Federal prosecutors say a Carson man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for getting dozens of people to invest a total of more than $1 million in a non-existent wind energy technology business.

A judge on Wednesday also ordered 42-year-old James Rivera to pay restitution of more than $1 million to victims in the case.

Rivera was convicted of soliciting investments in companies that he falsely claimed would manufacture revolutionary new wind turbines to produce electricity.

Rivera falsely told investors that the Nigerian government had committed to buying more than $1 billion worth of the windmills and the International Monetary Fund was providing financing.

Prosecutors say Rivera relied on religious rhetoric and imagery to appeal to investors.

He had eight prior criminal convictions, five of which were fraud-related.

The passport – in the name of a John Recketts – was used in an elaborate ruse to dupe American investors of millions of dollars in a scheme which ran for almost 12 months.

The number on the passport was the same as that of a valid travel document of an elderly woman resident in Dublin, but all other details were professionally forged.

The scam revolved around US investors being able to purchase unprocessed gold directly from a mine in West Africa, without any fees, charges or taxes being applied to it.

The sum involved was more than €10m, but the investors stood to make up to €100m if the gold was successfully transported to Europe or the Middle East and processed.

The US investors, all industrialists, had invested €3m in setting up the export and security operation. But the scam was discovered when an Irish security team was hired to escort the gold out of Africa on their behalf.

The security team became suspicious when it was unable to make direct contact with the shipment organiser – John Recketts – despite spending more than three months in West Africa.

When the group reported their suspicions to the US investors, the businessmen immediately withdrew and abandoned the Irish team in West Africa.

“We were cut loose — the minute they (the investors) realised what was going on they walked away. We had to pay all our own expenses and even our flights home,” a member of the security team said.

The US investors have now complained to the FBI about the fraud. No John Recketts exists and corporate addresses supplied to the investors for firms in Benin, London, Burkina Faso and Togo were also found to be fake.

Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said: “We don’t publicly comment on individual investigations of fraud or related matters.”

However, it is understood the Irish government has not yet been formally contacted by either the FBI or Interpol.

Butler, 51, of 109. S. Court St., Wampsville, was arrested Sept. 23 and charged with third-degree grand larceny, a felony. She abruptly resigned from office in August, after serving nearly 13 years as village clerk and treasurer.

She appeared in court Wednesday to plead guilty to the charge, waiving her right to indictment by a grand jury.

An audit released by the state comptroller’s office Nov. 2 estimated that Butler took more than $18,000 by writing herself extra paychecks and pocketing cash payments from residents.

The restitution figure was set at $24,292.63 during Wednesday’s court proceeding.

“I felt desperate at the time I did it,” a tearful Butler told Madison County Judge Biagio DiStefano Wednesday. “I just want to apologize.”

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Heely said Butler faced a maximum sentence of two and a third to seven years incarceration.

The Cameroon national was collared at the Ramada Hotel near Cannock, Staffordshire, following a tip-off from potential victim Dougie Wilkinson.

The conman had claimed to be the son of a Nigerian government official who was looking to move £20 million to the UK.

But Mr Wilkinson blew the whistle after arranging a meeting with the suspect – who was offering him a 20 per cent cut.

His assets were later seized and he was deported to Ireland – where he was allowed to seek asylum.

Detective Sergeant Steve Morrey, who led the investigation, said: “Up to 10 years ago, this was a popular fraud, but it has not been around recently. However, it is again happening in pockets, with cases in Staffordshire and Northampton.

“Perpertrators prey on the vulnerable, but, yes, greed does play a part.”

Often those involved in the con use a ‘magic money’ trick to dupe their victims into handing over large amounts of cash.

The passport – in the name of a John Recketts – was used in an elaborate ruse to dupe American investors of millions of dollars in a scheme which ran for almost 12 months.

The number on the passport was the same as that of a valid travel document of an elderly woman resident in Dublin, but all other details were professionally forged.

The scam revolved around US investors being able to purchase unprocessed gold directly from a mine in West Africa, without any fees, charges or taxes being applied to it.

The sum involved was more than €10m, but the investors stood to make up to €100m if the gold was successfully transported to Europe or the Middle East and processed.

The US investors, all industrialists, had invested €3m in setting up the export and security operation. But the scam was discovered when an Irish security team was hired to escort the gold out of Africa on their behalf.

The security team became suspicious when it was unable to make direct contact with the shipment organiser – John Recketts – despite spending more than three months in West Africa.

When the group reported their suspicions to the US investors, the businessmen immediately withdrew and abandoned the Irish team in West Africa.

“We were cut loose — the minute they (the investors) realised what was going on they walked away. We had to pay all our own expenses and even our flights home,” a member of the security team said.

The US investors have now complained to the FBI about the fraud. No John Recketts exists and corporate addresses supplied to the investors for firms in Benin, London, Burkina Faso and Togo were also found to be fake.

Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said: “We don’t publicly comment on individual investigations of fraud or related matters.”

However, it is understood the Irish government has not yet been formally contacted by either the FBI or Interpol.

The 37-year-old Nigerian businessman accused of conning the Saudi denied the claim at Dubai Court of Misdemeanors yesterday.

The court was told the Saudi had received an email telling him he had won AUS $1 million in a lottery of people’s emails but that he needed to hand over fees to claim it. An Emirati police officer investigating the case noted the complaint in official documents, saying: “He replied and was asked to send his bank account details, which he did. After a few days he received a phone call and was told he needed to pay money to claim his prize. He wired money to an account in Australia.

“They kept asking him for more money so he sent a number of sums. Then he got an email telling him to come to Dubai from Saudi to meet a Nigerian diplomat who would hand him his cash prize,” the report continued. The Saudi claims he then met the defendant in a hotel in Naif.

The police records continued: “The defendant showed him bags of notes painted in black. The Nigerian told him that he would use a special chemical liquid to erase the paint and turn it into money. He then demonstrated this. He then asked him for a $8,000 to buy more liquid to clean all the notes. He said that once all the notes were cleaned the Saudi man would get his prize.”

