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.

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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.

posted by Ace at 11:08 PM

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