This woman sent Nigerian scam artists $400,000 - a fool or a victim?

This may well be the mother of all internet scam cases.
Janella Spears, a reverend and a registered nurse from Sweet Home, Oregon, ended up sending Nigerian fraudsters more than $400,000 when she was promised a multi-million dollar pay out from a lost relative.

When she began to doubt she was sent letters from the FBI Director, the US President and the President of Nigeria. She still thought it was genuine and ignored the pleas of her family and law enforcement officials in the US.

She spoke out to warn others of the scams and told KATU TV that she "doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark". The blogs have been ripping her to shreds. What do you think?

Here is KATU.com's version of her almost unbelievable story:

Besides her work as a registered nurse, Spears also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.

So how did this otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a million dollars to a bunch of con artists running what has to be one of the best-known Internet scams in the world?

Spears fell victim to the "Nigerian scam," which is familiar to almost anyone who has ever had an e-mail account.

The e-mail pitch is familiar to most people by now: a long-lost relative or desperate government official in a war-torn country needs to shuffle some funds around, say $10 million or $20 million, and if you could just help them out for a bit, you get to keep 10 (or 20 or 30) percent for your trouble.

All you need to do is send X-amount of dollars to pay some fees and all that cash will suddenly land in your checking account, putting you on Easy Street. By the way, please send the funds though an untraceable wire service.

By this time, not many people will fall for such an outrageous pitch, and the scam is very well-known. But it persists, and for a reason: every now and then, it works.

Spears received just such an e-mail, promising her that she’d get $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative – identified in the e-mail as J.B. Spears – with a little money up front. "That's what got me to believe it," Spears said.

It turned out to be a lot of money up front, but it started with just $100.

The scammers ran Spears through the whole program. They said President Bush and FBI Director "Robert Muller" (their spelling) were in on the deal and needed her help.

They sent official-looking documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and even from the United Nations. Her payment was "guaranteed."

Then the amount she would get jumped up to $26.6 million – if she would just send $8,300. Spears sent the money.

More promises and teases of multi-millions followed, with each one dependent on her sending yet more money. Most of the missives were rife with misspellings.

When Spears began to doubt the scam, she got letters from the President of Nigeria, FBI Director Mueller, and President Bush. Terrorists could get the money if she did not help, Bush’s letter said. Spears continued to send funds. All the letters were fake, of course.

She wiped out her husband’s retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car. Both were already paid for.

For more than two years, Spears sent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted.

Spears said she kept sending money because the scammers kept telling her that the next payment would be the last one, that the big money was inbound. Spears said she became obsessed with getting paid.

An undercover investigator who worked on the case said greed helped blind Spears to the reality of the situation, which he called the worst example of the scam he’s ever seen.

He also said he has seen people become obsessed with the scam before. They are so desperate to recoup their losses with the big payout, they descend into a vicious cycle of sending money in hopes the false promises will turn out to be real.

Now, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim.

She hopes her story will warn others to listen to reason and avoid going down the dark tunnel of obsession that ended up costing her so much.

Spears said it would take her at least three to four years to dig out of the debt she ran up in pursuit of the non-existent pot of Nigerian gold.

 

                                     

Comments

[Brian MacLeod]

The worst of it is she has funded them to keep doing this.

Greed is its own reward.

[A Brown]

how laughable to read about the incompetent Police in this day and age,..still unable to trace these criminal via the internet

Strange how the KGB,..Mossad and the CIA can trace anyone in a few hours

instead of the millions of bloggers on the www slating the women,..why not donate one quid to her to help her out

it costs the trolls that in spamming time

[bob]

$400,000? I'm sorry but I think this lady is a greedy fool, not a victim.

I can't understand why she couldn't rationalise her situation - huge, crippling financial losses every month - and conclude that she had been duped once and for all. Surely losing that first $100-1000 should be enough cause for concern among ordinary people!

Someone - for the good of her family - keep her the hell away from her inbox and her credit cards!

[Tunde Olayode]

It's difficult to understand how she could be so naive. Otherwise, this puts her integrity in question. How could she expect to benefit from where she did not sow?

[Andrei]

What a greedy moron. She deserves to be ripped to shreds on the blogs.

I pity her husband - he should file for divorce and then sue her back for the money she wiped out.

