could have not been saddened by the circumstances that led to a poor Cuban immigrant taking his life in Florida last week.

Ceferino Cruz, 81, drove his car into a canal and drowned because he couldn't take the embarrassment of losing his $7,000 life savings to two conmen who sold him a phoney lottery ticket.

In Bermuda, too, there are plenty of similar cases of unsuspecting residents being taken to the cleaners by quick-talking tricksters who offer too-good-to-be-true get-rich-quick schemes, or, in most local cases, get-richer quick schemes.

Most of them are certainly less heart-wrenching than that of Cruz because local victims tend to be fairly wealthy people whose loss usually causes them nothing more than a red face.

Stories abound of conmen plying their trade in exclusive Bermuda clubs, where the rich gather, carrying out scams which have included selling shares in bogus gold mines.

Rarely do these cases hit the headlines, though, and are seldom even reported to the Police because most victims are too embarrassed at being taken for a sucker. Many simply put it down to experience.

But one of the worst cases involves a local woman who decided to co-operate with a money-making plan which was outlined to her in a letter she received from Nigerian conmen.

Regular readers of the Business Diary will be aware that Bermuda residents and companies have for a long time been bombarded with letters from various Nigerians offering them millions of dollars if they will offer the use of their overseas bank accounts to help get foreign currency out of Nigeria.

But the letters are usually so badly put together and the use of the English language so awful that it is difficult to contemplate anyone taking them seriously.

But one local woman did take seriously a letter mailed to her and duly sent off details of her bank account, including her account number, to Nigeria as requested. And, instead of being sent the promised fortune, the woman's account was instead drained of a significant amount of money.

The case came to light when a friend of the woman's called the Business Diary seeking more details after we highlighted the scam. As the friend said: "Greed is indeed a very bad thing.'' No doubt the family of poor Mr. Cruz and all the victims of cons would agree.

* * * BUC THE Grumman Corporation, which recently sold its Bermuda-based subsidiary Paumanock Insurance, announced last week that it was closing three plants and laying off 424 workers because of a declining defence budget and a subsequent need to cut costs.

Grumman, which is a leading international aircraft and aerospace company, said it would close plants in Texas, Maryland and New York.

"Facing the decision to close facilities has been very emotional and painful.

Our roots run deep in these communities and the Grumman people have always been loyal and dedicated,'' said Grumman president Robert J. Myers.

* * * BUC SPIDER Man, Captain America and the whole stable of Marvel Entertainment Group's comic books got a new home on Friday when MacAndrews & Forbes announced the completion of its $300 million acquisition of the company.

MacAndrews & Forbes said it purchased 10 million Marvel shares for $30 a piece to clinch the deal.

The company said a total of 13.9 million Marvel shares had been tendered as part of the offer and that 10 million of those shares had been accepted for payment. MacAndrews estimated that about 71.7 percent of all shares have been accepted for payment.