The fine line between greed and stupidity

From Agence-France Presse:

Nine Nigerians have been jailed in Ghana for faking e-mails and letters, including one from the Ghanaian president, to dupe a Frenchman out of 185,000 dollars (120,000 euros), reports said Sunday.

The nine were sentenced to five years each in the Ghanaian capital Accra on February 29 after being found guilty of fraud, according to Ghana's GNA press agency.

They were found to have faked a series of official-looking mastheads from the office of the president, the heads of police, national security and the prosecutor-general, plus the governor of the central bank.

One victim was Frenchman Gilles Gillet de Laumont, who believed an e-mail telling him there was 8.5 million dollars waiting for him in a Ghanaian bank account if he deposited 185,000 dollars there to cover taxes and expenses.

The e-mail was accompanied by official-looking letters, including a faked one from the governor of the central bank.

Gillet de Laumont travelled to Ghana in May 2005 to deposit 35,000 dollars and was expected to return in September to hand over the remaining 150,000.