Victim? Not if your family, friends, and professional experts were telling you to stop. She was, frankly, a total fool.

[Leila]

nincompoop

[C Curtis]

Incredibly stupid and greedy of her to fall for this.

Someone tried to scam me this week. I've sent the info to the authorities and didn't fall for it for one second.

And she's supposed to be in charge of people's lives??

[Terry]

I feel for Mrs Spears & urge her to somehow turn this around and use this incident as a sign from above that she should devote her life to staying on top of the most recent scams and educate the vulnerable elderly people out there so that they never become a victim!

[nokequig@eircom.net]

Theres no fool like an old fool,except perhaps a greedy fool.Whatever about being conned,what is remarkable is that many others were aware of this scam and advised caution,and all were ignored.A sad story,but a fool and their mortgaged money are soon parted. NoelQ Wicklow,Ireland

[Alfie Hynes]

She's a bloody idiot. And a greedy one at that. After all the warnings, after all the sob stories, and it isn't as if she has no intelligence, being a nurse and all. This is what stupidity coupled with greed brings you to. A fine example of Christian values.

Still at least it kept the scammers from bothering rational people.

[paddy]

she's obviously compulsive i some manner. question is what. clearly her issue goes beyond being "stupid", it must be a mental illness of some sort.

what amazes me is that there was no way to protect her husband from her frittering away the money like this. perhaps a reluctance based on gender?

it also shows the kind of intelligence level required of religious people, belief in the clearly absurd.

[Robert Jones]

I replied to one of these "so-called scams", and ended up sending them £15000 (all my savings) to help re-claim "lost money" due to intestacy in Nigeria.
I ended up with $18.9 Million dollars and now live in Mustique, with my own private Lear jet!

[janella Spears]

one more thing to add, as my husband wants me to add it. We had people from the customs department in Nigeria AND New York ask to send us money. I tried to look it up on the internet, call in person, and was always given the run around by the people who talked to me on the phone. I looked up phone numbers and addresses on the internet to counter varify the truth. Some were verified, but then after being varified that it was true, I found it was a fake website.

I did not know people faked websites as well.

Sincerely,

Janella Spears

[Helen]

If this woman has some kind of mental health problem or learning disability - shame on the bank officials who allowed it.

If not, then maybe she has learned her lesson. But what does she want from the publicity - free money? I'm not digging deep.

[Mike Hunt]

"Spears said it would take her at least three to four years to dig out of the debt she ran up in pursuit of the non-existent pot of Nigerian gold."
..I wish it only took me 3-4 years to save up $0.5m- what kind of nurse is she?

[KeithW]

I can not believe that anyone these days who has an Email account, still falls for this. I even have a seperate email folder into which I send all these scam emails. I usually copy them to Law enforcement agencies as well.
I feel sorry for her family not for her as she refused to listen to people in the know. A lesson to ALL who still believe in Fairies and Santa Clause.

[steve]

As you said...Pure greed with a big touch of stupidity

[Katie]

What a total greedy moron. She doesn't deserve any sympathy.

[C Nugent]

I have to say I liked the deadpan ending: "Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim."
Victim to what? Bottomless and wilful ignorance fostered by blind greed? Yeah, I'll remember that - thanks for the reminder.

[john]

Ahhh,
Stupidity and greed , that includes her family and the bank , since they knew the mony was for criminal activity , they could have blocked it.

[Rod]

Fools and their money...What an ignorant plonker she is!

[ML]

All these scams rely on is people who are greedy - that despite people in authority telling her to stop paying them, because she was convinced she was going to get paid 'soon' proves how stupid, ignorant and greedy this woman is.

[Ralph]

Dear Janella,

I am looking for investors such as yourself with a history of sound fiscal judgement, to fund the cost of our search for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Due to the unique way our operation is funded it would be prudent to send your bank details so we can deposit your share of the bounty immediately once found.
We have been working closley with PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA and he says it's OK.

[Faik]

Please do not put all the sins onto this lady. Did you ever play lottery? These Nigerian guys actually give even more hope than a lottery. I do not see anything wonderful in this story. In our country (Russia) the per cent of morons is about the same, I'm afraid.
Faik. St.Petersburg, RUSSIA

[ali]

If this woman willfully choses to ignore police advice that she is being defrauded then she only has her own greed and idiocy to answer to. I feel sorry for her husband and family who clearly also take second place where money is concerned.

