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Woman Admits Sending $400K To Nigerian Scammer
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thursday November 13, @02:44PM
from the headdesk dept.
from the headdesk dept.
svnt writes "Janella Spears wiped out her husband's retirement account, remortgaged their paid-for house, and took out a lien against the family car in an attempt to cash in on the deal. A undercover officer involved with the investigation called it the worst example of the scam he's ever seen. Thoughtfully, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim."
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Canada Bill Jones would be proud (Score:5, Insightful)
"It is immoral to allow a sucker to keep their money."
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In other news (Score:5, Funny)
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Husband's retirement account (Score:5, Funny)
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Wrong crowd (Score:5, Insightful)
"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."
Slashdot is not exactly going to be a sympathetic crowd here. What we have is an intelligent person who ignored every single bit of advice from a multitude of sources in favor of outright greed. So now she wants to warn people, but is it really going to do any good? She clearly would have ignored the advice she is now giving.
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Re:Wrong crowd (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Ignore warnings and claim you're helping a Nigerian prince
3. Play victim and make it public
4.
5. Profit!
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For those not reading TFA (Score:5, Funny)
"Janella Spears doesnt think shes a sucker or an easy mark."
"They said President Bush and FBI Director "Robert Muller" (their spelling) were in on the deal and needed her help."
"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, Bushâ(TM)s letter said. Spears continued to send funds."
"Most of the missives were rife with misspellings."
Priceless!
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Thoughtfully? (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps. But Occam's razor suggests that it never occurred to her that there might be a downside to publicly admitting to being this stupid, and she went public not "thoughtfully" as a "warning to others" but rather unthinkingly as a further example of what happens when you never think things through.
--MarkusQ
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sooo close (Score:5, Funny)
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Bank CEO refused transfer (Score:5, Interesting)
I know a bank CEO who refused to transfer money for a Nigerian scam, and the woman accuses him of standing in the way of her making millions. A variety of people have spoken with her, but she is adamant. This standoff has existed for weeks. I don't know the final status.
"You can fool some of the people all the time ..."
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA, a lot of people tried to talk her out of it but she was so obsessed (i.e. stupid) that they simply couldn't.
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but she is going to get that money back within 2 years -- by selling the rights to her story..... but first, she has to put up a small investment to get the agent working.......
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of this elderly couple I help with the computers working at the college. They've fallen for this pyramid scheme that is just so painfully obvious, but the old man just keeps explaining he's had enough experience (that is, has gotten fucked before) to know better and the old woman just follows along and doesn't ask any questions.
"It's not a scam, it's a high yield investment!"
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet, somehow she thinks that sharing HER story with the world will convince other people? If only someone had shared their story with her, she could have avoided this terrible mess, so she's going to make sure it doesn't happen to others? Please. Even in acknowledging her stupidity, she shows no sense.
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Funny)
Not only that but from the article (Yeah, it seems like all of us just HAD to read this one.):
"Janella Spears doesn't think she's a sucker or an easy mark."
Janella, no, you're not a sucker or an easy mark. You're the dumbest fucking person on Earth.
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Re:I'm amazed (Score:5, Insightful)
That's my thoughts--anyone as DUMB as she is won't believe her!
But this is beyond stupidity--she is clearly mentally ill and you've got to wonder why the husband, banks, family members ALLOWED this to go on. It wasn't like no one knew what she was doing. Why couldn't they have her name removed from accounts and not allowed access to the funds...declare her mentally unfit or whatever it took?
This is similar to those stories you hear once and awhile on how some old person spent thousands on magazines they didn't need, thinking it would help them win the Publisher's Clearing House prize.
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Re:just to preempt all of the obvious comments (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but that's simply wrong.
There are certain actions which you can take which, while not in any sense illegal, are virtually guaranteed to cause harm to yourself.
Leaving a stack of money out for anyone to take is one of these. Playing along to an internet scam is another. And although I'm sure I'll get flamed for saying so, teasingly parading past men in a bad neighborhood while wearing a revealing outfit is another.
Your fallacy is essentially in assuming that blame is a percentage which must be portioned out among the actors involved in the event. It is true that if I leave a stack of money out in plain view it is 100% the fault of the criminal for taking it. It is also 100% my fault for being a complete idiot.
If I take an action which I know, or should have very good reason to know, will cause me harm even if that harm is illegal, then it is my fault for taking that action and I bear the blame for the consequences. It is also the fault of whoever actually does it to me, but that doesn't change the first part.
People like this woman cause crime by making it pay off for the criminals. She deserves a whole heap of blame, just as much as the scammers do.
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Re:just to preempt all of the obvious comments (Score:5, Interesting)
Your fallacy is essentially in assuming that blame is a percentage which must be portioned out among the actors involved in the event. It is true that if I leave a stack of money out in plain view it is 100% the fault of the criminal for taking it. It is also 100% my fault for being a complete idiot.
Yes exactly. Blame is not a zero-sum game. Thinking otherwise is idiotic, or, in most cases, an attempt to deny blame using the false logic of "That person over there is to blame, therefore I cannot be blamed". If you don't think about it too hard it makes sense, but we shouldn't fall for such blatant illogic.
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Re:your view of morality is logically incoherent (Score:5, Insightful)
Intent has nothing to do with blame.
I'm not talking about how much people should be punished. As far as I'm aware that was not even brought up in the thread. I am talking about whose fault a particular outcome is.
If I carry out an action with well-known consequences then I am at fault for those consequences. This is true whether I'm parking illegally and getting a ticket, climbing a tree in a thunderstorm and getting struck by lightning, or giving a scammer money and getting ripped off.
Certainly, what the scammer did was morally and legally wrong and what this woman did was not. But that is orthogonal to the fact that it is this woman's fault that she got ripped off. (And it is also the scammer's fault for ripping her off.)
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Re:just to preempt all of the obvious comments (Score:5, Insightful)
So, if you try to cross a 4 lane highway during rush hour and you end up underneath a truck, no blame should be put on you?
Your logic relies heavily on the word "criminal". That's quite problematic, as its definition is not absolute. Crossing a highway IS criminally stupid. Falling for a well known scam and ignoring every warnings one is given is as stupid (though generally not as deadly). Spears saw it coming and didn't react, she is partially to blame for what happened to her.
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Re:just to preempt all of the obvious comments (Score:5, Insightful)
She gave the scammers money because they promised millions of dollars in return. Unlike a rape or armed robbery, it's the greed of the scam victims themselves that lures them into the scheme. Thus, they have some culpability in the crime that someone attacked on the street does not.
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Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The Nigerian scam is no more of a scam than... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Tattooed (Score:5, Funny)
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