The Saudi claimed he handed over the $8,000 to the businessman and failed to be given his prize so he then contacted Dubai Police telling them he believed he had been scammed. The Nigerian was arrested as he was tried to leave the UAE. The Saudi said he handed over $350,000 in total. The case was adjourned.

A local woman told officers that she started getting calls from two different out-of-state numbers last week.

The person on the other end of the line allegedly told the 60-year-old that she had won a Mega Millions jackpot but claimed she had to pay $425 in taxes before she could collect the prize.

Officers said the victim was also asked to buy a prepaid cash card and give the caller the authentication numbers on the back.

The woman called the FTC, the FBI and Portland Police instead.

According to officers, the phone numbers associated with the scam, 876-419-6771 and 817-376-9326, are both currently under investigation with the FTC and Nigerian authorities.

Investigators familiar with the operation warn that the callers often make death threats if their targets don’t cooperate.

They recommend not answering the phone at all if Caller ID is available and shows a foreign area code.

According to Det. Sgt. Chris Carey, during the month of December the Holden Police Department was contacted by a Federal Agency asking for assistance in a fraud case, in which the 80-year-old Holden resident had received a letter in the mail claiming she had been awarded a large amount of money but was required to pay fees and complete paperwork before the money would be released.

The Holden resident, without the knowledge of her children, began sending money to the “company”, the name of which the HPD would not release as the investigation is ongoing.

After a while, the Holden resident received more notices indicating she will be awarded more money. This went on for close to a year during which time the Holden resident had sent close to $400,000.

According to Carey, certain groups of criminals sent out these award notices to hundred if not thousands of people, and besides the victim in Holden, there are many other known victims.

The Holden Police and the family of the Holden resident are now working together to protect her so she is not further victimized.

Additionally, the Holden Police department, along with the Federal Agency, is investigating this case and is trying to determine who is behind this scam.

“These types of scams occur every day around the country,” Carey added. “The criminals typically indicate that you must respond quickly or you will not be eligible for the prize. High pressure tactics are a clue that it is not legitimate. Other clues include winning lotteries that you never entered or sending money upfront before money is released to you.”

Residents that they or someone they know may be a victim of this type of scam are encouraged to contact the police department immediately.

Holden police have not released the name of the resident involved.

Though not prompted by the incident, the he Holden Police Department will be holding an informational class on the various scams and cons that target senior citizens.

To help residents stay on guard, Carey of the Holden Police will present information on phishing, identity theft, Nigerian scams, and other common methods employed by internet con-men.

The information session is aimed at helping people recognize these scams early. Questions and answers will follow Carey’s talk. The program is free and open to all.

The session will be held at 10 a.m. on Feb. 16 at the Holden Public Safety Building at 1370 Main St Holden MA

This class is open to everyone and there is no pre-registration needed.

Now, the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters are uncovering a new scam that has affected people across the country. It’s a scam that preys on people’s fears of going to jail or losing their job.

When Eric Hunt and Vanessa Handsome first reached out to us, we thought they were just dealing with an aggressive debt collector. But they might be dealing with something worse, a possible team of scammers that don’t follow the rules.

“When I tell him to stop calling, that’s when he gets mad,” Vanessa Handsome explained. “He starts cussing at me and saying sexual stuff to me.”

For months Eric Hunt and Vanessa Handsome have been receiving about a payday loan they took out and never paid back. The man on the other end of the line is aggressive, persistent and sometimes down-right nasty.

The couple was so fed up they called New Braunfels Police and the FBI. And they even started to record their conversations with the alleged bill collector for their own protection.

“I work every day. I get paid every week. Why should I have to take out a payday loan? I mean, I never took out a loan here in Texas,” Eric Hunt told us.

Initially, Eric wanted to pay the man just to get him to stop calling. But Vanessa wasn’t convinced.

“I really do think it’s a scam. I have that gut feeling because he can’t even tell us what company he’s from,” Vanessa said.

Turns out, her instincts were right. A quick Google search turned up dozens of sites where people are blogging about this phony payday loan collector. The FBI posted a warning on its Internet Crime Complaint Center and the Attorney General out of Arizona sent out a release detailing how this scam works and who it targets.

“Watch your money,” Eric warned. “Save all your receipts. Save all your bills. And just hope and pray things like this don’t happen. Because it is not fun. It’s stressful.”
So to keep from being a victim, you need to make sure not to give out your bank account information or credit card numbers. Always ask for the details of the possible loan in writing. And don’t forget to report these guys to your local police or even the FBI if you think you’re being scammed.
-milleya villareal

An insurance agent who worked for a North Dakota mutual insurance company has been sentenced by a federal judge on three counts of wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland sentenced Alan R. Henning after he pleaded guilty to the charges in August 2011, according to U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon of the District of North Dakota.

From January 2004 through November 2010, Henning was employed as an insurance agent and general business manager with West McLean County Farmers Mutual Insurance Co., Minot, N.D. The fraud mostly involved property insurance policies, a spokesperson with Purdon’s office said.

“We learned about Henning’s fraud during a state-conducted audit, which the insurance department does every five years,” Debra Keller, manager with West McLean County Farmers Mutual, told Best’s News Service. The company immediately terminated him in early November 2010, she said. Henning got himself involved in the “Nigerian email scam,” also known as the “black money scam” and “the 419 scam,” Keller said.

Henning had a ghost account at a bank in the company’s name that no one was aware of and he would deposit premium checks from policyholder payments and take those out as cash and pay his own bills, she said. He also wired nearly $800,000 from that account overseas, Keller said, referring to the Nigerian scam. His fraud involved unauthorized loans against the company’s assets and also inflating claims, she said.

Henning allegedly used his position to divert funds from incoming premiums, created false or fraudulent policy claims and received unauthorized loans against company-owned certificates of deposit, the U.S. Attorneys office said. He would then wire the funds to various people located in China, South Africa, Malaysia, Greece and the United Kingdom.

