A Good Reason to Avoid Those Nigerian Internet Scams

Well, aside from the fact that they're, you know, scams... But there is this story from today's L.A. Times about a music producer who has gone missing. This seems to me to be a little different (though not much) from those stupid "missing white woman" stories that CNN, MSNBC, and rest of that miserable lot seem to love so much, but this does have what may be an object lesson for us all:

Several months ago, Irwin told his friend and former business partner Fortunato Procopio, 47, that he had been unwittingly drawn into a Nigerian Internet fraud and had been threatened by the con artists, Procopio said.

"I told him it was clearly a scam — don't be silly," Procopio said Wednesday. But Irwin later received a mysterious $50,000 check, friends and relatives said, and became increasingly concerned. Procopio and some relatives offered few details, saying police had asked them not to discuss specifics of the case.

On Sunday morning, Procopio said, he was awakened in his Venice home by a phone call that was picked up by his answering machine. When he played the recording, he heard Irwin asking for help. Irwin said he was in hiding and someone was in close pursuit.