Growing up in Nigeria, I heard many stories about the kindness, generosity and good will of the American people. You have all disappointed me.

Not long ago, there were violent rebel factions seizing Nigerian banks, effectively holding my family’s fortune hostage. Having heard so much about Americans’ understanding nature, I reached out to thousands by way of emails, letters, and Internet ads.

My request was simple: allow me to transfer my family’s fortune of $45.6 million to your bank account for financial asylum. For doing this, you would receive 30 percent of the sum as payment for insuring my family’s future. All that would be necessary for this to happen is for you to supply your bank account information so that the transaction could occur.  One simple reply, and $13.6 million could have been yours.

Yet, it seems my faith in Americans has been misplaced, as not a single one of you has heeded my calls for help. Not one among you could reach out a hand to a fellow man in need.

Oh yes, there were replies. Most were jokes, making light of the miserable situation my family and I are in. One person even sent me fake bank account information! The unconscionable nerve.

Reading this has likely made your odious lack of empathy clear to you. However, whatever avarice-fueled guilt you have allowed yourself to feel about my situation is entirely too little, too late.

I am writing this because my financial advisor has just called to inform me that all funds have been lost. We have nothing. We are ruined. You have ruined us.

I wished to trust you with my fortune and in return you mock me. You Americans have proven yourselves to be utterly contemptible, lacking in even the basest sense of charity.

You have shown me the true face of the U.S. Your culture of paranoia and lies sickens me. May a pox be upon your family for generations to come.