According to the North Dakota Insurance Department, the county mutuals write property lines consisting primarily of fire, wind and hail (allied line) coverages.Much of their business is in rural areas and small towns and cities.They have limited authority to write in cities with populations of more than 10,000 people, the department said.

West McLean County Farmers Mutual was incorporated on Feb. 19, 1907 (Best’s News Service, Feb. 16, 2007), according to A.M. Best Co.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the North Dakota Insurance Department, the North Dakota Insurance Commission Fraud Unit and the Department of Homeland Security.

(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek:

By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer
Local authorities say they believe a Santa Barbara woman accused of possession of counterfeit money orders has facilitated scams throughout the country.

Passion Moore, 47, was arrested in December and is in custody at the Santa Barbara County Main Jail on forgery-related charges. Moore has been linked to Texas, Louisiana and the Los Angeles area, and allegedly facilitates fraud by receiving the money orders and using them as payment, according to Santa Barbara police Detective John Ingram.

Packages of the orders were intercepted by the U.S. Secret Service and Customs agents, and one was let through to Moore, who picked it up and was later contacted by police. She was found to be in possession of several hundred of the “Citibank” orders in her car, each valued at $1,800.35, according to police.

Ingram said authorities believe the total loss prevented by the seizure was in excess of $1 million.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Lee Carter said it doesn’t appear that Moore victimized anyone with the batch of money orders she received the day police contacted her.

Ingram said police have no information on related cases, but the fraudulent money order scam is very common in the United States. He said Nigeria is the source of many of the scams, but it’s rare that the mailings come directly from that country, which is a red flag.

“We are seeing more money orders that are either someone trying to pass them or realize they’re bogus and notify us of that fact,” Ingram said. “We caught this one, and there are 100 more right behind it.”

One woman was offered a $1,800 money order for an item she posted on Craigslist if she sent the change back with the item and realized it was a scam, Ingram said.

Sometimes it takes a family member to recognize something is not above bar.

Andy Seybold, a mobile computing consultant and Noozhawk contributor, said he had a relative who answered an advertisement placed in the Santa Barbara News-Press. The classified ad appeared in the Nov. 6 edition and read, “I am looking for an energetic and diligent personal assistant. Position is fairly flexible, so students are welcome to apply, prt.cole1@gmail.com.”

The advertisement appears in many other publications and different positions offered with the same email address appear on www.careersite.com.

A local couple were traveling and needed someone to pay their finances, so they planned to send money orders for that purpose — or so they said. Seybold often works with law enforcement and recognized the proposal as a ruse. He called police and the FBI in Los Angeles, who confirmed it was a scam.

“If she does not do it, they will just find someone else and keep moving on,” Seybold said.

The many emails between his female relative, who does not want to be identified, and the scammers included an employment contract for Magnum Inc. that looked legitimate, Seybold said.

His relative then said she wasn’t interested and would return the package when it arrived, but it came to a local UPS Store, and Seybold then refused it.

“It was marked that it had come from Nigeria, which was the final indication to me that this was a scam,” he said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation offers tips on avoiding scams involving fake checks and money orders, as does Craigslist.

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli

At the end of the film, actor Karthi cautions people to be aware of such tricksters.

To display their achievements, the Chennai police have got a couple of stalls in one of which they plan to display the film. A projector and a screen are being installed.

“If the message reaches at least one of the 10 people visiting our stalls during the trade fair, we will consider it a great success,” a police officer said.

The film, shot for 20 days consecutively in the city, has some professional artists apart from a few cyber crime wing sleuths acting in it. “We hired the camera and the postproduction work was done at an animation studio in Vadapalani,” the officer said.

The idea of making the film, a cyber crime official said, followed reports of complainants, victims of various Nigerian cyber scams, queueing up at the commissioner’s office. “We met a petitioner who lost 1 crore to scamsters. He himself deposited the amount in a bank account. Another man sold two houses worth several lakhs and paid the scamsters expecting a bigger amount but was cheated.

Then, there was the case of a man in suburban Chennai who lost 6.37 lakh and ended his life after he ran up huge debts. All these incidents disturbed us,” a cyber crime official said.

“Later,Isaw a shortfilm in a theatre. Before the screening, an actor appeared and advised people to help those in need. And that’s how the idea struck me. I left without watching the movie and decided to make a short film on the Nigerian scam,” said a cyber crime officer, who didn’t want to be named.

The unnamed victims, a 65-year-old South Korean man and his daughter, in her 30s, flew to Johannesburg last week after receiving an email promising them tens of millions of dollars, the Guardian reported.

The man was told he had to come to Africa to claim the money; when he landed at O.R. Tambo International Airport, he and his daughter were picked up by a driver (who was working for the gang), and dropped off at a house in a Soweto township. The driver managed to escape, but his passengers were not as lucky; they were held hostage for four days.

[Woman Loses $130,000 to Nigerian Cybercrime Gang]

The kidnappers, five Nigerians and a South African, demanded a $10 million ransom from the kidnapped man’s wife in South Korea, which was to be deposited to an account in Singapore, Col. McIntosh Polela of the South African police service told the Guardian. The amount was negotiated down to $120,000.

The man’s wife alerted the South Korean embassy in South Africa, and the police raided the home and freed the victims. The man and his daughter returned to Korea without appearing in court.

“They declined to testify because they were traumatized,” Polela said. “They were also embarrassed at being lured to South Africa. This is common once victims discover they’ve been fooled.”

U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon said, “The sentence imposed today should send a strong message to those who would seek to scam the citizens and businesses of North Dakota and the United States. We take the growing problem of foreign financial fraud seriously here and seeking justice for the victims of such crimes is a priority for our office.”

