Phillip considered himself to be a pretty sharp guy, especially when it came to spotting a scam. When he got an email one day from a Nigerian widow who needed help getting her husband's fortune out of the bank, Phillip's first instinct was to delete it. But the email promised half the fortune to whomever would help, which made Phillip curious enough to reply asking for more information.
The woman wrote back, and Phillip was surprised by how legitimate her story sounded. They communicated back and forth a few more times, and the widow seemed to become more desperate with each email. She said she needed to pay $10,000 in bank fees to get the money released, so finally Phillip decided to take the leap and send her the money.
But instead of getting his share of the fortune, Phillip just kept hearing about new problems that had cropped up, requiring him to send more and more money to resolve them. By year's end, Phillip was out $50,000 with nothing to show for it. "I wish I had taken the time to really check out her story before I sent this woman money," Phillip said. "There are so many Web sites out there that warn people about scams like these. Any of them could have told me this wasn't for real."
To learn how to protect yourself from email scams, see Email
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