Sad story. Must read.

[davenerven]

A victim has just forwarded us a copy of some emails that he has sent to a gang of scammers. I think it is mandatory reading for anyone that thinks these scammers are even half-human. Please just understand that these people will NEVER stop squeezing every last drop of blood from their victims.
DR. EZE

I AM SORRY THAT I HAVE NOT GOTTEN BACK TO YOU SOONER. I JUST FINISHED A VERY BUSY TIME IN MY BUSINESS AND I AM IN THE PROCESS OF FINALIZING MY WORK IN THE OFFICE.
I STILL HAVE TO RAISE MORE FUNDS. I KNOW THAT YOU SOLD JEWLERY TO HELP ME BUT IT STILL LEAVES ME WITH A BILL WITH WIRE TRANSFER FEES OF $8100.
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON OIVER THERE TO BE HONEST. THE MONEY WAS ALREADY TO GO AND THEN THE COURIER DIED ON THE TARMAC. SINCE THEN I HAVE INCURRED OVER $20000 IN ADDITIONAL FEES. I HAVE GONE ANOTRHER $50000 IN DEBT SINCE JANUARY. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHAT WENT WRONG FROM THE TIME THE COURIER PASSES AWAY TO NOW. WHAT OTHER FEES ARE GOING TO BE IMPOSED TO ME? PLEASE DO NOT SAY THIS IS IT. I HAVE HEARD THAT TIME AND TIME AGAIN. I HAVE A FAMILY TO SUPPORT AND 40% BOF MY INCOME IS GOING TO PAY BACK MONEY THAT I HAVE BORROWED THAT IS NOW SOMEWHERE IN NIGERIA. THE ODDS OF ME ACTUALLY SEEING MY FUNDS ARE ABOUT AS GRAET AS ME BECOMING THE POPE.
I AM TRYING BUT IT IS DEFLATING ME FINANCIALLY AS WELL AS EMOTIONALLY. TO MANY BROKEN PROMISES. IF MY FAMILY EVER FOUND OUT HOW MUCH I HAVE SENT IT WOULD BE THE END OF MY MARRIAGE WICH WOULD PROBABLY BE THE END OF ME. EVEN THERAPY WON'T JUSTIFY TO MY WIFE AND KIDS HOW MUCH I HAVE DONE TO TRY AND HELP MY FAMILY. WHEN THE WHOLE DEAL IS OVER AND DONE WITH IF IT EVER GETS DONE I WILL ONLY GET ABOUT 25% OF THE CONTRACT. SO AS YOU CAN SEE ALTHOUGH THE BURDEN IS ON ME I DO NOT GET THE FULL REWARDS. I HAVE INVESTORS WHO WANT THEIR MONEY AND WILL NOT INVEST ANY MORE. I HAVE DEBT THAT NEEDS TO BE PAID AND A FAMILY THAT NEEDS FINANCIAL HELP BESIDES MY IMMNEDIATE FAMILY.
PLEASE BE PATIENT.
A few weeks later...
DR. EZE,

I CANNO LONGER BEG BORROW OR EVEN STEAL TO COMPLETE THIS TRANSACTION. I FINALLY GET THE MONEY TO SEND TO MONACO. IT TOOK ME ALMOST 8 WEEKS TO RAISE THE FUNDS. AFTER I SEND THE FUNDS THE INGORM ME THAT THEY ARE TO SEND THE FUNDS IN BULK. TO DO THIS I NEED ANOTHER ALMOST $5000. I DO NOT HAVE THE $5000 NOT DO I HAVE THE WHERE WITH ALL TO GET THIS KIND OF MONEY. MY CREDIT, IS MAXED OUT. MY FUNDS ARE GONE. I OWE ALMOST $600,000. MY NAME IS WORTH NOTHING AND MY HEALTH AND BUSINESS HAVE SUFFERED. MY LIFE IS A SERIES OF AGGRAVATION BECAUSE EVERY PROMISE THAT I HAVE GOTTERN FROM NIGERIA IS WORTHLESS. I SEND THE FUNDS AND GUESS WHAT ANOTHER TAX, FEE, LEVY OR ASSESSMENT ACCOMPANIES THE RECIEPT OF MY FUNDS. WHERE DOES IT END. EVERY ONE SAYS THIS IS THE LAST BUT YET IT IS NOT. I AM DEPRESSED BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY. REALIZE ONE FACT: IF I DID NOT OPEN A LETTER BSACK IN 1997 FROM NIGERIA I WOULD BE DEBT FREE, ABLE TO SUPPORT MY FAMILY THE WAY THEY SHOPULD BE AND I WOULD NOT BE THE BITTER AND ANGRY PERSON I AM TODAY. MY BACK IS AGAINST THE WALL AND I DO NOT SEE ANY WAY OUT. I CANNOT RAISE ANY MORE MONEY. I CANNOT PAY MY BILLS. I COULD LOSE MY BUSINESS AND MY FAMILY BECAUSE THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT ARE CORRUPT AND COULD CARE LESS IF I LIVE OR DIE. THEY ONLY THING THEY KNOW IS SEND MORE MONEY. WELL THERE IS NO MORE MONEY.
PLEASE DO NOT THINK I AM BEING UNREASONABLE. I JUST CAN NO LONGER DO ANYTHING. I AM DESTINED TO LEAVE THIS WORLD IN DEBT. THIS IS NOT THE LEGACY I HAD IN MIND WHEN I STARTED THIS ENDEAVOUR. ALL I WANTED WAS TO HELP MY FAMILY AND INSTEAD I AM PROBABLY THE WORST EXCUSE FOR A FATHER, SON AND HUSBAND. I FEEL THAT AS A MAN I AM WORTHLESS AND I WILL NEVER LOSE THIS FEELING BECAUSE EVERY TIME I DO SOMETHING SOME ONE CHANGES THE RULES ON ME.
I DID NOT COME BY THIS DECISION LIGHTLY. IF YOU OR MIKE ADEGO CAN HELP I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT BUT AS OF RIGHT NOW I HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO GIVE EITHER MONETARILY OR SPIRITUALLY. I AM JUST A SHELL OF A MAN WHO HAS DISAPOINTED EVERY ONE HE LOVES.

[Aquene]

This is so sad,even though we know the scammers do this over and over again,seeing these letters strike us in the stomache,like a sledgehammer blow.We all feel so helpless reading this.
Poor man...I know I kept thinking..if someone could just have warned him,or
pointed him to a site that would prove it was a scam.
Can you imagine living like this,fearing your family and creditors will find out.
And knowing that if you suddenly die,all this will come out,and your family would hate you for leaving them in financial chaos.:cry:

[Aeval]

Take this utterly disturbing read to heart, folks.

Every time one of us has doubts about the scammers, or feels like there is justification for what they do - remember this post.

It's about a life and a family completely destroyed by a bunch of greedy criminals. There are no ifs, ands or buts here.

And for those who choose to respond to such scammers and proceed to send money to them - here's your cautionary tale. This is how it ends. There is no happy story in this waiting for you at the end.

[Nyla]

Definitely. The people who think, "Oh, I'll just send a little, it's just a little money, and it might actually be real" don't realize that there is no possible good outcome down that road. At best, there's just stopping before you've lost to much and invested too much of yourself into the false promise to ever recover. You can't really "afford" to lose anything to these scammers. What you lose from your wallet or bank account is just the beginning.

What a lot of people don't realize is that it's (understandably) going to be so, so difficult to withdraw yourself if you've invested yourself emotionally. Admitting someone you've built something of a relationship or a partnership with has been pullling the wool over your eyes the entire time and merely using you is never easy. Combining that with realizing that your financial circumstances are radically altered forever makes it ten times as difficult. With a master manipulator on the other end, as so many scammers are, it's just so incredibly difficult to pull free of a scam once you've dipped a toe into the waters.

And it's so sad to see victims laying all the blame at their own feet, when the scammers bear the biggest portion of the blame. It's sad to see a "stigma" attached to being the victim of a crime.

[poirot]

Unfortunately, this is not all that unusual. In fact, one victims reported that once he had borrowed from friends and family, mortgage his home and business to the limit, sold all he could sell, lost his retirement investments and was totally and absolutely ruined, and that the criminals knew it to be a fact as they had access to some personal information on the victim, that victim was then approached by the same criminals passing off as the anti-corruption unit of the EFCC or the Central Bank of Nigeria, and claimed that they could recover his lost money and have the culprits arrested. They then offered to "lend" the victim the necessary funds to have his claim processed. This opened the victim to the Fake Cheque Scam.

The criminals then sent the victim whom he knew to be totally ruined, forged cheques to be deposited and the funds to be forwarded to a fake barrister via Western Union. Some two weeks later when the bank informed the victim that the cheques where forged, he was then further in debt to the bank by thousands of dollars and was now in jeopardy of being arrested for bank fraud. I have heard from one warner, of a victim committing suicide as a result of being ruined.

I also had a 419 scammer contact me a while back, to excuse it with the classic "greedy people bring it upon themselves", which has no bearing on the truth when you know that they prey on the most vulnerable.