On Feb. 16 Adetiloye pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to defraud both financial institutions and individuals. out of money. Adetiloye was living in Toronto, Canada from before Jan. 2005 until he was extradited to the U.S. in May 2010. During that time, Adetiloye funded a lavish lifestyle by conducting, with others, a massive fraud scheme accomplished by executing tens of thousands of fraudulent acts against individual people, financial institutions, commercial data providers, merchants, commercial mailbox companies and state agencies.

Adetiloye`s scheme compromised the personal and private information of approximately 38,000 American citizens. The scheme involved tens of thousands of acts of illegal conduct throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and England.

Adetiloye and his co-conspirators fraudulently obtained the personal identification information from commercial data providers, such as LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, and with that information assumed the identities of those unsuspecting people to open credit card and other bank accounts at U.S. Bank and 20 other banks across the United States. He used well over 100 different mail box addresses throughout the United States as well as approximately 100 different phone numbers with area codes representing all parts of the United States.

Many of the 38,000 people whose identities were compromised filed statements with the Court detailing the disruption and chaos they experienced as a result of this fraud.

Along with the prison term, Adetiloye will be on supervised release for three years.

A hearing regarding restitution and forfeiture has been scheduled for Feb. 15, 2012, in U.S. District Court in Fargo, at 9:00 a.m.

Scammers have been ringing Australians claiming they’ll receive a large Centrelink payment if they transfer hundreds of dollars into an Indian account.

A man in Western Australia was asked to transfer $300 to India in return for $3000, while an elderly Queensland resident was asked to send $800 through Western Union, also in return for $3000.

Federal Human Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said people in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland had reported being targeted by scammers purporting to be Centrelink workers in recent months.

“We have received several reports of people making phone calls claiming customers will receive a large Centrelink payment when they transfer several hundred dollars to a designated bank account,” Ms Plibersek said.

“Centrelink never asks its customers to transfer funds and I urge people not to send money to anyone they don’t know.”

The scam is a variation of the “Nigerian 419 scam” where people are contacted via email or letter and asked to transfer money in return for a substantial reward.

For years, it’s a scam that has worked on the internet, but now Oklahoma city police say people are doing it in person.

It happened when an Oklahoma City man thought he was going to be helping out a charity at the same time make some extra cash.

The victim, who didn’t want to be identified, says he was approached at Mike’s Gas Station located at S.E. 44th and Santa Fe by a man with a heavy African accent. The victim says the man told him he was in the country collecting on a $150,000 insurance settlement he received after his brother died in a plane crash.

The 85-year-old victim says the man appeared to have the cash and paperwork to be believable.

“He had that authentic looking letter and stuff. It looked authentic all right, but it wasn’t,” the victim said.

The elderly man says the suspect told him he would give him $50,000 as long as he gave $40,000 to charity. All the victim had to do was prove he had his own money and wouldn’t take off with all the cash.

To do that, the suspect along with another woman who police say was in on the scam, had the victim drive to the Bank of America in Capitol Hill and withdraw $9,000.

They victim made an identical withdrawal at a Municipal Employee’s Credit Union of Oklahoma City near S.W. 88th and Walker.

After the con artist pretended to give the victim his money back, the victim, thinking he would pocket $10,000, instead found himself bilked of his $18,000.

“I am ashamed and mad,” said the victim. “I don’t know how I ever let somebody talk me out of that.”

The money the victim says he lost was going to be used to buy a new truck.

“I never knowingly killed anybody, but I hope I don’t see them. I don’t want to see them except in prison,” the man said.

The idea the two suspects would commit this type of crime in person has the police desperately wanting to catch them.

“To see this actually happen in person as it did in this case, where two people actually met our victim and got in the car with him and went to the bank with him and withdrew money is more unusual,” Oklahoma City Sergeant Jennifer Wardlow said.

As Oklahoma City police search for the two responsible for scamming the man, Edmond police are also investigating an almost identical scam that happened on June 6. It’s unclear, however, if the two are related.

For years, it’s a scam that has worked on the internet, but now Oklahoma city police say people are doing it in person.

It happened when an Oklahoma City man thought he was going to be helping out a charity at the same time make some extra cash.

The victim, who didn’t want to be identified, says he was approached at Mike’s Gas Station located at S.E. 44th and Santa Fe by a man with a heavy African accent. The victim says the man told him he was in the country collecting on a $150,000 insurance settlement he received after his brother died in a plane crash.

The 85-year-old victim says the man appeared to have the cash and paperwork to be believable.

“He had that authentic looking letter and stuff. It looked authentic all right, but it wasn’t,” the victim said.

The elderly man says the suspect told him he would give him $50,000 as long as he gave $40,000 to charity. All the victim had to do was prove he had his own money and wouldn’t take off with all the cash.

To do that, the suspect along with another woman who police say was in on the scam, had the victim drive to the Bank of America in Capitol Hill and withdraw $9,000.

They victim made an identical withdrawal at a Municipal Employee’s Credit Union of Oklahoma City near S.W. 88th and Walker.

After the con artist pretended to give the victim his money back, the victim, thinking he would pocket $10,000, instead found himself bilked of his $18,000.

“I am ashamed and mad,” said the victim. “I don’t know how I ever let somebody talk me out of that.”

The money the victim says he lost was going to be used to buy a new truck.

“I never knowingly killed anybody, but I hope I don’t see them. I don’t want to see them except in prison,” the man said.

The idea the two suspects would commit this type of crime in person has the police desperately wanting to catch them.

“To see this actually happen in person as it did in this case, where two people actually met our victim and got in the car with him and went to the bank with him and withdrew money is more unusual,” Oklahoma City Sergeant Jennifer Wardlow said.

As Oklahoma City police search for the two responsible for scamming the man, Edmond police are also investigating an almost identical scam that happened on June 6. It’s unclear, however, if the two are related.

MOULTRIE — A Valdosta man was arrested Tuesday in Moultrie, an alleged link in an international fraud ring.

Steven Randall Edmondson, 57, of 4985 Radar Site Road in Valdosta, was charged Tuesday with identity theft. Additional charges of identity theft and financial transaction card fraud are pending presentation before a grand jury, authorities said.

