Do intelligent people fall for get-rich-quick schemes as transparent as the e-mail scams sent to virtually everyone with an e-mail address? Scams such as the one I received yesterday and reprinted below? Unfortunately, people who live in a rural Michigan community know that not only do people fall for these schemes, they often lose huge sums of money that don’t belong to them through their gullibility.

Thomas Katona, the elected treasurer of Alcona County for almost 14 years, and an accountant, has been accused of embezzling funds from the county only to lose it to a Nigerian scam. The amount may be as much as $1.2 million from the county’s investment accounts as well as $72,500 of his own money. Auditors won’t know for a few months just how much he lost or how that loss will affect the county’s rainy day/capital purchases fund.

Katona is facing charges of embezzlement, attempted embezzlement, and forgery. He is jailed with a $1 million bail. As foolish and greedy as Katona was, he at least is alive, if in jail. Some people don’t fare as well, traveling to foreign countries to make contact with their investment partners, and disappearing without a trace. For a more indepth look at the Nigerian scams, visit this site. And be sure to take a look through the scams they’ve collected in their Nigerian Scam Letter Exhibit.

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