He didn't send hundreds to thousands of dollars to Nigeria hoping for that sweet payoff. He tried to buy a product like millions of others and he got burned.
I am confident you knew what your implication was but feel free to deny it. I can't prove your intentions.
Bill, you've been constantly bashing Schock since he starting running for state rep. You've been dismissive, condescending, insulting, and now intentionally misleading. You're not favoring the Democrats running against him, so it not political, but personal. Is it his young age and early success? Some kind of jealousy on your part? It's like some kind of bizarre obsession. What's your beef?
I've met with and chatted with him. I like him. He's smart and obviously an ambitious person. I've stopped making fun of his age, because he's well, older now, and I figure after one full term in the Statehouse, he doesn't deserve to be called "the boy genius" or "boy wonder" anymore.
If you've gathered from my posts that I'm not a guge fan of Mr. Schock's, you are right. But I don't hate the man or have it in for him.
Believe me, I'm more upset at the JS over this than anything. If you've read my posts about the goings on at the Peoria City Council, you know I have an issue or two with Bill Spears.
If you think the phrase "gullible enough to fall for a Nigeria-based Internet scam," is misleading, please note that I was suggesting that the Democrats might say about this affair, had the JS bothered to call them.
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