Moultrie Police Investigator Sgt. Steve Stratman said security personnel at Wal-Mart on South Veterans Parkway called the Moultrie Police Department Monday about a suspected fraudulent order. An order for two televisions was placed through the Wal-Mart website and were being delivered to the store for pick-up.

The televisions were ordered by the same person, identified as Edmondson, but Stratman said they were ordered using two different credit cards. While researching the credit cards used in the purchase, Stratman spoke with a man in Yakima, Wash., who stated he did not authorize anyone to use his credit card.

Wal-Mart security called Stratman about noon Tuesday and stated Edmondson was at the store to pick up the televisions, valued at $715. Edmondson was placed under arrest at the store.

Further investigation found Edmondson had also allegedly purchased a laptop computer, valued at $487, from the store in May using a stolen credit card, Stratman said. An empty laptop computer box with a Wal-Mart distribution center sticker on it was found in his vehicle, Stratman said.

Stratman said Edmondson admitted in an interview that he used stolen credit cards to purchase three televisions and a laptop computer from the Moultrie Wal-Mart. He allegedly said he purchased two televisions from the Tifton Wal-Mart and a laptop computer from a Valdosta Wal-Mart using stolen credit cards.

Investigators searched Edmondson’s house, and Stratman said they found several laptop computer boxes. They also found several expensive watches that were possibly stolen and were packaged to be shipped to Nigeria, Stratman said.

Stratman said Edmondson told police he had been involved in the activity for more than two years. He would receive orders from unknown people to pick up property at Wal-Mart or that was sent to his house using an alias. Edmondson would then sell the items for a profit and send money to Nigeria or Ghana, Stratman said.

Stratman said three victims of the fraud have been identified, with the first victim from Yakima, Wash. A second victim has been identified as living in Zanesville, Ohio, and a third victim has been identified, but it was not known where this person lived.

The alleged activity appears to be related to a Nigerian scam, and Stratman said it appears the credit cards used were sold as a block of stolen credit cards. It was not known specifically how the credit cards were obtained, however.

Arrest made in Nigerian Internet scam By MARGARET GIBBONS Staff Writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

Alert bank officials helped authorities intervene to prevent a 64-year-old Hatfield Township man, who’d already lost $29,000, from giving away another $46,000 in a Nigerian online dating scheme.

Maxwell Gbogboade, 44, of Maryland, was picked up Thursday in the lobby of the Philadelphia Airport Marriot Hotel lobby where the victim was scheduled to deliver the $46,000. Gbogboade, described by authorities as “just a cog” in the scam, is being held in the county prison in lieu of $750,000 cash bail on attempted theft charges.

“This is just another variation of the online scams we all see coming out of Nigeria, the get rich quick or find the love of your life scams with which everyone with a computer is bombarded,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman Monday. “It seems that Nigeria is the international Internet scam capital of the world.”

“Most people know these are scams and do not engage but there are still some trusting souls who fall prey,” she said.

“What is important here is that we actually got someone involved in these scams and arrested him here,” said Ferman. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to track back and find some of those responsible for these scams.”

The victim met a “Mary Douglas” through an online dating service. Their online relationship progressed through a series of emails and online chats.

At some point during the electronic relationship, “Douglas” told the victim that she was traveling to Africa to star in a movie and needed some financial help with her traveling costs and related expenses.

Led to believe that “Douglas” would be coming to Hatfield Township to be with him after her movie was completed, the victim wired and sent money transfers totaling over $24,000 to “Douglas” and her “manager,” according to authorities. The victim also paid $5,000 to fly a “money courier” from Nigeria to London to New York to Philadelphia to pick up an additional $46,000 that “Douglas” needed.

PNC Bank officials became suspicious on May 19 when the victim came to a branch office to withdraw $46,000 in cash, explaining he needed to give the money to a woman he met through an online dating service. The bank officials contacted police.

Reviewing the victim’s electronic correspondence with “Douglas,” township police and county detectives discovered that the photos that she sent to the victim were photos of several different women taken off other websites, including pornographic websites. They also learned in their investigation that the Internet addresses that “Douglas” was using originated in Nigeria.

The victim received a call from Gbogboade, who identified himself as a money courier by the name of “Soloh Batuya,” about 5 p.m. on May 19, telling the victim he had just flown into Philadelphia and to meet him at the airport hotel with the $46,000 in cash. He gave the victim a cell phone number to call when he arrived.

Working with Philadelphia police and airport security, authorities set up surveillance at the hotel and airport. Authorities took Gbogboade, who matched the description he had given the victim, into custody when he answered his cell phone after police dialed the number that he had given to the victim.

Gbogboade told authorities he had traveled from his home in Maryland to pick up money to purchase a car and send it to Africa, according to the criminal complaint.

“This is a significant amount of cash that was being sent to these scam artists,” said Ferman. “Thankfully, police were able to intervene.”

Asked about the victim’s reaction, Ferman said, “One of the things we see, particularly with seniors who fall victim to scams like this, is that they are embarrassed, humiliated. Obviously, all of us like to think we are smarter and more savvy. When you become a victim, it can certainly be very upsetting.”

Scammers went so far as to threaten murder and kidnapping, just to get personal information from their victims.

Luckily a local couple was too smart to fall into the trap. They are a very young couple with a newborn baby. They’re just starting out. The scammer threatened to take all that away and said he’d shoot the boyfriend in the head and take the baby away if they didn’t cooperate.

“He just said ‘Hey sweetheart,’ I could barely understand him. He was foreign. I kept telling him he had the wrong number,” Jennifer Mills said.

But despite Mills’ desperate attempts to silence the man on the other line, he wouldn’t let up and kept calling.

You couldn’t really understand him, he was kind of foreign,” she says.

But Jennifer Mills’ boyfriend, Todd Hale did get one thing clear; the scammer, who called himself ‘Bob,’ said he had a package and money for Jennifer and would drop it off at their house, and they’d better cooperate or else.

