Either way, so these days when even the smart guys are getting taken, when banks are falling victim to fraudsters and conmen, you now have to ask yourself, who scares you more? The semi literate trying to pull a “Yahooze” from an internet café in Lagos or the Palm Beach Country Club snob, that was “Investing” the money of friends and family? Imagine this, Bernard Madoff runs into a friend, despite the fact that he knows the man is broke (after all, he just “invested” some of his money) he will seat with him and eat expensive steak dinner, drink $100.00 a shot Cognac, and tell him to can rest easy, that his money is safe. The fact that the SEC did not bother scrutinizing a fund seating on $50B (How much is Nigeria’s budget for 2009?) in capital, tells you something about how completely this guy was trusted in the investment community. The sheep list covers every spectrum; it includes major European banks, probably your 401K mutual fund, movie producers, pension boards, labor unions, it seems to go on and on. 
My cousin said that he cannot access his bank accounts, E bay accounts or even make purchases in Amazon with a credit card, simply because he is in Nigeria and most web portals will not allow IP addresses originating from Nigeria to execute even legitimate financial transactions. This is how they counter internet fraud? By shutting down, everybody? Despite the fact that it is common knowledge that the level of organization, sophistication and global reach that the Russians and Chinese have brought to credit and electronic fraud will not be matched by Nigerians, even if every single one of us took to advance fee fraud, 24/7. I don’t hear of anyone blocking Chinese IP addresses, even while they are hacking Pentagon’s classified files.
If not for this financial meltdown, Bernard Madoff would have continue his merry little game of “Financial Musical Chairs” with the watchdogs (Auditors, SEC, however else dropped the oversight ball on this) acting as his guest DJs. Many wealthy people face financial ruin as we speak, but what lessons is anyone going to learn from all of this? Sadly I say nothing, “trust but verify” only applies to everybody else. The same principle that makes it ok for banks to only lend you money if you don’t need it, applies here, regulators will continue to only fact check the little guy, the small fries, they of the small schemes and minor hits, they will be stopped at the door. The smart ones will continue to rob the banks from the inside.
There are so many shady characters around these days. There are the guys on TV telling you “ I earned $9K a month doing nothing” all you have to do to be like me, is visit the website 82fastmoney.com, the TV station does not mind collecting the AD revenue, even if the message they are spreading is barely legal, nobody cares. These days every time I turn on the TV, somebody is offering a “reverse mortgage”; or in other words selling your property one monthly payment at a time. They claim it a way for seniors to tap the equity in their homes without ever moving out, I say it a way for banks to steal homes from the elderly while they are still alive. Websites Offer 3 month PH.Ds, nobody thinks it is bad idea, it’s all good fun until somebody gets hurt, then it’s just news. 
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