[Sally Marshall]

Anyone who is sufficiently greedy and stupid to be taken in by these scams deserves the very expensive lesson they receive. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

[noughtpointzero]

The people who did it are barely even proper fraudsters, they just write to random people and say "give me some money" If you fall for it then you're just paying stupidity tax.

[John Devlin]

Conmen can be plausible; people can be victims of scams.
But this style beggars belief - anyone who actually succombs to it should be locked up for their own safety.

[Andre]

Obviously she was mindlessly greedy. How could she believe that the American and Nigerian presidents plus the Director of the FBI would get involved in a "financial transaction".

How could she fall for such a scam - surely the misspellings would be a big clue. Presumably the White House can afford to purchase a copy of a word processing program with a spellchecker!

This is a clear case of stupidity motivated by extreme greed. I feel really sorry for her family who will now really suffer because she has (presumably), destroyed their life savings. What a stupid, unforgiveable thing to do to people you supposedly love.

The lesson in this story should be: nothing worthwhile in life comes easy!

[GB]

Hello,
My name is Gordon and I'm the Prime Minister of a G7 country. Following recent problems that stem from the sub-prime crisis in the US, and have absolutely nothing to do with my fiscal ineptitude and poor management of the economy, our economy has come into a spot of bother. If you could find it within you to send some money to our account (details at HMRC@bankofengland.co.uk), we will see that you are handsomely rewarded in our soon to be worthless currency.
Many thanks,
GB

sound familiar?

[Neil]

Unbelieveable!

However, if Mrs Spears would be prepared to send me just $100, I will send her the first chapter of my new book - 'How Not To Be Fooled by Scammers' - and she will be safe forever more.

[Iain Hegerty]

Robert Jones the man who posted that he received $18.9 million for his £15,000 invested. This man should be investigated as a possible link to the nigerian con.And arrested...

[Ella]

3-4 years to recoup her losses? Can I have her job please?

Fool not victim.

[fraser]

what

an

idiot

[Mrs Trellis]

It's interesting to see how judgemental people are about this. This poor woman got expolited and drawn into something addictive. Not so different from alcohol, drugs or buy-to-let really. How about showing her some pity? Let he who is without sin throw the first stone and all that ...

[rick]

Hey Iain Hegerty...you didn't seriously believe that posting by Robert Jones did you???!! I really hope your message was also intended as comedy, just as Robert's was. If not, you sound like easy prey...

[Nick]

I blame George W Bush... he fooled millions into thinking he was a real President... even though he is semi-literate... so no wonder she believed the scammers... she is not alone!

[andrew]

losing 400,000 a sign from above???

if i were the scammers id take it as a sign from above. hehe

[Bill Bobb]

Thank you for your comment, Iain Hegerty - you display the kind of stupidity that given the article story seems to abound on the internet.

The Robert Jones comment was a joke. A joke.

He only got $18.7m.

[NotAshamedOfAnything]

It's easy to blame this woman but I can't help but feel that her family should have stepped in and done more. I mean sure - she was scammed, so she loses a few hundred, maybe a few thousand - that's her fault. But somewhere there must be a line where the family steps in. After all, would you allow a family member who was a gambler or a drug addict to blow 400 grand before you intervened?

[Peter]

"Strange how the KGB,..Mossad and the CIA can trace anyone in a few hours."

They can't. Your lack of technical knowledge and conspiracy theorist tendencies are showing. What you're proposing is on a level with believing their operatives can turn themselves invisible by thought alone.

It's trivial to be untraceable when sending email. Go to an internet cafe (there are many in Nigeria which are used for the purpose the article spoke of), create a free email account with an online provider, and off you go. When you sign off and leave, there's no sensible way to trace you. You'd have to subpoena the webmail provider for the IP the email was sent from just to get to the dead end of the cafe - or, if you're a conspiracy nut, have the KGB break into the webmail company's offices. And I haven't even touched on proxy servers, compromised wireless connections or any of the other serious ways to complete online anonymity.

The internet is not set up to make tracing the people interacting with it easy. I actually feel this is a good thing; governments that attempt large-scale surveillance on their citizens' communication habits, such as China, tend not to be regimes I'd want to live under.

