Notorious e-mail scam snares Volusia retiree's nest egg

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel ^ | 12/23/03 | Jim Stratton

[Holly_P]

In a windowless room, in a nondescript house on the other side of the world, Rupert Sessions glimpsed his fortune.

It was a metal suitcase, choked with $100 bills and protected by armed guards and a combination lock. The money had brought Sessions, an Ormond Beach retiree, all the way to the Persian Gulf.

He and a West African associate were there to collect the $21.5 million in the case. But he was concerned because the bills looked discolored.

Don't worry, officials told him. That's just a security measure. We can clean up the cash.

Finally, Sessions thought, it's ours.

* * * * *

There was, of course, no $21.5 million. Sessions, a 73-year-old retired electronics specialist, had been fleeced by what may be the most widespread fraud on Earth.

He had poured more than $300,000 into a Nigerian 419 scam, the label describing the legendary e-mails that promise millions but deliver nothing.

He sold stock, got a second mortgage and hocked his two cars. For more than a year, he gave virtual strangers every dollar he had. He bought them gold pens, cell phones and a laptop computer. Sessions spent so much that he now fears losing his home.

"It's all gone," he said Monday. "Everything."

Still, Sessions was so mesmerized by the well-spoken West Africans

[sharkhawk]

You can't cheat an honest man. I love how he was just gonna take this money to do good works.

[narby]

There's another scam out there that I've seen pitched three times, always at the Comdex computer show in Vegas.

A very loud conversation occurs between two or more people in earshot of visiting computer geeks. There's talk about how stupid some potential investors are that they're not going forward with some plan. The deal is always about some logging property in South America.

I heard the pitch twice in resturants before attending the show, and once out front of the LV Convention Center.

[boris]

See an interesting story at #34 Here.

--Boris

[Peter Libra]

All I can say is boy oh boy..... I accessed the Polly Toynbee article which was kindly provided. Toynbee tries to juxtapose this utterly contemptable fraud with the Government of the United States and Western civilization. A school child in my day would have been chided for that weak comparision .

I have a bone to pick with her(old country saying). She,shedding maudlin tears gave 200 pounds to a supposed poor little school girl in Africa. It was a scam. To cut to the chase- this just in.

2500 British elderly and others died this winter already, because of inadequate heating. One couple- a man aged 89 years and his wife 86 years were "found huddled" in their unheated abode recently. The rotten gas company cut them off because of a bill for 140 pounds ( this is about 200 US dollars). (P) Oh the kindly caring marvels of socialism over there, and the rubbishy Oprah like giving caring likes of Toynbee. It has got be anyone other than the poor old British though.

[dljordan]

I got one telling me they needed money to access a poor widows gold deposits which had been impounded by the government of the Ivory Coast. I could have half if I would just give them $10,000. Nice shot, who's got $10,000.

[gcruse]

The desire for a quick buck, in the service of stupidity, leaves one with only a little doe [sic].