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November 17, 2008
Good Lord: Woman Falls for Nigerian Email Scam to the Tune of $400,000
Don't feel bad for her. Feel bad for her husband. It was his retirement account she squandered -- even after being repeatedly informed it was a scam and she needed to stop sending money.
An Oregon woman who is out $400,000 after falling for a well-known Internet scam says she wasn't a sucker or an easy mark.
Janella Spears of Sweet Home says she simply became curious when she received an e-mail promising her $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative identified as J.B. Spears with a little money up front.
Spears told KATU-TV about the scammers' ability to identify her relative by name was persuasive.
"That's what got me to believe it," She said. "So, why wouldn't you send over $100?"
If someone can successfully toss out a name that may or may not be a relative (and may or may not even be a living person), why wouldn't you believe him?
Spears, who is a nursing administrator and CPR teacher, said she mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car, and ran through her husband's retirement account.
"The retirement he was dreaming of cruising and going around and seeing America is pretty much gone for him right now," she said.
It's gone for him right now? Unless her husband is actually Bear Sterns, I'd say it's gone forever.
...
Her family and bank officials told her it was all a scam, she said, and begged her to stop, but she persisted because she became obsessed with getting paid.
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The scammers sent Spears official-looking documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and the United Nations. President Bush and FBI Director Robert Mueller were also involved, the e-mails said, and needed her help.
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"The hope is [other people] are not going to fall as hard as I fell," Spears said.
Little chance of that, lady.
In related news, I need only 50 (fifty) thousand US to get my brother, Stinky, the Crown Prince of Madeupistan, out of prison.
Via Hot Air.