Unclaimed Nigerian Funds Top $76 Billion

Since the beginning of this year, the government of Nigeria has collected over US$76 billion from unclaimed accounts. According to official estimates, over a thousand Nigerian millionaires were assassinated or poisoned for various reasons this year, leaving behind widows and/or orphans who could not claim the funds because, tragically, their pleas for help went unanswered by total strangers in less wealthy countries such as the United States.

Liona Biagros was one such widow who chose to send her plea by email to Miss Tiffany Henderson of St. Paul, Minnesota. Tragically, the email, worth two million dollars, was intercepted by Miss Henderson's spam filter. Ms. Biagros now begs on the street while Miss Henderson is entering seventh grade with an iPod shuffle as her only birthday present.

In a similar case, Mrs. Alice Fontlarue of Fort Worth, Texas, learned recently of her missed opportunity to receive over $10 million in unclaimed funds from Nigeria. "Dang it," she complained, "My friends told me that email was a scam, but I should have listened to my own instincts."