Sweet Home woman says she was defrauded of $400,000

SWEET HOME — A Sweet Home woman has fallen prey to an international network of professional scam artists, and now she’s working with a money management service to climb out of $400,000 in debt.

“As a reverend and an American, I just wasn’t prepared for that level of dishonesty,” said Janella Spears.

Spears, a nursing administrator in Lebanon and a volunteer at Sweet Home Community Chapel, lost the huge sum of money through many small payments to various e-mail scammers that claimed to be from Canada, Texas, Africa and other places.

She’s been defrauded by people claiming to represent banks, credit companies, her relatives, the police and even the FBI.

“What’s impressed the police the most about this is the level of professionalism these scam artists have,” she said.

Spears has taken out a mortgage on her house and a lien on her car to help pay the debt, which she hopes to repay within four years.

It all started in August 2005, when Spears received an e-mail requesting $100 to allegedly help an distant relative.

Another small payment was requested, and then another and another.

“I kept thinking it’s only a couple hundred dollars. I can get it back,” she said.

In return, the scammers e-mailed elaborately forged documents like death certificates and legal notices.

They impersonated bank presidents who were looking into her missing funds. They claimed to be credit services attempting to straighten out her finances. They e-mailed saying they were African police running down a lead on the thieves. They even impersonated the FBI agent in Eugene with whom Spears was working.

Spears wired multiple payments — the largest was $15,000 — to different accounts, hoping to get some of her money back. Sometimes, people claiming to represent credit services would transfer thousands of dollars onto her credit card, only to take it away again in a month or so.

A man from Texas called her as recently as Wednesday, she said, asking for another chance to “make things right.”

Police have insisted that Spears no longer respond to anyone e-mailing her about money. She said she hopes others can learn from her mistakes and avoid the same pitfalls.