419 scam claims a life

If you’ve been on the Internet for more than five minutes, it’s likely you’ve received or read something about the so-called “419” scam.  There are many examples of the intitial contact available for perusal on the Internet, so knowing it when you see it shouldn’t be difficult.  Despite the fact that this scam has been around for years and has been perpetrated via snail-mail, e-mail, telephone, and any other means of communication available, people still fall for it on a regular basis.  This time, however, the victim decided to strike back — with deadly consequences.

Warnings and precautions about the so-called “4-1-9” scam abound (see HoaxBusters, the US Secret Service, the 419 Coalition Website, the Better Business Bureau and snopes.com for a few examples found via a simple Google search).  Despite the overwhelming number of warnings and precautions and public awareness campaigns about it, people continue to fall prey to this global industry of grifters.

On Friday, February 21, 2003, the scam took a deadly turn.  An unidentified 72-year-old Czech man, having had his bank account drained after he provided his account and personal information to someone posing as a senior Nigerian official, visited the Nigerian embassy in the Czech Republic in an attempt to recover his stolen money (something he had done regularly over the past year).

On this occasion, he was referred to 50-year-old Michael Lekara Wayid, Nigeria’s consul in the Czech Republic.  Soon after his meeting with Wayid began, raised voices and shots were heard, at which point the embassy receptionist went to investigate.

Apparently still in a rage, the Czech man then shot the receptionist in the hand, but she was able to flee and contact embassy security.  The man was taken into custody at the scene but collapsed shortly thereafter.  He and the receptionist were both taken to Prague’s Central Military Hospital for treatment, and both are expected to make full recoveries.

As sad as it is that this man, obviously in his retirement years, lost his financial stability to one or more unscrupulous heathen, this scam is not new and has been publicized in a wide variety of mediums.  It’s also only for a lack of common sense that anyone could fall for this (I know that’s harsh, but it’s also quite true).  For that reason, I have very little pity for those, apparently trying to make a quick buck, who fall prey to it.  In addition, I cannot believe for a moment that the Czech man in this case truly believed the Nigerian consul was involved in any way with the scam and that the Nigerian government could somehow be held accountable for the crime committed.

In an age of victimization, we have only ourselves to blame in such cases.  In times past, I would have felt sympathy for those who fell for such well-thought scams and crimes, but no more.  If we have not learned by now that the world is full of criminals and those who would take advantage of us, and we have not learned that, if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is, then we have no one but ourselves to blame.

If you’re looking to make a quick buck, play the lottery or go gamble at a legal casino.  Your chances may be small, but the money you lose is lost willingly and legally and in a way that is state-sanctioned.  To engage with total strangers based on the belief that they somehow have your best interests in mind reveals a level of naiveté that boggles the mind.

It’s time for people to take responsibility for their own actions.  It’s time to stop being victims.  It’s time to evolve beyond this insane stupidity or to wholly and personally accept the consequences of our actions sans the need to point fingers.

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