The link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/15/internet-usa
Another link to the same story is here: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/irresistible/17981349/detail.html
But the results are the same; Janella Spears lost $400,000 to Nigerian scammers. If you want to make yourself really sick do a Google search for "Nigerian." As of this writing five of the first 10 hits involve the scam, or variations thereof. That is not a good image for the country of Nigeria.
The truly bad part is the last line in the Denver Channel's article: "As for Spears, it's still not over. A man from Texas called her as recently as Wednesday, she said, asking for another chance to “make things right.” "
Wikipedia has an excellent article on this scam, its variations, and a tale of caution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_419_scam
Here's the part of the article that worries me for Ms. Spears: "In other cases, the victim will continue to contact the scammer after being shown proof that they are being scammed or even being convicted of crimes relating to the scam, having been drawn so deeply into the web of deception that their trust in what the scammer tells them overrides everything else in their life.[53] Such victims are easy prey for future scams, digging themselves even deeper into financial and legal trouble."
It's the last sentence that worries me: "Such victims are easy prey for future scams..." The article states that sometimes the scammers contact the victims and pretend to be attorneys, private investigators, or others who are trying to help ... for a fee. I don't know it, can't prove it, but I have to wonder if that caller from Texas was another scammer.
Again, I don't know it and cannot prove it. But it really makes me wonder. This poor woman lost $400,000 which included her husband's retirement account. Hasn't she lost enough?
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