Postman loses £130000 savings

[swoosta]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... Space.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A postman told today how he sank into depression and debt after losing £130,000 in an internet scam involving Nigerian fraudsters.
Shane Symington described how an apparently innocent friendship that he formed with an American woman through the MySpace website turned into a 'nightmare' as he started handing over money.
The 32-year-old said he was friends with 'Angela Gates' for several weeks in the spring of 2007 before she suddenly started asking for money to pay for her mother's funeral and medical expenses.
He said the requests then carried on for money to pay for legal fees so that the woman, who called herself Angela Gates, could free up land that she had inherited apparently worth $2million.
The requests continued throughout the year and, by last year, Mr Symington had handed over his bank details and more than £100,000.
He said that he became suspicious when the woman stopped communicating with him and contacted what he thought was a website run by the FBI in America but which turned out to be another scam.
Mr Symington, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, said he then got a text message from his 'friend' Angela who revealed that it was all a fraud.
'It said that it was all false and that Angela was actually a man from Nigeria', Mr Symington said.
'I guess he came clean because he thought he had taken all the money he could.'
But his problems did not end there as he was then contacted by another woman, again from America, claiming she had also been caught in the scam.
He said that he then helped pay her legal expenses and the cost of hiring two ex-FBI agents in an attempt to regain the lost money for both of them.
Mr Symington said that he now believes that these people are also involved in the scam. He said that he had paid out more than £30,000 to them, bringing his total losses to more than £130,000
He said: '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.
'Before this happened, I used to go out every night, now I just stay in because I've lost all the self-confidence in my life and I don't have the money to go out any more. I've also had five weeks off with depression from work.'
Warning others to be extremely careful before handing any money over to people they have met through the internet, he said: 'It's just wicked people getting everything they can get out of people.
'You just can't trust anyone on the internet. I want to warn people but I know I won't be the last to fall for something like this.'
Detective Constable Jon Knox, of Hampshire Police, added: 'This is a very sad situation, and this man has now parted with a huge sums of money through his own good nature - in trying to help others and then to recover some of what he had lost.
'We do not want anyone else to fall foul of this kind of shocking activity and I would warn anyone who is asked for money over the internet by people they do not know to refuse and not put yourself at risk.'
A police spokeswoman added that there was little police could do to help Mr Symington get his money back.
She said: 'The money cannot be recovered due to the current political situation in Nigeria, resulting in a lack of co-operation from the police in the country.'

[lover]

well he is no rocket scientist

[theflyingpostman]

Comments from the Daily Mail readers:

I always believed postmen were poorly paid, obviously I was misled.....

- jim, london, 16/1/2009 7:19

While this unfortunate man has had his good nature preyed upon shamelessly, how come a 32 year old postman have so much cash savings and how could he really believe that the photos of the model were really of the person he thought he was dealing with?

- Penny, London, 16/1/2009 7:29

A 32 yr old Postman with £130K savings?. It must be an excellent paying job. No wonder the Royal Mail is so expensive.

- Joe, Polmont. Scotland., 16/1/2009 7:38

How do these people get caught ? surely we have had lots of information about these kind of scams . they prey on people's kindness . The postal service can;t be too bad to have £130,000 in savings. WOW !!!

- STEVE COLE, Hitchin Hertfordshire

[TrueBlueTerrier]

earlier story - with explanation where he got money from can be seen at http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=13725" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Yahoorsur]

Fool and his money etc etc,now wheres my betting slip for the last race.
Maybe he should have had a look at this site,theres some gems on here about the scammers being scammed
http://www.419eater.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mailsort6]

How many times have people been told about these scams on the internet, how can someone send money to someone they have never met. It just shows the sort of society we live in, that we cannot even trust some people.

[Stormproof]

No chance of me getting scammed, I have'nt got any savings, unless they scam me between 12.01am -5pm on a Friday

[NWpostie]

If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

I sometimes get some Nigerian emails but I don't reply to any of them, they will think my account is inactive, never ever reply they will never leave you alone if you do.

I never hand cash over to total strangers even friends, "Lend money lose a friend" money can sour friendships, the odd tenner you may be ok with , not the likes of 100s and so on, feel sorry for this guy, he must be lonely and didn't have much of a life to feel the need to connect with strangers from the other side of the world, I am getting the perception that Nigerians are all scammers one and all, obvious there are some good ones, but this will poison any dealing with them on a commercial level, banking, finance and international business dealings,

I feel sorry for the guy but it is not the end of the world, he still has his health and his life in front of him at 32 unlike AIDs ravanged Nigeria sooner or later the sacammers will cop it, pure Karma.

[Wild Cat]

Wel they say a fool and his money are soon parted,only this unfortunate bloke is not the only fool, as :cfo and :lfo think that we are all fools who can be conned into handing over tens of thousands of pounds of our own money in one go,however it was not for funeral expenses or a sick grand mother but for pension reform and flexibilty.

Next time you want to laugh at the poor bloke who was ripped off by Nigerian scammers you can laugh on the other side of your face when you realise that you have been duped by these two.

As for the idiot who handed over the money he will probably be back on his delivery at 4.30am on monday loading up his car with 8 pouches worrying that Royal Mail will go bust unless he helps the DUM out by doing a little extra.

[fmrPOSTIE]

Was this guy a twat or something. I'm sorry but what a mug! I know some posties are lacking up top a bit but this takes the biscuit.

Think he worked at the same office as me too...