The Nigerian email scam, which promises millions of dollars as a payout after helping out a distant family member has been of the most known email scams for several years, but senders of such emails still find victims.

Janella Spears of Sweet Home, Oregon, says that she is out about $400,000 after falling for the promise of $20.5 million. Spears reportedly went through the equity in her house, took a lien out on the family car, and ran through her husband's retirement account.   

Spears continued to send more money through untraceable wire services against the advice of her family and her bank. More multi-million dollar promises as well as documents that appeared to come from the Bank of Nigeria and even from the United Nations, both of which claimed that the payment was guaranteed, convinced Spears to keep sending funds.

Spears said that she hopes others won’t fall as hard as she fell for the promise.

Pwn'd

Nov 18, 2008 15:22     

What a noob.
BDF report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +14

Really?

Nov 18, 2008 15:22     

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read- I have no sympathy for individuals who CONTINUE to fall for this scam...its outrageous.
Samantha Rose Hunt report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +11

Wow...

Nov 18, 2008 15:52     

S-M-R-T. "Spears said that she hopes others won’t fall as hard as she fell for the promise." I seriously doubt she will be only one but she probably gets the record for largest gross stupidity in money matters EVER!
BillyBob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

its not what you think

Nov 18, 2008 16:17     

this isn't about the skill of the scam artists, its a testimonial on the abject stupidity of some people out there. She doesn't even DESERVE to be called a victim, any more than any deer which knocked on your door, walked inside, opened the oven door and laid its head inside the oven with a smile.
MorituriMax report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +9

How do people fall for this?

Nov 18, 2008 16:28     

Seriously? I don't even feel sorry for them... Maybe there should be a madatory IQ test before people can use the internet?? Might solve all of our problems all at once.
How? report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +12

Pwn'd. It's all you can say.

Nov 18, 2008 16:53     

Really, she went against her families recommendations. Even when I was 13 (10 years ago), and I got one of these I laughed and deleted. (ok, on occasion I stringed them along to waste their time) It's sad that her entire family is most likely going to end up paying for her stupidity.
JackCrackerMan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

I can understand

Nov 18, 2008 18:32     

I know many don't have any compassion. But I have a family member that also got caught up in this. At least they didn't lose as much. What you may not have considered is it's not someone's fault to be born with diminished capacity. It's the fault of scammers to prey upon those that are weaker than we are.
CR report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -5

greedy...

Nov 18, 2008 19:43     

has over 400K in assets and still want more? how do stupid people even get this kind of money in the first place?
nev report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

@CR

Nov 18, 2008 21:13     

Diminished capacity? She didn't seem to suffer from any diminished capacity given what all she did to give them the money. I would only chalk it up to diminished capactiy if it turned out she had mailed them a few bags of potatos, a shiny button collections and 56 heads from her barbie doll collection.
MorituriMax report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Beware of Nigeria scam.

Nov 19, 2008 03:20     

I know all about for years as Nigeria still send all the worldwide that trying to get some more money by send scam message -- if you see then just delete it right away but select this as Spam or Junk email and delete itself -- I used Advanced Email Protection that blocked any blacklist that stop from go into my inbox that worked. Stupid and idiot from Nigeria that keep trying to steal our money... hand off...

MJT report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Man does she derserve it!

Nov 19, 2008 08:22     

I mean, c'mon now! She has to be on the limit, a bit more stupid and she couldn't have used a computer! If she was MY wife... well, she wouldn't be anymore. Incredible!
WoRkZ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

I'm a Nigerian, so what...?

Nov 19, 2008 10:54     

This doesn't have anything to do with stupidity, fellas! It's more of the victim's greediness eating him/her up. I've received messages like that here in Nigeria, but instead i play along just to waste their time. Here in nigeria, they even go to the extent of calling me up late at night while working behind my desk (i'm an online graphic designer). People just wish they could keep getting more and more and more...without ever stopping to think about the harm that'll come upon them one day. Too bad!

olatunde report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Doing what she is told.

Nov 19, 2008 11:41     

She is just doing what Obama wants and is spreading the wealth. I wish she would have sent me some money. But I'm sure they will put it to good use.
RightWinger report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

lol

Nov 19, 2008 11:56     

Hope she doesn't have any kids.
Pete report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

TOTAL PWNAGE!

Nov 19, 2008 20:31     

ROFLMAO! Geez..seriously? And after the fact the she was given advice against this, not only from her friends and family but from finance professionals, she still kept getting pwned. I wonder if shes related to Britney Spears. :P
fanboy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

desperation

Nov 23, 2008 22:55     

sometimes we let ourselves fall for such ridiculous scams because we lack the faith in ourselves to make things work. either that or the lady is mentally ill and her family should have put a court ordered stop to her funding this scam.
mhughes report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Open your mind

Nov 24, 2008 03:26     

With all the information that has been given to people about these scams there are still people who believe in them....Nearly 2 years ago I gave information on how to combat this type of scam..two of the easiest ways is for the person receiving such an email is to approach the Embassy,and ask them to check this out,a second course of action is for you to go to your own bank and through their own Banking worldwide network have funds verified and at the sametime have the assetts frozen...by having a third party involved you have recourse if anything goes wrong in a transaction..I deal with the country concerned in business matters,and no matter what transaction is ongoing I always double/double check.....remember one important scenario,never believe it is coming from the country indicated it could be originating from any where in the world,with a feeder system sending it to the end person

alan mitchell report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

i just got two

Nov 24, 2008 20:40     

I got two different ones today, but mine were from kuala lumpar, malaysia!! Wow, how funny
roryheather report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0