Scammed from thief in Nigeria through western union. Can I get my money back?

Does your elderly relative work in a bank making foreign currency exchanges? If not, something is wrong with this picture for sure.

Here's a great story about a granny in North Carolina who worked unwittingly as a money mule for years until her children intervened. Different players and countries, but you may recognize parallels.

Elder fraud: One couple's losses and hard lessons
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/elder-fraud-on ... -hard-lessons-2

Not that I'm saying to do this, but the only way you may get it back is if you find out who it was, and go there youself.

I wouldn't go there if I were you though.

I am a Nigerian and to all of you that was scammed, it's your fault.

1. How can someone tell you, you won mIllions in a lottery you never played for and you believe them- that makes you a fradulent person as well.

2. How can someone tell you to pay some amount of money to double your earnings and you go ahead to pay? That makes you a crook.

3. Hw can you travel to meet a man or woman you have never met in your life? Are you nutssssss?

I don't feel pity for y'all. Your quests for money, cheap business dealings and silly love, is the reason why you were scammed.

Please, folks, educate yourselves, your families, and others about these continued attacks against consumers through spam phone calls, faxes, and e-mails.

It's the free money syndrome. As P. T. Barnum said nearly two centuries ago, "There's a sucker born every minute." And those suckers keep falling for the same old "shills"again and again and again.

You guys who get scammed are FOOLS.  There's one born every minute.  And you guys are the prime example of hopeful greed, I fear.  NEVER, and I mean NEVER believe anything Email claiming to be from the FBI, CIA, FEDERAL RESERVE, or any where that claims you've won a lottery.  Use your heads, protect your wallets.  

And watch out for the "MONEYPACK" virus...claims to be from the FBI, wanting money for a fake crime.

Looks like it's "blame the victim" time!

Yup. I can see the Elderly falling for it, but not younger people.

I was watching the news last night, and they mencioned a telephone scam. People calling elderly people pretending they were locked up, or deported, trying to get a couple of thousands wired to them

Of course the love of a Grandparent, they wired it.

Yep, and no less from pond scum that happens to be from Nigeria!

Just goes to show you where their values lie ... in the depths of the worlds sewers!

But not everyone from there ... only the filth behind and run these scams (as in that "blame rhe victim" poster)!

I agree with you @ Chuck. Greed is one very contributing factor to them being scammed. We all receive emails from these scammers telling us we won millions of pounds in lottery, the first thing a sane person would ask is, hang on, I never played these lottery, right? But hell no, they want to make quick money from a source they never contributed to, that's just absurd.

...and sending money to a bf or gf you have never seen in real life and no nothing about?? Is sheer stupidity.

Some people want to be scammed and no matter how hard you against their idea of sending money to people they don't know, they fight you for it. I remember telling a class mate of mine when I was in Uni, not to send money to some guy she fell in love with in Nigeria via online, she quarreled with me because I was against it, she told me I wasn't her friend and wasn't happy for her cos she found love..... I am African by birth and another country's citizen by naturalization and even though I don't live in Africa anymore,  I still  know how this works.

I you hadn't wanted to make big money from cheap business deals, you will not be scammed. If you hadn't gone looking for love on the Internet from faceless untrust worthy people, you wouldn't be heart broken. For heavens sakes people, use your head. Common sense truly and really is not common.

So you ignorantly equate desperation and gullibility with greed? How foolish can you be? I'd say extremely foolish!

Greed involves wanting someone else's money but never earning their own and being too lazy to bother to make their own ... on their own! It always involves (as in all the variations of the Nigerian email scams) stealing or attempting to steal money that isn't their own! Always!

Whereas gullibility involves being foolishly trusting enough to believe something could be real with out questioning it first, and being desperate involves one feeling their situation is hopeless, even exhibiting the recklessness that can come with it!

How does that equate with greed? It doesn't! When a natural disaster hits another nation it's always the U.S. that makes the strongest or one of the strongest contributions towards helping that nation's people recover! The opposite of greed. It's called generosity! These scam emails don't just affect American's they are also going out and affecting others in other countries! And now that our own economy is in dire straits we get barraged right and left by these scam emails! Desperate times where some may be so recklessly foolish and even desperate enough to believe these lies, but not greedy!

The greed lies with those behind each of these email scams! Not the other way around! The only guilt that rests on the victims, if it can be called guilt at all, is gullibility and desperation!

In each of yours and little "Chucky's" posts all anyone else can clearly see is the feeble "blame the victim" PCTKB (pot calling the kettle black) syndrome ... nothing but pure bs!!! Got that!!! No one here is buying or falling for your lame blame game posts!

If you knew me in real life, you would realize that I am one of the few on earth that could care less if I am being called names cos guess what? It's not going onto change or stop me from telling things as I see it.

Spare me your biased lectures, if you have been scammed then deal with. Someone sends emails telling the recipient that they lost a relative and want to share the Millions the relatives left behind with someone they have never seen, the recipients decides to send money to someone they know nothing about to receive someone else's money that they supposedly worked hard for. There is a word in the dictionary called "greed" and another called "certifiably stupid" look those words up cos that's where those kind of recipients fall under.

