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Psyciatrist Suckered By 419 Scam
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-03-02
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The LA Times is reporting today on a prominent psychiatrist still teaching at UC-Irvine being taken in by Nigerian emails trying to set up phony business deals. Dr. Louis A. Gottschaly, 89, may have lost as much as $3 million dollars over the last 10 years according to charges from his son.
Gottschalk's son, Guy, is attempting to have his father removed as administrator of the $8 million family partnership tied to the death of the wife/mother back in 1993. The hearing is slate for March 14th.
The father says the financial losses were due to bad investments according to his court records. The son believes it goes well beyond that. The Times quote his filing, ""While it seems unlikely, even ludicrous, that a highly educated doctor like [Gottschalk] would fall prey to such an obvious con, that is exactly what happened."
The father's court papers suggest is son has a "vendetta" against his father after the son tried to get a conservator to oversee the partnership. Unfortunately, this appears to be a sad end to an otherwise brilliant doctor.
Louis Gottschalk (the father) has impeccable credentials. The Times reported highlights of his career. As a neuroscientist, he is renowned as the one who announced Ronald Reagan's mental capacity had been diminished as early as 1980. He made this announcement in 1987, with two more years of the Reagan presidency. He also was the founding chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the UCI College of Medicine.
Despite the obviously brilliant mind, his son charges he started giving money to the Nigerian scammers as early as 1995 and as recently as last fall. His son claimed his father told he'd be receiving $20 million from the Nigerians back in October. This was the point when the conservator was attempted and the court said no.
Unfortunately, this case has no good ending to it. The father had admitted to getting taken in by the scams in the past and insisted the newer instances were different. Dr. Gottschalk is one of many who fall prey to these illicit emails. Many people get hundreds of them a day and the best thing to do is put them in the delete box.
Tag: 419 Scams
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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