[susan lythgoe]

I too received one of these emails. I was curious (knew it was a scam) to see how far it would go, and replied. I received allsorts of authentic-looking 'documents' from banks, solicitors, etc. then they asked for £3,000 up front for the 'legal fees', as I couldn't go to Madrid to sign the necessary papers. I told them I didn't have this much money, and asked them to lend it to me, and I would pay them back when I recieved my millions. Anyway, they wanted me to send a small amount of money to them via Western Union. Having never used WU before, I was curious (again!) and went onto their website. At the side was a link for anyone who felt they were being coerced into paying for something they felt might be illegal. I clicked on the link, emailed them with all the details of the scam, how much I was expected to pay, and where the money would be collected. I received a very nice emailed reply from WU some time later, informing me that thanks to my information, they were able to successfully capture and prosecute that particular gang of terrorist thugs.
My advice to anyone caught up in anything similar is, report it...there may be more out there, but they will eventually get the message...

[Tom]

Thank God she went public with this information, just imagine how many people it could have snared otherwise.... HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHA!!! Sorry, I just can't keep a straight face while saying it...!

[David]

Perhaps some clever lawyers could look at the possibility of a claim against her by her husband, It would seem that she has given her husband some very bad financial advice on how to invest his 401K!!

[Steve]

I always have some fun with these scammers- I ask for death certificates and copies of passports which they always send. In the end I tell them I will help as long as they send me £5000 to cover my initial expenses - strangely I never hear from them again!!!

[Lakshman Dalpadado]

She is a reverend and obviously a religious person. This may have something to so do with her disregarding all advice. She was obviously convinced that she was going to get the money- perhaps she had a message from above- an apparition.

This is not an uncommon situation in religious societies.

[Anonymous]

Sad, but it is the same fools who voted for Sarah Palin. They will buy anything you are selling.

[Pete J]

I used to shut down the fake bank websites and do stories for scamorama.

How stupid are these people though ? After a while i thought forget it, if people are stupid and greedy its their own fault. Ridiculous

[dolapo]

unfortunately for some people this scam is going to be with us for ever
for another fool is born everyday
infact the first recorded variant of the scam started during the crusades
with scammers writing to the families of crusaders saying they had been captured and a ransom needed to be paid for his life the crusader would then return to find his lands and property sold even though he had never been a captive

[HRH the King of Aruba]

POOR NICE LADEE! I AM KING AND OFFER HER 100 MILLION DOLLARS TO HELP HER OUT.

ALL SHE KNEADS TO DOING IS FORWARD ME 5000 EUROPEAN DOLLARS.

I CAN GET REFERENCE FROM JACK SHIRAK!

[Mr Ed]

perhaps she should have visited the site http://www.419eater.com/ she would be an expert in creaing a scam on them now

[LG]

"Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted."

She was simply a stupid and greedy old woman who deserved what she got.

[wake up sheople]

She is no more gullible than the millions of people who think that arabs are responsible for 911 or all the other lies spoon fed to them. Sheople belive anything mainstream media or goverment tells them. 400k is nothing compared to 2 trillion dollars that the government stole from pensions and 401k's. these people who have money in the stock market are just as stupid as this lady. wake up people before you are placed in fema detention camps. NWO and illuminati are robbing and stealing from all of us.

[Robin Mutoid]

Well.. I wonder how many emails were sent out to gain the 'harvest' of this one sad woman and her families money?

Probably not a bad return though! Enough to keep the Nigerian scammers hopefull of yet one more.. it's probably addictive from BOTH sides!

I agree.. how the hell does a nurse stash THAT amount of cash anyway? Definitely 'avaricious' in nature I maintain!

[Patrick Mooney]

Everyone ripping this old woman needs to get off of their high horse. Scams like these depend on trust and delusion, and each of you has no doubt been scammed before.

Many of you are still being scammed by those you trust. Take the Federal Government, for example.

Most people who work in the private sector are conned into believing each year that their earnings are taxable.

The Federal Government rakes in trillions of dollars each year off of this scam, but where is the public outcry against that?

I urge anyone reading this far down the page to go to losthorizons.com to learn the real truth before you fall prey to any more of Uncle Sam's scams.

