Unbelievable

Check this out:

Woman out $400K to 'Nigerian scam' con artists

I read it with an open mouth -- I was stunned at how gullible/greedy otherwise "smart" people can be.

via the Consumerist

Comments

[SUSAN]

Crazy.

I got an email today from a bank that said I'd get a $50 credit for filling out a survey. It looked fairly legitimate, but of course the link led to some other country and there were a few things that were a bit "off". But I bet a lot of people will click on that one.

Scary stuff.

What our Mommas taught us is still valid - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

[MrAtoZ]

PT Barnum would have understood.

[Ken]

I think people got dumber when the Internet became mainstream.

[Miss M]

Crazy, even after she knew it was a scam she kept sending money.

[ekrabs]

The worst part of it all is that, because the scam works so beautifully, they have no recourse but to continue doing it, if not step up their money-making efforts.

That is likely to result in more spam overall.

[spivey]

Ken- I don't think people became dumber. Dumber people became easier to access.

[Finance]

Internet scams became a problem for many years and it will continue in future as many people, even the clever one, are greedy.

[Brent]

We should bail her out...

[Mr. ToughMoneyLove]

The worst part is that morons like this are also allowed to vote.

[kitty]

In one of Russian children's books there was a story about a boy got 5 gold coins by accident. He was approached by two shady characters - a fox named Alice and a cat named Vasily who told him that he could turn these few coins into a fortune. All he had to do was to follow them to the "Country of Fools", where there is a special field called "Field of Miracles. If he were to plant the coins in the "Field of Miracles" and say a few magic words then the following morning a tree would grow with gold coins for leaves. The boy followed the fox and the cat, waited for them to leave, and did as they suggested. He then fell asleep as he was tired. The moment he fell asleep, the fox and the cat came out of hiding and stole his coins.

I don't really see much difference between people like this woman and the character in this children story. I am afraid I cannot master much sympathy for those who "plant" their money in the "Field of Miracles".