Dumbest scam victim ever?

[Pheran]

Hopefully not a repost, I searched on several different terms.

Woman out $400K to Nigerian scam con artists

SWEET HOME, Ore. ? Janella Spears doesn?t think she?s a sucker or an easy mark.

Besides her work as a registered nurse, Spears ? no relation to the well-known pop star ? 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.

Sad, but seriously, how dumb can you be to keep doing this when everyone around you is telling you it's a scam? Maybe something about the last name Spears just makes you an idiot?

 

[frostedflakes]

Oh my god, I can't stop laughing. How freaking stupid do you have to be. :laugh:

 

[IEC]

Shens! How can anyone be so dumb?

 

[illusion88]

wow
I have a bridge in London I could sell her.

 

[Lurknomore]

Oops she did it again, and again, and again...

 

[CptCrunch]

dear god, thats it i'm done, i can't understand how we are all still alive with idiots like this still around.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Dumbest human being ever.

 

[KlokWyze]

she is the precise reason that people do do these scams! they actually work sometimes...

 

[illusion88]

11/13/2008
On Your Side Investigator Anna Song comments:

We came across this story while attending a conference on financial crimes in Eugene. State attorneys for the Oregon Department of Justice were using this case as a teaching tool, with the name of the victim redacted. I was astonished, as many of you are, that someone could lose $400,000 in a Nigerian scam. These are the emails we all routinely get in our inbox, if our spam filter doesn?t catch them first. I inquired with the state attorneys about whether this victim would be interested in talking with me. To my surprise, she agreed.

I went to Sweet Home with a high level of skepticism. What I found was a normal, middle-class home near an elementary school, a deaf husband trying to fix his phone so that it would vibrate instead of ring, and his wife, Janella Spears, trying to get their grandkids to calm down so we could do a television interview.

Investigators with the Oregon Department of Justice initially came across Spears when they were investigating a different money laundering case. While looking at Western Union money transfers, they discovered someone had wired $144,000 to Nigeria over the course of three short weeks. It got their attention. They honed in on Spears, and did a full ?money bust? at her home. After scouring her house, looking at all her financials, talking with local bank representatives and otherwise doing a complete investigation, the detectives concluded she was a victim. Remember, they also had hundreds of emails to go through, revealing her correspondence with the Nigerian scammers, and their creative stories aimed at bleeding money from her. Spears was never charged, and I have to go on the investigators? judgment for that. For good measure, they?ve warned Spears that if she sends any more money to Nigeria, they will charge her with a crime. She admits herself, it may be the only real deterrent for her, as fixing this became somewhat of an obsession.

Whether you believe her, Spears claims she wanted the money so she could help others in need.

The Nigerian scammers look for people like Janella Spears. Most of us have the sense to hit delete. But what about that older relative who has email, but is gullible, or easily confused? Obviously, the scam works. That?s why it continues.

Thanks to all of you who have commented.

Anna Song
Investigative Reporter / Anchor
KATU News
503.231.4207
asong@katu.com

What crime could they charge her with? Being a victim?

 

[Mo0o]

At a certain point it's probably a psychological addiction thing where she can't accept that she's been totally duped so she just keeps tossing money in as a way to fool herself

 

[Sphexi]

She's religious, but also apparently super greedy. Awesome. To the MAX.

 

[Newbian]

Her children would had declared her incompetent and would had took over her money far before this had happened.

 

[Svnla]

Don't worry, the government will bail her out lol

 

[Jeff7]

Janella Spears doesn?t think she?s a sucker or an easy mark.

"But let us tell you, folks, 'sucker' doesn't do it justice. Why this woman was ever allowed to command more than $5 is simply mind-boggling. How she is able to feed herself without choking on the plate is a complete mystery."



Who was it here complaining about his wife spending a few hundred dollars on shoes?

Ah, here's the thread.
Title: I can't understand Women
Summary: Thought she was saving money, but found out that she had other motives.

Wife: Guess what?
Me: What?
Wife: We're going to be millionaires.
Me: Cool, how?
Wife: It's only going to cost us a few thousand dollars, then the Nigerians will send the money.
Me: (proud), Good job babe, that's great.
Wife: Yeah! But now President Bush and the FBI say that we need to send more, or the money might go to terrorists.
Me: ???
Wife: Isn't it great? I'm so happy!
Me: ???
Wife: Are you there?
Me: Wait, so you are sending thousands of dollars to someone so that they can send you money?
Wife: Yeah. I've already sold our cars, and wiped out our retirement funds. But they promise that the next payment will be the last!
Me: (no so proud), Good job honey, I gotta go buy a gun.

 

[brownzilla786]

Oh. My. God. I feel bad for the husband. Dumbest woman on the face of this earth.

 

[CRXican]

Can't believe people still fall for this stuff.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Newbian
Her children would had declared her incompetent and would had took over her money far before this had happened.

 

[sindows]

How can a person who commends a relatively high salary be so stupid?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: CRXican
Can't believe people still fall for this stuff.

Kind of makes me rethink my career options.

"Hi, I have a lot of money, but I need a lot of your money in order to get my money. And in return, I'll send you a whole lot of money. The president and FBI totally sent me, and they said you can trust me, so it's ok."

Student loans would not be a problem anymore.

Besides her work as a registered nurse, Spears ? no relation to the well-known pop star ? also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples.

Maybe she should have prayed harder to get her money back. :laugh:



From the article:

For good measure, [Investigators with the Oregon Department of Justice] have warned Spears that if she sends any more money to Nigeria, they will charge her with a crime. She admits herself, it may be the only real deterrent for her, as fixing this became somewhat of an obsession.

:laugh:
Ma'am, we are going to arrest you if you continue being stupid.



Hmmm.......

"Ms. Janelle Spears:

I recently encountered an article concerning your problems with Nigerian scammers. Unfortunately, it is impossible for you to ever get money from them. However, I have connections in a neighboring country, and I believe I will be able to procure some of the money that you lost. I will need to hire a small task force of mercenary fighters though to take the money by force. Mercenary fighters do not work cheap though. I will require an up-front payment of $100,000, and another $100,000 after the job is finished. In return, I will send back 75% of all recovered money, which should total at least $15M. Please wire it directly to the following bank account: ##########

Thank you, and I hope you will agree to let us retrieve your money."


I think I'd have $200k within a month.

 

[rezinn]

Originally posted by: sindows
How can a person who commends a relatively high salary be so stupid?

Lol!

 

[Baked]

You can't teach stupid.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch
dear god, thats it i'm done, i can't understand how we are all still alive with idiots like this still around.

You sitting down? Ok, good - here it comes. These are the people breeding the most.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: CRXican
Can't believe people still fall for this stuff.

I can't believe other people let her. Surely there was something that her husband could have done.

 

[foghorn67]

Is "lucid" the new in word.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: foghorn67
Is "lucid" the new in word.

Better than "flaccid."




(That's what she said.)