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Man loses

A man in the UK has been left over £100,000 out of pocket after falling for a Nigerian social engineering internet scam that was propagated through social networking website MySpace.

Shane Symington handed over £130,000 to cyber crooks after falling for the phishing scams that saw him come to the rescue of a woman whose mother was "ill" and later "died".

And after realising that it was all a con, the man from Hampshire fell victim to yet another scam, this time involving FBI agents investigating the case, whom he sponsored on different occasions, to travel to Nigeria for their investigations.

"This is a very sad situation," said detective Jon Knox. "We don't want anyone else to fall foul of this shocking activity.

"This man has parted with huge sums of money through his own good nature – by trying to help others, and then by trying to recover some of what he had lost."

According to evictims.org, reading about victims' experiences can help others understand the problems facing consumers online.

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