“He was going to shoot me in the head with a nine millimeter, he was pretty specific on everything,” Hale says.

He wasn’t scared at first, the caller i-d said the call came from Jamaica and he didn’t think the scammer knew where they lived. But the threats, kept getting worse.

“If I don’t give it (personal information) to him he’s going to come kill me and take my son and her,” Hale claims the scammer said to him.

We did an reverse lookup online, and sure enough the number can be traced to Jamaica.

We called the number and the man on the other line said he did have a Package for Jennifer.

I asked him why Jennifer deserved the money and he said it was because she always took care of her bills on time and that she never owed any tax money.

He claimed he knew everything about her, including where she lived.

He says he worked for a legitimate international company, I told him who I was, that we were doing a story and that Jennifer thought he was a scammer.

“I don’t give a flying ****ok!” The man said.

But then he calmed down, and said if we sent him money we could get in on the deal, too.

“I will wire ten million dollars to you, that is a deal, because I’m a rich man,” he said.

A scam, that these two are glad they didn’t fall for.

“I ain’t got money, not a whole lot anyway,” Hale said.

The two ended up changing the number, just to get this guy off their backs. After talking to the scammer, I can tell you, he didn’t know where the couple lived and had no intention of delivering anything, he just wanted them to wire him, money.

In March the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Highway Interdiction Unit conducted a routine traffic stop and found $20,800 in cash, black construction paper the size of dollar bills, several bottles of commonly known substances and a list of ingredients necessary to complete the “Black Wash/ Money Washing” scam

Deputies also found wet $20 bills with white paper in between, cut to the exact size of the dollar bills used commonly in the “Nigerian Money Washing” scam.

Both are part of the Nigerian Advanced Fee Scam involving unsuspecting victims conned by very charismatic and persuasive individuals. So, how do these scams work?

The Black Money Scam involves the scammer sending out thousands if not millions of e-mails searching, “phishing” for victims.

The e-mail states the victim may be the beneficiary of an unclaimed estate held outside the U. S. that includes thousands of dollars and a large trunk, contents unknown. In order for the “victim” to receive their “inheritance” they are asked to send monies to cover the cost of taxes and the shipping expenses of the trunk.

Eventually through continued communication, the con-artist will reveal that the trunk is full of money and needs to be shipped out of the country undetected. Hence, the bills have all been died black to avoid detection by U.S. Customs. At some point a meeting is arranged between the scammer and the victim.

The victim is invited to inspect the contents of the trunk and after much ceremony the trunk is opened to reveal a large amount of black paper “money.” The victim is informed they are looking at real money stained black, but in fact the trunk is full of black construction paper except for a few real bills that have been dyed black.

The con-artist will pick up the real dyed money and dip them into a “magical cleaning solution” to show the victim that the money is real. Once the real money is revealed the victim who is now eager to wash more money in the trunk is told they will need to buy the magic cleaning solution. The scheme goes on and on until the victim either realizes he’s been had or gives away all of his money.

The second scam is the Nigerian Money Washing scam and uses wet money and white paper. The scammer tricks business owners into believing he can duplicate money by using an unknown liquid and washing it between two pieces of white paper. After the “washing” is done the two white pieces of paper turn out to be exact copies of the original U.S. currency. The scammer then solicits several thousand real dollars from the business owner so he can duplicate their money for a percentage and then gives the business owner the counterfeit bills back instead of the real money.

As always, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reminds you to be alert to frauds, scams and schemes and if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

If you have questions about this scam or if you have received a call and would like to report it, please contact the Fraud Hotline at 239-477-1242.

Ten Accused for Running Advance-Fee Scam

A group of ten individuals face charges under federal law because it allegedly executed an advance-fee scam, which attacked aged victims in USA, promising numerous dollars in bequeathed property; however, merely when they’d wire money for the processing of the property transfer. Channel6newsonline.com published this in news on March 7, 2011.

Stated the Office of the U.S Attorney, Dibe, a man from Nigeria along with his associates who posed as bankers, attorneys, and government officials like diplomats, asserted that they had some million dollars as bequeathed funds in Nigeria, while saying to victims that they’d get the fund once they’d wire the fees to cover “documentation” or “taxes.” Dailybreeze.com reported this on March 7, 2011.

In the meantime, recipients of the fake electronic mails were also told that they were the expired property owner’s relatives following which they were asked for the so-called fees through Western Union for apparently beginning the money-distribution process.

Furthermore, security researchers, while remarking about the problem, stated that cyber-criminals, including con artists, scammers as also other Internet troublemakers had gotten increasingly sophisticated regarding the techniques with which they stole from end-users through the very convenient Internet. They explained that the crooks employed various proposals or schemes like distribution or sharing of large property or funds of money that a recently-expired wealthy man owned, an un-called for windfall, mailbox notices, fake phone calls, work-from-home frauds, or Internet job postings, all that appeared extremely tempting.

Presently though, Dibe is facing accusation for allegedly executing wire fraud in 15 instances, while co-accused Loving and Amesi each faces accusation of committing wire fraud in 15 instances and conniving to execute wire fraud in 1 instance. The remaining 7 each faces accusations of committing wire fraud in 10 instances and conniving to execute wire fraud in 1 instance. Channel6newsonline.com reported this.

Moreover, Britain-based Sophos the security company too alerts recipients about the widely-known Nigerian 419 e-mail scam by suggesting them to delete the messages as well as block more messages in future by requesting their ISPs to block every e-mail coming from the scammer’s address. Securitynewsdaily.com published this in news on March 7, 2011.

IT was a Nigerian scam with a unique twist.

Sunshine Coast couple Malcolm and Suzanne Maiden got caught up in a Nigerian oil investment scam but ended up ripping off friends and colleagues by getting them to send money overseas.

A fraud squad detective visited the Maidens three times, warning them that their “investment” was really a scam and if they got others involved they could be charged.

