I win again!

sanjuro · Sep 13, 2009

ILLUSIONIST Derren Brown stunned the world after apparently predicting the winning lottery numbers on live television, but he claimed it all came down to mathematics.

An audience of 2.7 million viewers tuned into Britain's Channel 4 on Wednesday to see if Brown could pull off the trick.

After watching the National Lottery draw live on BBC One, Brown revealed he had correctly written down the numbers of the six winning balls.

Chatrooms and websites were instantly abuzz with how the famous illusionist had managed the feat, with guesses ranging from TV special effects to bribery and weighted balls.

In a follow-up show last night, watched by 3 million people, Brown said he used "a powerful, beautiful secret that can only be achieved when we all put our heads together".

He went on to say that he had gathered a panel of 24 people who wrote down their predictions after studying the last year's worth of numbers.

The guesses for each ball were then added up and divided by 24 to get the average guess.

Brown said it took a while to perfect the "deep maths" technique.

According to him, the predictions were correct because of the "wisdom of the crowd" theory which suggests that a large group of people making average guesses will come up with the correct figure as an average of all their attempts.

But judging by the reactions on Internet discussion boards, many remained unconvinced by the explanation.

One viewer wrote on Derren Brown's Channel 4 website: "It must have been a camera trick."

Another sceptic, writing on Yahoo, said: "Split screen without doubt."

Many also subscribed to the theory that there could have been a time delay in the live broadcast of the BBC draw, giving Brown a chance to get hold of the numbers beforehand.

And Roger Heath-Brown, professor of pure mathematics at Oxford University, told The Guardian newspaper: "Mathematically it is complete rubbish. It is a bluff on his part, he is doing it in some other way."

The chance of winning the jackpot by matching all six numbers is one in 14 million.

dirtvictim · Sep 13, 2009

Hey Oprah JohnE Gates Jobs Jr Don't forget to share your newfound wealth and send a new bike to everyone here. I expect to see one under my chair when I get home.

parismt · Sep 13, 2009

ya right

johnbryanpeters · Sep 13, 2009

We are having bonus ball for you. Please to bend over.

Pesqueeb · Sep 13, 2009

dirtvictim said:
Hey Oprah JohnE Gates Jobs Jr Don't forget to share your newfound wealth and send a new bike to everyone here. I expect to see one under my chair when I get home.

Were never gonna get bikes from JohnE! He screwed it up. Way to go a$$hole! You were supposed to keep it a secret!

JohnE said:
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until your claim is processed and your money remitted to you

Damo · Sep 13, 2009

How many countries were mentioned in that email?
It HAS to be true.
I don't expect a bike- it's only $500,000US afterall.
But congrats all the same!

CBJ · Sep 13, 2009

I have been getting so much spam on my Hotmail account lately why can't I just get to win like this - damn it.

johnbryanpeters · Sep 13, 2009

I will take a red tricycle, please.

dirtvictim · Sep 13, 2009

JohnE said:
When I get the cash, new bikes for all Monkeys!

Make mine a Marin Alchemist 4.7 but I want a white brothers magic 100 fork. :weee:

Wumpus · Sep 17, 2009

I am DAVID FONG an auditor with Bank of East Asia Bank Singapore.A customer of ours who may relate to you (perhaps) in Singapore died three years ago in Tsunami tragedy Indonesia leaving behind an estate/capital (US$21.45M with interest) in a bank here where I work, till date nobody has come forward or put application for the claim.There was search recently for the late gentle man relatives your name and email contact was among the findings that matches the same surname as the deceased, who died intestate with no Will or next of kin.I urge you to come forward since I can provide you with the details needed for you to claim the estate/capital so that I can be gratify by you, in this way $8,580,000.00 for you and $12,870,000.00 for me and my colleagues that will do all the crucial part in the bank to have the claim release to you promptly. To affirm your willingness and cooperation please do so by replying me at my private email (dfong007@XXXXXXX)stating your FULL NAME,YOUR OCCUPATION, DATE OF BIRTH, TELEPHONE NUMBER, FAX NUMBER, PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS AND POSTAL ADDRESS.

TreeSaw · Sep 17, 2009

johnbryanpeters said:
I will take a red tricycle, please.

Syd has a sweet one with flames and tassels that she might let you ride

Sandwich · Sep 17, 2009

I am mr Patrick Chan from hang seng Bank hong kong, there is the sum of $12,500,000.00 in my bank and i need you to work together with me to claim it,we shall then share in the ratio of 50% for me, 50% for you. Contact me for more details email: p.chan002@live.com

oh sweet, 50 of nothing!