Happy Tuesday!

[Roxan]

It sounds like she had plenty warnings, but she still went through with it anyway.

[Mike S]

And she's counseling people on their spiritual lives?????!!!!!!

[George Stone]

Isn't it funny that she says she doesn't consider herself a "sucker"? :)

Watch the interview: http://www.janellaspears.com

[It's not that they can't]

It's not that police couldn't do something, it's that they don't and even if they wanted to, what do you suspect they can do to people in Africa? Have a warrant out for their arrest and track them down and get them extradited to the US? Does this make it clear to you why the police do nothing?
This woman is an idiot and sounds as though she probably is also an addicted gambler, no one other than a pathalogical gambler would be such an idiot and continue to go on and on with something like this.

[eugene]

sounds a lot like my 401-K.

[judy carr]

Thank God the law wasn't invented by stupid people like the majority of these posters who believe that people should be punished for having awful things done to them. So you were stabbed in the chest? Stupid you for living in a dodgy area! So you got runover by a drunk driver - stupid you for crossing the road when it's a well-known fact that crossing the road is one of the riskiest activities we can do! Geez you lot make me SICK.

[Vashra]

Are you kidding me?

MY NINE YEAR OLD knows about Nigerian Internet scam letters...

I sure hope none of this "reverend's" money was from other people's offerings!

[Stephen]

3 to 4 years recoup her losses? Dream on. You don't recoup a retirement account and paid off house with 4 years of wages. How sad.

[hank]

I was just reading one of those emails sent to my account. I get them everyday and every now and then get a laugh out of reading them. Don't they have ms word with spell check over there for crimey sakes. I bet she feels really stupid..even I wouldn't of done that!

[hank]

She could of helped out 800 people with buying christmas presents this year (500 ea), instead of giving it to those fools..what a dum dum.I would of showed her all kinds of websites about that scam and all she would of had to do is pay off my Harley (08 ultra classic) Why didnt her friends and family do that? like they say birds of a feather flock together.

[jesse hatcher]

Who in Nigeria would have access to that kind of money? Or, why would someone trust those clowns with a will? I got the same phoney FBI E-Mail myself.

[This is not a scam!]

She should have sent them the money they demanded then she would be rich by now! I made $3.4 million from my original $170,000 investment. This is possible because of Nigeria's huge oil reserves. ;)

[Mr. Eye-wanna Bailout]

Hey...all she has to do is go crying to the Dem congress, and they'll be sure to give her a bailout too!!

[Jah Rich]

Whats really funny is its only going to take her 3-4 years to recoup the losses. Forget being an Systems Engineer, i'm retraining to be an RN. Sounds like a bad day at the casino if you ask me.

[fractal]

I'm sure the Nigerians would put that money to better use than that old stupid cow. Probably to purchase things such as food, water and other necessary basics that the world has pretty much denied them of. One has to wonder, what causes such desperation in the first place.

[Sokurah]

...and she's a reverend?

Does she still think God watches over her? :D

[Mr. Foolmeonce Shamonme]

I think this lady needs to learn a new sign language using just the middle finger and to point it to the scammers. She also needs to take a class on how not to have OCD which played a pivotal role in her obsession or trying to obtain something that was not attainable. Hope does not spring in nigeria.

If anyone is reading this message, I have a few bridges for sale, very cheap, I also have some land in south Florida for sale if anyone is interested.
fool me once, shame on me, fool me 400,000.00 times, shame on me being the greedy fool.

[CL]

I've been in Sweet Home on the way to Crater Lake National Park. Hard to believe it would take someone living there only 4 years to recoup almost half a million. But they grew really sweet corn! Something else must be wrong with this lady. Until they figure it out, don't let her touch your I.V.

[Charles D.]

Darwin would be satisfied. Obviously, intelligent life in Nigeria has just proven itself more fit and worthy of the wealth.

[Evan]

Basic psych, people. Don't be so harsh. As you invest more money in it, you become more personally invested in it being true. You convince yourself you're doing the right thing, because it becomes increasingly more painful to realize you're wrong. People like to avoid cognitive dissonance - the idea that "I am a competent, rational, capable person" does not jive with "I am throwing lots and lots of my money down a hole", so as the disparity grows, you step up your efforts to convince yourself of the pleasant one.

