American woman loses $400,000 to Nigerian e-mail scam

[82Rigger]

SWEET HOME, Ore. – Janella Spears doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark.

Besides her work as a nursing administrator, Spears – no relation to the well-known pop star – also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.

So how did this otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a million dollars to a bunch of con artists running what has to be one of the best-known Internet scams in the world?

Spears fell victim to the "Nigerian scam," which is familiar to almost anyone who has ever had an e-mail account.

The e-mail pitch is familiar to most people by now: a long-lost relative or desperate government official in a war-torn country needs to shuffle some funds around, say $10 million or $20 million, and if you could just help them out for a bit, you get to keep 10 (or 20 or 30) percent for your trouble.
All you need to do is send X-amount of dollars to pay some fees and all that cash will suddenly land in your checking account, putting you on Easy Street. By the way, please send the funds though an untraceable wire service.
By this time, not many people will fall for such an outrageous pitch, and the scam is very well-known. But it persists, and for a reason: every now and then, it works.

Spears received just such an e-mail, promising her that she’d get $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative – identified in the e-mail as J.B. Spears – with a little money up front. "That's what got me to believe it," Spears said.

It turned out to be a lot of money in the long run, but it started with just $100.
The scammers ran Spears through the whole program. They said President Bush and FBI Director "Robert Muller" (their spelling) were in on the deal and needed her help.

They sent official-looking documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and even from the United Nations. Her payment was "guaranteed."
Then the amount she would get jumped up to $26.6 million – if she would just send $8,300. Spears sent the money.

More promises and teases of multi-millions followed, with each one dependent on her sending yet more money. Most of the missives were rife with misspellings.

When Spears began to doubt the scam, she got letters from the President of Nigeria, FBI Director Mueller, and President Bush. Terrorists could get the money if she did not help, Bush’s letter said. Spears continued to send funds. All the letters were fake, of course.

She wiped out her husband’s retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car. Both were already paid for.

For more than two years, Spears sent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted.
Spears said she kept sending money because the scammers kept telling her that the next payment would be the last one, that the big money was inbound. Spears said she became obsessed with getting paid.

An undercover investigator who worked on the case said greed helped blind Spears to the reality of the situation, which he called the worst example of the scam he’s ever seen.

He also said he has seen people become obsessed with the scam before. They are so desperate to recoup their losses with the big payout, they descend into a vicious cycle of sending money in hopes the false promises will turn out to be real.

Now, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim.

She hopes her story will warn others to listen to reason and avoid going down the dark tunnel of obsession that ended up costing her so much.

[Packo]

If it looks too good to be true...it is. I'm never sympathetic to people who lose money when looking for easy money. PT Barnum was no dummy.

Pack

[Boats]

This Nigerian scam has been going on for years and some people buy into this and I can not believe why? Nothing is that easy - accept those who buy into these get rich scams. No sorrow on my end.

[Seascamp]

From time-to-time I play the Nigerian hustlers just to see the lengths that they will go too. They are very slick and know how to play every key on the human condition keyboard. They search for the blind spot, the vulnerability, the gullibility and when they find it, they close in fast . And grief, they can charm the skin off a snake. At the moment of truth, I just tell them I have no bank account or money to put in an account, and poof, no more Mr. Nigerian charmer and they get downright nasty. Oh well, sometimes the alleged ‘fish’ goes one-up on the fisherman and the fisherman gets all pissy.

Also, be aware, the same scam is now coming out of the UAE, but now it is some terminally ill Arab with a ton of oil bucks, etc. etc., on and on. Best practical teach I ever had was Goerge C. Scott in his role as the flim-flam man. Good stuff in that flick.

Scamp

[revwardoc]

http://www.nextwebsecurity.com/News2/07-01-07a.asp

ASPEN — Aspen police said a recent rash of e-mail death threats is nothing more than a scam.

"It is totally bogus," said investigator Eric Ross. "It's a new and different take on probably a Nigerian scam."

The death threat tells e-mail recipients they have been targeted for assassination, and the writer, posing as the hired assassin, gives the recipients the chance to pay to save their lives.

"I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you," the e-mail reads. "I have followed you closely for a while now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusations. Now listen, I will arrange for us to see face to face, but before that, I need $8,000."

The author warns the e-mail recipient to stay inside after 7:30 p.m. and not contact police, and instructs the reader to write back immediately and make plans for the first $4,000 payment.

After receivng the first payment, the e-mail's author claims it will provide a videotaped interview for use as evidence against the person who ordered the assassination.

Ross contacted FBI officials after receiving five calls from Aspen-area residents, and federal agents reported another such e-mail in Rifle.

Federal officials confirmed to Ross that the notes are likely a simple e-mail scam originating from an overseas boiler room and should simply be deleted.

Ross stressed that if anyone who receives a death threat with different details or specific names or real threats should contact police.

[Seascamp]

Of course, more human condition key board keys are being played. The biggie, the fear key, is now being fingered, but apparently by a ‘hit man with a heart’. Ya, that is real likely, uh huh.

Gut feel; I’d look closer to home for these new parasites, or, the usual ‘nice guy’ parasite games aren’t yielding up to quota, and a new but more aggressive approach is on the plate.

Scamp

[Packo]

They didn't have shit until Clinton started the Universal Whatever Tax we pay everymonth on our phone bills so they could have computers. Don't know what happened to the rest of Africa...but the Nigers figgured it out. Maybe that stupid twit can try and get her money back through the 800 billion give-a-way. Nah....neva happin G.I. Plus...she'd probably end up giving it to the friggin Algerians a few months later.

Pack