If you haven’t caught this, read the absolutely dumbfounding story of the hapless psychotherapist John Worley (what is it with these types, anyway?) who got completely bilked by Nigerian 419 (advance fee fraud) scammers, got busted, the evidence was presented in court and then he got convicted — yet still, after all that, believes that there was some truth in the scam:
When I asked Worley what he wished he had done differently, he didn’t answer directly. Instead, he spoke about hoping that the Abachas would get back in touch with him. However, before they could resume work on the multimillion-dollar transfer, he expected them to send the six hundred thousand dollars that he needs for restitution.
It’s an incredible story and well worth reading. Link here.
And as reminder, you can always forward 419 scams to spam(at)uce.gov and 419.fcd(at)usss.treas.gov. There is also a whole underground of vigilantes that “scam bait”, which is the practice of manipulating 419 scammers. A highly dangerous game and I would NOT recommend it at all (really, I mean it — the Nigerians have US reps and you could get hurt). However, for entertaining stories, you can go to sites like 419eater or others on this Wikipedia page.
Alex Eckelberry
(Hat tip to Lance)