"In a windowless room, in a nondescript house on the other side of the world, Rupert Sessions glimpsed his fortune.
It was a metal suitcase, choked with $100 bills and protected by armed guards and a combination lock. The money had brought Sessions, an Ormond Beach retiree, all the way to the Persian Gulf.
He and a West African associate were there to collect the $21.5 million in the case. But he was concerned because the bills looked discolored.
Don't worry, officials told him. That's just a security measure. We can clean up the cash.
Finally, Sessions thought, it's ours.
There was, of course, no $21.5 million. Sessions, a 73-year-old retired electronics specialist, had been fleeced by what may be the most widespread fraud on Earth.
He had poured more than $300,000 into a Nigerian 419 scam, the label describing the legendary e-mails that promise millions but deliver nothing.
He sold stock, got a second mortgage and hocked his two cars. For more than a year, he gave virtual strangers every dollar he had. He bought them gold pens, cell phones and a laptop computer. Sessions spent so much that he now fears losing his home.
"It's all gone," he said Monday. "Everything."
Still, Sessions was so mesmerized by the well-spoken West Africans that to this day he does not think he was scammed. He ignored police warnings that the deal was bogus and instead blames his losses on corrupt foreign governments. He has not filed a complaint with authorities, and he keeps on his coffee table the carved wooden elephant and antelope given to him by his "associates.""I consider them my friends," he says. "They're not criminals."
http://www.whatsthebloodypoint.com/victim.htmWhy does this sound familiar?
"The corporations and the wealthy will give us jobs and prosperity, all we need to do is keep cutting taxes and regulations! It's the government on the backs of businesses that's keeping the economy down. You'll see."
For how long have we been hearing this now and the only thing that has changed is the wallets of the top 5% getting fatter?
It's both funny and sad how people will make fun of 419 scam victims and then turn around be enthralled by the economics of tax cuts for the wealthy and the privatization being touted by Fox News, never paying any attention to the history of these policies not working.
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