Do you know someone who fell for a Nigerian scam?

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I cant imagine anyone actually falling for the type I get almost daily in email form.They usually open with "hello dear" ????

Wait. Wait... It's a SCAM??? I'm not actually going to get that $785,000.....??? Nothing good ever happens to me. :sad:

Yup. I have two stories!

A lady I used to work with met someone on Match or Eharmony and he was ALL she talked about. She even carted his picture everywhere showing it to anyone that would look. He lived in Malta and started needing money for things. Oh, and he proposed! She was going to fly him here, sight unseen, marry him, and move him in with her and her two kids. He kept asking for more and more money and finally after 35 people told her she was being taken for a ride, she cut off contact. I think she was out about 3 grand.

Second story was my ex's friend, who (same thing) met a "girl" online somehow, fell in love almost immediately, and her story was that she flew to Africa for her mother's funeral and was stuck there. She needed money to get home. She really did a number on this guy. Promised to marry him when she got to the States, swore her undying love to him, and since he struck out repeatedly with real live women, he fell for it. Long story short, he gave her every cent he had. Emptied his bank account, 401(k), cash advances on his CC, but once my ex and his other friends found out, it was way too late. He is pretty much destitute at 35.

Not exactly.

However, my best friend's sister has a massage client from Nigeria. Supposedly he's very wealthy. She also works as a bartender, as does my BFF.

So the sister's car was acting up pretty badly a few months ago right before she was going on a long road trip and she and my BFF were out having drinks with this Nigerian guy and his friend and she was talking about her car and they actually bought her a new car. And apparently they have been trying to talk my friends into going to Nigeria to "bartend and do massage therapy."

And they actually believe these men are just nice guys trying to do nice things because they like my friend and her sister.

SMH

My BFF has a near-genius IQ, too.

Thankfully no.

Yes. Yes I do.

my brother in law fell for a roommate/rental scam.

he was looking for a roommate, and got a response. if memory serves me, the guy sent him a check for 4k to cover the deposit and the first couple months or something. i think he deposited it and then wrote a check to the landlord or something...i dont recall exactly. he wound up losing the whole 4k and didnt have a roommate. if the scammer got money out of it, i dont know how.
my BiL was bad with money anyway. he was in the midst of bankruptcy when this all happened.

i actually got quite deep into scam-baiting several years ago. it was a lot of fun, but simply took up WAY too much of my time. i had a phone number set up, multiple emails, characters....good times. my mother didnt understand and thought i was being mean to people. that always baffled me. would she still so if grandma fell victim?
there were some real artists in the scam-baiting community i was part of. they got these scammers to travel, send them things, make stuff...it was actually fantastic to watch.
all i ever got was voicemails, pictures, and scans of IDs and documents and whatnot. i figured as long as they were spending time on me, and wasting their internet cafe money and precious cell minutes on trying to scam me, i was saving someone who could possibly be had the aggravation. at least thats how i justified it.

eta: i think i still have my trophies around somewhere. i gotta look for em. lol. i used to tell them that i transferred the money and they'd always want to see a western union receipt. i would send them a HUGE jpg where the top portion was the WU header, and then it would be all corrupt where the information should be. my understanding was that the bigger the file, the longer the download time in the internet cafe, the more money they had to spend. they didnt think it was as funny as i did though. heheeeeeeeee

When the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly, asking for help, you help!

Yup. Sure do! My cousin did, got about 10k out of 'er I think. All she wanted was some *kitten*, too.

I've known some scam-baiters but never someone who actually got taken by it....

Our running joke with my friends has always been along the lines of:

"Hey, I can help this deposed prince. Wouldn't be fair for me to keep all the money though. Give me your account number so they can wire it and I'll split it with you."

I do. I used to work at a hotel wayyy back, anyway there was this little old Haitian man (very kind, such a sweetheart) who randomly received an email from some woman in Nigeria who needed his "help". She told him that she needed $$ to come down and live in the US, for a better life for herself and her child. My coworker like I said was an older men who never wed, so he offered her companionship and a male figure for her son. He kept asking me for my advice and I would urge him to stop talking to her. He didn't listen...sadly he did wire her a lot of money and well....she was never heard of. He went into a deep depression after that .

Yup. Sure do! My cousin did, got about 10k out of 'er I think. All she wanted was some *kitten*, too.

Are there no bars where she lives? I mean, if I REALLY wanted to, I could pretty much walk into any one and walk out with a one-nighter -- I wouldn't even have to pay for a drink ...

True...Hi you're pretty, let's bang.

Yup. Sure do! My cousin did, got about 10k out of 'er I think. All she wanted was some *kitten*, too.

Are there no bars where she lives? I mean, if I REALLY wanted to, I could pretty much walk into any one and walk out with a one-nighter -- I wouldn't even have to pay for a drink ...

True...Hi you're pretty, let's bang.

It's good to be a woman. lol

Perfect!