Listen to me you victim playing bunch, I choose not to play the victim card with you all and I choose to say things that you all don't want to hear---ITS CALLED THE TRUTH. You cal either ignore me or swallow this bitter pill that I have sent your way. Last year, I was watching in the news about a woman who was looking for love online but was duped, this same woman after a few days was still on the interned searching for love, the police were aware and showed her prove that the second person was also a fraudulent person, after being told she went online again, communicating with a new lover-3 men in 2 weeks...tell me that's been gullible? Tell me that's being trusting? I call it (like I have said 500 million times) stupid.

Don't go looking to take someone's money that you did not contribute, it has nothing to do with being gullible, it's all about one man or one woman seeing an easy to make money and want to grab the opportunity even though they were not the brain behind the idea. You did not pla any lotto so. Stay away from emails and stop looking to make cool cash.

"Spare me your biased lectures, if you have been scammed then deal with. Someone sends emails telling the recipient that they lost a relative and want to share the Millions the relatives left behind with someone they have never seen, the recipients decides to send money to someone they know nothing about to receive someone else's money that they supposedly worked hard for. There is a word in the dictionary called "greed" and another called "certifiably stupid" look those words up cos that's where those kind of recipients fall under."

Once again Your way off base! Look back at one of my earlier posts. I already defined "greed" as the dictionary itself defines it, same with desperation and gullibility in order to distinguish them from greed!

Here, I'll even help some:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/greed

"Main Entry: greed 
Pronunciation: \ˈgrēd\
Function: noun
Etymology: back-formation from greedy

: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed"

The Nigerian Email scammers fit this description. They are always after everyone else's money!

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gullible

"Main Entry: gull·ible
Variant(s): also gull·able \ˈgə-lə-bəl\
Function: adjective

: easily duped or cheated
— gull·ibil·i·ty \ˌgə-lə-ˈbi-lə-tē\noun
— gull·ibly \ˈgə-lə-blē\ adverb"

Also, "Easily persuaded to believe something; credulous"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desparate

"Main Entry: des·per·ate 
Pronunciation: \ˈdes-p(ə-)rət, -pərt\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin desperatus, past participle of desperare

1 a : having lost hope <a desperate spirit crying for relief> b : giving no ground for hope <the outlook was desperate>"

Also, "adjective
1. reckless or dangerous because of despair or urgency"

And no! I haven't been scammed! Never once fell for such an obvious scam! However, your little rant here, which is pure BS, has you appearing to side with the scammers! Obviously you could care less about anyone else and only concerned with yourself! Sounds selfish to me and I'm sure to others here too! You know what? Selfishness is synonymous with greed!

And like I already said, no one here is buying your 'blame the victim' crap!

Pot meet kettle!

Please help. I am not to good with facebook and am pretty gulible. 3 nights ago a girl popped up on my fb page asking how I was doing. her name is Raquel Gonzalez (supposedly) . her fb page is posted with pictures of her and some are sexy and others look like she is hanging out with regular family members. I started talking to her , or whoever it is. She said she lives in new york city and works for UNICEF. she told me after a while that she is on a unicef mission in nigeria and cant eat the food cause it makes her sick. she doesn't have money to buy regular food and asked if I could send her money although I never met her. she said when she gets back to new york we will meet and she will make me real happy. My wife just divorced me and I am an easy target mentally. I live in mass. I started to wonder and for the hell of it I said would $100 help you and to my surprise she said $150 would be better. when I din't get back to her she got mad and said thats what she gets for telling me all her problems and if I wont help her then goodbye. looking at her sexy pix on fb I agreed to send it.I told her(or whoever it is) how can I be sure your pix are real. she insists they are and we will soon meet. I am supposed to send money in morning but have a feeling I am talking to a nigerian scam artist and will never meet her. this is the first time I have ever met anyone on internet and feel real dumb. she even sent me a 40 question test with very personal questions about my sexlife. Could go on but think I said enough. what should I do . Is this a scam..am I that stupid cuz her pix are hot

Yes, it is a scam. Those pictures may not be her.  She may be a he.  She probably doesn't live in New York City.  She (or he) probably lives in a 3rd world country where scamming dumb Americans is not a crime.

She is trying to steal $150 from you. If you send her money she will ask for more.  She'll do that for as long as you let her.  

You aren't her (his) only vicitm.  She's scamming other people, too.  Probably under a different fake name and possibly different pictures.  

Do not send her any money.

Please help. I am not to good with facebook and am pretty gulible. 3 nights ago a girl popped up on my fb page asking how I was doing. her name is Raquel Gonzalez (supposedly) . her fb page is posted with pictures of her and some are sexy and others look like she is hanging out with regular family members. I started talking to her , or whoever it is. She said she lives in new york city and works for UNICEF. she told me after a while that she is on a unicef mission in nigeria and cant eat the food cause it makes her sick. she doesn't have money to buy regular food and asked if I could send her money although I never met her. she said when she gets back to new york we will meet and she will make me real happy. My wife just divorced me and I am an easy target mentally. I live in mass. I started to wonder and for the hell of it I said would $100 help you and to my surprise she said $150 would be better. when I din't get back to her she got mad and said thats what she gets for telling me all her problems and if I wont help her then goodbye. looking at her sexy pix on fb I agreed to send it.I told her(or whoever it is) how can I be sure your pix are real. she insists they are and we will soon meet. I am supposed to send money in morning but have a feeling I am talking to a nigerian scam artist and will never meet her. this is the first time I have ever met anyone on internet and feel real dumb. she even sent me a 40 question test with very personal questions about my sexlife. Could go on but think I said enough. what should I do . Is this a scam..am I that stupid cuz her pix are hot