Mr. Symington appears to be a somewhat lonely U.K. mailman who went on MySpace looking for company. He found it in Angela Gates. She chatted to him for several weeks before revealing that she needed money to help with her mother's medical and funeral expenses.
While for so many, such a request would scream "PHISH!", for Shane, it whispered, "I'll pay you back when I get my $2 million inheritance." So in a few installments, he handed over about $160,000. (Did I mention that Shane is a mailman?)
Once she'd squeezed him till she'd caught sight of his pips, Angela texted him to reveal she was both very grateful and a man from Nigeria.
Shortly afterward, Shane got an e-mail from another woman who claimed that she had been caught up in the same scam. His trust as firm as an oak trunk in a storm, he gave her some money to hire a couple of ex-FBI agents to track down Angela.
You already know what happened to that money (yes, another $50,000 or so), don't you?
....
"I feel sick from it all. I feel disillusioned, they have just played on my good nature. I've lost my life savings, I have two loans and credit card debts, I'm in huge debts because of all of this," Shane told the Daily Mail.
...
by Daba