but sent only $30,000 to a bank account in Ghana.
That's a usage of the word "only" I'm not familiar with.
A Nigerian national who had been living in Canada was taken into custody by Winnipeg police in connection with a West African email scam alleged to have bilked an 84-year old man of $30,000. Toluwalade Alonge Owolabi, 36, of Toronto, was charged with fraud in excess of $5,000, fraud of less than $5,000 and five other offenses …
I was trying to post a link to the 419eater.com site - but it wasn't coming up. Apparently the site has been hacked (there's a surprise). Fantastic site, if the it does come back up or the material is posted elsewhere, then be prepared to lose a day or two.
There is a particularly amusing posting from one 419 eater who got a scammer to spend considerable time and effort and money recording a reading of an entire book on the promise that he would be paid for his effort, while simultaneously communicating with the same scammer posing as a gullible victim in order to show just how nasty the scammer was and how he deserved what the "eater" in question was putting him through.
Anwyay - the point of my post was to reiterate something I read on the site, that apparently it's not just the incredibly naive and or greedy who get scammed by these folk. This runs contrary to common sense, but if the guys as 419eater say so then I'm inclined to believe.