Woman “invested” $400K with Nigerian scammers
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Janella Spears teaches CPR and is a reverend who married many people and also communicates through sign language. Apparently she was duped into this scheme gradually. Here’s part of the article: 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. For Spears, it started, as it almost always does, with an e-mail. It promised $20 million and in this case, the money was supposedly left behind by her grandfather (J.B. Spears), with whom the family had lost contact over the years. "So that's what got me to believe it," she said. Spears didn't know how the sender knew J.B. Spears' name and her relation to him, but her curiosity was peaked. It turned out to be a lot of money up front, 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. As you might know, Nigeria is an oil rich nation. Unlike a similarly rich nation, Norway, Nigeria squanders its riches in corruption and infighting. And, recently, satellites. As it turns out, Nigeria’s $340m Chinese-made satellite failed in space. It had to be brought down, like an old, sick dawg (2). But the most disturbing news about Nigeria is undoubtedly the use of the OLPC. Apparently the laptops, supposed to promote learning and literacy, are used to surf for porn and possibly to promote the schemes Janelle fell for. As Tribbler said: These fortunate black males will now also see ads for penis enlargers. We will never be able to catch up with them... ever. To avoid that, they will be fitted with filters (3). 2. BBC 3. OLPC Porn
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