Builder Paul Thomson and his wife Debra trusted Malcolm Maiden – the earthmoving contractor they had known for 15 years – until he cost them their Sunshine Coast home, business and life savings.

Maiden asked them for a loan of $35,000 in 2005. They gave him the money, never realising they would end up being defrauded of almost $260,000 over three years.

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The Thomsons were forced to sell their Alexandra Headland home in 2008 and have since been travelling around Australia in a ute, living in a caravan, looking for work.

“We’ve lost everything,” Mrs Thomson, 52, said last week.

“I wish we’d never set eyes on him.”

Superintendent Brian Hay, of the Fraud and Corporate Crime Group, said more than 20 Queensland victims had lost more than $6 million as a result of the scam, with some losing houses and businesses.

In 2007, fraud squad Detective Senior Constable Graeme Edwards took a visiting Nigerian financial crime investigator to see the Maidens to tell them they were caught up in a common Nigerian scam.

But an “arrogant” Malcolm Maiden thought he knew better.

“I believe they were single-minded in their belief that they had to keep the dream alive – to get back what they had invested,” Supt Hay said.

On Monday, Malcolm Maiden, 50, was jailed for four years, suspended after 12 months, after pleading guilty to five fraud offences involving more than $300,000. Maiden had defrauded another Sunshine Coast business contact of more than $47,000.

Suzanne Maiden, 40, was released on a suspended jail sentence in July last year after pleading guilty to two fraud charges.

The pair are believed to be Australia’s first Nigerian scam victims to be convicted of fraud because they dishonestly got others to pour money into the scam.

The Thomsons said they first lent money to the Maidens after they told them they needed to pay tax on an investment and so they could send their sick daughter overseas for treatment.

“My husband said, `I trust him with my life’, but he took our lives,” Mrs Thomson said.

Malcolm Maiden told them there were “two huge boxes of money in a secure building at the Reserve Bank of South Africa”, valued at $22 million.

But he said the money had to have serial and contractors’ codes stamped in black ink chemically removed from it at enormous cost.

The Thomsons did not realise it was a common “black ink” Nigerian scam.

In 2006, Maiden got the Thomsons to give up more than $90,000 to wash and dry the money and pay for phony “anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering and anti-drug dealers’ certificates”.

In 2008, the Thomsons questioned Maiden after reading about Nigerian scams on the internet.

Maiden audaciously told them he had been visited by a Queensland fraud detective and a Nigerian official, and said they had verified the investments were legitimate.

Mr Thomson twice travelled to Spain with Maiden, and he and wife Debra also flew to London with him in failed attempts to meet Maiden’s “contacts” and get money released. Mrs Thomson said the Maidens ignored their calls.

Nigerian 419 scams — the “419″ referrers to a section of the Nigerian criminal code — are a notorious kind of advance-fee fraud where con artists posing as foreign dignitaries send spam emails to victims offering them a huge payoff in return for an upfront payment.

The defendants are accused of running an advance-fee scam that targeted mostly elderly victims with false promises of millions of dollars in inheritances in return for advance fees to facilitate the transfer of the bogus bequests.

The ringleader and lead defendant in the case, Claudio Uche Dibe, is a 25-year-old Nigerian. Dibe was extradited from Canada on Feb. 4, where he fled in 2009 after learning of the federal investigation. He was ordered held without bond after pleading not guilty last month.

According to a 2009 indictment, Dibe coordinated the nationwide 419 scheme for several years, which bombarded thousands of potential victims with spam emails supposedly sent by someone with access to a multimillion dollar inheritance in Nigeria.

The emails baited recipients with the opportunity to strike it rich in return for advance payments to cover trumped-up paperwork such as “anti-terrorist certificates,” “certificates of insurance” and “drug clearance certificates.” In order to convince victims of their legitimacy, the senders of the emails claimed to be attorneys, bankers, diplomats and other government officials.

Dibe and his fellow con artists, the indictment alleges, ensnared their victims by asking only for small amounts of money at first. Once a consumer agreed to wire the scammers anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, they were repeatedly asked to send increasingly larger amounts — sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars. The 419 scammers eventually fleeced their victims out of more than $1.5 million.

A 2010 indictment that named other members of the ring includes a number of telling emails, including one to Dibe from a member of the ring, complaining that one of their victims, “is insisting that he does not have more money, though I believe he will be able to come up with money … I believe that … he will pay big money, which is what we are all after.”

That email was sent on January 8, 2006, and the victim, a Michigan resident known as “T.S.,” had already wired the gang $1,550 via Western Union on Dec. 20, 2005. On February 9, they persuaded T.S. to wire them an additional $1,500, and the hapless victim wired them another $1,750 on February 21 as well as $1,900 on May 4.

Another email cited in the indictment refers to a victim from Wisconsin known only as J.C., who Dibe first emailed on March 14, 2006 using the alias “John Brown.” A May 13 email from one of the scammers to Dibe assured the ringleader of potentially rich pickings, gloating that J.C.’s “husband is loaded, there is no doubt about that.”

Unfortunately for J.C. and her husband, the scammers’ confidence wasn’t misplaced. On May 18, J.C, agreed to wire the gang $2,750 via Western Union. On July 18, the swindlers convinced J.C. to send $35,000 via bank transfer to “Andrews and Rogers Properties,” a Washington Mutual bank account in New York opened by the gang to funnel large wire transfers.

Seven days later, J.C. was persuaded to wire an additional $24,000 to the bogus business.

Dibe and two others, Bright Amesi and Briceson Loving, were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2009, and arraigned in federal court yesterday, along with Erika Fletcher. Dibe, Amesi and Loving have all been charged with 15 counts of wire fraud, and Fletcher with 10 counts. Seven of the defendants have been arraigned and pleaded not guilty.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and each count of wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The investigation into the 419 scam was initiated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), after one of the con artists impersonated an IRS agent in order to convince a victim to pay phony taxes.

