Damn those Scams

Worley scrolled through his in-box and opened an e-mail, addressed to “CEO/Owner.” The writer said that his name was Captain Joshua Mbote, and he offered an awkwardly phrased proposition: “With regards to your trustworthiness and reliability, I decided to seek your assistance in transferring some money out of South Africa into your country, for onward dispatch and investment.” Mbote explained that he had been chief of security for the Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who had secretly sent him to South Africa to buy weapons for a force of élite bodyguards. But Kabila had been assassinated before Mbote could complete the mission. “I quickly decided to stop all negotiations and divert the funds to my personal use, as it was a golden opportunity, and I could not return to my country due to my loyalty to the government of Laurent Kabila,” Mbote wrote. Now Mbote had fifty-five million American dollars, in cash, and he needed a discreet partner with an overseas bank account. That partner, of course, would be richly rewarded.

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Apparently there’s a family tiff going on where a renowned neuroscientist/psychiatrist lost up to 3 million US dollars in a nigerian scam. And now his son has filed a lawsuit to remove him as the administrator of the family’s multimillion dollar partnership. So now I know why scamming is the third largest industry in Nigeria, because even the best of us can be lured into a scam by greed and just not being aware of there are a lot of shady people out there in the world.

“While it seems unlikely, even ludicrous, that a highly educated doctor like (Gottschalk) would fall prey to such an obvious con, that is exactly what happened,” the son’s attorney wrote in court papers.

Read more about it here from CBS.

NPR’s On The Media program has a pretty interesting story on the Nigerian scammers and why they’re never getting the justice for being such annoying scammers. Its a good listen, so take a listen and then take a look at their site to make a comment.

The Longest Con
It’s estimated to the third largest industry in Nigeria, grossing hundreds of millions a year, and it may be the most successful confidence game in the world. It’s the Nigerian e-mail scam. Victims are often left with no legal recourse, due to corruption in Nigeria and the high price of international investigations. And so they’ve banded together to take the law into their own hands. Legal Affairs contributor Josh Rosenblum explains to Bob how an online posse was formed.