Fools And Their Money

‘A FOOL and his (or her) money are soon parted, or so the saying goes.

The 419ers hard at work

And it is very hard to feel sorry for the victims of what is known as the advance fee fraud or the Nigerian 419 scam, in which the stooge is offered vast riches in return for a small up-front payment.

People like Arlen Hughes, from Wyoming, who not only lost money in the scam but is happy to admit his gullibility to the world.

“I received a phone call from a fellow in Nigeria saying that I had inherited an oil company,” he explained.

“They were very professional. I found a registered number in Scotland and so the researches I had found led me to believe they were on the uppity up.”

In fact, the address given out by the fraudsters is that of Sutherland’s Pharmacy in Thurso, which has says the Guardian received several visits from victims of the scam.

And the telephone number is merely a conduit to another number in London.

It is estimated that Nigerian gangs rake in as much as $50m a year from variations of this scam – in what is a kind of Darwinian redistribution of wealth.

Greed and folly are not great bedfellows.’

Posted: 17th, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink