Please to send $400,000 so I may release funds for you

[freckafree]

Where were you when you were needed? If that spammer had started with you, this would never had happened.

(I’m kind of amazed people are still falling for this. Never underestimate the power of stupidity.)

[Gangster_Octopus]

You know the old joke:

A guy is staning on a corner selling pencils. The sign says, “Pencils for Sale $1 million”. A guy passing by asks, “How many pencils do you really think you will sell like that>” To which the guy responds, “Hopefully, just one.”

So here is the sucker who bought the million dollar pencil, or in this case lost $400,000 to those pesky Nigerians.

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?”

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.

Really?!? They knew a relative by name so you figured, “Why not?”

Really?!?

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.

More likely she became obsessed with not being proven a complete fool.

I don’t really wish to bag on the woman…too much. But this is financial Darwinism at work, for sure.

[Jenaroph]

@freckafree

Where were you when you were needed? If that spammer had started with you, this would never had happened.

(I’m kind of amazed people are still falling for this. Never underestimate the power of stupidity.)

Man, that’s a special kind of dumb right there.

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.

And who’s fault is that? If he divorced your stupid ass, you’d deserve it.

She estimates it will take two years to clear the debt that accumulated in the more than two years she spent sending money to con artists.

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.

Christ…two years she sent money to these people and never caught on? Despite being told otherwise?

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.

Riiiiiight.

[Xema]

@Gangster_Octopus

this is financial Darwinism at work

Yup.

When I first saw the Nigerian scam, my reaction was along the lines of “Hey, I know lots of naive and greedy folks are out there. Some of them are really, really stupid as well. But no one is dumb enough to fall for something as obviously fake as this.” Completely wrong.

[WF_Tomba]

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?”

:smack:

[detop]

@freckafree

<snip>(I’m kind of amazed people are still falling for this. Never underestimate the power of stupidity.)

And don’t forget greed.

[Projammer]

One would think that being stupid enough to fall for this and being able to acquire $400,000 would be mutually exclusive,

One would think.

Maybe I’m just too smart to be rich.

[SkipMagic]

I’ve merged the two threads.

[Sunspace]

The standard reply should be, “Send over the money minus your fees.” If they can’t do that, they’re scammers. Really obvious scammers.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@freckafree

Never underestimate the power of stupidity.

I have just a small comment here. Stupidity does not, in fact, have any power. It represents a lack of power. Power in this case would have come from intelligence, guile, and knowledge. What had power over this woman was cupidty.

[cher3]

How on earth could she have emptied her husband’s retirement account without his consent? He would have had to sign a release and get it notarized for every withdrawal.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@cher3

How on earth could she have emptied her husband’s retirement account without his consent? He would have had to sign a release and get it notarized for every withdrawal.

Not hard at all if she were a joint tenant with right of survivorship. Which doesn’t seem unlikely, as it makes inheritance easier to deal with.

[Mangetout]

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.

I must make a mental note to pay slightly more attention to what officials at my bank beg me to stop doing.

I mean, really. I feel sorry for anyone else this woman has inconvenienced, but any system has only a limited number of safeguards.
If you really are dumb and determined enough to bypass all the safety interlocks, you really can microwave your own head. And when you do it, what you deserve is a microwaved head.

…says she wasn’t a sucker or an easy mark.

Actually, lady, what this means is that you still don’t fucking get it. Dumbass.