Truth in Spam: Woman Marries Nigerian Prince
By Editor | December 12, 2007
Austin, TX - December 12, 2007 — When Austin resident Harriet Tubbs received an email from a self-proclaimed Nigerian prince with financial woes, her first impression was spam and fraud. She never imagined a love story could come out of it.
Harriet Tubbs is certainly not new to the Internet. The marathon runner and divorced mother of two has been an active Internet user for more than five years, shopping online, participating in web forums, and even publishing her own blog about marathon training.
So when Harriet received an unsolicited email from somebody claiming to be a Nigerian prince in need of financial help, she was immediately suspicious.
“I get those emails all the time,” said Harriet. “Some shady character will email me and ask for help moving funds around or whatever. I know that it’s usually fraud and what not, but something about this email compelled me to respond.”
Here is an excerpt from the email Harriet Tubbs received on September of this year:
Dearest Friend:
My name is Moses Odukai, and I am a Nigerian prince currently residing in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. I am writing to seek your assistance in a very urgent matter. Government opposition forces have gathered against us, and we need your help to combat them. These forces that oppose us are also anti-American, so they are a common enemy! We have set up a Nigerian defense fund, which you can conveniently donate money to online by visiting the following web address…
Most readers of the Austin Probe will no doubt recognize this message as a common form of spam. Often, these spam emails come from “gentlemen” claiming to be in Russia, Nigeria, Liberia and elsewhere around the world. In fact, there is even a library of fraud emails online, intended to educate Internet users about such scams.
But something about this particular email evoked a response from Harriet Tubbs.
“I can’t say exactly what it was,” Harriet explained. “Just this feeling, you know. Like there was an actual person on the other end of this one … somebody who needed help. So I wrote back and asked for more information.”
What followed was a sequence of emails exchanges and transoceanic visits that could not have been better written by a Hollywood producer. As it turns out, this particular email was sent from a legitimate Nigerian prince with a legitimate defense fund. Harriet began conversing with Prince Odukai by email, and then by phone, and eventually in person. The prince eventually paid for Harriet to fly to Nigeria so the two could meet.
“Most of my friends told me I was crazy,” Harriet said. “They thought I was going to be kidnapped or worse, and that they’d never see me again. But I had this warm feeling about Prince Odukai, and I knew I had to meet him in person.”
Flash forward to the present, and Harriet Tubbs is now living in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. She stays at the royal palace with her prince, and she considers each new day as another chapter in her fairy tale.
Image: Harriet Tubbs of Austin, Texas with Prince Obukai of Nigeria
“We are so happy we found each other,” she said. “It was a one in a million chance that we started talking to one another, and I’m thankful for it always!”
As for Prince Odukai, he was shocked to find out that his email replicated the very tactics used by Internet scam artists. His was an honest plea for help that unfortunately (and coincidentally) looked exactly like the spam emails we all know so well.
“I was horribly embarrassed,” Prince Odukai told us in a phone interview, speaking from Nigeria. “I could not believe that certain nefarious individuals would send such communiqués for the purposes of fraud. It wasn’t until my sweet Harriet explained it to me that I had even heard of such a thing. But something good came out of my email campaign … something very, very good. So I am thankful for it.”
Topics: Austin News |
April 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Oh boy. She fell for it. Can’t wait to hear what happens within a few years. I too was involved with a “nigerian prince”…. he is now in court in collin county, texas for having scammed his 50th victim of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yes, Nigerian men are very smooth and will fool the pants right off of you.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
My dear this is not true of ALL nigerian men. Just like american men are all different you can not judge them all by the wrongful acts on one. These scammers we have agreed are very lazy people who take the weakness of others to make their profits. But I have been with my Nigerian husband since 2005 during the dating process he NEVER asked me for any money or anything else. I had previously been almost scammed and taken to court but by the Grace of God all charges were removed so I do know where you are coming from. So. don’t always judge one book by its cover. Open the book up and read the contents.
Shola
May 4th, 2008 at 10:00 am
oh boy she is lucky, then because at times good things can come out of bad things , and bad things can come out good things .
Believe do helps at times, if you believe they can’t do any thing to you , just think positively.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Girl, make a run for it!! You’ve been had!! Take cover! You will soon find out what he is after!! RUN!!!!