An Australian farmer named Des Gregor is lucky to be alive, after flying to Mali to meet his future 'bride' and collect a handsome dowry in gold. To no one's surprise but his, the beautiful 'Natacha from Liberia' turned out to be four big men with machetes who wanted a dowry of their own.

There's no word on whether the initial contact was made via spam emails, but it's a strong possibility. What's interesting is the way that the scam combined features of two classic scams — 'Russian bride' and 419 — thus playing on both greed and lust. The inclusion of the Russian (or rather Liberian) bride meant that the scammers could get the mark on their home territory and make their play for the big money, rather than having to coax it out of him one pretext at a time.

The story has a happy ending because the Australian police proved to be smarter than both Mr Gregor and his captors, but it could easily have ended up as the ultimate Don't buy from spammers cautionary tale.