Woman sends nigerian scammers 400k
 

http://timesonline.typepad.com/techn...oman-sent.html

This may well be the mother of all internet scam cases.
Janella Spears, a reverend and a registered nurse from Sweet Home, Oregon, ended up sending Nigerian fraudsters more than $400,000 when she was promised a multi-million dollar pay out from a lost relative.

When she began to doubt she was sent letters from the FBI Director, the US President and the President of Nigeria. She still thought it was genuine and ignored the pleas of her family and law enforcement officials in the US.

She spoke out to warn others of the scams and told KATU TV that she "doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark". The blogs have been ripping her to shreds. What do you think?



Besides her work as a registered nurse, Spears also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.

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.

Spears received just such an e-mail, promising her that she’d get $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative – identified in the e-mail as J.B. Spears – with a little money up front. "That's what got me to believe it," Spears said.

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.

Now, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim.

She hopes her story will warn others to listen to reason and avoid going down the dark tunnel of obsession that ended up costing her so much.

Spears said it would take her at least three to four years to dig out of the debt she ran up in pursuit of the non-existent pot of Nigerian gold.

what ... a .. dumbasss

wow that is huge, holy fuck :Oh crap

last name: Spears


nuff said

argh! Beat me to it! lol

Dumb bitch deserved to get taken to the cleaners.

-N

That's greed for you.

could i get her email address pls_ ? :D

Fuck.. I came in here to say just that :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

lol at calling her intelligent

Sorry to hear that, wishful thinking can be dangerous.

wow... some people should just never turn on a computer

lolololololol

Un Fuckin Real... the 419 scam.. that is the oldest scam online.. I mean how emails do you get per week with that BS.. and they're all so similar.. insert fail pic for that one lucky girl... a reverend and RN???? lol

Poor Janella Spears. Serves her right.

daaammmnnn...

This woman sent Nigerian scam artists $400,000 - a fool or a victim?

I say she's a fool and not that lucid to begin with.

God damn it she was warned by gov. officials and family
and didn't listen to the warnings That right there makes
her a fool not a victim

i can just imagine these guys sitting around thinking up these silly things.

Let's pretend to be president bush and tell her if she doesnt send the money , they will give the million to terrorists

Those 419 scammers are some pieces of work. The funniest 419 email I got was when they used the late Philippine dictator's wife, Imelda Marcos's identity. Hilarious cuz I'm Filipino and know all about Marcos' 'hidden wealth' cases with the Philippine government. These guys will use anyone and anything.

She was told George W Bus was involved. What a dumb bitch.
People like that should not be allowed to get on internet.

Another thing, aren't there international safeguards against sending $ to nigeria in light of the prevalence of this type of fraud? At least flag non-oil related transactions over $10K which they do with US banks?

If I were here, I would be accepting donations and have a damn website!

There's a pretty creative one running around these days... they say it's the embarrassed government wanting to give relief for Nigerian scam victims :D

wow seriously? WTF is wrong with people

Nigeria needs to be unplugged from the internet.

People like her are the reason Nigerian scammers still exist. Just imagine how much spam equipment that Nigerian can buy with 400k

Wow!

What a fucking moron.

my ex-girlfriends best friend's father fell for that shit, got him for like $25k.

After oil this scam is Nigeria's major dollar earner. Be thankful they do this otherwise Western Governments would need to send even more in aid and bribes to keep this place afloat.

</sarcasm>

She deserves to lose a lot more and I doubt if she will be out of the hole in 3-4 years. Her problem.

Janella Spears, is she black by chance?

What a dumbass... nothing else to say.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Hmmm, that's a valid point. At some point I'm also saying that she deserved to get scammed, natural selection....

She doesn't even deserve to comment much on her, she's an idiot who deserves to be scammed. But because of her and morons like her, those Nigerian fucks keep sending their shit emails time and again ...

Those Nigerians must be partying hard right now. I'm happy for them.

Anyone who falls for that scam deserves it. They're a fucking disgrace to humanity.

holy cock, she was full of money and she wanted more

very complacent and arrogant to not hearing out advices..

plain and stupid and illogical... if i were her.. i smack my head until i get a bloddy hemorage.. so i can die..

Reminds me of the chicks that do solo site modeling...

Goes to prove spam is an all numbers game.

I am gonna come with some sort of million dollar guitar pick spam.

10 payments of 100,000 USD will get you a guitar pick.
Not just any pick, but the actual "Pick of Destiny", that was used by many guitar legends.

Spears .....

damn, this is so....... stupid

Geez, I wish i had her email address, lol. A fool and their money are soon parted. I just have to wonder how did someone so dumb manage to save that much money.

That has to suck.

Well depend,if it's first time,then you fall for it,but this was repeating and several warnings and nothing.Well she is probaly republican so she deserve it.Democrat would'nt allow that.

fuck! thats waaaay too much too lose!

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup

I go chop yo dollar!....I go take your money disappear!...419 is just a game...You be the Mugu (white man chump), I be the master!

that made me laugh, funny stuff.