Really, I bet you just have to be fall for the first couple of transfers and the rest become much easier. Apart from falling for it initially - yes, that's way dumb - I doubt that any of you are above that.

[Nico]

Lady: you suck at the Internet.

[Jack]

Gee wiz, I sure hope this defective unit hasn't polluted the gene pool with any off-spring. Well, anyone that stupid should lose their $$. The thing is though, the useless folks that run these scams are encouraged to send me MORE spam. The death penalty is the only answer..........for the perpetrators and the "victims".

[iesvs]

People with this level of stupidity/senility should not be allowed near an internet connection. Serves her right.

[Arvind Narayanan]

Mr. Eye-wanna Bailout: reason.tv already made just that satirical video :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9nk8XwHbS4

Anyways, no sympathies for this person, she deserved what she got.

[Jeff]

This woman is an idiot, and not just for the myriad of reasons already discussed here.

No, she's an idiot FOR GOING PUBLIC. There was no need to warn the rest of us. There aren't many people who need to be told that sending $400k to strangers is a bad idea. There aren't many people who believe a transaction of this gravity involving legitimate political figures from around the world would ever need to involve some random independent citizen such as themselves. We don't need to be warned. We are not idiots.

What the warning HAS ACTUALLY DONE, however, is serve to remind the Nigerian scammers that even though most of us are no where near as stupid as they'd wish, have hope. Keep at it. Send those scams. Because, eventually, you're going to hook yourself another Janella Spears.

...and that's why it never should've been made public. It's encouragement. Nothing more.

[wigger mcgavin]

Ahahahaa hahahah hahahaha hahahaha hahahaha hahahahah ahahahahah ahahahah...

Oh my gosh... is this for real? This has to be a joke. Nobody and I mean NOBODY can be that STUPID!!

Ahahaha
ahahah
ahahah

[Adam]

oh my dog, what a stupid lady. i find it funny how she says shes making her story public to warn others. i dont think anyone else needs a warning because nobody else is dumb enough to fall for it.

she ignored officals and family members when they told her to stop. the only thing shes a victim of is her own stupidity. i wouldnt be suprised if she fell for the same scam again later in life.

[Hyper Pete]

The difference between genius and stupidty is that genius has its limits.

Albert Einstein

[Alan TrustWorthy]

Looks like there is many smart asses in Nigeria. Somebody should think and give these people real jobs, like salesmen or something. People with these skills should be awarded!!!

[James]

She could write a book about it and make millions!

[arturo bandini]

"Lightning fast sing-language" is a learned skill, not a measure of intelligence. By the measure of this scam, she is a dullard. Neither is it true to posit that she is comparable to someone who has been stabbed, unless that person ran toward the blade believing it to be made not of cold, sharpened steel but of marshmallows and angel's tears.
No surprise she's religious, is it?

[blogster99]

It reminds me of my roommate who tried to sell and buy goods on craigslist. I tried to warn him about all the scams and even sent him to the terms of use pages with the warnings. He wouldn't listen to me about not dealing locally and dealing with people in Nigeria etc LOL. and Got scammed over and over again. I think some people just have to learn the hard way for themselves. Thats what it comes down too.

[Multi-Snibbo user]

... a typo in the article, I'm assuming (probably badly-written notes by the reporter - have you seen their shocking handwriting?). Anyway, I'm certain it should have read 34 years, not 3-4 years! Anyway, poor Janella: more to be pitied than scorned!

[Ann Druyan]

anyone heard of Michael Shermer and Carl Sagan explaining why people believe in weird things? http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html and http://www.skeptic.com/

[jesus m f christ]

One dumb olde broad.

[White Hawk]

It seems entirely deserved to me - I don't believe that a normal, sane, and intelligent person could get this far into it (with warnings from family and law officials) and consider herself a 'victim'. I would call her an 'enabler' - both in furthering her own victimisation, and in funding these scumbags in their endeavours.

As for 'three to four years' to get out of the debt she's put herself into... $400,000 dollars would put me in debt until my dying day, so no, I don't think sending her a helpful dollar is a worthy alternative to pointing her out as a total moron.

Thieves and scum continue to thrive because of idiots like her. She should be brought up on charges. :P