The whole scamming the scammers thing, which I've done a few times, stems from an experience we were involved in. About 7 years ago we were approached by a professional man (Dr.) who received an email from a South African widow who needed to expatriate 30 million dollars of her family money which was wrongfully detained in Nigeria. He wanted us to help him set up a trust to receive the money. We advised him that this was a classic scam, referred him to a variety of websites on the subject and even discussed the 60 Minutes piece on the scam. We warned his wife, and many of his friends told him not to get involved. After several months of correspondence with a variety of Nigerians he called us and said that he believed it was a scam and was getting out.

Last year he called me and said that he was in big trouble. Apparently he never did get away from the scammers. He kept things going in the belief that this was the one deal that was legitimate. He kept his involvement a secret from his wife, and hid the fact that he had invested over $50,000 of their money into the network necessary to "get the money into the United States".

Dumbass.

Greedy dumbass...