Obvious African scam, right?

[kurti]

Like the others pointed out this surely is a scam.
But I can somehow understand the feelings of your mom's co-worker.
So I think there are 2 options:
1. ignore it (might be very hard for her and bug her for a long time)
2. travel there immediatly and check it out herself. It won't cost her more than the 3k in question.
Paying is obviously not an option, because there will be more money requests comming soon, and then it's getting really ugly.