Nigerian 419 Scams are Deadly

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It is hard to believe that people still fall for those emails that claim that some poor Christian lady who is the pious wife of a corrupt politician or oil tycoon needs your help to smuggle millions of dollars out of the war-ravaged and corrupt country that the emailer still lives in.

The emails invariably say that your expertise is the only thing that will help this poor rich widow, and all you have to do is reply to the email and she will start the ball rolling. Of course, its a scam, and I thought everyone knows about this by now. The way the scam works is that the Nigerians or Camaroonians, or some other hellish African country will send faked checks to victims in exchange for cash being sent back in order to free up additional monies. Of course the checks will bounce. Depending on the level of trust that the victim has in the scammer, the scam can then progress to the point where the victim flies to the country the emailer lives, only to be abducted and held for ransom. See here and here for details.

Most recently, however, Mary Winkler, a pastor’s wife, fell for the scam and lost thousands of dollars from their meager annual salary. There was an argument about the loss of cash, and Mary shot her husband in the back with a shotgun while he was sleeping.

From the IndyStar here:

A woman accused of shooting her preacher husband to death after they argued over money may have been taken in by a remarkably common scam that strained their finances and their marriage.

Mary Winkler, who is charged with murder, had gotten tangled up in a swindle known as an advance-fee fraud, or the “Nigerian scam,” in which victims are told a sweepstakes prize or some other riches await them if they send money to cover the processing expenses, her lawyers say.

He was shot in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in bed March 22 and was found dead by church members. After the shooting, Mary Winkler loaded her three daughters into the family van and went to the Gulf Coast for what she described as a final beach vacation. She was arrested March 23 in Orange Beach, Ala.

“I had gotten a call from the bank, and we were having trouble, mostly my fault, bad bookkeeping. He was upset with me about that,” Mary Winkler told police, according to a statement read at her bail hearing.

Mary Winkler deposited several suspicious checks from Canada and Nigeria for a total of $17,500, authorities said.

She is in jail, unable to raise $750,000 bail. Her trial is set for Oct. 30.

First of all, she is a horrible person. She murders her own husband and then decides to go to the beach? So in addition to being a gullible idiot, she is a selfish cold hearted killer. Tennessee has the death penalty. Here’s hoping that she gets a date with the needle.

Other well publicized victims of this scam include a lawyer in Florida and a New Zealand politician.