The couple, in their late 40s, used Western Union to wire more than $1,300 to a man in Nigeria named John Abayomi, all in an effort to rent a home on Wendel Avenue in the Town of Tonawanda, police said.

But instead of putting down a deposit on the property, the couple was scammed out of the money. They told city police they found the home listed on Craigslist and e-mailed the supposed ad poster.

The renter wrote back asking for a $500 deposit on the property, then gave the couple an international telephone number to contact him at. The couple had their telephone service changed to accommodate international calls, police said.

The fraudulent renter sent the couple another e-mail indicating that someone else had expressed interest in the home and that if they wanted it they should send an additional $800 for the first month’s rent.

Again, the couple wired money to Nigeria, prompting the thief to write again asking for $475 to cover various problems he was having in sending the keys through the mail.
At that point, the couple became suspicious and chose not to send the additional money. They even visited the home in the ad, finding that the curtains and blinds were all closed, making it impossible to see inside the home. They told police the pictures posted on the Craigslist ad matched the home they saw.

Immediately after city police began investigating the transactions, the Craigslist ad for the Wendel Avenue home was pulled, Lt. Fredric Foels said. “Think about it — you get all of the logistics of the house, put it all together, take a picture of it, put it on Craigslist and you’ve got the makings of a scam,” he said.

The scam is not new.

After receiving reports of a number of similar incidents in South Carolina in July 2009, FBI officials there sent out an alert to residents. It stated: “Nigerian scammers find homes listed for sale on these public search sites, copy the pictures and listings verbatim, and then post the information onto Craigslist under available housing rentals, without the consent or knowledge of Craigslist, who has been notified.”

The advisory goes on that once the posting is listed, the Nigerian scammer will state that he had to leave the country quickly to do missionary work in Africa and couldn’t rent the house before leaving.

A separate FBI consumer alert says scammers are likely preying on people as a result of the housing market. “This latest scam being perpetrated by Nigerian criminals located halfway around the world has been seen in a number of U.S. states, perhaps in response to the current housing market — with fewer people buying, more people are renting,” the advisory states.

Anyone who suspects a scam or has been victimized by one is asked to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said Peter Maxson Anyanyueze was given 10 years for fraud, 10 years for money laundering and two years for contravening of Immigration Act.

“The sentence for money laundering will run concurrently with sentence on the Immigration Act contravention,” he said on Friday. In a statement, Mahaga said Anyanyueze was arrested in July 2007 and convicted on March 1 2010.

According to evidence during the trial, he sent an e-mail to Saudi Arabian Dr Abdulazziz Alheiraqi Nwasser claiming he had $10.5 million from sales of gold dust and other precious metals. “He claimed that this amount was lodged in a security company in South Africa and that he needed someone to move it and invest it abroad for him and his family, preferably in Europe,” Mhaga said.

Instead of transferring the whole amount, he asked that small payments be made into nominated bank accounts worldwide.

These payments were said to be for capital flight tax and currency fluctuating margins amongst others, Mhaga said.

Nwasser paid $295,364 to various bank accounts, but Anyanyueze never deposited the $10.5m.

Mhaga said this was known worldwide as a “419″ scam, named after section 419 of the Nigerian Fraud Legislation on “advanced fee fraud”. It was also revealed in court that Anyanyueze had fraudulently “entered into a marriage of convenience” with a South African woman to obtain citizenship.

The State proved he and the woman were never in a bona fide spousal or marital relationship, as she lived with her South African boyfriend, with whom she had a child, at the time of the marriage.

“We consider the sentence to be appropriate as it fits the crime and will surely send a strong message to would be fraudsters that the courts will show no mercy to them,” Mhaga said.

You see, apparently he called the police because he feared that his online girlfriend of 2.5 years had been kidnapped a little while back. But instead of investigators rushing to rescue a damsel in distress, they informed the man that she didn’t even exist—and that the drivers licence photo “she” had shown him in the past was just an image from a sample Florida licence.
Sad news, right?

Oh, but it gets worse:

The man told police he had wired $US200,000 to the woman during the relationship to different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England and the United States.

A FELTHAM man who fell in love with a ‘model’ on the internet and sent her money is warning other lonely hearts to avoid similar scams.

Jamie Stacey, 38, of Fern Grove, started talking to ‘Cynthia’ after they met on a social networking site a year ago.

Now, as Valentines Day looms, he has decided to cut all contact after realising the ’27-year-old model’ could be anyone conning him for cash.

The resident said: “Alarm bells were ringing as soon as she started asking me for money, but I guess I was still holding onto the hope that she could be real. I really fell for her. It wasn’t until I heard about a woman on This Morning recently who got scammed by a gang posing as a solider that I suddenly realised. It was like being bashed over the head.”

Mr Stacey swapped email addresses with the girl after meeting her on tagged.com. They have been talking for a year, and Cynthia told him she normally lives in Tottenham, London, but travels to the Netherlands for modelling jobs.

She started asking him for money to cover her travel costs, eventually telling him she was very ill abroad and would die if he did not send her hundreds of pounds.

Mr Stacey even went to Tottenham to visit her when she told him she was back in the UK, but the address turned out to be fake. Cynthia even went as far as setting up a profile on Facebook to trick him, as well as sending several pictures which were all of the same person.

Luckily he only sent her £30 in total, but he said she could have conned him out of more than £500.

He told The Chronicle: “I turned to the internet in the hope of finding someone, I divorced 10 years ago. I am really disappointed but I’m glad I realised now. I would say to anyone looking to find someone on-line, be very careful. A lot of people out there are manipulative and devious. There is a chance you will be taken for a ride, especially if you are looking for love and you are vulnerable.”

Mr Stacey said it was the case of Kate Roberts, who took out loans and credit cards to give £80,000 to a ‘soldier’ she met online, that shocked him into thinking again. Her handsome match turned out to be a sophisticated Nigerian gang set up to exploit people online.

Mr Stacey said: “I’m going to stop talking to her, but I will be sending her the link to this article first”.