Pesqueeb · Sep 22, 2009

JohnE said:
I wish I truly had the time to phuque with some of these guys...

I heard a piece on NPR a while back about a group of computer nerds who were having some pretty good luck doing exactly that. I'll see if I can find it. In other news, it appears that I also am now a man of leisure. Sweet.

Dear Friend,

I know that this message will come to you as a surprise. I am the Auditing and Accounting section manager with African Development Bank,Ouagadougou Burkina faso. I Hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families.

I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($39.5)million to your account within 10 or 14 banking days. This money has been dormant for years in our Bank without claim.I want the bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer late Mr.George Small who died along with his supposed next of kin in an aircrash since October 31st 1999.

I don't want the money to go into government treasury,So this is the reason why I am contacting you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer.Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me.

I am expecting your urgent response as soon as you receive my message

Best Regard,

Mr.Fredrik Emerah.

I'm rich biatch!

Pesqueeb · Sep 23, 2009

Found it:

March 5, 2007

"Greetings in Jesus' name, dear friend, I am the widow of Idi Amin."

Chances are, you've received a scam e-mail like that more than once.

The relative of a rich African dictator is trying to reclaim a lost fortune, or a famous person is trapped somewhere with a billion dollar inheritance just out of reach. They need your help — OK, more specifically, a few thousand dollars of your cash — to get started.

Those e-mail cons often originate in West Africa, and are commonly referred to as "419 scams," after the applicable section of Nigeria's penal code. Thousands of American citizens fall for these scams each year, according to the U.S. State Department, and some victims lose thousands of dollars in the process.

But there's a growing online community of people called scambaiters who seek revenge against 419 scammers.

When they receive a 419 e-mail, instead of deleting, they reply — then they proceed to waste as much of the scammer's time as possible. Often, scambaiters will try to humiliate the Internet con artists by tricking them into creating photos, videos, or audio recordings which can later be posted on scambaiter Web sites as "trophies."

One such video recently popped up on YouTube: Two Nigerian men stand over a birdcage at a shop counter, debating whether the parrot at the bottom of that cage is dead. It's a remake of a famous Monty Python comedy sketch from the 1970s, and it's the work of scambaiter "Shiver MeTimbers," UK resident Mike Berry.

About six months ago, Mike received a scam e-mail from a man in Nigeria who claimed to be rich and dying of cancer. The scammer wanted Mike's help, and of course, Mike's cash, distributing tens of millions of dollars to charity before he died.

But the man from Lagos wasn't dying of cancer, and his story wasn't true. Through a complicated chain of e-mails that lasted more than six months, Mike persuaded him to re-create the Monty Python parrot sketch, promising to enter it in a phony film contest with a cash prize. The resulting video shot to the top of YouTube's hit rankings, and has become an instant Internet classic.

Mike Berry has been scambaiting for five years. In that time, he has posed as a priest, a pirate, a scientific researcher —even an adult-video impresario. He has published the long and often hysterical e-mail chains between him and the scammers he taunts on his Web site, and some are collected in his book: Greetings in Jesus Name! The Scambaiter Letters. But Mike insists that the site has become more than just a good joke for him; he sees it as a way to keep criminals harmlessly occupied, so they won't be able to scam real victims.

Mike manages one of many online "scambaiting" sites, 419eater.com, where he and others mentor aspiring scambaiters.

"Scambaiting is not a sport you want to jump into without previous knowledge," he says.

And he doesn't recommend trying this at home. Even experienced scambaiters are in danger when angry Internet con-men realize they've been had.

"The golden rule is: Do not give out any real information whatsoever — your name or your e-mail, the country you live in," he cautions. "The scammer who's writing you may live 3,000 miles away, but he may have friends who live near you, and these are not people you want to mess with."

This seems like something we, as a group of monkeys could totally pull off. The piece I heard on the air these guys actually got the Nigerian scammer to go to a different, more more dangerous country where they stranded him. I think it was on This American Life but I can't seem to find the particular story I'm thinking of.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7688138

http://419eater.com/

There is some comedy gold at 419eater.

zebrahum · Sep 23, 2009

YOU FOOLS!

You posted all the information, now I'm going to claim it first! I'll be rich!

I win again!

filthy rascist

Tube Smuggler

Chimp

Chimp

Hero

bicycle in airplane hangar

Short One Marshmallow

year old fart

filthy rascist

Hero

Chimp

filthy rascist

makes avatars better

Mama Monkey

Pig my fish!

filthy rascist

bicycle in airplane hangar

filthy rascist

bicycle in airplane hangar

Monkey