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Man Cheated of Huge Sum of Money in Nigerian Scam

A Portsmouth (UK) man, aged 32, has been defrauded of over £130,000 in an online fraud that involves Nigerian scammers, Police in Portsmouth said.

Shane Symington became a victim when a man pretending to be a woman by the name Angela contacted and befriended him in the 2007 summer. The woman started requesting for money so that 'she' could treat her ailing mother.

Symington sympathized with his 'friend' and sent her money. Soon he sent more money to meet the funeral expenses of the mother when Angela told him that her mother was dead. However, Symington received an e-mail message from Angela that disclosed that the entire operation was a scam. In the message, Angela also said that she was a man who belonged to Nigeria.

A spokeswoman of Hampshire Police said that the woman eventually turned out to be a man from Nigeria who was lying to the Portsmouth man to get money.

The spokeswoman further said that more e-mail messages came to the victim from someone posing as another victim of the scam. The victim also received mails from men who purported to be FBI agents.

In addition, the police stated that if the Portsmouth man were willing to bear the agents' travel expenses to Nigeria, and any costs thereafter, then the agents would agree to take up the case. This carried on for several months until it was found that these e-mails were also a scam to steal money from the man.

Commenting further, police stated that it was difficult to recover the money as the ongoing political conditions in Nigeria were critical. The country's police would not agree to co-operate.

Police also commented that the situation was indeed unfortunate as the man had lost a large amount of money though his own kind nature prompted him to help those in distress.

Meanwhile, police warned that while it did not want any new person to fall victim to the scam, people must refuse money to all strangers who request for it over the Net.

Related article: Man Sues and Wins against ISP for Spamming Mail

» SPAMfighter News - 2/2/2009

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