Why did this woman, a reverend and a nurse, give over $400,000 to Nigerian email scammers? It started with just $100. The emails told her a long-lost relative with the same last name had $20.5 million caught up in the banks of Nigeria. Janella Spears just had to help with a few processing fees…

As she sent the money, more and more obstacles would arise, each needing more money to solve. Driven by blind greed, she sent over $400,000 to the scammers, draining her and her husband’s savings, retirement fund, mortgaged the house and put a lien on the car.

Despite warning from family and friends for over two years that it was a scam, she was obsessed with getting the jackpot. Only after Department of Justice investigators happened across her $144,000 Western Union transfers while investigating a different money laundering did she stop. She only stopped because the DoJ told her if she sent any more money they would charge her with a crime

That’s why these emails will continue to clog our spam filters. There will always be someone greedy out there where the prospect of a huge payday with just trip something in their brain and they suspend all reason and let themselves get bled dry.

Woman out $400K to ‘Nigerian scam’ con artists [KATU]

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