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The Honest Fool: $140,000 lost to a Nigerian scam I still can't prove!
Paperback
Series: The Honest Wealth, Book 7
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jan 18 2026
Pages: 130
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.28 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if you lost $70,000 to a scammer-and then spent another $70,000 trying to get it back?
In September 2021, Rich Abbott woke up to discover $70,000 in cryptocurrency had vanished. The man he'd trusted-a Nigerian friend he'd met online-either stole it or was genuinely trying to help him recover it through Nigeria's complex legal system.
Four years later, he still doesn't know which.
THE HONEST FOOL is the unflinching memoir of a 65-year-old former pastor who spent four years and $70,000 chasing a promise that never materialized. It's not about stupidity. It's about the psychology of hope, the sunk cost trap, and what it means to choose faith over certainty-even when faith might be foolishness.
What started as $70,000 stolen became $140,000 lost:
- $850 for EFCC certification
- $2,000 for court filings
- $10,000 borrowed from a dying friend
- $11,500 in debt to a stranger who believed the recovery was real
Each time: This is the last fee. Next week, you'll have your money back.
Next week never came.
By 2025, bank statements revealed the truth: 75% of his annual income had gone to Nigeria. His marriage strained. Credit cards maxed. Everyone said he was being scammed.
But he couldn't prove it. And he couldn't stop.
This book reveals:
- How advance-fee fraud exploits psychology, not intelligence
- Why the more you invest, the harder it is to walk away
- The role of enablers in keeping victims trapped
- A former pastor's wrestling: Was I being scammed, or was God asking me to be generous?
- Why stopping doesn't require proof-it requires courage
- The moment 75% of income went to Nigeria-and why even that wasn't enough
This is not a redemption story. The scammer is still messaging. The money is still gone. The $512,000 allegedly waits in a frozen Bybit account. The uncertainty remains.
But that's the point.
THE HONEST FOOL offers something more valuable than closure: permission to walk away without certainty.
What's included:
- Complete four-year timeline from theft to breaking point
- Actual Telegram transcripts showing manipulation in real-time
- The psychology of why intelligent people get trapped
- The God forbid temptation moment when the scammer admitted being tempted
- A pastor's wrestling with faith, generosity, and gullibility
For readers of: Educated, The Glass Castle, Bad Blood
Perfect for:
- Anyone trapped by their own choices
- People who think I'd never fall for that
- Fraud prevention educators
- Those seeking honest spiritual wrestling with uncertainty
From the author:
I'm 65. I could pass away at any time. I chose to publish this humiliating story because if one person reads it and walks away from their own 'Rahman, ' my $140,000 becomes an investment in their freedom. That's legacy.
The pattern never ends until you choose to end it.
This is the story of choosing.
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