fathom - 常時英心：言葉の森から 1.0

記事の中に出てくる”fathom”をWisdom英和辞典（第三版）』（三省堂）で調べると「理解する，・・・なのかを抜く」などという意味があります。この単語の語源は「広げた両腕（の長さ）」であり，水深などを測るときに使われるようです。数値を測る，真意を測るなどは同じ漢字が使われていますが，前者は測定であり後者は精神的な部分について使われていると思います。
記事の内容は，賞金がもらえるというスパムメールを信じてしまったある人に関するものです。（Ume）
Man travels 1,000 miles to claim bogus prize

An Indian villager recently travelled more than a thousand miles to the BBC office in Delhi in an unusual quest - to claim millions of rupees he believed he had won in a "BBC lottery".

Ratan Kumar Malbisoi, a 41-year-old unemployed Indian villager, fell for a message he received on his mobile phone nearly two years ago.

"The message said I had won the BBC's national lottery for 20 or 30 million rupees ($319,000-$478,000; £194,000-£292,000). I was asked to send my details so that they could send me the money," he says.

A poor man, with little formal education, he was unable to fathom that this was a phishing message and that he was being "scammed".

Around the same time, I and several of my colleagues also received similar messages. The texts evoked much mirth, but we all deleted them and forgot about them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-26012779