"Nigerian E-Mail" Scam Tricks Oregon Woman Into Losing $400,000

November 17, 2008 11:44 p.m. EST

Sweet Home, OR (AHN) - A woman from Sweet Home, Oregon is mired in debt after losing nearly $400,000 to Internet con men in a scheme called the Nigerian scam.

Janella Spears, a nursing administrator in Lebanon and church volunteer, took the bait of the e-mail scammers in August 2005 by wiring them $100 on the promise she will get $20.5 million for helping straighten out the finances of a fake relative.

Spears continued giving small payments despite warnings from banks because she thought the people communicating with her were honest and real relatives and representatives of banks, credit companies, the police and the FBI. She also wanted to recover the money she had wired to the con artists claiming to be from Texas, Canada, Africa and other places.

The online impersonators allegedly looking into her missing funds convinced Spears they were real by e-mailing her bogus documents like death certificates and legal notices as well as temporarily transferring thousands of dollars onto her credit card account. The money was taken away again in a month or so.

Spears has mortgaged her home and car as well as used her husband's retirement savings to pay her debts.