Nigerian 419 Still Scamming

This time its churches. I find this absolutely amazing. Is there a better known scam in the world than the "Nigerian Has Money For You, You Just Have To Give Him Some Money First" scam? The deal with this one is that some wealthy Nigerian has left an unGodly amount of cashola to a small church in the US. In order to get the cash, the church needs to pay a tax,and the fun begins. Here's what I find intriguing.

First, from Mr. Premo the skeptical accountant,

"It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant," said Jeff Premo, an accountant hired by the church whose early skepticism about the offer ultimately dissolved after the Nigerians professed their faith.

"I thought I could ask them about, you know, 'Can you confess Jesus as Lord?' And they could answer all that," Premo told ABC News.

I want to be very clear, I know that Mr. Premo is probably not a "scam" expert, and I honesty applaud him for having the courage and gumption to go the FBI and actually arrest the bastards - good for him. Too many people get taken, get embarrassed and don't tell anyone. Clearly Mr. Premo has both the ability to recognize his error and work to correct it (and correct it publicly so that others may learn and avoid the mistake). He's not a moron, he just made a mistake of trust. And that mistake was not seeing that you don't catch a scammer by giving him the ability to lie to gain your trust. Of course the scammer will say anything to get your dollar, even "I confess Jesus as Lord." This reminds me of the story of Amina Lawal, the Nigerian Muslim woman who was to be stoned to death for adultery. The man who she claimed was the father was let go after swearing in court that he wasn't. Hmmmm, facing death, just how reliable is his "oath?" "If you did it you die, if you swear you didn't you live. What say you?" He went with the oath, which tell us nothing. Where was I going with that? Oh yes, the moral is people who are lying to you to get your money will lie to you to get your money. Always remember this.

Two, Mr. Premo felt uneasy, how about a little research on Nigerian Scams? A Google search of those two words gives 1,310,000 hits. Some might call that a "red flag."

Three, $41,000,000! To Hickory Ridge Community Church in Sussex County, Del? Come on man, help me out. I could maybe, maybe understand taking a look at $41,000, or even better, $4,100, but $41million? Astronomical amounts of money from someone you don't know is another "red flag."

In the end, I guess PT Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every minute.

But you don't have to stay a sucker. Like I said, good for Mr. Premo for allowing others to learn from his mistake. Again, a very courageous act on his part. How many people would allow themselves to be perceived as foolish to America's adoring public? There's no way he comes out looking smart on this, yet he did help nab the scammers and he is allowing himself to be a tool to prevent others from making the same mistakes he made. In my mind, he's more than atoned for that error (but I'm not part of the $350k loss).

Just for fun, Eboloa Monkey Man is site devoted to gaining some measure of pay back on the scammers (mostly by stringing them along and making them take silly pictures of themselves).