Scam Me Twice, Shame on Me . . .

Regular readers of these pages are bound to be familiar with the ubiquitous Nigerian Scam, a con which plays on infinite variations of the same theme: luring a victim on with promises to cut him in on a share of vast wealth. Too late does the pigeon realize the only money to be had from this scheme is that which the fraudsters have suckered him into parting with in pursuit of an elusive pot of gold.

Occasionally a conman comes up with an unusual twist on the Nigerian Scam, something amusing enough to stand out from the dozens of variations of this flimflam we're spammed with every day. We received one such version this morning, a sort of uber-scam in which the perpetrator claims to be a "Chairman of Financial Aid" in Nigeria and offers to help previous victims of the scam recover their lost monies:

Of course, this benevolent "chairman" is running the very same scam on the people he's offering to help — trying to hoodwink the gullible into throwing even more good money after bad. Victimizing people who have already been victimized is about the lowest form of crime there is, sort of like the burglar who figures that his previous marks have bought brand-new replacements for all the items he took from them, so he goes out and robs them again. It's hard to believe that people could be duped twice in the same fashion, but when it comes to money, some of us let greed or pride get the better of our common sense.

Last updated:   10 August 2004