Woman falls for Nigerian Scam

[powertoad5000]

Done something remarkably stupid? Well, this ought to make you feel better

A bookkeeper for Michigan law firm Olsman Mueller & James has been taken for $2.1m by Nigerian 419 fraudsters, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The 59-year-old woman received a fax from one Dr. Mbuso Nelson of the Ministry of Mining in Pretoria, South Africa, asking for help in getting a cool $18m transferred to the US. We all know what comes next: the hapless victim set up a bank account, only to be told that certain expenses had to be met. Fuelled by greed and stupidity in equal measure, the woman dutifully wired huge sums to accounts in South Africa and Taiwan. Cue popping champagne corks in expensive Lagos restaurants.

Naturally, the promised $4.5m commission never arrived. This proved a tad embarrassing for the victim, who had funded the entire operation with the contents of her employers' bank account. Incredibly, her bosses only discovered the cupboard was bare when a cheque for $36,000 bounced.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/27243.html

I would have thought that nearly everybody in the whole world would have heard of the Nigerian scam at some time or another... guess I was wrong

[Chuck56]

I can't believe that one is still around and that people are still falling for it. I remember it from a year, maybe two years ago. Some tv show had a segment about it. Around that time, a friend forwarded an email he got from this character. Just reading it, it was obviously BS. Wish I'd kept it now, but I never dreamed anybody could fall for such an obvious scam.

[the_JinX]

I got the email a while back...

Just too bad I deleted it

I read it and thought... OMFG who would be stupid enough to fall for that ?

[lekt0r]

www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/nigeria-royalty.html

There it is.

[proactive]

Surprisingly lots of people fall for this kind of scam every year. I just can't understand that anyone would fall for something like this, especially not when the offer comes from Nigeria. Nigeria-letters anyone? They been around since the 80s, it's impossible not to have heard about them by now.

I read a story about antoher scam a few days ago, which also had it's origin in Nigeria. One of the victims is a Norwegian supreme court judge! I would have thought that someone with so much knowlede about the judicial system would know better than to fall for a Nigeria-letter.

[4MidgetHitmen]

Seems all you have to do is appel to a persons greed and you can make a mint.... Anyone interested in helping me get funds transfered from Oz to the US... All you need to do is set up an account for me with a ballance of $100,000 and I "promise" you will get a big fat commision...