Related Story Woman out $400K to ‘Nigerian scam’ con artists

GLENN: You know, if you had a bank document that said, "The transaction you have with this bank is nothing but legal," shouldn’t that be a red flag that’s probably not legal and there’s something shady going on? You know, when you’re performing transactions with the ever popular Central Bank of Nigeria? Kind of a clue, am I being suckered here. I mean, the king of Nigeria has left, I mean, isn’t that scam the biggest scam out there? I’m trying to — I mean, that’s like doing business with a guy whose actual name is Three Card Monte. Maybe it’s just me. Now, all right. So the transaction you have with this bank is nothing but legal, tip number one. Tip number two, Central Bank of Nigeria. And tip number three, they are asking you to wire over a two year period over $400,000 to this crazy bank and they have given you nothing in return. All so you can get a piece of the fortune of your long lost grandfather in Nigeria. I’m thinking the warning bells go off but maybe it’s just me. Well, according to Janella Spears, we should check if it’s the same Spears family.

She’s a nurse who teaches CPR and she’s a minister who has married many couples. She couldn’t believe that they knew her grandfather’s name. Now, usually if you go, isn’t your grandfather’s name Ed? I’m like, are you kidding me? Hang on, let me wire half a million dollars to you. I mean, if you know my papa’s name, then I just start bleeding cash but maybe that’s just me. Spears said she doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark. She just got sucked into an elaborate scam. Janella, you might want to reevaluate that assessment. I’m just saying. What happened is Janella opened up her e-mail one day and little did she know it would change her life. The picture’s a familiar one. Well, fairly familiar at the most. Apparently not so much to general Nell. Your grandfather, J. B. Spears, has left tens of millions of dollars behind. Just send us some money to help release the funds and we’ll give you $20 million for your trouble. They also told her that George W. Bush and FBI director Robert Mueller, spelled wrong, spelled M-U-L-L-E-R were involved. But why would you check that on the Internet? I guess at no point would Janella Spears think, hmmm. Why wouldn’t George W. Bush just send them $100 if he wanted his share of pop pop’s fortune? Instead she was thinking, gosh, this administration is so stupid. Even if free money is staring them right in the face, they screw it up. Little me, Janella Spears. You know, I don’t need help with this complicated transaction; all I do is send them money? Boy, what idiots.

Well, she sent $100 and she thought, this is going to be the easiest $20 million I’ve ever met. At least I think that’s what she must have been thinking. But her luck was about to get even bigger. As soon as she transferred that $100, the amount she was going to receive jumped from $20 million to $26.6 million. Oh, my gosh! These Nigerians are so generous. She kept getting promises of bigger, bigger payments as long as she sent them money and so she kept doing it. She kept sending the money because "They kept telling me the next payment would be the last one and they said the money was inbound." She kept paying for two years. Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials warned her this was a scam. I’ll bet you her dog knew as well. But Spears, no word yet on relation to Britney Spears but I wouldn’t doubt it, said she wouldn’t listen. When she doubted the scam, the scammers boosted her confidence with — and try not to laugh here because general Nell has feelings. The scammers boosted her confidence with letters from the president of Nigeria. Well, you don’t think that. FBI director, still spelled wrong, Muller, and President George W. Bush himself. Yes, general Nell, George W. Bush is writing you letters encouraging you to wipe out you and your husband’s retirement accounts so you can keep sending money to Nigeria. For two years she sent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the scammer. T

he total ended up to be $400,000. The only reason she stopped, the Oregon Department of Justice accidentally stumbled onto the scam in progress. They were investigating another fraud case when they noticed somebody sending $144,000 to Nigeria in three weeks. They threatened to charge her with a crime if she didn’t stop. She went, "Okay." That finally did the trick and now some guy in Nigeria is sitting on almost half a million dollars just from her. So what is it that we’re supposed to learn from this, I guess? That greed is good? Greed blinded her. It’s what caused her to dump almost her entire savings out the window. Greed. It’s unbelievable — hang on just a second. I’m getting — hang on. I’m getting an e-mail here. I was going to say it’s unbelievable… dear Glenn, we need your help. A prince left me $400 gazillion. I need you to send me $100 and for your trouble, I’ll give you $22 of the $400 gazillion. Hmmm. Should I trust this? Along with the $22 gazillion, I will also send you The Christmas Sweater that you lost when you were a young boy. Holy cow, they knew about the Christmas Sweater. How could you possibly know about that? "How much money do you possibly need? Glenn." Yeah, I’m sorry. What was I saying?